•Read the following passage below about a furniture retailer.•For each questio

•Read the following passage below about a furniture retailer.

•For each question (23-28), choose the correct answer.

•Mark one letter (A, B or C) on your Answer sheet.

A BRIGHT FUTURE

The furniture retailer, JRA. which has produced disappointing results recently, said that market conditions were at last improving. Sales rose by 7.3% in tile final quarter of 2006. after falling by 6.2% in the three months between July and September, and by 7.4% in the past quarter.

Mike Turner, the managing director, said that. although the market remained competitive, orders had reached their highest level ever and with this promising news he thought that profit margins would reach 11% before the end of the next financial year. The company is also benefiting from the current low interest rates charged by the banks. Further savings were made when the company increased the proportion of furniture that it produced itself. This follows its takeover in May of tile Brimoon Furniture factory, which was suffering from serious financial problems.

JRA will continue its expansion programme this year and expects to add four new stores to the existing fifty. These will all be in the south-west of UK. where it currently has only one store. The company aims eventually to have eighty large stores nationwide and then to concentrate on opening a number of smaller ones.

This positive news was delivered together with the announcement of a 13% drop in profits to $30 million on sales of $386 million for the financial year. This fall was not as bad as forecasted—several analysts thought profits would be less than $12 million.

Before becoming managing director of JRA. Turner had worked for Patton Points. Though Patton Points was once a leader in its field, it was in serious financial difficulties when Turner joined the company. Within three years, however, he had turned the company's annual losses into a $11 million profit. He is beginning to do the same at JRA.

Between April and June 2006, JRA's sales

A．fell by 6.2%.

B．rose by 6.7%.

C．fell by 7.4%.