TOEFL Practice Test: Reading Passage 30 — Flashcards

Questions Below Refer To The Following Passage.    

The business of tennis clothes has grown astoundingly in the past few years.    
Over $250 million is spent annually on the trappings of tennis. Apparently everyone wants to look like a pro, even though 20% of the clientele has never even played the game.    
Manufacturers pay the stars lucrative fees for wearing their brands of clothes and wielding their racquets on center court. Chris Evert-Lloyd, for example, was rumored to have signed a five-year contract for $5 million with Ellesse, a producer of fancy, expensive tennis wear.    
John McEnroe received a reported $600,000 for playing with a Dunlop racquet, $330,000 for sporting Tacchini clothes, and $100,000 for tying his Nike tennis shoes. Obviously, in a bad year, these stars would have made more as fashion models than as athletes.    
Not only tennis players get free clothing, but also all the people involved in the game—the referees, linespeople, ball boys and girls—are living advertisments for tennis wear producers. Where, traditionally, conservative white clothing was required for the entire tennis coterie, changing times have seen a new vogue in tennis outfits. Flamboyant colors, designers’ nameplates, geometric figures, and bold lines distinguish the new tennis togs from their predecessors.