3. The passage suggests which of the following about service provided by the regional bank prior to its investment in enhancing that service?

　　(A) It enabled the bank to retain customers at an acceptable rate

　　(B) It threatened to weaken the bank's competitive position with respect to other regional banks

　　(C) It had already been improved after having caused damage to the bank's reputation in the past.

　　(D) It was slightly superior to that of the bank's regional competitors.

　　(E) It needed to be improved to attain parity with the service provided by competing banks.

　　4. The passage suggests that bank managers failed to consider whether or not the service improvement mentioned in line 19

　　(A) was too complicated to be easily described to prospective customers

　　(B) made a measurable change in the experiences of customers in the bank's offices

　　(C) could be sustained if the number of customers increased significantly

　　(D) was an innovation that competing banks could have imitated

　　(E) was adequate to bring the bank's general level of service to a level that was comparable with that of its competitors

　　5. The discussion of the regional bank (line 13-24) serves which of the following functions within the passage as a whole?
　   (A) It describes an exceptional case in which investment in service actually failed to produce a competitive advantage.

　　(B) It illustrates the pitfalls of choosing to invest in service at a time when investment is needed more urgently in another area.

　　(C) It demonstrates the kind of analysis that managers apply when they choose one kind of service investment over another

　　(D) It supports the argument that investments in certain aspects of service are more advantageous than investments in other aspects of service.

　　(E) It provides an example of the point about investment in service made in the first paragraph.

　　6. The author uses the word "only" in line 23 most likely in order to

　　(A) highlight the oddity of the service improvement

　　(B) emphasize the relatively low value of the investment in service improvement

　　(C) distinguish the primary attribute of the service improvement from secondary attributes

　　(D) single out a certain merit of the service improvement from other merits

　　(E) point out the limited duration of the actual service improvement