In every little girl’s toy box, there might be a Barbie Doll. Barbie is 50 years old this year. It was designed in 1959 by an American businesswoman named Ruth Handler. She and her husband Elliott started the toy company Mattel. She named the new doll after their daughter Barbara. The first Barbie Doll appeared at the toy fair(交易会) in New York on March 9th, 1959. This date is used as Barbie’s birthday.
Matte1 sold three hundred thousand Barbie Dolls in the first year at a price of three dollars. Today, a fifty-year-old Barbie in good condition might cost more than twenty-seven thousand dollars. Mattel says 90% of the girls in the United States aged from three to ten own at least one Barbie Doll. And girls aged three to six own an average(平均) of about twelve.
When Mattel created Barbie Dolls half a century ago, they never thought this doll would become a legend. Now Barbie Dolls are famous all over the world. They are sold in one hundred and fifty countries, and every second three Barbie Dolls are sold around the world.
legendA Barbie Doll cost ______ dollars in the first year after it appeared.