Fora400yearoldartform,operahad-优题课

In the more and more competitive service industry, it is no longer enough to promise customer satisfaction. Today, customer “delight” is what companies are trying to achieve in order to keep and increase market share.
It is accepted in the marketing industry, and confirmed by a number of researches, that customers receiving good service will promote business by telling up to 12 other people; those treated badly will tell their tales of woe to up to 20 people, and 80 percent of the people who feel their complaints are handled fairly will stay loyal.
New challenges for customer care have come when people can obtain goods and services through telephone call centers and the Internet. For example, many companies now have to invest a lot of money in information technology and staff training in order to cope with the “phone rage”—caused by delays in answering calls, being cut off in mid-conversation or left waiting for long periods.
“Many people do not like talking to machines,” says Dr. Storey Senior Lecturer in Marketing at City University Business School. “Banks, for example, encourage staff at call centers to use customer data to establish instant and good relationship with them. The aim is to make the customer feel they know you and that you can trust— the sort of comfortable feelings people have during face-to-face chats with their local branch manager.”
Recommended ways of creating customer delight include: under-promising and over-delivering (saying that a repair will be carried out within five hours, but getting it done within two); replacing a faulty product immediately; throwing in a gift voucher (购物礼卷) as an unexpected “thank you” to regular customers; and always returning calls, even when they are complaints.
Aiming for customer delight is all very well, but if services do not reach the high level promised, disappointment or worse will be the result. This can be eased by offering an apology and an explanation of why the service did not meet usual standards with empathy (for example, “I know how you must feel”), and possible solutions (replacement, compensation or whatever fairness suggests best meets the case).
Airlines face some of the toughest challenges over customer care. Fierce competition has convinced them that delighting passengers is an important marketing tool, while there is great potential for customer anger over delays caused by weather, unclaimed luggage and technical problems .
For British Airways staff, a winning telephone style is considered vital in handling the large volume of calls about bookings and flight times. They are trained to answer quickly, with their name, job title and a “we are here to help” attitude. The company has invested heavily in information technology to make sure that information is available instantly on screen.
British Airways also says its customer care policies are applied within the company and staff are taught to regard each other as customers requiring the highest standards of service.
Customer care is obviously here to stay and it would be a foolish company that used slogans such as "we do as we please”. On the other hand, the more customers are promised, the greater the risk of disappointment.
We can learn from Paragraph 2 that.

A．complaining customers are hard to satisfy

B．unsatisfied customers receive better service

C．Satisfied customers catch more attention

D．well-treated customers promote business

The writer mentions “phone rage” (Paragraph 3) to show that________.

A．customers often use phones to express their anger

B．people still prefer to buy goods online

C．customer care becomes more demanding

D．customers rely on their phones to obtain services

What does the writer recommend to create delight?

A．Calling customers regularly	B．Giving a “thank you” note.
C．Delivering a quicker service	D．Promising more gifts.

If a manager should show his empathy (Paragraph 6), what would he probably say?

A．“I know how upset you must be.”	B．“I appreciate your understanding.”
C．“I’m sorry for the delay.”	D．“I know it’s our fault.”

Customer delight is important for airlines because________.

A．their telephone style remains unchanged

B．they are more likely to meet with complaints

C．the services cost them a lot of money

D．the policies can be applied to their staff

Why are people interested in eating raw foods or whole foods? One reason is that eating these types of food reduces the risk of acid accumulation in your body.
Raw and whole foods are usually digested more efficiently than cooked and refined foods. When we cook foods, we destroy the natural enzymes (酶) that are part of the food in its raw form. These enzymes were intended by nature to help us digest the food. When we consume food without these natural enzymes, our bodies either digest the food improperly or allow too many nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream. In both instances, the result is obesity. When too many nutrients are absorbed at once, the body grows fat. Improperly digested food moves slowly through the digestive tract, where it becomes increasingly acidic. To protect its vital organs from this acidic waste, the body changes the acid into fat and stores it safely away from the organs.
Processed foods contain chemical elements, which might confuse the appetite mechanism (新陈代谢) that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat; as a result, people often overeat. Processed foods also upset the digestive cycle. The body will either identify these foods as allergens and then store them safely away from the organs as fat, or the remains of undigested food will become acidic and enter the bloodstream as acid waste, which will stick to the blood vessel walls and block the passage of vital oxygen and nutrients heading for the body’s cells. The body’s metabolism becomes inactive, and the result is weight gain and obesity.
The accumulation of acid in the digestive tract makes digestion increasingly inefficient. When that happens, even healthy foods can become acidic and the food allergies will become more common.
To stop this vicious（恶性的）circle in its tracks, people need to consume food and supplements that will neutralize (使…中和) the acid already accumulated in body. Eating the right types of raw and whole foods can help. It’s also important to restore your enzyme balance. You need to identify and avoid the foods that cause acid accumulation and consume the foods that increase enzyme production. If you truly want to change and help your body heal itself, you need to take an active approach.
What is the main purpose of this passage?

A．To advocate eating more raw and whole foods.

B．To tell the differences between raw and processed foods.

C．To inform people of the harm of processed foods.

D．To warn people of the problem of obesity.

It can be inferred from Para. 2 that __________.

A．it is essential for people to protect their vital organs

B．foods with natural enzymes help people keep fit

C．we’d better be cautious about raw and whole foods

D．giving up cooked and refined foods is a new lifestyle

Processed foods are unhealthy because they __________.

A．destroy body’s cells	B．are difficult to digest
C．may lead to obesity	D．stop body’s metabolism

What is likely to be talked about following the last paragraph?

A．Active approaches to avoid acid.

B．Different causes of acid accumulation.

C．Correct ways to cook raw foods.

D．Suitable types of raw and whole foods.

What can we learn from the text?

A．Processed foods are good for our appetite mechanism.

B．Eating the right types of raw and whole foods does good to our body.

C．The accumulation of acid in the digestive tract makes digestion more effective.

D．Processed foods also comfort the digestive tract.

Edgar felt quite excited at the thought of his first swim of the summer. With the sun shining down so strongly, the sea was certain to be warm enough. He walked quickly along the sea-front towards the steps that led on to the sands. He smiled cheerfully at the passersby. He had just smiled and raised his hat to an elderly lady when a man with a camera caught his arm and stopped him. Edgar heard a little buzzing noise from the camera.
“Your photograph, sir, in glorious colour in just one moment if you please,” said the man in one breath. Then the buzzing stopped, and he held the photograph in his hand and was waving it to and fro. In a
moment he handed it over, and Edgar saw the bright blue splash of his shirt half filling the picture.
“Seventy pence, sir,” the man said. “It’s the bargain of your holiday.”
“Seventy pence,” Edgar repeated, mildly. “For this?” He stared at the photographer.
“They’re normally eighty-five, sir, but for a single subject I make a cut-price offer. It’s the best value you’ll get in Chadwell.”
“You’ll have to make a better offer,” Edgar said. It was a good photo though, he thought, so bright and clear. His hat was held high, and he was smiling broadly at the old lady, whose arm and handbag came into a lower corner. He had had no idea that he was being snapped. He thought he was really quite a good-looking chap.
“That’s as good as any studio job that would cost you pounds,” said the cameraman. “It’s better in a way because it’s so natural. Only seventy pence, sir.”
“I’ve never paid so much for a snap in my life. It simply isn’t worth that kind of money. It’s not as if I need the thing. Look, I’ll give you twenty-five.”
“No, I can’t do that. Each of these instant colour shots costs me 50p — that’s the price of the blank frame, so you see…”
“Criminal, criminal,” Edgar broke in. “You want a profit of forty per cent. Well, not at my expense, I’m afraid. I’ll give you your 50p and that’s that.”
“Let me see, then.” The man suddenly took the photograph out of Edgar’s hand. “I can’t waste any more time with you. It’s 70p or I keep it.”
“Keep it,” Edgar said. He turned, looked out to the sea, and then walked quickly away.
Why do you suppose Edgar was in Chadwell?

A．It was his hometown.

B．He was there on holiday.

C．He was in the making of a film.

D．He was there to have his photograph taken.

Edgar smiled at and raised his hat to the lady because ________.

A．he thought he recognized her

B．he wanted the photograph to be amusing

C．she was having her photograph taken

D．he was feeling excited and cheerful

The photographer lowered his price to 70p because __________.

A．Edgar wanted to bargain for the photo

B．Edgar couldn’t afford to pay the normal price

C．Edgar was the only person in the photo

D．there was only one copy of the photo

What did Edgar think of the photo?

A．He thought it made him look like a criminal.

B．He liked it but thought it was too dear.

C．It annoyed him because he hadn’t expected it.

D．He thought it was a bargain at the price.

We can infer from the passage that _______ .

A．Edgar was an indifferent but good-looking man

B．Edgar smiled at the photographer because he was being photographed

C．the photographer was actually a criminal

D．Edgar didn’t buy the snap at length.

LONDON (Reuters) — Children are dying for lack of drugs tailored to their needs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which launched a global campaign on Thursday to promote more research into child medicine.
More than half of the drugs currently used to treat children in the industrialized world have not been specifically tested on youngsters.
The problem is even worse in developing countries where price remains a major barrier and 6 million children die each year from treatable conditions.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, the few existing pediatric therapies（儿科的疗法）developed for children generally cost three times more than adult ones.
As a result, clinicians lack clear guidelines on the best drug to use and often have to guess at the correct dose.
Fortunately, the WHO has drawn up the first international List of Essential Medicines for Children, containing 206 products considered safe for children.
“But a lot remains to be done. There are priority medicines that have not been adapted for children’s use or are not available when needed,” said Dr Hans, the U.N. agency’s director of medicines policy and standards.
Medicines that need to be adapted to children’s needs include many antibiotics, pain drugs as well as combination pills for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The agency is building an Internet entrance linking to clinical trials carried out in children and will launch a Web site with the information early next year.
Testing medicines on children has always been a controversial issue, since good ethical（伦理的）practice requires informed agreement from people participating in clinical trials, which is difficult to obtain in the case of children.
As a result, research-based drug companies have been wary of developing child-friendly medicines and general companies have been slow to produce them at lower cost.
In an attempt to deal with the issue, both Europe and the United States now have special rules offering extended patent protection for drugs that have been tested on children.
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．A Global Campaign to Promote Research into AIDS Medicine

B．WHO Says Children are Dying for Lack of Child-sized Drugs

C．Many People are Concerned about Children’s Drugs

D．Measures Taken to Develop Child-friendly Medicine Quickly

Which of the following medicine is not needed to be adapted to children’s need according to the passage?

A．Pain killers.

B．Tuberculosis.

C．AID pills.

D．Flu pills.

Why has testing medicines on children always been a controversial issue?

A．It is against good ethical practice

B．Children shouldn’t take part in clinical trials.

C．It is hard to get informed agreement from children tested.

D．Parents don’t allow their children to be tested on medicine.

The underlined word “wary” in the last but one paragraph means _________.

A．fast

B．fond

C．cautious

D．uninterested

What can be inferred from the passage?

A．There is still a long way to go on children’s medicine.

B．An Internet entrance is being built to link to clinical trials carried out in children.

C．Both Europe and the United States now have special rules offering extended patent protection for adults’ drugs.

D．Less than half of the drugs currently used to treat children in the industrialized world have not been specifically tested on youngsters

Why are people interested in eating raw foods or whole foods? One reason is that eating these types of food reduces the risk of acid accumulation in your body.
Raw and whole foods are usually digested more efficiently than cooked and refined foods. When we cook foods, we destroy the natural enzymes (酶) that are part of the food in its raw form. These enzymes were intended by nature to help us digest the food. When we consume food without these natural enzymes, our bodies either digest the food improperly or allow too many nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream. In both instances, the result is obesity. When too many nutrients are absorbed at once, the body grows fat. Improperly digested food moves slowly through the digestive tract, where it becomes increasingly acidic. To protect its vital organs from this acidic waste, the body changes the acid into fat and stores it safely away from the organs.
Processed foods contain chemical elements, which might confuse the appetite mechanism that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat; as a result, people often overeat. Processed foods also upset the digestive cycle. The body will either identify these foods as allergens and then store them safely away from the organs as fat, or the remains of undigested food will become acidic and enter the bloodstream as acid waste, which will stick to the blood vessel walls and block the passage of vital oxygen and nutrients heading for the body’s cells. The body’s metabolism (新陈代谢)becomes inactive, and the result is weight gain and obesity.
The accumulation of acid in the digestive tract makes digestion increasingly inefficient. When that happens, even healthy foods can become acidic and the food allergies will become more common.
To stop this vicious(恶性的)circle in its tracks, people need to consume food and supplements that will neutralize (使…中和) the acid already accumulated in body. Eating the right types of raw and whole foods can help. It’s also important to restore your enzyme balance. You need to identify and avoid the foods that cause acid accumulation and consume the foods that increase enzyme production. If you truly want to change and help your body heal itself, you need to take an active approach.
What is the main purpose of this passage?