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Is the customer always right? Shopping is very much a part of a country’s culture, and attitudes to shopping and consumers vary from country to country just as much as climate or taste in food.
Recent economic hardship has given the consumers increased power in Europe because shopkeepers fight to win their share of reduced disposable(可支配的)income. This has meant falling prices, plenty of special offers and a re-examination of what customer service really means.
In restaurants in the south of the USA, for example, waiters compliment(恭维)you on your clothes, ask about your day, compliment you on your wisdom of your order and then return every ten minutes to refill your glass and make sure that everything is to your satisfaction.
Anyone who has waited 30 minutes to be served in a restaurant may possible dream of such customer service. In fact, different nationalities expect different types of service. As a friend of mine once told me “By the end of evening I had spent as much time talking to the waiter as to my wife.”
A Chinese-American friend loves telling people about how her Chinese mother shops for clothes. First of all she waits until they are on sale. And later she finds some small fault with the product and demands a further reduction. She never buys anything at the regular price. Could you imagine trying such ways in department stores in other countries?0
Attitudes to service are, of course, affected by employer’s attitudes to their workers. As American waiters heavily depend on tips, they have to provide more service. But is this fair? It might not be a case of “Is the customer always right?” but a case of “How much service is it fair to expect?”
A.People often point to America as an example of good customer service. |
B.It is a question of expectations. |
C.Do we think it is fair to ask shop assistants to work late evenings or on Sundays? |
D.Then she asks for a discount until she gets an even better price. |
E. The answer, it seems, depends on which country you are in.
F. The way we shop shows the way we get along with other people.
G. However, do Europeans really want US style service?
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Amazon Introduces a Digital Music Locker
Amazon.com, plans to introduce a service that will let people upload their digital music to the Web from anywhere.
The service, known as a music locker, was made available to Amazon account holders early Tuesday.Amazon will offer a Web-based hard drive backup service called Cloud Drive, where people can store documents, photos, videos and music.
It will also offer Cloud Player, which will let people listen to, download and make play lists from the music they store on Cloud Drive from any Web site or from an app on Android devices.Cloud Player will automatically upload songs bought on Amazon.One key difference is that Google and Apple reportedly want to automatically make all the music that a user owns available to stream on other instruments, while Amazon will require that people upload music, except songs they buy on Amazon, to access it elsewhere.
The dream of these companies, along with many start-ups, is for people to be able to listen to their music from any computer or phone.Several experts in digital music say that the music locker business is still legally ambiguous.
Amazon says it has avoided the problem, because its users would upload their songs, in MP3 to the cloud-based service, just like backing them up on an external (outside) hard drive or a Web-based computer backup service.
Companies, including Google and Spotify have been forced to delay introducing certain services while they negotiate with the music labels and publishers.
A.People can access it from any computer and from Android phones. |
B.But they have all run into the same problem: music companies and publishers would prefer that listeners buy a new copy of a song everywhere they want to listen to it. |
C.Experts suspect that Amazon seems to be copying what Google and Apple have already achieved. |
D.They agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity (匿名) because their agreements with Amazon are confidential. |
E.It is impossible for Web companies to tell whether a song was bought legally or downloaded illegally.
F.Amazon is racing Google and Apple, both of which are interested in offering similar services.
G.It will also scan iTunes or Windows libraries to find other music to upload.
Forgiveness
To forgive is a virtue, but no one has ever said it is easy. When someone has deeply hurt you, it can be extremely difficult to let go of your hate. However, forgiveness is possible, and it can be surprisingly beneficial to your physical and mental health. People who forgive show less sadness, anger and stress and more hopefulness, according to a recent research.
____________ Try the following steps:
Calm yourself. _____________ You can take a couple of breaths and think of something that gives you pleasure: a beautiful scene in nature, or someone you love.
Don’t wait for an apology. Many times the person who hurt you does not intend to apologize. They may have wanted to hurt you or they just don’t see things the same way. _____________ Keep in mind that forgiveness does not necessarily mean becoming friends again with the person who upset you.
Take the control away from your offender(冒犯者). Rethinking about your hurt gives power to the person who causes you pain. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you.
____________ If you understand your offender, you may realize that he or she was acting out of unawareness, fear, and even love. You may want to write a letter to yourself from your offender’s point of view.
Don’t forget to forgive yourself. ___________ But it can rob you of your self-confidence if you don’t do it.
A.Why should you forgive? |
B.How should you start to forgive? |
C.Recognize the benefits of forgiveness. |
D.Try to see things from your offender’s angle. |
E.For some people, forgiving themselves is the biggest challenge.
F.To make your anger die away, try a simple stress-management technique.
G.If you wait for people to apologize, you could be waiting an awfully long time.
Life is beautiful once you learn to change your view a little.. Complaining about what is wrong with an almost perfect picture stops you from seeing the beauty of the picture.
. Having the wisdom of knowing what you can change, what you can control and what you can’t is happiness.
Being a good person is important. Being a good person at heart is more important. No one is loved by all or hated by all. . Even God gets a bad name. We humans are social animals. It’s not easy or possible to get along with everyone. The point is who draws the line of your life, you or someone else. Before doing that ask yourself whether the thing you believe in is right or wrong.
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Go on living, smile, cry when you have to, and take joy in small things of life. Welcome and learn to see positive things happening around you. . Love yourselves. Maybe you feel disappointed sometimes, but don’t let that take a long time with you and your life. Learn to take pride in who you are because you are beautiful, no one can be like you and no one can live your life better than you do.
A.If it’s really worth the pain. |
B.Life is full of happiness and sorrow. |
C.Everyone has their good’s and bad’ s. |
D.Everyone should avoid the negative aspect of life. |
E. Appreciating it is better than focusing on its negatives.
F. No one, including even the wealthiest and the most beautiful people, has a perfect life.
G. Distinguish between want and need, and adjust to what life throws at you.
Hollywood movies are regularly filled with sex and violence. They can be exciting films but sometimes all you want is a little light-hearted entertainment.
Have you heard of Bollywood? All singing, all dancing and unrealistic, it is the perfect alternative to normal Hollywood movies. Bollywood is the Indian film industry, based in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. Yet Bollywood is the largest producer of films in the world. This year the Indian Filmgare Awards, Bollywood's Oscars, turn 50 years old.
The typical Bollywood movie usually has the following ingredients: a cup of romance, a tea-spoon of comedy, a dash of international sight-seeing, served with a huge slice of singing and dancing. There will also be one brave hero, one beautiful heroine and one baddie.
Bollywood films are full of ideal things and free of daily worries. The actors change clothes and locations within a single song. But the audience don't mind. To Indian movie lovers, especially the poor, such films are a gateway to heaven and the stars are their gods. The films take them to a magical world away from their everyday troubles. The films tell them the impossible is possible and that true love conquers all.
Behind the beautiful scenes, Bollywood still emphasizes traditional family values. In most films, if two lovers want to break an arranged marriage, they can't just run away. They must win over their parents.
Bollywood is a decent refreshing replacement for those over-stimulating Hollywood films. They will take you to a brighter, cheerier and more colorful world, where it's still cool to dance around a tree and sing a love song.
A.Bollywood has gradually won its reputation on the world stage. |
B.There is never any mention of politics, poverty or war. |
C.Most Chinese school kids have probably never seen an Indian film. |
D.Bollywood films are mostly comic romances with light-hearted incidental music. |
E. Bollywood pays great attention to traditional values.
F.The result is a fun-filled musical.
G.So if you're tired of all that Hollywood actions, check out the following Bollywood films.
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The Dark Age of GreeceAmong early civilizations, we call the low points "dark ages", because civilizations often dropped to such a low level that it is hard to get an accurate picture of their history during these periods. During a dark age, a civilization may not have produced monuments, statue, or other objects which we use to learn about early civilizations.
One' of the most important dark ages was the dark age of Greece,which lasted from about 1100 BC to 900 BC. Prior to-that-time,Greece had a highly advanced society called the Mycenaean civilization. The Mycenaeans were a trading civilizationIn fact, the Mycenaean civilization was so important that when it collapsed in the 12th centuryBC,most other civilizations in the region collapsed as well.The next 200 years are like a blank page to historians and we know very little about this period.
The collapse of the Mycenaeans brought an end to writing in the area, and thus an end to the written records historians rely on.
The little that we know about this period has been learned from archaeology. It seems that civilization became much less advanced. The pottery from this period is much simpler and less artistic. This suggests that there was lack of wealthy people to buy higher quality products. This would suggest a large decrease in population, possibly due to a widespread lack of food and consequent starvation.
Sometime around 800 BC, the Greeks began to emerge from this dark age, most probably due to the influence of other civilizations. They had lost their early writing system, but began to use the writing system of the Phoenicians at this time.Over the next 300 years, their civilization continued to rise, and their dark age was forgotten.
A.Many civilizations undergo a series of high points and low points during their history. |
B.Many early civilizations underwent dark ages, but Greece never recovered from its dark age. |
C.They began constructing larger cities and trading with their neighbors again. |
D.Another interesting point is that most of the large cities of earlier time periods appear to have been abandoned in favor of much smaller settlements. |
E.Many pieces of evidence suggest that there was a huge increase in population during the dark age of Greece.
F.and they did much to spread their culture across the eastern Mediterranean.
G.One major reason for this is that writing basically stopped.