When selling products online and shipping them sight-unseen, a certain ___ 1_ __ of returns is inevitable. In fact, they're also inevitable at brick-and-mortar stores,___ 2 ___ a customer can touch, feel, smell and try on the merchandise ___3___ making a selection. At Sky Mall Inc, product returns are anticipated and ___4___ with ease. The company, which has eight years of merchandising experience ___ 5 ___ selling premium merchandise from participating merchants via catalog and online,__ _6__ _ proven itself through effective and simple ordering, fulfillment, customer service __ _7_ __ returns. “ We built a successful business on those practices before taking our products ___ 8 ___ the Internet, ” says Robert M.Worsely, president and CEO. In every printed catalog and on its Web site, Sky Mall guarantees ___ 9 ___ customer satisfaction with a 60-day “ no questions asked ” return policy combined ___ 10 ___ a best-price guarantee.
阅读下列短文，从 A 、 B 、 C 、 D 四个选项中选出一个最佳答案。
The year 2000 has been tough for online retailers. Changes in the market have driven many sites out of business, and many others are only barely surviving. The holidays, promising GREatly increased sales, offer hope for many e-commerce sites. The good news for retailers is that the holiday market will grow; this year's holiday sales are predicted to be 66% higher than last year's.
In a year when over half the U.S. population has access to the Internet, e-commerce sites can expect dramatic increases in site traffic before the holidays. Forrester Research predicts $10 billion in holiday revenues, and Jupiter forecasts the U.S. holiday market as $12 billion. Gartner Group predicts $10.7 billion in North American holiday sales and worldwide sales of $19.5 billion.
While revenue estimates vary, it's clear that Holiday 2000 will be big for e-commerce. Customers will shop online this holiday season for convenience; by shopping online, customers avoid crowds, transportation hassles, and inconvenient store hours. One customer commented in our tests that she would shop online “ to avoid the hassle of going to different stores. ”
Despite the eager shoppers and the predictions of a big holiday season, there is bad news for online retailers: the e-commerce industry is losing billions of dollars in potential sales. Shoppers want to purchase online, but many sites make it too hard to buy.
To gain the most from the holiday season, sites must pursue a simple strategy: improve the customer experience. Improving the customer experience can yield an additional $8 billion in North American sales, and $14 billion in worldwide online sales this holiday season.
According to Gartner Group projections, worldwide online revenues for the holiday season will be $19.5 billion.
In our consumer tests of major sites across key holiday categories, we found that 43% of buying attempts failed. These findings suggest that the $19.5 billion represent only 57% of potential sales this holiday season.
Lost sales due to poor customer experience thus total more than $14 billion: · $34.2 billion － $19.5 billion=$14.7 billion.
It is worth noting that our $14 billion does not include future losses due to poor experience this holiday season. Millions of consumers will shop online for the first time this holiday season. If they have a good experience, they are likelyto continue shopping on their favorite sites in the future. If they have a bad experience, they will likely never return to the sites where they were unable to buy(if indeed they return to shop online at all).The actual losses due to poor customer experience may thus be significantly higher than our $14 billion estimate.
In our tests, problems with the checkout process were the greatest cause of failed purchase attempts. More than 40% of failures were due to difficulty with checkout. Customers had found a product they wanted, added it to their cart and decided to place an order. They were ready to buy and wanted to pay. Unfortunately, the checkout process was too difficult and made it impossible for them to buy.
There were several different types of problems that arose in the checkout process.The most important lesson is that poor checkout experience will cost the industry billions in holiday sales.
1.Compared with last year's holiday sales, this year's will be ______.
A. lower B. twice lower
C. higher D. twice higher
2.Forrester Research, Jupiter and Gartner Group all suggest that in 2000 ______.
A. holiday sales for e-commerce sites in every part of the world will increase a lot
B. holiday sales for e-commerce sites in every part of the world will decrease a lot
C. holiday sales for e-commerce sites in some parts of the world will increase a lot
D. holiday sales for e-commerce sites in some parts of the world will decrease a lot
3.By shopping online, people can avoid ______.
A. traffic jams B. crowds
C. getting up early D. both A and B
4.It is implied by the author that ______.
A. it is difficult to buy things on some sites
B. it is difficult to buy things on all sites
C. it is easy to buy things on all sites
D. it is easy to buy things on few sites
5.If sites made it easier to shop and buy, sites' actual income would ______.
A. be the same B. decrease a lot
C. increase a little D. increase a lot
6.The e-commerce industry is losing much money in potential sales BECause ______.
A. people are not familiar with many sites
B. about half of the buying attempts fail
C. many people don't have the access to the Internet
D. there is too much competition from traditional business
7.e-commerce sites can earn more money from the holiday season by _______.
A. improving the customer experience
B. forming valid identification
C. advertising widely
D. providing more content
8.Problems with ______ were the chief cause of failed buying attempts.
A. electronic signature B. the checkin process
C. the checkout process D. registration
9.What attitude does the author hold when describing the sites' loss of revenue?
A. Emotional B. Objective
C. Critical D. Pessimistic
10.Which of the following techniques is most used in the text?
A. Exemplification B. Definition
C. Comparison D. Contrast
英译汉
Making the transition to e-business can be daunting.(1) There is so much to do, so many questions to answer, so many possibilities to explore. How do you know where to start?When you begin planning an e-business, the most important thing to remember is that you shouldn't try to do everything at once. Biting off more than you and your team can effectively handle can be as big a problem as doing nothing.
(2) Focus your initial e-business efforts on those areas that can most immediately gain from the investment. This lets you pick a targeted starting point, with clear goals and boundaries, so you can build the foundation from which other e-business initiatives will flow.
(3) Intel took this advice to heart when it began planning the Intel(r) e-business Web site. Rather than attempting to remake the entire Intel business infrastructure — a truly daunting task for a global corporation with over 65,000 employees — the company focused on its direct customers, including OEMs and distributors.
(4) The idea was to focus on customers who already had a relationship through Intel field sales and customer support , and find ways to improve that relationship through the Internet.
(5) “ We picked one thing we could build very quickly and deploy to our customers, ” says Sandra Morris, director of Intel's Internet Marketing & e-Commerce.
汉译英
1. 我们要事先准备所有申请材料。 (in advance)
2. 你需要确定顾客为何需要你的某种电脑和你的电脑怎样才能满足那种需求。 (meet the need)
3. 英特网可以直接让人得到信息、产品和服务，这就省掉了中间商，还会引起经济萎缩。
(economic deflation)
4. 我们讨论企业的产品和服务以及行业和英特网的信息。 (along with)
5. 那将给你以极大的竞争优势。 (advantage)
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