英语222333

isn't

This tendency to focus on personal identity and autonomy is a pervasive part of a culture that can have a profound influence on how a society (7)______. For example, workers in an individualist culture are more likely to value their own (8)______ over the good of the group. Contrast this with a collectivist culture where people might sacrifice their own comfort for the greater good of everyone else. Such differences can influence (9)______ every aspect of behavior ranging from the career a person chooses, the products they buy, and the social (10)______ that they care about.

In the last few months, the strangest thing has happened: Online (1) ______ have begun moving into the offline-shopping world, and fast.

Warby Parker, the eyeglass company that (2)______ sells retro-style (复古风) glasses online, recently opened its first physical retail store in New York City. Bonobos, the online-only men's fashion retailer, has done the same. It now has stores in New York, Boston and San Francisco, with more to come.

Omni-channel (全渠道零售) retail is quickly taking on new meaning. It's no longer only about traditional retailers (3)______ an online presence to satisfy shoppers' demands for "anytime, anywhere, anyhow." Smart (4)______ retailers are beginning to recognize that they too need a broader, multi-channel approach for many of the same reasons offline retailers do.

A digital-only shopping platform isn't enough to (5) ______ long-term success because sometimes even the most digitally savvy online shoppers want to physically experience products and brands in (6) ______ time. They want it now; they want to try it; smell it; (7) ______ it; or all of the above.

Another (8)______ for the move by digital retailers is that traditional retailers and manufacturers have begun to catch up to them with their omni-channel strategies. The best have created multiple touchpoints – physical and (9)______ – that engage shoppers in more customized ways that are calibrated (使标准化) to meet a(n) (10)______ shopper's needs.

Since then, Elon has made solar energy (3)______ for the public through his company Solar City, and has made the dream of a(n) (4)______ car possible and inexpensive with Tesla Motors. If that wasn't enough, his Space X space travel adventures have (5)______  to be a major success with a very promising (6)______.

Musk's mind was set to (7)______ on things that would most affect the future of humanity: The Internet, clean (8) ______ and space.

Most of Elon's innovative ideas and (9)______ became true. He continues to pursue his goals to change humanity and live up to the (10)______ he set for himself in risk taking and self-confidence. He believes that his success still will prevail. What a Legend!

[A] Just recently, I notice that I had been avoiding American youth sports events since we relocated (搬家) from Switzerland to the United States. My daughter is active at her high school's sports leagues, which puts me in the uneasy position of wanting to watch her games – but feeling very uncomfortable once there.

[B] I find these sports events loud and way too competitive. Parents and coaches yell at team members and even worse, at the referees. This is a disrespectful attitude towards the players and the visiting team member, on top of not fostering an environment of growth – of course, this is only my opinion.

[C] All events I have attended are filled with well-meaning parents cheering on their kids. Like me, they find time in their busy schedules to be there, encouraging their children. Yet, it seems that I am the only one bothered and surprised by some of the parents' behavior.

SO, am I alone?

[D] Experiencing cultural shock isn't reserved only to first-time expats (外派人员) and the occasional travelers. All of us can face feelings of awkwardness, amazement, irritability and even anxiety when inserted into a new culture.

[E] A survey of 196 human resource managers conducted by the US National Foreign Trade Council revealed that 58% of all failed expat assignments were due to poor adaptation.

[F] Clearly, I'm not alone dealing with cultural shock. But what is cultural shock anyhow? It's a state created by the experience of leaving behind a familiar culture and moving to a foreign, new and unfamiliar environment. By becoming an expatriate, most of us will experience some degree of cultural shock.

[G] Now, if you are getting ready to move abroad, there is no need to brace yourself too tightly. A little preparation and few actions can go a long way towards a successful international life.

1. Cultural shock is a common experience for expatriates, often triggered by the transition from a familiar culture to a new one.

2. The author feels like the only one bothered by the behavior of some parents at the sports events.

3. Parents and coaches often yell at the players and referees, which the author finds disrespectful.

4. The author feels uncomfortable at American youth sports events due to their loud and competitive atmosphere.

5. Cultural shock can occur to anyone when exposed to a new and unfamiliar environment.

This is the online shopping mistake you need to stop making now

[A] Online reviews can be highly entertaining, and theoretically, they should be helping us make good decisions about what to spend our money on. As it turns out, however, they do help us make decisions – just not necessarily the best ones, according to a new study published in Psychological Science.

[B] Specifically, the study reveals that we are more inclined to buy a product that has more reviews than a product that has less, even if the product with more reviews has lower ratings. That inclination is so strong, in fact, that given a choice between two products that have equally bad reviews, we're still inclined to buy the one with more reviews – despite that the higher number of reviews means that the product is even more likely to be bad.

[C] Dr. Powell and his colleagues asked several hundred people to look at a series of cell phone cases, presented in pairs along with the average user rating and number of reviews for each case, and then indicate which case they would be more inclined to purchase. Across the board, for each pair, the participants tended to choose the case that had more reviews, rather than better reviews.

[D] The researchers concluded that our brains are so wired to gravitate (被吸引) toward what we see others doing that we find ourselves unable to see beyond that to make meaningful statistical inferences. "We found that people were biased toward choosing to purchase more popular products and that this sometimes led them to make very poor decisions," he explains in a press release by the Association for Psychological Science.

[E] "Consumers try to use information about other people's experiences to make good choices, and retailers have an incentive to steer consumers toward products they will be satisfied with," Dr. Powell added. "Our data suggest that retailers might need to rethink how reviews are presented and consumers might need to do more to educate themselves about how to use reviews to guide their choices." That includes absorbing the notion that a larger number of reviews is not a reliable indicator of a product's quality.

1. Humans are naturally drawn to follow what others are doing, which can impair their judgment. 

2. In an experiment, participants repeatedly chose phone cases with a higher number of reviews over those with better ratings.

3. Retailers may need to change how they display reviews, and consumers should learn to interpret them more critically.

4. Online reviews are meant to help consumers make informed decisions, but they don't always lead to the best choices.

5. People tend to choose products with more reviews, even if those products have lower ratings.

[A] Success is a bad teacher, because when you succeed, you're not always sure what you did right. It could have been just dumb luck. But when you fail, you usually know exactly what you did wrong. That is how the brain works: Our minds stumble (犯错，蹒跚而行) through our environment taking guesses, and then learns through repetition, avoiding negative consequences and seeking pleasure. It is that simplicity that makes the brain so effective and powerful.

[B] Some of our greatest people have done the same thing, stumbled through the dark until they hit a eureka moment.

[C] Bill Gates and Paul Allen started a business called Traf-O-Data, which took raw data from traffic counters and processed them into reports to sell to cities in Washington for traffic planning purposes. Then the state began giving away the reports to cities for free, making the business model completely obsolete (淘汰的). But the two college dropouts with a track record of failure didn't give up. Instead, they created Microsoft.

[D] Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team – a heartbreaking experience for any teenager. Then he became what many consider the greatest basketball player in the history of the game. He is the author of one of famous quotes about failure: "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

[E] In 1899, Henry Ford left his long-term, comfortable job to establish the Detroit Automobile Company with $150,000 of investor money. A little over a year later it went bankrupt. Somehow, his investors still had faith in Ford and invested in the Henry Ford Company in 1901. But this company went bankrupt as well. Having lost all your investors' money twice, would you try a third time? Ford did, establishing the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Five years later the company became a success with the release of the Model T.

1. A legendary athlete was initially rejected but later became the greatest in his field, attributing his success to persistence despite failures.

2. Some of the most successful people in history achieved breakthroughs after repeated failures.

3. A determined inventor faced two major business failures before finally achieving lasting success with his third attempt.

4. A famous entrepreneur’s early business failed due to external changes, but he later founded one of the world’s most successful companies.

5.  Failure helps us learn from mistakes and improve, while success may not provide clear lessons.