專業英文雜誌選讀
日四技應外三甲
胡若菊
Chapter 1
No Hiding Place
• Theme: The protection of privacy will be a huge problem
for the internet society.
• Reading: A cookie is a small file that a company can send to
your computer when you visit the company’s website. It tells
them a lot about your browsing habits. Using the web without
them is nearly impossible. DoubleClick, an advertising
company, has agreements with over 11,000 websites and
maintains cookies on 100 million users ……
Chapter 1 (cont’)
1. How do companies collect information about people who
visit websites?
2. How can organizations find out where we go?
3. What are some of the new developments in surveillance
technology.
4. What four advantages of surveillance technology are
mentioned?
5. What do most people think about having so much
surveillance?
Chapter 2
Fashion’s Favourite
• Theme: The high cost of fashion shows is worth every
penny to the industry.
• Reading: What is the point of top-end fashion? An haute
couture dress can cost more than $100,000. Not surprisingly,
there are no more than 2,000 haute couture customers in the
world. The commercial point is that haute couture is the
fashion house’s loss leader. It creates the image of the
brand………….
Chapter 2 (cont’)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why are there only 2,000 customers for haute couture?
Do fashion houses make a profit from haute couture?
What is the main advantage of a fashion show?
Why is Paris the true capital of fashion?
Why is the fashion industry good for France?
Which city competes with France as a centre of fashion?
Chapter 3
Arabia’s Field of Dreams
• Theme: One of the world’s most successful business
ventures is a small city-state that learned lessons from
Singapore and Hong Kong.
• Reading: A tropical sun sets behind the palm trees and white
sand of Jumeirah beach. Here, machines are building houses
on one of the world’s largest man-made islands, designed in
the shape of a palm tree. England’s soccer……
Chapter 3 (cont’)
1. What are they building on the large man-made islands off the
coast of Dubai?
2. How long will Dubai’s oil production continue?
3. What attractions does the city-state have for tourists?
4. What is the population of Dubai? What percentage of the
people are originally from the city-state?
5. What kinds of companies are setting up business in Dubai?
Chapter 4
The Oneline Job Market
• Theme: How Jeff Taylor changed the way the labour
market works.
• Reading: Monster.com, the world’s biggest online job-search
site, shows how electronic marketplaces reach more people
and can offer more efficiency than physical markets. It also
shows that money can be made in such markets: Monster has a
long record of profitability. Jeff Taylor, who launched…….
Chapter 4 (cont’)
1. Does Monster.com make a profit?
2. What two advantages does Monster.com offer to job-seekers?
3. Find two advantages for employers of using the Mosnter.com
site.
4. Which two kinds of business are losing money because of
Mosnter.com’s success?
5. What advice does the article give to people who want to use
the site to find a job?
Chapter 5
Make It Cheaper and Cheaper
• Theme: How technology pushes down price.
• Reading: Prices have fallen in the food business because of
advances in food production and distribution technology.
Consumers have benefited greatly from those advances.
People who predicted that the world would run out of food
were wrong. We are producing more and more food with less
and less capital. Food is therefore more plentiful ……
Chapter 5 (cont’)
Are the statements true or false?
1. It costs less to produce large quantities of food than ever
before.
2. Big supermarkets can offer food at lower prices because they
can buy in large quantities.
3. Some food producers have reduced their range of products.
4. To meet supermarket demands, Cadbury employs more
workers than before.
5. Shoppers will buy large quantities when there is a special
price.
Chapter 6
Getting Better Service
• Theme: The failure to complain is everywhere.
• Reading: Australians call the British “whingeing Poms”
because they complain so much. But a new study suggests
that Brits should hinge more, not less. A team led by Chris
Voss of the London Business School found that service quality
is Britain is typically worse than in America. One reason, the
research suggests, is that …………………..
Chapter 6 (cont’)
Are these statements true or false?
1. Australians are correct when they say that the British
complain too much.
2. The British aren’t very direct when they make complaints.
3. Americans only complain when there is a big problem.
4. British companies don’t spend much on service.
5. The Marriott Hotel Group trains is staff to follow a fixed
routine when handling complaints.
6. Complaining about bad service in Britain doesn’t bring any
results.
Chapter 7
Revolution in the Car Industry
• Theme: Car factories of the future will be smaller and
cleaner, and not all owned by car companies.
• Reading: The car business has a serious problem: it is
producing too many cars. This over-capacity is resulting in
fierce competition. Each manufacturer is competing in ever
segment of the market, with a huge range of models to attract
different consumers………..
Chapter 7 (cont’)
Are these statements true or false?
1. Car manufacturers can’t produce enough o meet customer
demands.
2. Models need to be updated more often.
3. Each car factory can only product one model.
4. Productivity is very high.
5. It takes too long to deliver finished cars to the customer.
6. Sales forecasts are accurate.
Chapter 8
The Kids Are All Right
• Theme: Young people at work can now expect opportunity,
responsibility, respect—and fun.
• Reading: Youth is a time for fun. In one American
playground in Florida, there are basketball courts and
volleyball nets. Inside, there are bright colours. Nerf guns and
a games room with pingpong. This is not a school, but the
offices of CapitalOne, one of America’s largest credit-card
firms. ………..
Chapter 8 (cont’)
Which of the following things were generally true in the past (P)
and which are true today (T), according to the article?
1. Office culture is formal.
2. People only become top managers after years of loyal service.
3. Companies can grow rapidly and also fail suddenly
4. Workers have to show respect for their superiors.
5. Companies prefer workers who understand e-business.
6. People work for the same company all their lives.
7. Young people have many opportunities to show creativity.
Chapter 9
A Matter of Choice
• Theme: That reliable workhorse of a capitalism—the jointstock company looks surprisingly durable. But pressure
on it is increasing.
• Reading: In 1967, John Kenneth Galbraith’s The New
Industrial State argued that the USA was run by a handful of
big companies who planned the economy in the name of
stability. These were hierarchical and bureaucratic ……
Chapter 9 (cont’)
1.
2.
3.
4.
What were the characteristics of US corporations in the past?
What changes have occurred to those corporations?
What is meant by “shifting from high-volume to high-value”?
What different types of future companies does the author
mention?
5. Why does he believe there is not one definite type of future
company?
6. What does he believe to be the key to survival for companies
in the future?
Chapter 10
When to Terrorise Talent
• Theme: The football dressing room remains the last refuse
of old-style management techniques.
• Reading: The nation was in shock. David Beckham, Britain’s
most beautiful (and skilful) footballer emerged from his house
on photograph a would above his left eye. Sir Alex Ferguson,
Manager of his then team Manchester United,
………………………….
Chapter 10 (cont’)
Are these statements true or false?
1. A photographer witnessed the manager kicking David
Beckham.
2. The manager lost his temper because the team lost the match.
3. Management tactics are easier to identify in business than in
sport.
4. Patterson encouraged his employees to make themselves
indispensable.
5. When business is good, fear is used less as a management
tactics.
Chapter 11
The Rewards of Failure
• Theme: The trouble with the GlaxoSmithKline pay
package was its reward for failure.
• Reading: When the public mood changes, the realisation can
take time to sink in. Behaviour that was once acceptable can
overnight come to be seen as outrageous. The board of
GlaxoSmithKline, a big pharmaceutical company, has found
itself at the sharp end of such a mood change.
Its………………………
Chapter 11 (cont’)
1. Who refused to approve GSK’s remuneration committee’s
report?
a. The board of directors
b. The shareholders
c. The chief executive
2. The company is now in a difficult position because
a. It had already agreed to the new pay packages.
b. It has to decide whether to approve the report or not.
c. Jean-Pierre Garnier will take legal action.
Chapter 12
Gas for Peru v Green Imperialism
• Theme: Where should the balance between development
and the environment be struck? And who should strike it?
• Reading: After nearly two decades of contract negotiations,
natural gas from the Amazon jungle looks finally set to teach
Peru’s capital, Lima, by next August. However, US
environmentalists are making a final attempt to stop the $1.5
billion project, which if it ………
Chapter 12 (cont’)
Which of the following will happen if the Camisea project goes
ahead?
1. Peru will again become an exporter of fuel.
2. The IDB loan could release further finance for the scheme.
3. The Peruvian government will be able to give financial
assistance to some of the poorer areas in the country.
4. Peruvian companies will be able to reduce some of their
costs.
5. A road will be built through the Peruvian jungle.
Chapter 13
Money Can Buy You Love
• Theme: Are we being manipulated into buying brands?
• Reading: Brands are accused of all sorts of evils, from
threatening our health and destroying our environment to
corrupting our children. Brands are so powerful, it is said, that
they force us to look alike, eat alike and be alike. This grim
picture has been made popular by many recent anti-branding
………..
Chapter 13 (cont’)
Are the statements true or false?
1. It was relatively easy in the past to create a new brand.
2. Buying a branded product did not cost customers more.
3. Brands were developed for the international market.
4. The government closely controlled the markets at home.
5. Brands deterred other companies from entering the market.
Chapter 14
Europe’s Enron
• Theme: The Ahold financial scandals should shock Europe
into accounting and corporate governance reform, just as
the Enron scandal did in the USA.
• Reading: It may seem an exaggeration to describe the scandal
overwhelming Royal Ahold as “Europe’s Enron”– but in many
ways it is true enough. Certainly, the world’s third-biggest
food retailer, after Wal-Mart and…….
Chapter 14 (cont’)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the similarities between Enron and Ahold?
What should European companies do?
Why did the shareholders admire Cees van der Hoeven?
Which of Ahold’s acquisitions is mentioned in the text?
What did Europeans believe about corporate wrong-doing in
the past?
6. How did Foodservice overstate its sales?
Chapter 15
Imitating Property Is Theft
• Theme: Counterfeiting is on the increase. Companies
ignore it at their peril.
• Reading: The most people, counterfeiting means forged
currency. But counterfeiters are copying an every-widening
range of products. For some time they have been churning out
imitation designer fashion, software and CDs. Now they are
copying medicines, mobile phone, food and drink, car
parts………………
Chapter 16
Of Celebrities, Charity and Trade
• Theme: Charities are not yet free-traders, but some are
halfway there.
• Reading: In the energy-sapping heat of Uganda, women bend
double to grow flowers for export to Europe. According to
Bono, singers of Irish rock band U2, this scene represents
“globalisation at its best”. He is right, of course. Growing
flowers is hard work, but no more so than …………………..
Chapter 17
Dilemma: Buy it now!
• eBay, the online auction site, wants to expand. The
best way is to set up operations in other countries like
India. It has over a billion people and could be the
biggest market in the world in the future. But how
many people there have access to the internet? Are
they ready for online shopping? Are there other
online auction companies? How easy is it for a
foreign company to enter the market?
Chapter 18
Dilemma: A workplace bully
• Elizabeth works for a computer company. At first,
she liked the job and believed that she could do it
well. But now she has a problem: her team leader,
Valma, is a bully. Valma seems to dislike Elizabeth.
She always finds problems with her work. If
Elizabeth makes a small mistake, she shouts at her in
front of her colleagues: “What’s wrong with you?
Are you stupid?” She doesn’t talk to the other team
members in this way. She gives Elizabeth all the
most boring and difficult tasks to do. Elizabeth……
Chapter 19
Dilemma: Volkswagen bugs
• A few years ago, VW had two problems. 1) It was
Europe’s largest car manufacturer, but its best selling
cars– the Goof, Jetta and Passat – were beginning to
look old. VW’s competitors had new models, but
VW had nothing new. 2) The VW brand was based
on value for money, middle-priced cars. VW
customers wanted a more luxurious brand image
when they go older and richer. VW didn’t have any
cars to offer them.
Chapter 20
Dilemma: Organic Growth
• Sunshine Foods is a large dairy food producer,
specialising in milk, butter, cream, yoghurt, and ice
cream. There is a lot of interest now in healthy food
products and many consumers want to buy organic
food, produced in a traditional way without the use of
chemicals. Sunshine’s directors want to have a share
in the organic food market and they believe that the
best way to enter the market is to take over a firm that
already produces organic products. They plan to
create a new subsidiary which, they hope, will……..
Chapter 21
Dilemma: Risky ventures
• You represent a firm of venture capitalists. You have
funds to invest in an exciting new venture in a
technological field. Your main interest is to see a
good return on your investment with a minimum of
risk. You are going to consider three ventures, which
require about $500,000 each as start-up capital:
• Celf Cure: a biotech solution for curing diseases
• Space Travel Inc.: a new spacecraft for sending
tourists into space
• Fingertip: using fingerprints instead of keys to………
Chapter 22
Dilemma: A New Location
• Whiterose is a group of hotels, restaurants and leisure
companies which operates mainly in the UK. It is
planning to expand its international operations but the
head office in London is no longer big enough so the
company is planning to relocate the Hotel Division.
You belong to a team that is responsible for
identifying a new location for this division, which has
1,000 employees. You are looking for a town where
it will be easier to find a spacious office building at a
lower cost than in London. You are considering
……..
Chapter 23
Dilemma: For love or money?
• Kate Gray is in a happy position: she has two job
offers. The problem is to choose the job that will suit
her best. Kate is a new graduate in geography and
wants to work in the travel industry. She would like a
job that includes travelling and working with people.
Two different travel companies are offering her a
position. She has the chance to work in the
marketing department of Wide World Tours, a big
company with 3,000 employees and regional offices
around the world. Or she could………………….
Chapter 24
Dilemma: Guerrilla marketing
• Virgin Mobile is a phone operator that provides a
wide range of mobile communication services to its
customers in the UK. Competition between mobile
phone operators is strong and winning a large market
share in the student market is vital. Students use their
mobile phones a lot – to call friends and family, and
also to get information and play games. There are 2.5
million students in the UK, and 96 per cent of them
own a mobile phone. But it is difficult to market to
students because they are hard to reach and are ……..
Chapter 25
Dilemma: A fair decision?
• You are members of the Financial Ombudsman
Service – an independent organisation that helps to
settle disagreements between companies and their
customers. You have been asked to look at the
following dispute between a car owner and an
insurance company following the theft of a car.
• Jane Buxton was at a restaurant in the city centre
when her handbag was stolen. Inside the bag were
her house keys, car keys, wallet and driving license
with her home address on it. She reported …………
Chapter 26
Dilemma: Service not included
• You are the senior manager at House & Home, a
chain of warehouse-style stores selling furniture and
fittings for the home. The company is suffering.
Competition from other similar stores is strong and
sales are falling. You think that the main reason for
the loss of sales is poor customer service. To find out
more about the problem, you asked your customers
for feedback. The following complaints were the
most common:……………………………….
Chapter 27
Dilemma: Gold rush
• Goodcorp is a company that mines gold in Canada.
The company owns the Red Lake mine, which is not
productive. In 50 years of production, only 3 million
ounces have been extracted and the quality of this
gold is low grade. The mine’s costs are high and the
company is losing money fast. Rob McEwen, the
CEO, believes there is more gold on the site. Other
mines in the area have produced high quality gold:
one mine has produced more than 10 million ounces.,
Perhaps this source of gold also runs into the ……..
Chapter 28
Dilemma: Hot-desking
• You are the senior managers of Sirius, a company
selling network solutions B2B. You employ 115
staff: 40 sales consultants, 50 technical staff
(programmers, software designers) and 25
administrative staff (accountants, lawyers, etc).
Because of a recent downturn in your business,
together with a rising cost of office rent, you now
have to move to a smaller office. This means that
each member of staff will have less work space.
However, the sales staff are out of ………………….
Chapter 29
Dilemma: The virtue of necessity
• A serious safety problem is threatening the future of
Transal, a pipeline company. Hundreds of yearly
accidents have led to high absenteeism, causing lost
time, low morale, unsatisfactory efficiency levels,
falling profits and a falling share price. Press articles
about the company’s lack of concern for its
employees are having a very negative effect on
customers, shareholders and staff. If the company is
to survive it must develop a “ safety conscious
culture”. The question is: how?
Chapter 30
Dilemma: Mission: Impossible?
• Louis Schweitzer, the 59-year-old CEO of the
Renault group, has just received the latest results for
Nissan, the Japanese car manufacturer in which
Renault has a 37 per cent stake. The situation looks
bad. Nissan has lost money for the sixth consecutive
year, the company’s debts have now soared to a
record $19 billion and they are now losing $1,000
dollars on every new car they produce. Clearly
something needs to be done to return Nissan to profit
and quickly. The time has come to ………………..
Chapter 31
Dilemma: Harley’s Angels
• Jeffrey Ableustein, CEO of Harley Davidson, was
thinking about the future. He had already pulled the
motorcycle manufacturer back from the brink of
bankruptcy, but now he was thinking of the serious
problems that lay ahead. And top of the list was the
fact that Harley Davidson customers were definitely
ageing. The black leather Angels were getting greyer
every day. From an average age of 36 ten years ago
the customer was now edging closer to 46. But what
to do? Bleustein decided that he would…………….
Chapter 32
Dilemma: Success at what price?
• Better Prices, a large UK supermarket chain, is in
financial difficulties. The departing CEO, Mark
Crawley, had promised that dramatic transformations
would lead to higher returns and rising share price.
However, he began by signing a disastrous merger
deal and since then the share value has halved! In
spite of this, he awarded himself several bonuses on
top of his $790,000 a year salary and leaves with a
golden parachute worth over $2m. The outraged
shareholders have decided to work closely with the
board in choosing his successor from the following
short list of candidates.
Chapter 33
Dilemma: A Scent of Risk
• Bellissima is an Italian perfume and cosmetics
business. The company has a highly successful range
of products in the luxury cosmetics market. It is
planning to launch a new fragrance and extensive
market research has produced detailed profiles of two
potential target markets as described below.
Bellissima now has to decide whether to expand its
current market base or risk branching out and
reaching a new client.
Chapter 34
Dilemma: Going Offshore
• InterState, Inc. is a New York based company
specialized in providing domestic insurance for
private individuals and small corporations. InterState
is currently considering outsourcing all or part of its
150-person call centre to an overseas location in order
to reduce its operating costs. The call centre
currently processes calls from both insurance agents
and enquiries from members of the public within the
USA. Several groups of managers have been asked
to research different host countries in order to……..
Chapter 35
Dilemma: Counting the costs
• MultiBrands is a globally successful consumer
products company, which has built up a reputation
based on “Honesty, Quality and Innovation”. Since it
started operating ten years ago, it has launched at
least two new, high-quality products in different
markets every year. However, managers are currently
reviewing company policy because of a recent
dramatic fall in profits and share price performance.
Shareholders believe that this is due to overdiversification, rising costs and failing consumer
confidence as a result of …………………….
Chapter 36
Dilemma: The Bellagio Interview
• You are members of the HR team that is responsible
for the recruitment drive at the Bellagio. You have
been asked to design the list of questions for the
behavioural interview that will be used b y all the
hiring managers. This interview will last a maximum
of 30 minutes and will contain six questions designed
to evaluate the behaviour of the candidates. After
each question the hiring manager will enter an
evaluation of the quality of the candidate’s response
directly into a computer. The HR team………….
Chapter 37
Dilemma: The Golden Couple
• Hollywood’s golden coule, Catherine Zeta-Jones and
Michael Douglas, sold the exclusive rights to their
wedding photographs to the celebrity magazine OK!
For $1m. Three days afte OK! had published the
“exclusive” images, a rival celebrity magazine Hello!
published an issue featuring pictures of the couple
taken in secret at their wedding. The couple decided
to sue Hello! For intrusion of privacy for the sum of
$50,000, comparing the distress of seeing the
‘unflattering” photos to that of being burgled. …….
Chapter 38
Dilemma: Closing the deal
• Watermark plc, is a specialist supplier of quality
stationery and writing accessories, which it distributes
in European markets. At present the sales of the
company’s leading products are not growing. Hal
Garnett, the newly appointed CEO, is in a hurry to
reorganize the company’s sales strategy and to
introduce a new online sales channel. Since
Watermark does not have the in-house expertise to
develop such a site itself, it has decided to outsource
the work………………………………………….
Chapter 39
Dilemma: Selling up or selling out?
• Milton S. Hershey founded Hershey Foods, the
USA’s biggest chocolate maker, in 1903. Mrs.
Hershey was a model employer who built a town for
his employees with comfortable homes, inexpensive
public transport and good schools. In 1909 he
established a school for disadvantaged children.
Many of the company’s managers, including a former
chief executive, are graduates from the school. In
1918 he gave the school his entire fortune of Hershey
company shares. He put a ……………………..
Chapter 40
Dilemma: Spinning the truth
• PR Vision is a communication agency that specializes
in protecting reputations and corporate image in a
time of media crisis. Their company motto is ‘When
dealing with the media, whoever tells the best story
wins.” PR Vision has helped companies to
successfully handle news stories about product recall,
job losses and scandals by responding in the press
with news stories of their own which:
• Quickly address issues and recognize when the
company is at fault;
Chapter 41
Dilemma: Is grey the new black?
• Many producers of branded goods refuse to distribute
through supermarket chains, fearing that price-cutting
could damage their brand image. They distribute
exclusively through selected retailers. Grey
marketers challenge this by obtaining branded goods
through alternative supply routes and selling them at
much cheaper prices. Best Value is a leading UK
supermarket chain that has been offered a “grey
consignment” of genuine branded jeans at a very
heavily discounted price……………………..
Chapter 42
Dilemma: Prize pitch
• TechStart is a European business association that
promotes emerging technology and new business
ventures. Originally founded to help young
university graduates to gain access to funds.
TechStart today offers future entrepreneurs a
comprehensive one-year program of assistance,
advice and training in order to turn creative new ideas
into fully operational business ventures. Every year
TechStart organizes a competition where graduates
can submit their proposals for new business……….