ￚempowerment noun [uncountable]
cross- prefix
1 going from one side to the other
a cross-Channel ferry (=sailing from Britain to France) 跨越海峡的轮渡
2 going between two things and joining them
cross-cultural influences 跨文化影响
Suggested Answer:
The last years of the twentieth century saw the Internet being used by more and more companies as a business tool. In 1997 e-commerce was very limited earning a revenue of less than $25 billion. However, since then, there has been a steady growth worldwide. This trend looks set to continue into the next century with revenue from e-commerce rising to reach almost $200 billion by 2003.
Like e-commerce, e-business has shown steady growth with revenue tripling in the period 1997 to 2000, rising from about $50 billion to $150 billion. However, there is predicted to be a far more dramatic increase in e-business revenue over the next three years. It is thought that by 2003 revenue from e-business will have reached over $800 billion worldwide.
Oral Practice
u What’s the influence of online shopping to Chinese customers?
ü 思路拓展
Positive influence
convenience: save time, energy and money, ease of judging products at one place
Negative influence
Online transaction might not be the safest way. Customers cannot see the product and therefore cannot assure themselves of the quality of the product. Also, online transaction takes the form of cash card and entering their pin numbers. Thus, some online credit card fraud takes place.
ü 实践操作
Basically, I think online shopping brings more benefits to Chinese customers. We enjoy more convenience from online shopping. We can save our time and energy from choosing similar products at different places. Online shopping provides the ease of judging products at one place. Also, online products usually are cheaper than those sold on the market due to its shorter distribution channel. On the other hand, customers may take the risk of not ensuring the quality and credit card fraud.
Online shopping reading passage
A beginner’s guide to e-commerce
E-commerce means electronic commerce, or simply, buying and selling stuff on the Internet. It has only been with us since the mid-90s, but it is already a multi-billion dollar market, and it is growing fast. But many people still have doubts about it. Does it work? Is it difficult? What can you buy? Is it safe?
The answer to the first question is definitely YES. In North America, nearly 20 million people shopped online in December 2000, spending a total of $6.1 billion. This is almost the same amount as online shoppers in the Asia-Pacific region spent in the whole year ($7 billion), but in Asia the market is growing much faster, by about 150% a year. More and more people are realizing that with online shopping, they can:
u shop at their convenience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
u search large catalogs, and get much more information about a product
u compare products and sellers
u customize their order (make special orders) easily
u add to their order over several days.
Is e-commerce difficult? NO: if you can use a computer, you can shop online. You need to have Internet access, and generally, you need a credit card. Then all you have to do is find what you are looking for, and buy it!
What can you buy? ANYTHING that you can buy in a store. The most popular items are computer products, books, music, home electronics, clothes, gifts and flowers, travel tickets, and toys, but you can also buy groceries, pets, a house, and millions of other things. Then all you have to do is wait – sometimes only a few hours – until the company delivers what you bought.
Is e-commerce safe? YES and NO. Online sellers are very careful to protect their customers, and they use encryption technology to keep your credit card information safe. They also promise to keep all your information secret and not to sell it to other companies. However, hackers have stolen credit card numbers in the past and broken into “secure” websites. But this is rare, and perhaps the biggest danger of online shopping is that you will spend too much money!
E-commerce is still young, and there are still some problems to work out, but it is definitely here to stay.
encrypt verb [transitive]
to protect information by putting it into a special code that only some people can read, especially information that is on a computer 译成密码
ￚencryption noun [uncountable]
secure encryption of data
ￚencrypted adjective
files stored in encrypted form
Business Passage Reading
Fiorina forced to quit by HP board
Departure comes after failure to build computer giant into a profit machine and strategy disagreements
gManagement
The New York Times in San Francisco
Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America, has been forced to resign as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Development (HP), the giant computer and printer maker.
She has been penalized for her inability to build the company into a reliable profit machine that could challenge IBM Corp.
The board forced Ms Fiorina to resign after she and the directors disagreed over corporate strategy as the contentious US$19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002 failed to deliver the results she had promised
The company’s new leadership said there would be no significant retreat from Ms Fiorina’s goal of offering a full range of digital products and computer services to businesses and consumers.
However, some analysts suggested that the move could be a first step towards breaking up a company, founded in 1938, that helped give rise to Silicon Valley as the nation’ s most important centre of technological innovation.
The resignation brings to a close a rocky 5½-year tenure for Ms Fiorina as HP’s chief executive. Her charisma and aggressively top-down leadership style made her a highly visible personality in the industry and on a broader public stage.
But her glamorous profile also made her the target of criticism from Wall Street and company insiders who accused her of neglecting the hands-on management tasks needed to carry out her vision.
“While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP’s strategy, I respect their decision,” Ms Fiorina said in a statement. “HP is a great company and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future.”
Under the terms of her contract, Ms Fiorina would receive a severance package worth at least US$21.1 million, an HP spokesman said.
During her tenure, which spanned the bursting of the internet bubble and a slow recovery in technology spending. HP’s stock price fell about 50 per cent, far worse than that of IBM or Dell.
But within an industry characterized by intense competition and rapidly changing technologies, Ms Fiorina was not alone in struggling to turn HP into a business success.
Other Silicon Valley icons, such as Sun Microsystems, have been unable to overcome a sharp slowdown in corporate spending on information technology while only a few computer companies, such as Apple Computer, have managed to appeal to consumers with a range of new digital devices.
HP’s board reached its decision after a series of meetings over the past few weeks, culminating in the decision to ask Ms Fiorina for her resignation.
Wall Street signalled its approval of Ms Fiorina’s resignation on Wednesday, suggesting that investors were expecting new management to improve the company’s performance, perhaps by either focusing more on its highly profitable printer business or spinning it off to shareholders.
Robert Wayman, HP’s chief financial officer and a 36-year veteran of the company, was named chief executive on an interim basis and was appointed to the board. Patricia Dunn, a director since 1998, was named to replace Ms Fiorina as chairman.
“The board has sent a strong message that they were not happy with the status quo,” said A.M. Sacconaghi, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “They clearly are looking for better leadership, as defined by better execution, to try to restore the fabled HP to its once sacred position [in Silicon Valley].”
HP SOURCE
Highlights in the history of Hewlett-Packard
1938: Stanford University graduates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard collaborate on the company’s first product, an audio oscillator, in a Palo Alto garage.
1939: Hewlett and Packard formalize their partnership on January 1 – deciding the company’s name with a coin toss.
1947: HP is incorporated. Packard is named president and Hewlett is vice-president.
1957: HP goes public on November 6 for US$16 per share.
1962: For the first time, HP makes Fortune magazine’s top 500 US firms, ranking 460.
1966: HP develops its first computer, the HP 2116A.
1972: HP introduces the HP-35, the first scientific handheld calculator.
1977: Hewlett retires as president but remains chief executive. Packard remains chairman. HP engineer John Young is named president.
1978: Hewlett retires as chief executive; the company names Young to succeed him.
1980: HP introduces its first PC, the HP-85 and a steady stream of PCs follow.
1984: The HP Laser Jet Printer line debuts and becomes the company’s most successful single product ever.
1992: John Young retires, Lew Platt, an engineer, is elected president and chief executive and succeeds Packard as chairman a year later.
1996: Packard died on March 26.
1999: HP spins off Agilent Technologies; Platt retires; HP names Carly Fiorina as president and chief executive.
2000: Fiorina is named chairman.
2001: Hewlett dies on January 12. On September 4, HP and Compaq announce a merger agreement to create an US$87b company, facing fierce opposition from Bill’s son, HP director Walter Hewlett.
2002: HP completes the merger with Compaq on May 3 following an eight-month proxy fight spilled over into the courts. HP begins laying off thousands of workers to cut costs.
2005: HP board of directors considered a management reorganization. Fiorina steps down on February 9. HP names chief financial officer Robert Wayman as interim chief executive.
Vocabulary
contentious adjective
1 causing a lot of argument and disagreement between people 引起争论的
contentious issue/area/subject etc
Animal welfare did not become a contentious issue until the late 1970s.
2 someone who is contentious often argues with people
ￚcontentiously adverb
retreat noun
▶OF AN ARMY◀
[uncountable and countable]a movement away from the enemy after a defeat in battle
ￚopposite advance
Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow
The rebel forces are in full retreat (=retreating very fast) .The bugler sounded the retreat (=gave a loud signal for retreat) .
▶MOVEMENT BACK◀
[singular,uncountable] a movement away from someone or something
retreat from
Ten thousand years ago the ice began its retreat from Scotland.
▶CHANGE OF INTENTION◀
[singular,uncountable] when you change your mind about something because your idea was unpopular or too difficult
a retreat from hard-line policies
▶FINANCE◀ [singular,uncountable] technical a situation in which the value of shares etc falls to a lower level
break up phrasal verb
1 if something breaks up, or if you break it up, it breaks into a lot of small pieces
It seems that the plane just broke up in the air.
break something ↔ up
Use a fork to break up the soil.
2 break something ↔ up
to separate something into several smaller parts
There are plans to break the company up into several smaller independent companies.
You need a few trees and bushes to break up the lawn.
5 if a marriage, group of people, or relationship breaks up, the people in it separate and do not live or work together any more
He lost his job and his marriage broke up.
The couple broke up last year.
Many bands break up because of personality clashes between the musicians.
tenure noun [uncountable]
1 the right to stay permanently in a teaching job
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to acquire academic tenure.
2 formal the period of time when someone has an important job
The company has doubled in value during his tenure.
3 law the legal right to live in a house or use a piece of land for a period of time
(leasehold; freehold)
rocky adjective
1 covered with rocks or made of rock
2 informal a relationship or situation that is rocky is difficult and may not continue or be successful
Rangers got off to a rocky start this season.
The company faces a rocky road ahead.
charisma noun [uncountable] a natural ability to attract and interest other people and make them admire you领袖气质，个人魅力
He lacks charisma.
top-down adjective [only before noun] British English
1 a top-down way of organizing a business is one in which the most important people make decisions and tell the people below them what they should do自上而下的，统制的
The company has a top-down management system.
a top-down approach to decision-making
2 a top-down way of understanding or explaining something starts with a general idea and adds details later
glamorous adjective
attractive, exciting, and related to wealth and success
She led an exciting and glamorous life.
a glamorous actress
On television, she looks so glamorous.
insider noun [countable]
someone who has a special knowledge of a particular organization because they are part of it
ￚopposite outsider
an insider’s view of the way that a Japanese company works
hands-on adjective [usually before noun]
doing something yourself rather than just talking about it or telling other people to do it
a chance to get some hands-on experience of the job
He has a very hands-on approach to management.
severance noun [uncountable] formal
1 when you end your relationship or connection with another person, organization, country etc, especially because of a disagreement
severance of
the severance of diplomatic ties between the two countries
2 severance pay/package
money or other things that you get when you have to leave a company because your employer no longer has a job for you
Employees will get two weeks of severance pay for every year of service.
icon noun [countable]
1 a small sign or picture on a computer screen that is used to start a particular operation
To open a new file, click on the icon at the top of the screen.
2 someone famous who is admired by many people and is thought to represent an important idea 偶像，崇拜的对象
a 60s cultural icon
slowdown noun
1 [countable usually singular] a reduction in activity or speed
slowdown in
a slowdown in the US economy
2 [countable] American English a period when people deliberately work slowly in order to protest about something
culminate
culminate in/with something phrasal verb
if a process culminates in or with a particular event, it ends with that event 告终
A series of events for teachers and students will culminate in a Shakespeare festival next year.
signal verb
1 [intransitive and transitive] to make a sound or action in order to give information or tell someone to do something
2 [transitive] to make something clear by what you say or do - used in news reports通知，示意
Both sides have signaled their willingness to start negotiations.
British sources last night signalled their readiness to talk.
signal (that)
The Prime Minister’s speech today signals that there will be a shake-up in the cabinet.
3 [transitive]to be a sign that something is going to happen
signal the start/beginning/end of something
the lengthening days that signal the end of winter
4 [intransitive] to show the direction you intend to turn in a vehicle, using the lights
American Equivalent: indicate Signal before you pull out.
spin off phrasal verb
to make part of a company into a separate and partly independent company, or to become a separate company
spin something ↔ off
At the time of the merger, Loral spun off its space divisions into a separate firm.
spin off from
Lucent spun off from AT&T in 1995.
资产分派(指公司以特定的资产分派给股东，尤指其他公司的股票)，资产分派产生的新公司
veteran noun [countable]
1 someone who has been a soldier, sailor etc in a war
veteran of
a veteran of the Second World War a Vietnam veteran
2 someone who has had a lot of experience of a particular activity
veteran politician/campaigner/leader etc
the veteran leader of the socialist party
veteran journalist/actor/goalkeeper etc
interim adjective [only before noun]
1 intended to be used or accepted for a short time only, until something or someone final can be made or found 间歇，过渡期间
an interim report
He received an interim payment of ￡10,000.
He was appointed president until an interim government was established.过渡政府
2 interim period
the period of time between two events
During the interim period, air quality has deteriorated.
status quo noun 现状
the status quo
the state of a situation as it is
maintain/preserve/defend the status quo (=not make any changes)
Will the West use its influence to maintain the status quo and not disrupt the flow of oil?
fabled adjective literary famous and often mentioned in traditional stories
