时间:2019-01-17 作者:英语课 分类:2018年NPR美国国家公共电台6月


英语课

 


DAVID GREENE, HOST:


Americans are not just shopping online. They are buying pricey items on the Web. Nearly 3 out of 10 online shoppers in the United States have bought a product that costs a thousand dollars or more. That is according to an NPR/Marist poll. And as NPR's Uri Berliner reports, those big online spenders are much more likely to be men than women.


URI BERLINER, BYLINE 1: The early days of the Web were pretty cumbersome 2.


(SOUNDBITE OF AOL AD)


UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) How long have you had this?


UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) About a week. And it's so easy. All you do is point and click.


UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) But how does it work?


UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) All you need is a computer and a regular phone line.


BERLINER: That's an AOL ad from the 1990s. Back then online shopping wasn't just awkward...


(SOUNDBITE OF DIAL-UP MODEM)


BERLINER: It felt risky 3. People were afraid to give out their credit card numbers. They worried, if products would arrive, would they be able to return them? Sucharita Kodali is an analyst 4 with Forrester Research. She says gradually online shoppers dipped their toes in the water.


SUCHARITA KODALI: And it would start with relatively 5 low-ticket transactions, like a book, and that really was, I think, the beginning of it.


BERLINER: The it she's talking about is the explosion in Internet shopping. Last year, U.S. shoppers spent $453 billion on retail 6 purchases online. And many of them go big. Twenty-seven percent of online shoppers have bought an item that costs $1,000 or more. What do they buy? Just about anything.


CARA VETOR: I purchased an infrared 7 sauna online for about $1,100 in 2015.


ANDY PENNELL: I bought a full-size movie prop 8 of Han Solo in carbonite for $1,800.


ALAN KWOK: I bought a lab-grown diamond engagement ring online for $11,000.


KENNA MCKENZIE: Two harps 10. My latest harp 9 cost $1,800.


BERLINER: That's Cara Vetor of Indianapolis, Ind., Andy Pennell of Kirkland, Wash., Alan Kwok of Austin, Texas, and Kenna McKenzie of Tucumcari, N.M.


If you dig a little deeper into the habits of online spenders, a striking fact emerges. Men are twice as likely as women to buy an item online that costs a thousand dollars or more. Guys have twitchier fingers. Kodali says she's not surprised. Men are usually the early adopters when it comes to technology.


KODALI: If you were to consider, you know, high-end e-commerce purchases, and something that, you know, has historically had a lot of hold outs, the gender 11 that I would expect to be the first to experiment with it would, of course, be men. And I think that's why you're seeing the breakout that you're seeing.


BERLINER: Americus Reed, a professor of marketing 12 at Wharton, believes there's another factor at work, too.


AMERICUS REED: What the research has shown is that men tend to, if they are going to check something out, go to the store quickly, kind of gather as much information as they can quickly and just buy it online, particularly because it's just faster.


BERLINER: Rick Hays of Tallahassee, Fla., has no qualms 13 about a big purchase he made last year at an online auction 14, even though it's just two sentences long.


RICK HAYS: I purchased a note that Mark Twain had written regarding a missing package, and I paid about $1,500 for it.


BERLINER: Hays says his wife has very different buying habits.


HAYS: She struggled with buying a, you know, a hundred-dollar dress recently online. You know, she wants the experience of seeing it, the tactile 15 experience, I think, of being around whatever item she wants to get.


BERLINER: Hays says there may be another reason he's the more adventurous 16 online shopper. His wife is still working. Hays is retired 17 so he's got more time to browse 18. And just last week, Hays struck again, buying a signed picture of Muhammad Ali for $1,020. He says he was willing to go higher. Uri Berliner, NPR News.


(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EBAY SONG")


WEIRD 19 AL YANKOVIC: (Singing) I bought it on eBay. Want to buy a "Pac-Man Fever" lunchbox? Want to buy a case of vintage tube socks?



n.署名;v.署名
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
adj.笨重的,不便携带的
  • Although the machine looks cumbersome,it is actually easy to use.尽管这台机器看上去很笨重,操作起来却很容易。
  • The furniture is too cumbersome to move.家具太笨,搬起来很不方便。
adj.有风险的,冒险的
  • It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险,但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
  • He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家
  • What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务?
  • The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。
adv.比较...地,相对地
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格
  • In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
  • These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。
adj./n.红外线(的)
  • Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
  • Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。
vt.支撑;n.支柱,支撑物;支持者,靠山
  • A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
  • The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。
n.竖琴;天琴座
  • She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
  • He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。
abbr.harpsichord 拨弦古钢琴n.竖琴( harp的名词复数 )
  • She continually harps on lack of money. 她总唠叨说缺钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He could turn on the harps of the blessed. 他能召来天使的竖琴为他奏乐。 来自辞典例句
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性
  • French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语,所有的名词都有性。
  • Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。
n.行销,在市场的买卖,买东西
  • They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
  • He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。
n.不安;内疚
  • He felt no qualms about borrowing money from friends.他没有对于从朋友那里借钱感到不安。
  • He has no qualms about lying.他撒谎毫不内疚。
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖
  • They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
  • They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。
adj.触觉的,有触觉的,能触知的
  • Norris is an expert in the tactile and the tangible.诺里斯创作最精到之处便是,他描绘的人物使人看得见摸得着。
  • Tactile communication uses touch rather than sight or hearing.触觉交流,是用触摸感觉,而不是用看或听来感觉。
adj.爱冒险的;惊心动魄的,惊险的,刺激的 
  • I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
  • He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
vi.随意翻阅,浏览;(牛、羊等)吃草
  • I had a browse through the books on her shelf.我浏览了一下她书架上的书。
  • It is a good idea to browse through it first.最好先通篇浏览一遍。
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
学英语单词
acid-hydrolyzed
anticaking agent
applique armor
astronomical eclipse
balance ticket
bat-blind
beam impedance
bell crank spindle bracket
bidirectional counter
blasco
buccinids
caucus-goer
centrifugal blender
chaff dropping
coastal oceanography
Comenianism
constant-temperature process
controlled flap
cutty grasses
Dalhousie University
denture clearer
diode coupler
donon (le donon)
elongation of wire
endometriomas
eosentomon fuyuanense
equalization, adaptive
eucorydia aenea dasytoides
first party release
for loops
fractionating tray
functional block diagram
golden honey plant
Hamlagrφvatn
Hamsun, Knut
high-cycle aircraft
hydroxynorephedrine
in the death of winter
inducings
inseams
interbreed
invariable aspect
ironclad dynamo
irregular nuclear reaction
karolina
khattak
large bore tube
led backlight
lustran
machine translation algorithm
Magnus balance
Mammuthus
Montrachets
mutton dressed like lamb
mycotrophein
non-drugs
noncompetitive inhibition
oculodynia
office director
paper tape loop
Parthenocissus
pattern flow
pericaecal
PF/dil
phase swing
photogrammetric intervalometer
pitot heat
Populuxe
prepuberties
pressure divertiuculum
put it for leave
qenas
quasi-transcendental
Rotala rosea
sample issue
Schenefeld
Schick test toxin
scratch cards
Sedum yunnanense
Short, Mt.
single acting cross head type engine
slocken
sodium fluoaluminate
sphagnum teres ansstr.
static strain
strengthily
strict liability
strongly separated
summary statement of development credits
technicalizes
thallous mesolite
tiemco
toreshank
transmembrane transport
tree scale
turn-sew-turn device
Tylograptus
ultraviolet injury
vava
voltage transformer
world-wide service
worred