节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-10-23
难易度:High
关键字:retailer, modernize, painless, activate, bridge the gap, chute
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
We're talking about New Ways to Shop for Clothes.
Well, of course many people go shopping.
We all need to wear clothes, right?
You have to go out and buy your clothes.
Do you enjoy shopping for clothes?
Carolyn, do you like shopping for clothes?
Well, in the U.S., I love to go shopping for clothes.
I love looking for great deals and... and finding clothes that are really nice
and not expensive.
But in Taiwan... Taipei, I don't really like clothes shopping.
Wait a minute.
Why don't you like clothes shopping?
Is it just more expensive here?
Well, it's more expensive, the styles are very different, and it's harder to
find things in my size.
OK. Well, there are different reasons why you might like shopping somewhere but
not somewhere else.
For me, do I like shopping for clothes?
You know, I like buying new clothes, but I don't like the time that it takes.
I don't like going through every shop and trying on all these different clothes.
I think it could take a lot of time.
Well, what about you?
Maybe you like shopping for clothes.
We're going to be learning about New Ways to Shop for Clothes.
Let's get started.
New Ways to Shop for Clothes.
Some retailers are creating new in-store experiences.
More and more shoppers are buying things online these days, allowing them to
avoid aggressive salespeople and long lines at checkout counters.
In spite of online convenience, however, there are some items - like clothes -
that customers prefer to examine before buying.
In light of this, two companies are finding ways to modernize stores and bridge
the gap between online and in-store retail.
A software company that also happens to sell designer jeans, Hointer has created
a fast and painless shopping experience for its customers.
The company is led by Dr. Nadia Shouraboura, a former tech executive at Amazon.
OK. Well, let's go back to the beginning of our lesson.
We read a sentence:
Some retailers are creating new in-store experiences.
And right away we have a word from our Word Bank: retailer.
Retailer sells things.
Now a retailer, whether it's a company or a person, they sell products in small
quantities directly to customers.
That's right.
So if you want to go shopping, you might go to the mall.
There are many retailers in the mall.
Each store is a retailer.
That's right.
Now where do retailers get their products to sell?
Often they get them from wholesalers.
W-H-O-L-E-S-A-L-E-R.
And wholesalers sell in large quantities.
They might sell to many different retailer stores.
OK, so we're learning about retail stores now and stores that sell clothing.
Let's read our first sentence here.
More and more shoppers are buying things online these days, allowing them to
avoid aggressive salespeople and long lines at checkout counters.
Well, Carolyn, do you like those things, uh, aggressive salespeople, long lines?
I like avoiding them.
I don't really like people telling me what things I should buy or hovering next
to me or waiting in a long line to pay for my purchase.
Yeah. I... I think that most of us would agree, these things are kind of
unpleasant.
Well, Steve and Ken are waiting in the Information Cloud for us right now.
Let's go and see what they have to say.
You know, one thing in life that I absolutely hate is waiting in line, or as the
British would say, waiting in a queue.
Me, too.
Either a line or a queue, it's no fun to wait in one.
And what's even worse than waiting in line?
Seeing someone cut in line, or as the British would say, jump the queue.
Line-cutting is considered rude and selfish.
If you cut in line, you'll be regarded as having no manners.
We also need to be aware of how people line up.
Sometimes in a bank, post office, pharmacy or airport, there might be several
service points for customers.
But instead of forming a separate line in front of each of the service points,
everyone just waits in one single line.
And then when a service point opens up, the next person in line can leave the
line and go to that service point.
That's right.
In places like airport immigration or check-in counters, there's often a sign
that says: Please wait here for the next available agent.
And that's where you should wait.
When a service point opens up, the agent will either call you out or wait for
you to go up to him or her.
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Well, you know, you don't have to line up online.
You don't have to wait.
And we continue reading.
In spite of online convenience, however, there are some items - like clothes -
that customers prefer to examine before buying.
Well, like me, I prefer to examine or try on my clothes before I buy them.
Let's look at a phrase at the beginning of this sentence: in spite of online
convenience.
That means even with online convenience, I'm still going to do something else.
I could say, uh, we're planning to go hiking, and there's a storm outside.
OK. It's stormy weather.
In spite of the storm, we're still going to go hiking.
Yes.
So it means that even though one thing is true, that doesn't mean that you won't
do something else.
You won't let that prevent you from doing something else.
And here we're talking about the convenience of online shopping.
It's great, it's easy.
But even though you can buy clothes online, a lot of people still prefer to go
to retail stores.
OK. And we continue.
In light of this, two companies are finding ways to modernize stores and bridge
the gap between online and in-store retail.
There's a lot to look at from that sentence.
Let's take a look at our key word: modernize.
If you modernize something, that means you're doing something in a way that is
modern, that people can access that's easy for people living in today's world.
That's right.
So if you modernize your kitchen, you bring it up-to-date with the latest
appliances, the latest technology.
Maybe you get a new microwave, a new stove, one that is electric or gas, but
very new and modern.
I know modern washing machines often play music.
You don't have to scrub your clothes by hands any... by hand anymore.
You can use a modern washing machine.
Well, maybe I should get myself a modern washing machine.
I could modernize my apartment.
Well, you can modernize different things in life.
Well, we also see the phrase here: to bridge the gap.
That means there's kind of a space. OK, and you need to bridge that.
You need to create a bridge.
That's what these retail stores are trying to do.
That's right.
And right now it is time for Liz to bridge a gap for us and look at this phrase:
in light of this.
Hi there, friends.
Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In our article today, we see this statement:
In light of this, two companies are finding ways to modernize stores...
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
And today we're looking at the phrase at the beginning of the sentence: in light
of.
It's an idiom that means considering or because of.
So today's sentence just means because of this, two companies are finding ways
to modernize stores.
Here are some more example sentences.
In light of the investigation, witnesses have been asked not to say anything to
the media.
Or: In light of the recent discoveries in the laboratory, scientists are
positive they can find a cure for the rare disease.
If you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's all the time we have for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Now let's continue.
A software company that also happens to sell designer jeans, Hointer has created
a fast and painless shopping experience for its customers.
This place, this company, happens to sell designer jeans.
Well, let's take a look at that phrase.
Now Hointer is a software company.
They don't usually or they didn't sell jeans, but now they... they happen to
sell designer jeans.
That's right.
So if something happens to do something else, then it's not really expected.
You wouldn't think it to be very logical.
So here you have a software company that happens to sell... jeans?
It's a little bit strange.
They don't seem to go together.
It just happens to be true.
That's right. And we're learning about Hointer here.
Now they have a fast and painless shopping experience.
Let's look at that word from our Word Bank: painless.
Well, you can kind of guess what this means.
It's without pain.
Sometimes when people are shopping and there are rude salespeople or long lines,
you might hear someone say: Oh! This is such a pain.
Well, this is a painless experience at Hointer.
That's right.
And here it's not talking about physical pain, it's talking about effort.
Is it difficult?
So if something is not difficult, you can say it is painless.
That's right.
Well, we're continuing to learn here about the company's leader.
The company is led by Dr. Nadia Souraboura, a former tech executive at Amazon.
This is Amazon.com, where you can buy things online.
Well, we have more to learn about Hointer after our break.
But first, let's learn something with Michelle.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.