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In the business world there are fewer big topics than Amazon. It started as a retail¹ website in 1995 selling books. From there, it grew to, well you know this, it sells most of the things you could buy at a mall and the grocery store. It has online content. It offers cloud computing² and it's still not only sells books, it helps people publish them. In September, Amazon's total market value passed $1 trillion. It's the second company to do that behind Apple and Amazon did it in just 24 years.

In January, Amazon Jeff Bezos became the richest person on earth. His net worth according to the Forbes Business Media Company is around $160 billion, give or take but there have been bumps³ in the road. The company's been criticized for what it pays it's employees for one thing. Last year, Amazon said the median pay for them was just over $28,000. That means half the people who work for Amazon worldwide made less than that. Thousands of retail stores have closed over the past year and retail jobs have been lost because many shoppers have been spending less time browsing⁴ in stores and more time browsing on sites like Amazon.

And privacy⁵ advocates say Amazon's Echo⁶ device is always listening, raising concerns about who else could hear your conversations besides Alexa. The company is huge. It now has more than half a million employees worldwide. It's complicated, like some of the challenges it's faced in creating. It's also changing the way the world buys goods.

1 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• 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。

2 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

3 bumps   

碰撞( bump的名词复数 )； 肿块； 轻微撞车事故； 隆起物

参考例句：

• I had goose bumps when we watched the fireworks. 我们看烟火的时候，我起鸡皮疙瘩。
• E was kind of zig-zagging across the pavement, and I bumps into 'im accidental-like. 他有点歪歪斜斜地在人行道上走，我一不小心撞到了他的怀里。 来自英汉文学

4 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 privacy   

n.私人权利，个人自由，隐私权

参考例句：

• In such matters,privacy is impossible.在这类事情中，保密是不可能的。
• She wept in the privacy of her own room.她在自己房内暗暗落泪。

6 echo   

n.回音，共鸣；vi.发出回声；vt.模仿，附和

参考例句：

• She shouted on the mountaintop and listened for the echo.她在山顶上大声喊着，然后聆听着回声。
• I should like to echo the words of the previous speaker.我想重复前面一位发言者的话。