英语听力精选进阶版 6408

Have you ever wondered why sweets are always by the till in supermarkets? Why you are made to walk down many aisles¹ to reach the everyday essentials at the back of the shop?

Retailers³ are always coming up with new tactics to get us impulse buying.

The BBC's Denise Winterman reveals some of the ways in which they try to trick us into buying what we might not really need.

One of them is messing up the merchandise. Some shop assistants do it on purpose to give the impression that these are must-haves, which lots of people have been looking at.

Companies are also trying to gather and analyse data from an individual's financial transactions, social media posts and mobile phone signals. They're planning to personalise offers for individual customers by using GPS location data to target them when they are actually walking past one of their shops.

And eye-tracking technology is the latest weapon in the fight for customers. In some shops, digital screens behind luxury brand display stands are activated⁴ when a perfume bottle is picked up, flashing seductive images. Eye-tracking systems are fixed⁵ into screens to gather data so the images can be personalised. It's all done in seconds.

Paula Dowie from the retail² design agency Ignite Design says: "Certain software programs can gather huge amounts of data on you almost instantly. Age, gender⁶, what you're looking at... If you're a young women or a middle-aged⁷ man... Images are then flashed up that will appeal to you."

It's about entertainment and making a shop one that people want to enter. Brands like Apple and Top Shop are "genius" at doing this, says Joseph Staton, director of GfK Consumer Trends. During London Fashion Week, Top Shop screened its own fashion shows live in its flagship store in London's Oxford⁸ Street.

"It's about offering things like art and music as part of the shopping experience," says Staton.

Quiz 测验

1. According to the article, where in the shop do you find items you need regularly?

At the back of the shop.

2. Why do shop assistants mess up items in the shop?

They want to give the impression that lots of people were interested in buying these items.

3. According to the article, what kinds of data do companies analyse?

An individual's financial transactions, social media posts, mobile phone signals, customers' GPS location data and which luxury products customers look at using eyeball-tracking technology, as well as things like age and gender.

4. What expression means 'buying something you don't need'?

Impulse buying.

5.Which word means 'buyer'?

Customer.

Glossary 词汇表

till 收银台

an aisle 过道

everyday essentials (eg milk, bread) 日常必需品（如：牛奶、面包）

retailer 零售商

impulse buying 冲动购物

to trick (us) into (something) 用小花招把（我们）引导

merchandise 商品

a shop assistant 一位商店营业员

on purpose 故意的

a must-have 一个非买不可的东西

to gather 去收集

a financial transaction 一笔财务交易

to personalise 去个人化

a customer 一位顾客

GPS location data 卫星定位数据

eye-tracking technology 眼球跟踪技术

a luxury brand 一家奢侈品牌

a display stand 一个展示柜台

retail 统计数字零售

flagship store 旗舰店

1 aisles   

n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊

参考例句：

• Aisles were added to the original Saxon building in the Norman period. 在诺曼时期，原来的萨克森风格的建筑物都增添了走廊。
• They walked about the Abbey aisles, and presently sat down. 他们走到大教堂的走廊附近，并且很快就坐了下来。

2 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。

3 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

4 activated   

adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The canister is filled with activated charcoal.蒸气回收罐中充满了活性炭。

5 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

6 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• 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。

7 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

8 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。