英国新闻听力 因特网的新特点（在线收听）

当你在因特网上消费的时候，你的钱就有了一个继续增值的新方法。每次你从在线零售商那里购物，你都能从商品的价格中得到一小部分的返款。

注释：

1.refund v. 退还，偿还

2.fraction n. 小部分

3.tad n. 微量，少量

4.subscription n. 订金

5.via prep. 经，通过

6.commodity n. 日用品

7.bonus n. 奖金，红利

8.discount n. 折扣

9.voucher n. 优惠购货卷

10.proportion n. 比例

11.genuine adj. 真实的，真正的

New Internet Features

There's a new way to make your money go further when you spend over the Internet. Special websites have been springing up, which refund a fraction of the price each time you buy from one of hundreds of different online retailers. Typically it's 1% or 2% cash back on top of other savings you can make through online goods being generally cheaper than in the shops. The latest site is called Mrs Cashback, but before you start saving anything it costs ￡30 to join and there's a further ￡3 fee to have your cash back total paid into your bank. So I asked Chris Percival, the site's Commercial Director, if that wasn't just a tad expensive.

PERCIVAL: Most people will cover the cost of that in either the first or second transaction or purchase that they've actually made. But that basically is there to cover quite a lot of heavy maintenance that's required for all those retailers to be set up - obviously looking after the money, making sure it's going through to the right person and of course the need to better the deals that are actually featured there as well anyway.

A'COURT: Well you'd have to spend quite a lot to get the cost of your subscription back quickly. I mean even if you got 2% cash back, you'd have to spend ￡1500 to get ￡30 back.

PERCIVAL: Well across the whole range of different retailers that are featured, as an average figure it works out at 7%. But some of the more well known brands don't necessarily give as much back, but you know you're spending ￡2,000 perhaps on an average holiday. 2% or 3% back on that again actually covers these costs.

A'COURT: You say the average is 7%, but if you look at the Tesco links, for example, I mean it's far from 7%. On most things it's about 2% …

PERCIVAL: That's right.

A'COURT: … and then that's across, it looks like, a limited range of goods. It doesn't look like you get, for example, any cash back if you were buying groceries from Tesco via your site.

PERCIVAL: Well groceries is a strange sort of commodity as it were. When you actually sign up to their online shop, there's only a ￡5 cash back that's actually available to the member, but of course someone like Tesco's has a huge range of products - DVDs, CDs, books, wines. It isn't just obviously groceries that they actually deal with.

A'COURT: What's to prevent some retailers simply sticking up their prices on their sites that you link to before you get your cash back?

PERCIVAL: They're obviously driving people to the Internet. It's been going on for a very long time, so it's very unlikely that they'll actually do that.

A'COURT: There are already several other similar websites and, unlike Mrs Cashback, most don't cost anything to join - they're either free or pay you to join. For example there's Greasypalm and Quidco and Rpoints, which claims to be the most visited reward site in the UK. Here's its Managing Director Richard Yendell.

YENDELL: Well Rpoints is free. The money only goes one way and that's to the consumer, and we even give a ￡5 welcome bonus when you join. We pay quickly and we pay directly into your bank account.

A'COURT: But at the first stage you get points. How much are the points worth?

YENDELL: 100 points equals ￡1. You also have the alternative of exchanging your points for discount vouchers to use at places like Amazon and CD Wow, so there's a range of other payment options.

A'COURT: Mrs Cashback told us their average cash back was around 7%. What are you saying?

YENDELL: We all get paid roughly the same by the retailers and the amount of cash back depends on really the margins that the retailers are operating in, so it can be as low as 2% to 3% on say electrical goods but for goods with a higher margin it could be 10%, 20%, even 30%. So it really varies by the type of product rather than the site that you use.

A'COURT: You have 70,000 registered users. You say that's the biggest in the UK. It's still not an awful lot though, is it?

YENDELL: It's a tiny proportion of the total number of people who shop online, so effectively there are well millions of people who are throwing away free cash back by not using sites like Rpoints. It's relatively new, people don't know about it, and perhaps people are distrustful of a website that claims to give them free money, but in this case it's absolutely genuine.

A'COURT: Richard Yendell of Rpoints. And if you choose to use one of these sites, watch the delivery costs of course and remember you might be able to save another 1% or 2% by using a cash back credit card. More details of that on our website.

因特网的新特点

当你在因特网上消费的时候，你的钱就有了一个继续增值的新方法。每次你从在线零售商那里购物，你都能从商品的价格中得到一小部分的返款。这样的在线零售商数以千计，而提供此类服务的特色网站也是层出不穷。一般情况下，通过在线购物，你可以得到比其他存储方式最高利率还高1%或2%的现金返款，使得在线购物通常比商店里的东西来的便宜。最新的购物网站叫做Mrs Cashback。但在你开始存储任何东西之前，要支付30美元的会员费，而在你将用来购买在线商品的钱全部汇入你的银行帐号时，你还需要支付3美元的手续费。所以我咨询了网站的贸易经理克里斯·珀西瓦尔，看他觉得这样的费用是否很贵。

珀西瓦尔：大多数人在购买第一件或第二件商品时就能赚回他们付出去的会员费和汇款手续费，但事实上这些费用还包括了所有在线零售商都得做的后期工作，这些工作并不轻省--很显然，零售商们还得打理这些汇款，确定它们所汇入的帐号正确无误，当然也包括他们要使整个交易过程能顺利进行所要做的工作，而所有这些服务也被看作是在线购物的特色。

主持人:为了把你花在会员费上的钱赶紧赚回来，你必须要消费很多才有可能。我的意思是虽然你拿到2%的现金返款，但你必须花1500美元才能把30美元赚回来。

珀西瓦尔：我们把所有不同的在线零售商所提供的返款率综合着来看，统计出来的平均数是7%。而一些比较知名的品牌就没必要返还那么多。但是你知道，一个普通的假期你就可能要消费2000美元。对此，2%或3%的返还率就可以完全收回这些费用。

主持人:你说平均数是7%，但举个例子，就比如Tesco在线，它的返款率远不到7%，大多数商品只有2%左右

珀西瓦尔：没错。

主持人：……整个看起来返款商品还是有限制的。例如，如果你通过自己的网站从Tesco购买食品，你就不可能获得任何返还款。

珀西瓦尔：食品一直都有别于其它的日用品。当你确定跟零售商签约购买他们的在线商品，会员能拿到的实际上只有5美元。当然像Tesco这样的在线零售商提供大量不同的商品，包括DVD、CD、书，还有酒。它显然并不仅仅销售现实意义上的食品杂物。

主持人:在收到你的返款之前，如何防止你所看到的价格只是一些零售商随便贴在自己的网页上而已呢？

珀西瓦尔: 他们这么做显然是为了吸引人们上网。这种现象将会长时间存在。因此不太可能要他们完全那么做。

主持人:已经有很多类似的网站了，与Mrs Cashback不同的是，大多数网站是免费的。他们要么免费要么是付费请你加入。例如Greasypalm, Quidco 和Rpoints,这些网站声称是英国最受欢迎的网站。下面是总经理查理德·伊迪尔的看法。

伊迪尔：当然Rpoints是免费的。钱只通过一种方式流动，那就是面向消费者，而且在你加入我们的会员时，我们甚至会给你5美元的红利。我们支付的速度很快，这个红利将直接汇入你的银行账户。

主持人：但是首先你获得了积分。这些积分值多少钱呢。

伊迪尔：100个积分相当于1美元。你也可以选择用你的积分换取可以在亚马逊和CD WOW这类地方使用的折扣券，因此，你享有一定范围的消费选择权。

主持人: Mrs Cashback告诉我们他们的现金返还率在7%左右，对此您怎么看？

伊迪尔：我们大多数零售商的返款率大致相同，而且现金的返还率真正取决于零售商所经营的商品的利润。所以家电产品的返还率可能低至2%-3%，而对有些利润很高的商品而言，可能是10%、20%，甚至是30%。因而它是随商品的类型波动的，而不是你所使用的网站。

主持人：你们拥有注册用户70，000人，你说这是英国最大的。它依然不是太糟糕的，是吗？

伊迪尔:在线购物的顾客只是一小部分，因此实际上有上百万的人没有机会享受像Rpoints提供的购物返款。这还是相对新鲜的事物，人们不了解它，而且可能还不相信一个声称能免费使钱增值的网站，但这个网站所提供的服务绝对是真实的。

主持人:好，这是Rpoints的查理德·伊迪尔的看法。如果你选择使用其中的一个网站，观察投递成本，并且记住每使用一张信用卡就可能节省下相当于商品价格的1%或者2%的金额。更多相关的细节请浏览我们的网站。