商务英语2备课笔记Unit 4

Unit 4

1. Cognitive Information（认知信息）: Consumer Satisfaction

2. Language Focus（内容重点）

—Key Words: Ⅰ. bargain, trick, extort, silly, innocent, novelty, whereupon, rush, breathtaking, impertinence, plead, outrage, sane, trifle, extravagant, loo, sticky; Ⅱ. persuade, rational, checkout, counter, thought-out, vulnerable, economy, dependability, convenience, rock （music）, nutritious, package, intelligent

—Phrases: Ⅰ. to start with, might as well, for the sake of, in one’s defense, as though, for one’s life time, pile up, fall for, serve sb. right, all the same; Ⅱ. at other times, for pleasure —Word Study: accuse, offer, resist, fade, prohibit

—Useful Structures: I feel certain that ...

It will sell well.

even though ...

do a good job

—Grammar: Subjunctive Mood of V erbs （1）

3. Communicative Skills（交际技能）

—Expressions: Expressions of “Complaining”

—Practical Reading: Advertisements of Bargains

4. Lexical Knowledge（词汇学知识）:

Suffixes: able/ible, al, ant/ent, ary/ory, an/ian bargain an effective sales technique to encourage customers to purchase

garage sale 现场旧货出售

chain store 连锁商店five-and-ten-cent store/dime store 廉价商店

grocery store 杂货店e-business in the Internet 网上交易

supermarket 超级市场auction market 拍卖市场

sky market 露天市场flea market 跳蚤市场（旧货和廉价商品市场）

night market夜市public produce market 农产品零售市场

street market 路摊 secondhand market 旧货市场

Pairwork: Discuss with your partner the following questions.

1.Do you often bargain with shop assistants when you buy things?

2.Do you often look around the shops for bargains?

3.Where or when are you most likely to find a bargain?

4.Have you ever bought anything that you didn’t need just because you thought it was a bargain?

5.What was the best bargain you have found? Describe it to your classmates.

1. Definition of consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is a business term used to capture the idea of measuring how satisfied an enterprise’s consumers are with the organizations’efforts in a marketplace. Every organization has consumers of some kind. The organization provides products （goods and/or services）of some kind to its consumers through the mechanism of a marketplace. The products the organization provides are subject to competition whether by similar products or by substitution products. The reason an organization is interested in the satisfaction of its consumers is because

consumers purchase the organization’s products. The organization is interested in retaining its existing consumers and increasing the number of its consumers. Consumer satisfaction is an ambiguous.

and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the consumer may have and other products against which the consumer can compare the organization’s products. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, it is difficult to measure quantitatively. In other words, there are no units of satisfaction that have been defined. The usual measures of consumer satisfaction involve a survey instrument with a set of statements using a scale. The consumer is asked to evaluate each statement and then select from a scale how much the consumer agrees or disagrees with the statement.

2. Benefits of consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction has a positive influence on the consumer: the perception of the risk that preceded the purchase disappears; the consumer’s self-concept might improve because the purchase was accomplished successfully; and positive information is frequently spontaneously communicated to other consumers. If a consumer is satisfied with a product, he or she would in future buy that particular product more confidently. Brand loyalty might develop as a result. The benefit of consumer satisfaction to enterprises is that they have managed to provide products to the market that satisfy the needs of consumers. This could in turn ensure the continued existence and growth of the enterprise, particularly if the consumer is satisfied to such an extent that he or she shares the experience with other consumers. Therefore, a successful purchase is not only beneficial to the consumers, but also to the other parties involved （the retailer and the producer that could be represented by a brand or a trade name）.

3. Factors influencing consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is sometimes defined as a consumer’s evaluation of the actual performance of a purchase （product or service）in terms of pre-formulated objectives and expectations. Consumer satisfaction comes when a purchase is evaluated in the course of its use and the consumer concludes that it meets or exceeds his or her initial expectations. The interaction between expectation of a product and the eventual performance of the product therefore leads to either consumer satisfaction or consumer dissatisfaction. Apart from the fact that individual characteristics of consumers （such as age, level of education, financial status）and personality differences have an influence on the experience of consumer satisfaction and the intensity of the experience subsequent to a purchase, consumer satisfaction as such is complex and difficult to predict. It was speculated that consumer satisfaction is influenced by：

■the product features, taking due account of previous experience, brand-name perceptions and symbolic elements;

■the context of the purchase, which includes the influence of salespeople and social references; ■individual characteristics that entail persuadability and perceptual distortion.

4. Signs and symptoms of compulsive shopping

At its worst, compulsive shopping can threaten marriages, destroy a family’s credit rating and jeopardize its financial future. To gauge your shopping habit, go over the following list of signs and symptoms of compulsive shopping. Experiencing four or more of these situations can indicate a problem with shopping and spending.

■Shopping or spending money as a result of being disappointed, angry or scared.

■Spending habits that cause emotional distress or chaos in one’s life.

■Arguing with others regarding shopping or spending habits.

■Feeling lost without credit cards.

■Buying items on credit that would not be bought with cash.

■Feeling a rush of euphoria and anxiety at the same time when spending money.

■Feeling that spending or shopping is a reckless or forbidden act.

■Feeling guilty, ashamed, embarrassed or confused after shopping or spending money.

■Having many purchases that are never used.

■Lying to others about what was bought or how much money was spent.

1. extort v. to obtain (sth.) by force or threats (from sb.) 勒索

2. innocent a. simple-minded 头脑简单的

3. board n. a group of directors elected by the shareholders to run a company 董事会

4. decent a. fair 公平的

5. novelty n. new and unusual thing 新奇事物

6. fade v. to cause to lose color, freshness 褪色

7. whereupon c onj. as a result of which 因此

8. breathtaking a. very surprising or shocking 令人吃惊的

9. impertinence n. not being appropriate 不适当

10. pensioner n. a person who is receiving an amount of money paid regularly by a government or a company because of old age 领取养老金者

11. accuse v. to charge sb. with doing wrong, a crime etc. 指控

12. plead v. to answer a charge, saying whether one is guilty or not 认(罪) e.g. plead guilty

13. outrage v. to make somebody extremely angry or upset 激怒

14. defense n. the act of protecting someone against attack 辩护

15. circular a. round 圆的

16. saw n. a tool with a row of teeth on the edge for cutting hard materials 锯

17. seemingly ad. apparently 似乎

18. sane a. healthy in mind 心智健全的

19. persian a. of Persia ( Now called Iran) 波斯的

20. trifle a. a small amount; a little 少量；有点

21. extravagant a. wasteful of money 奢侈的

22. chop n. a small piece of meat on a bone 排骨

23. tremendous a. very great in size, amount or degree 巨大的

24. loo n. lavatory 盥洗室

25. pile v. to make a number of things lying one upon another 堆

26. quest n. an attempt to find something 探寻

27. sticky a. joining with glue or paste 粘性的

28. prohibit v. to forbid by law or rule 禁止

1. to start with at the beginning; initially 首先；起初

2. might／may as well there is no reason why (one) shouldn’t (do sth.) 还是(做……)的好

3. for the sake of for the good or advantage of 为……的缘故

4. in one’s defense to protect somebody against attack 为……辩护

5. as though as if 似乎

6. for one’s lifetime for the time during which one is alive 一生

7. pile up to cause to form into a mass or large quantity 堆积

8. serve sb. right to be a good punishment for somebody 活该

9. all the same in spite of this 尽管如此

10. fall for to be tricked into believing something that is not true 上……的当

1. Gorge Mikes: a Hungarian writer who lived in Britain. The passage is from

his work How to be poor.

2. ... takes the following lines: does things in the ways mentioned below

3. ... the attraction of the novelty soon fades: Soon, people lose their interest in this new cheap product and no longer have the enthusiasm to buy it.

4. One might as well buy it a penny cheaper: There is no good reason why one should not buy it a penny cheaper.

e.g. There is nothing worth watching on the television, so we might as well go to bed.

5. pengo : the basic monetary unit of Hungary.

6. shilling: British monetary unit used till 1971. A shilling is equal to 12 pence, 1 ／20 pound in the old English monetary system. After the adoption of the new system in 1971, this unit is no longer used.

7. a shilling here ... a shilling there: Money got bit by bit will gradually accumulate and become a considerable amount.

8. the new English monetary system: a system that has been used since 1971 in which, one pound is equal to 100 pence.

9. provided: on condition that; if and only if. (只要)

10. roller-skate: a frame with 4 wheels for fitting under a shoe or a shoe with

wheels fixed on it for using on any smooth surface in the way that ordinary skates are used on ice. (旱冰鞋)

11. ... has been a trifle extravagant: has wasted quite a sum of money on something that is unnecessary in one’s daily life. Here “a trifle”means “a little”.

12. It will never occur to her that...:She will never realize or think of that...

13. ... she could make a living out of it: ... she could save a considerable sum of money which will be quite enough to cover her daily expenses.

14. ... (their guests) would feel rather strange whenever they were offered sugar to put into the coffee: People usually put lumps of sugar into coffee and tea rather than granulated sugar (砂糖). That is why their guests would feel strange when they were offered sugar to put into the coffee. However, to add granulated sugar to coffee is a common practice in the US.

15. ... fall for this trick: are cheated by the clever act which makes

someone believe something that is not true.