Comprehension and Discussion Questions. 1. What is the role of the Internet for increasing consumer choice and reservations?
1. What is the role of the Internet for increasing consumer choice and reservations?
2. Can the airlines significantly cut their distribution costs selling tickets on-line?
3. What strategies are used by airlines to drive their distribution costs down?
4. Which is cheaper: a paper ticket or an electronic one?
5. Would you like to reserve tickets through an agent or to get an electronic ticket?
6. In what way can airlines generate additional revenues?
7. Is it convenient for a leisure traveler to reserve an electronic ticket for the upcoming weekend?
Text V. BUSINESS AND THE ENVIRONMENT:
LESS IS MORE – MANUFACTURERS ARE TRYING TO CUT THEIR USE OF PACKAGING MATERIALS
In the early 1980s, when Procter & Gamble first test-marketed a highly concentrated laundry product, few people would buy it. Shoppers were put off by what they perceived to be less fabric softener or washing liquid at a premium price. Few of them seemed to care very much that so-called “ultra” products could slash the amount of packaging finding its way into landfills.
But it was hard to keep a good idea down. P & G and other big consumer products manufacturers are now profiting from a shift in consumer sentiment. By 1993, “ultra” – or concentrated – products were capturing about 70 per cent of the laundry market, according to Green Market Alert, a trade newsletter.
“Consumers once believed more is more, now they think otherwise,” says Jacqueline Ottman, a New York environmental consultant.
Concentrates are perhaps the most conspicuous success in the campaign by US companies over the past decade to minimize the undesirable effects of their packaging, most often by cutting the amount of material that requires disposal.
“Source reduction” is the buzzword phrase used in the field to describe a movement that embraces package redesign, “light-weighting”, and greater use of refillable containers and concentrates. It overlaps with efforts to promote recycling, which slows down demand for virgin materials.
Over the past four years, P & G has cut its use of packaging materials overall by 23 per cent, including a 42 per cent reduction in paperboard. It has also lifted the level of recycle materials in its packaging to 37 per cent, from 23 per cent in 1989-90.
“There is now a critical mass of recycled materials available to meet our needs and those of our competitors,” says Scott Sterwart, a spokesman for P & G.
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Vocabulary notes
laundry product – прачечный продукт
to put off – отстранить
to perceive – воспринимать
fabric softener – смягчитель ткани
liquid– жидкость
premium – надбавка, премия
to slash – резко сократить
landfills– местные рынки
shift – сдвиг, смещение
capturing– охватывающий
otherwise– иначе, иным способом
environmental consultant – консультант по окружающей среде
conspicuous – заметный
undesirable– нежелательный
disposal – удаление, избавление
source reduction – сокращение источника
buzzword – ходкое слово, молва
to embrace – охватывать
light-weighting – лёгкий вес
refillable – восполняемый
to overlap – частично покрывать
recycling –переработка втор сырья
virgin materials – первичные материалы
available -доступный
Comprehension and Discussion Questions
1. If you are put off by something, does it attract you?
2. If you keep a good idea down, do you
a) suppress it, or
b) keep it to use later?
3. If a success is conspicuous is it visible?
4. Is critical mass a good thing in this context?
Unit IX
Text I. Support for Economic and Political Freedom
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence heralded the birth of the United States of America. In that same year Adam Smith’s seminal work on the importance of free markets and fair competition, The Wealth of Nations, was published. The principles in the Declaration of Independence have informed and enriched the lives of Americans and peoples the world over who yearn for civil and political freedom. Adam Smith’s work sparked a debate on economic freedom and the role of the state in a nation’s economy – a debate that raged in the 20th century between those favoring a free market-based economy and those favoring a state-planned economy. With few exceptions in the world today, nations have chosen to let market forces determine the direction and speed at which their economies develop.
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We believe that intellectual property – copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, and related right – provides important support to those freedoms. Barbara Ringer, former U.S. register of copyrights, observed that the copyright laws of England and the United States were “based on the harsh but free system of enterprise that grew up in England and America. Under this system, authors are free to write and live by writing if they can manage to command the attention of a large enough segment of the populace to make the dissemination of their works even marginally profitable.”
Trademark protection is similarly imbued with these characteristics. A free market can hardly exist without a strong and effective trademark law. Without sanctity for a commercial identity – thereby to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor – free enterprise and the beneficial competition it engenders are without motivation. Patent protection gives inventors the exclusive right to exploit their inventions. This exclusive right gives them the economic security and, thereby, the freedom to follow any path along which their human ingenuity and imagination may lead them. It is not without reason that the 1948 International Declaration of Human Rights states, in Article 27(2), that every creator has the right to the protection of his or her interest “resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which he is the author.”
Vocabulary notes
to herald – известить
seminal– первый, изначальный
to enrich – обогащать
to yearn [jə:n] – жаждать, стремится
to spark – воодушевлять
to rage – бушевать, не затихать
to favor – поддерживать
to determine – определить
related right – подобное право
harsh enterprise – грубая предприимчивость
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dissemination – распространение
to imbue – насыщать, пропитывать
sanctity – неприкосновенность, святость
thereby – таким образом, посредством этого
engender– порождать
ingenuity – изобретательность
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