【推荐1】3D Printing and AR Technology in Physical Stores

These days, shopping often involves an Internet connection and a laptop or smartphone. However, businesses are now trying to use new technology, such as 3D printing and augmented reality, to bring customers back into stores.

At the National Retail Federation show in New York City, many companies _________ these new technologies. The computer company Intel is experimenting with 3D printing. It is using the Mach 2XS commercial printer. _________ printing words on paper, the Mach 2XS prints clothes. _________, it uses thread to print out a sweater. It prints the sweater out row by row, until it is fully formed. Ryan Parker is the general manager of Responsive Retail at Intel. He says the 3D printers print out clothing, made just for the _________ in size and style, in about 45 minutes.

More and more consumers shop _________. But young people still seem to like going to physical stores. A recent study led by the IBM Institute for Business Value and the National Retail Federation shows that 67 percent of people between ages 13 to 21 shop in physical stores most of the time. A London-based company, Ads Reality, is trying to use augmented reality, or AR technology in stores. Augmented reality is a technology that creates computer-generated images and _________ them in a way that makes them look real. “When it’s used in the right way, it’s a very powerful tool to drive mobile engagement and store _________,” said Richard Corps, managing director. The company’s latest product is an “AR Window”. It superimposes (叠加) _________ augmented reality characters on big screens in store windows. “It looks like these characters are actually inside the store…it stops people outside the store because they’re amazed to see these characters…and then it _________ them inside the store because they want to have their photographs taken with these characters, ” Corps said.

Customer service robots might also become a __________ store experience. The New York Company Autonomous is experimenting with customer service robots. These wheeled __________ include a Wi-Fi connection to a real person who can be seen on the robots’ screen. Robots in a hardware store, for example, could be __________ from anywhere by experts in different fields, like plumbing or electrical wiring. Autonomous chief Duy Huynh says the robots can make the shopping experience personal. With our technology, when you walk into a store one of our robots will __________ you and behind the robot, it’s going to bring someone who knows your shopping __________, who has been helping you for the past six months, who knows what you need, to talk to you. So to us that’s really, really important and that’s the very first time you can actually do __________ offline.

【推荐3】Winning personality

The modern manager has to play the role of team coach, i.e. be good at asking questions. What _________ the individual players? What is the role of a manager's personality in inspiring team performance? Since every corporation is a potential minefield (雷区) of personality traits, he or she had better also have _________ skills.

Karl Moore, an associate professor at McGill University in Canada, has written two recent articles on the role of different personality types in business. One of the most common _________ is between introverts (内向者) and extroverts (外向者). Mr. Moore estimates that around 40% of the population are introverts, 40% are extroverts and 20% are "ambiverts" who can _________ both characteristics.

Extroverts are most likely to go far in business. They are, after all, good at _________ themselves. While an academic study found that extroverts were 25% more likely to _________ a high-earning job. It may also be said a high-earning job would make anyone more confident and outgoing. Yet, personality traits tend to develop early in life.

The study also found that the children of _________ families were more likely to be extrovert. It could simply be that children who grow up in more prosperous homes are less likely to face the kind of stressful events that _________ self-confidence. People with higher self-confidence may apply for more prestigious jobs and may be more likely to believe that their efforts will be rewarded; those with a negative self-image may feel it is not worth trying too hard.

But introverts are also _________ climbing the greasy pole. A study in 2017 found that introvert executives were more likely to __________ the expectations of the Board than their bragging, uber-confident colleagues.

Mr. Moore thinks that successful executives have to become ambiverts in order to succeed. Introverts must show __________ or make an occasional stirring speech, when the situation calls for it. And extroverts need to shut up and listen to their teams — not least because when the manager speaks first, the team members will be __________ to disagree.

__________, managers also need to think about the different personality types when conducting meetings. It is easy for meetings to be __________ by extroverts, who have a tendency to speak the loudest and most often. Introverts may never __________ the discussion.

Managers have to spend time chatting to, and observing their team members before deciding how best to get them motivated. Managers need to be less like Henry Ford, and more like Sigmund Freud.

【推荐1】Last week, I taught a case study on the decline of Nokia to my MBA students. I asked them, “Why did Nokia fall from industry _________ to also-ran position in the space of less than five years?” Their answers were _________:

“They lost touch with their customers.” True, but almost tautological-and interesting to note that this is the same Nokia that in the early 2000s was praised for its _________-centric marketing and design capabilities.

“They _________ to develop the necessary technologies.” Not really true-Nokia had a prototype touch screen before the iPhone was launched, and its smartphones were _________ superior to anything Apple, Samsung, or Google had to offer during the late 1990s.

“They didn’t recognize that the basis of competition was shifting from the hardware to the ecosystem.” _________, not really true-the “ecosystem” battle began in the early 2000s, with Nokia joining forces with Ericsson, Motorola, and Psion to create Symbian as a _________ technology that would keep Microsoft at bay.

Through this period, the people at Nokia were _________ the changes going on around them, and they were never short of leading-edge technology or clever marketers. Where they struggled was in transmitting _________into action. The company lacked the capability to change in a decisive and committed way.

The failure of big companies to __________ to changing circumstances is one of the principal puzzles in the world of business. Occasionally, a genuinely “disruptive” technology, such as digital imaging, comes along and __________ an entire industry. But usually the sources of failure are more dull and avoidable—a failure to __________ technologies that have already been developed, an arrogant disregard(傲慢的漠视) for changing customer demands, a self-satisfied attitude towards new competitors.

In such cases, the final responsibility for __________ rests with the CEO. But if such failures are to be avoided, it is clear that the CEO cannot do it on his or her own. People across the firm must keep their eyes open to __________ in their business, and to take responsibility to push their new ideas and __________ existing ways of working. Obviously, this isn't easy to do, but if there is a better understanding of the problem then there is a chance for improvement.

【推荐2】ChatGPT has been everywhere for the last few months. It raises _______ about their impact on everything happening in our society.

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool _______ by AI technology that allows you to have human-like _______ and much more. The language model can answer questions and _______ you with tasks, such as composing emails, essays, and code.

The _______ to produce frequently accurate responses to a vast range of questions is why it became the fastest-growing app of all time, _______ 100 million users in only two months. The fact that it can also _______ essays, articles, and poetry has only _______ its appeal. It is also equally _______ at coding and productivity tasks. For the former, its ability to ________ code from natural speech makes it a powerful partner for both new and ________ coders.

Despite looking very impressive, ChatGPT still has ________. Such restrictions include the inability to answer questions that are worded in a ________ way, as it requires rewording to understand the input question. A bigger limitation is a lack of quality in the ________ it delivers. Another major limitation is that its data is limited up to 2021. The chat robot does not have any ________ of events or news that have occurred since then. Lastly, ChatGPT does not provide sources for its responses.

【推荐2】There is growing interest in East Japan Railway Co. ltd, one of the six companies, created out of the privatized national railway system. In an industry lacking exciting growth ________, its plan to use real-estate assets in and around train stations ________ is drawing interest.

In a plan called “Station Renaissance” that it ________ in November, JR East said that it would ________ using its commercial spaces for shops and restaurants, extending them to ________ more suitable for the information age. It wants train stations as pick-up ________ for such goods as books, flowers and groceries ________ over the Inter. In a country where city ________ depend heavily on trains ________ commuting, about 16 million people a day go to its train stations anyway, the company ________. So, picking up commodities at train stations ________ consumers extra travel and missed home deliveries. JR East already has been using its station ________ stores for this purpose, but it plans to create ________ spaces for the delivery of Inter goods.

The company also plans to introduce ________ cards—known in Japan as IC cards because they use integrated circuit for ________ information ________ train tickets and muter passes ________ the magic ones used today, integrating them into a/an ________ pass. This will save the company money, because ________ for IC cards are much less expensive than magic systems. Increased use of IC cards should also ________ the space needed for ticket vending.

【推荐3】America’s eating habits have changed radically over the past 40 years. We consume more and more food of less and less nutritional value. The nation’s adult obesity rate is now 42.4%.

Why have our habits changed? Part of the reason is demographic (人口学的). When women moved into the workplace, _________, there was less time at home to devote to cooking. The result has been more eating out or store-bought prepared meals. _________ has played a role, too: The microwave oven _________ an industry of highly processed fools larded with fats and oils.

In Hooked, Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, raises a question — What if the foods we’re swallowing have been designed and marketed to become addictive? While presenting his case, Mr. Moss offers an appealing tour of America’s food _________, taking side trips into biology and psychology and, not least, into the world of food compounds.

Mr. Moss begins with the science of addition. The definition of addiction he likes best —“a repetitive behavior that some people find difficult to quit”— comes from a one-time chief executive of Philip Morris.

As for the _________ that affects our food choices, Mr. Moss notes that, while it takes l0 seconds for the brain to feel the effects of cigarettes, sugar’s effects are felt 20 times faster — and salt and fat don’t take much longer than that. The difference _________ nicotine (尼古丁) needing to enter the bloodstream to reach the brain, while sugar and salt take a _________ through the taste buds (味蕾). But the tongue is _________ by the nose when it comes to driving our eating decisions. While there are 10,000 taste buds, there are 10 million olfactory receptors (嗅觉受体), and they can detect hundreds of scents. “Flavor is the combination of taste and smell,” writes Mr. Moss, “and the lion’s share of the _________ in this goes to smell.”

Or all the substances that can get us hooked, Mr. Moss says, “nothing is faster than food when it comes to __________ the brain chemistry. Certain kinds of food, that is.” The consumption of the highly processed and sweetened concoctions (调制品) that dominate the American diet: cereals, sodas, fruit juices, cookies, packaged meats, as well as salad dressing and pasta sauces delivers intense and immediate pleasure and creates a need that fits Mr. Moss’s broad definition of addiction.

Why are we only now seeing the harmful effects of the food-induced brain chemistry? Mr. Moss summarizes the thinking of one of the scientists be profiles: “We simply haven’t had the __________ we would need, in relation to evolution, to catch up with the dramatic changes in food production and our eating habits of the past forty years.”

One major theme of “Hooked” is that the food industry exploits this __________— even creates it. Mr. Moss argues that the industry’s growth has been enabled by its “manipulation of our __________ desires,” not least through marketing and sales strategies. He describes companies super-sizing their products (such as the “Double Stuf” Oreo) and creating packaging that can remain __________ (thus easing consumption while, say, driving). One byproduct of these strategies, observes Mr. Moss, is that snacks — often processed products with high convenience but low nutritional value — now account for about 25% of daily calorie consumption. Social norms have adjusted themselves __________: It has become “socially acceptable to eat anything, anywhere, anytime,” Mr. Moss writes.