1 . IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer(零售商), and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world's most successful enterprisers. Born in Sweden in 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman. As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades. Naturally he used it to start up a business—IKEA.

Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist(简约的) furniture, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning. Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of goods.

Kamprad's goods included anything that he could sell for profits at discounted prices, including watches, pens and stockings.

IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue(目录) in 1947. The furniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad's home. Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became completely a furniture company in 1951.

In 1953, IKEA opened its first showroom in Almhult, Sweden. People loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it. This led to increased sales and the company continued to develop. By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture.

In 1956, Kamprad saw a man disassembling(拆卸) a table to make it easier to transport. Kamprad was inspired. The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging. Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. IKEA tried it and sales went up. The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA.

Today there are over 200 stores in 32 countries. Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately-held company. In 2004, he was named the world's richest man. He now lives in Switzerland and has retired from the day-to-day operations of IKEA. IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing.

In June, 2021, China had about 285 million Internet users living in rural areas,     1    (account) for over 30 percent of the country’s total, according to a report on China’s Internet development. The number of rural Internet users in China     2     (grow) by over 30 million in few months.

The report said the Internet is playing a     3     (great) role than ever in the country’s poverty reduction efforts, with the public’s participation in and recognition of relevant campaigns on the rise. It said as of June, online promotions of     4     (agriculture) products from remote areas had reached more than half of the Chinese Internet users,     5    that more than one third of netizens had bought such products via online platforms.

Meanwhile, the report shows that e-commerce live streaming(直播) grew    6     (increasing) active in the first half of the year. As of June, the number of e-commerce live streaming    7     (use) in China had hit 309 million. China saw over 10 million live marketing activities in the first half of this year, attracting over 50 billion views, the report noted.

The report said the Internet can contribute significantly    8    China’s rural revitalization goal by providing jobs, social security and medical service information for    9    poor and allowing children in poverty-stricken areas     10     (access) better education.

In the past few years, more than half of bookstores in China have closed down,     1     is the result of the     2    (compete) with online bookstores. But the success of Sisyphe Bookstore, one of the     3    (big) privately-owned bookstore chains in China, may serve     4     a great example .

    5    (found) in 1993, Sisyphe started to transform and upgrade its business in 2009 to seek its profitability. Now, it not only devotes itself to     6    (sell) books , but combines the functions of the bookstore, cafe and the sale of     7    (create) cultural products. Sisyphe opens its bookstores in shopping malls in order to take advantage of the large number of consumers of shopping malls to sell its books, and it also     8    (able) people to enjoy spending time reading and drinking coffee. In return, bookstores have improved the cultural atmosphere of shopping malls, so     9     is mutually beneficial to have such cooperation.

So far, the government     10    (offer) tax reduction for bookstores to encourage the development of physical bookstores. Perhaps it is early to say the boom of physical bookstores has come, but definitely, we see the turning point to them.

8 . Besides being fun, well-managed festivals and events offer a host of economic and social benefits to communities.     1     There are risks and costs related to the effort.

Festivals attract visitors and boost the economy.     2     On-site spending includes admission fees, parking fees, food, beverage and souvenir sales — and more. But off-site spending related to festivals brings income for communities, too. For example, visitors stop at local gas stations, souvenir shops, and restaurants — the list goes on. Festivals also provide free marketing and advertising for local businesses as visitors talk about their fun experiences when they go back home. If visitors post comments and photos about their experiences on Facebook or other social media, so much the better. The economic benefits of successful festivals affect local tourism and non-tourism-related businesses alike.

    3     Planning and conducting festivals involves many members of the community, which produces a number of social benefits. “The best thing about being involved with festivals and events is the opportunity to help build a community, develop a sense of pride within a community, and engage a community,” says Chris Romano, a business consultant with Thrivent Financial Services. “Honestly, in my professional career, I’ve never found something outside a community festival that can do that to the same degree.” Experts agree that hometown pride is a critical factor in the development and improvement of any community. People with community pride are more likely to speak positively about their town to others and to volunteer with organizations and activities that support the common good.

Festivals will teach visitors new things. Whatever a festival’s theme, it’s bound to be instructional and visitors are bound to learn from it. Of course, education is another social benefit of festivals.     4     Learning is a big byproduct of the annual Lady Slipper Celebration in the northwestern Minnesota community of Black duck. The community launched the celebration, named after the Minnesota state flower, to showcase and promote understanding of the area’s natural resources and Native American culture.    5     who were pleased with their experience and planned to return to the area.

10 . Robert F Kennedy once said that a country’s GDP measures “everything except that which makes life worthwhile”. With Britain voting to leave the European Union, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what he was referring to.

The question of GDP and its usefulness has annoyed policymakers for over half a century. Many argue that it is a faulty concept. It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do. By most recent measures, the UK’s GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record-low unemployment and high growth figures. If everything was going so well, then why did over 17 million people vote for Brexit, despite the warnings about what it could do to their country’s economic prospects?

A recent annual study of countries and their ability to transform growth into well-being throws some light on that question. Across the 163 countries measured, the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens. Rather than just focusing on GDP, over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement have been measured to get a more comprehensive assessment of how countries are performing.

While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes. Yes, there has been a budding(初见端倪的)economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education, major economies have continued to decline. Yet this isn’t the case with all countries. Some relatively poor European countries have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, income equality and the environment.

This is a lesson that rich countries can learn: when GDP is no longer regarded as the mere measure of a country’s success, the world looks very different.

So, what Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough. It does not include important factors such as environmental quality or education outcomes-all things that contribute to a person’s sense of well-being.

The sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth. But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving well-being rather than simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the heralded(预示的)disaster and may even see progress.