1 . Fifteen years ago, apps were new and few truly understood their potentials. Retailers (零售商) barely knew that consumers could browse in stores while comparing _________ from other providers through apps before _________ making the purchase online. Ten years ago brick-mortar-and (实体店) retailers were threatened as Amazon released an “evil” promotion that encouraged consumers to use Price Check app while visiting _________ stores. Any purchase completed through the app was given rewarding _________, which significantly stimulated sales and _________ many shop owners to bankruptcy (破产).

“Media have reported these apps as a threat to physical stores,” says a retailer. “However, less _________ is the fact that it is also an opportunity for us.” Retailers need to accept any sensible buyer tends to _________ prices. You’d better offer in-store Internet access to _________ these consumers. With caring services combined with acceptable prices, the store might persuade consumers to make the deal _________.

A study indicates it’s ____________ to limit the item price to at most 5 dollars higher than what online stores charge. After all, for some consumers, getting the absolute lowest price is not their ____________. Many of them, instead, are willing to pay ____________ in exchange for favorable shopping experiences, such as the pleasant store atmosphere with a reasonable price ____________.

Besides, adopting a strategy of ____________ channels is also essential. With many sale channels under control, retailers surely have access to the lowest price. Therefore, when a customer pulls out a mobile device in store, retailers can be spared the ____________ that was unavoidable for them ten years ago.

2 . On July 20, Yu Yifei, a 26-year-old medical intern (实习医生) at People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou, made his way home in a subway train on Line 5 after his first day’s training. When downpours struck the city, he _________ about a dozen people trapped in a flooded subway train as the rainfall in Zhengzhou reached a _________ 201.9 millimeters between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Floodwaters _________ a barrier and entered the underground area. The train came to a sudden stop before the water began _________ in the carriages, trapping passengers inside. Thus Yu, _________ to leave and fearing for his life, made a _________ call to his father.

As water continued to flow into the carriages, passengers’ _________ rose. When subway workers arrived to withdraw them, Yu _________ to get out. As he made his way to safety, he heard a cry for help from someone needing a doctor. He quickly _________ the white medical coat given to him at the hospital __________ and returned to the platform to save people. On seeing him, a number of frightened people were greatly encouraged and their spirits __________. Some even applauded him.

As more passengers were pulled from the __________, Yu instructed others in the key steps to save a victim from drowning. He __________ CPR, or first aid, to those in low-temperature shock from the cold water and near death from drowning. One of the passengers, a female doctor nearly died. After __________ consciousness and strength, she joined Yu in treating others. Yu was __________ and needed all his concentration to perform another CPR procedure.

That night on a subway station platform, he __________ an exhausting six hours giving CPR to passengers who __________ survived drowning. He also treated the injured. He__________the subway station at about midnight, with the white coat spotted with blood and __________. Three hours later, he met his father. With tears in eyes, his father and people __________ smiled and gave him the thumbs-up.

4 . When I re-entered the full-time workforce a few years ago after a decade of lonely self-employment, there was one thing I was looking forward to the most: the opportunity to have work friends once again. It wasn't until I entered the corporate world that I realized, for me at least, being friends with colleagues didn't emerge as a（n） ________ at all. This is surprising when you consider the prevailing emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close ________ relationships at work. So much research has explored the way in which collegial（同事的）ties can help overcome a range of workplace issues ________ productivity and the quality of work output such as team-based conflict, jealousy, undermining, anger, and more.

Perhaps my expectations of lunches, water-cooler gossip and caring, deep-and-meaningful conversations were a ________ of the last time I was in that kind of office environment. Whereas now, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely fulfilling without ________ to be best mates with the people sitting next to you.

In an academic analysis just published in the profoundly-respected Journal of Management, researchers have looked at the concept of “indifferent relationships", a simple term that summarizes the fact that relationships at work can ________ be non-interpersonal, inconsequential, unimportant and even, dare I say it, disposable or substitutable.

Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative. The limited research conducted thus far indicates they're especially ________ among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over confrontation. Indifference is also the ________ option among those who are socially lazy. Maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort, which, for some of us, is much too________.

As noted above, indifferent relationships may not always be the most ________ approach in resolving some of the issues that pop up at work. But there are nevertheless several apparently proven benefits. One of those is ________ . Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and churning（产出）.

The other is ________ . As human beings, we're programmed to compare ourselves to each other in what is an anxiety-causing phenomenon. Apparently, we look down on acquaintances（泛泛之交）more so than friends. Since the former is most common among those ________ to indifferent relationships, their predominance can promote individuals' sense of self-worth.

Ego aside, a third advantage is that the emotional ________of indifferent relationships has been found to enhance critical evaluation, to strengthen one's focus on task resolution, and to gain greater access to valuable information. None of that might be as ________ as after-work socializing but, hey, I'll take it anyway.

6 . After their business trip, John and Mary returned, eager to see their lovely children. As they drove into their hometown feeling glad to be back, they noticed ________, and they went off their usual route to see what it was. They found a ________ in flames. Mary said, “Oh, well, it isn’t our fire, let’s go home.”

But John ________ closer and screamed, “That home belongs to Fred Jones who works at the plant. He wouldn’t be ________ work yet, maybe there is something we could do.” “It has nothing to do with us,” Mary ________.

But John drove up and stopped and they were both horror-stricken to see the whole house in ________. A woman on the lawn was screaming, “The children! Get the children!” John ________ her by the shoulder saying, “Get a hold of yourself and tell us where the children are!” “In the ________,” cried the woman. “Down the hall and to the left.”

In spite of Mary’s disagreement, John ________ for the basement which was full of smoke and ________ hot. He found the door and two children. ________ he left he could hear some more sobbing. He ________ the two badly frightened children into ________ arms and started back asking how many more children were down there. They told him ________ more and Mary grasped his arm and screamed, “John! Don’t go back! It’s ________! That house will fall down any second.”

________ he ran into the smoke-filled hallway and at last he found both children. As he climbed up the ________ stairs, the thought went through his mind that there was something strangely ________ about the little bodies next to him, and at last when they came out into the ________ and fresh air, he found that he had just ________ his own children.

The baby-sitter had left them at this home while she did some shopping.

7 . UPS deliveryman Ryan Arens was making his rounds near a pond, when he heard a strange sound. It was December, and about 15 feet from the frozen bank was the _________ of that sound — a brown-and-white wire-haired hound（猎犬）had fallen through the thin layer of ice. An elderly man was already on the _________, determined to save her. He was trying to _________ the pond and was striking the ice with a rock to create a(n) _________ to the dog, but seemed to be struggling.

Arens, 44, thought he _________ a better chance. “Animals are my weakness,” he said, explaining _________ he chose to take off his overcoat, even though the temperature was minus 15 and _________ the rescue task.

After breaking the ice using the man’s rock, Arens jumped into the icy water. He surfaced in time to see the dog going under. Arens swam about five feet toward the dog, grabbed hold of her collar, and _________ her out of the water and onto the ice. He then put the dog into the boat and slid it back to the bank, where _________ bystanders carried the dog to the home of the rowboat’s owner, a retired vet. __________ in the house himself, Arens jumped into a warm shower with the dog. A few more minutes in the pond, the vet told Arens, and the dog would have likely __________.

The next day, Arens was again making his __________ in the neighborhood when the dog’s owner came __________ to thank him for saving Sadie. “Would you like to meet her?” he asked. Then he opened the door of his pickup, and Sadie jumped out. She went __________ toward Arens, leaping around him and kissing him. Arens said that special delivery was the __________ of his UPS career.

8 . A is for always getting to work on time.

B is for being extremely busy.

C is for the conscientious(勤勤恳恳的)way you do your job.

You may be all these things at the office, and more. But when it comes to getting ________, experts say, the ABCs of business should include a P, for politics, as in office politics.

Dale Carnegie suggested many years ago: Hard work alone doesn’t ________ career advancement. You have to be able to sell yourself and your ideas, both publicly and behind the scenes. Yet, despite the obvious ________ of engaging in office politics-a better job, a raise, praise-many people are still unable—or unwilling-to “play the game”.

“People take it for granted that office politics ________ some manipulative(工于心计的)behaviour,” says Deborah Comer, an assistant professor of management at Hofstra University. “ ________ politics originates from the word ‘polite’. It can mean lobbying(游说)and forming associations. It can mean being kind and helpful, or even trying to please your superior, and then expecting something ________.”

In fact, today, experts ________ office politics as proper behaviour used to pursue one’s own self-interest in the workplace. In many ________, this involves some form of socializing within the office environment-not just in large companies, but in small workplaces as well.

“The first thing people are usually ________ on is their ability to perform well on a regular basis,” says Neil P Lewis, a management psychologist. “But if two or three ________ are up for a promotion, each of whom has reasonably ________ ability, a manager is going to promote the person he or she likes best. It’s simple human ________.”

Yet, psychologists say, many employees and employers have trouble with the concept of politics in the office. ________ people, they say, have an idealistic idea of work and what it takes to succeed. Still others ________ politics with flattery(奉承). They are fearful that, if they speak up for themselves, they may ________ to be flattering their boss for favours.

Experts suggest altering this negative picture by recognizing the need for some self-promotion.

9 . I was appreciating my family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies when I found a(n) _________ scene: my laptop (笔记本电脑) was in almost all the pictures. There was my daughter, 8 months old, playing at my feet while I was _________ on the couch. There was my son, with a big transformer, on my left arms.

I’d heard about the Internet addiction before, but I always thought it was something only _________ playing too much World of Warcraft (a computer game) day and night. Now, it seemed my Internet habit is slowly but surely crossing the _________. Sometimes I find myself _________ at midnight, surfing the Web _________ my family are sleeping. I read news, keep up with friends and write my blog…just for something to do.

It _________ that I’m not the only mom who is addicted to the computer. A lot of moms are contributing to a growing global addiction. There’s a movement among psychiatrists (doctors who specialize in mental diseases) to _________ the Internet addiction as an official mental disorder. And a recent Stanford University national survey found that 14 percent of Internet users find it _________ to stay away from it for several days; 9 percent try to hide their ____________ Internet use from their loved ones; 8 percent admit they use the Web as a way to escape ____________.

You’re likely not the kind of addict who skips baths or abuses drugs to help stay up for more online time. You may have noticed, ____________, that going online has become a necessary part of your life, which, ____________, means a box of clothes go ____________. It may also mean you’re missing much time with your baby--something you probably do ____________ about.