統測
110年
[外語群英語類] 專業科目(2)
第 17 題
📖 題組：
Meet the People’s Company. Like a democracy, it can be a noisy place where citizens sometimes think the people in charge have no idea what they’re doing. But at eBay, the online auction site, the people are in charge. Its customers – the 70 million buyers and sellers who trade here – have the kind of influence that most consumers and businesses can only dream of. It’s true, eBay has a business model that doesn’t require carrying any inventory. But the real secret of eBay’s unlikely success is this: it’s a master at capturing the awesome communication power of the Internet and tracking customers’ every movement, so new products and services are tailored to just what they want.( ① ) eBay’s customers are its product development, market research, merchandising, and sales department – all rolled into one. It’s not just that they have made eBay into a global marketplace for almost anything, from a $1 baseball card to a $4.9m Gulfstream jet, eBay’s customers also tell the world about eBay by word of mouth.( ② )They crowd online discussion boards, share tips, point out problems, and lobby for changes. eBay’s customers even police the site by rating each other. Imagine a retailer trying to do this: interview every single person leaving every store, post a list of what each thought of the shopping experience, ask them to write up a merchandising plan and call suppliers to arrange deliveries – and oh, by the way, could they keep an eye out for shoplifting? That’s what eBay’s customers voluntarily do each day. Back in 1995, when Pierre Omidyar unveiled Auction Web, he had much more in mind than simply helping his girlfriend trade Pez dispensers. He aimed to create a market for a wide range of goods, but with a difference. “I wanted to give the power of the market back to individuals,” says Omidyar. But his biggest breakthrough was the Feedback Forum, a rating system that made it easy for buyers and sellers to grade each transaction. Amazingly, it worked. And positive ratings, which translated to more sales, kept people from going to other sites. ( ③ )Since early 1999, eBay has regularly flown sellers and buyers to its headquarters in California to interview them, asking for their views on new features and policies. The result: fewer problems. Even when something does go wrong, eBay can respond quickly. eBay business is the company’s latest offering, a new site providing businesses with an e-commerce platform.( ④ )However, many rivals aim to be the biggest places for e-commerce as well, and some are making fast progress. But there’s a bigger question: can eBay’s values survive such grand ambitions? Omidyar worries that the growing participation of large commercial sellers could dilute eBay’s unique culture. eBay’s people power makes building a business simple compared with everything conventional companies must do. Keeping in touch with all those customers from here on won’t be easy.
Meet the People’s Company. Like a democracy, it can be a noisy place where citizens sometimes think the people in charge have no idea what they’re doing. But at eBay, the online auction site, the people are in charge. Its customers – the 70 million buyers and sellers who trade here – have the kind of influence that most consumers and businesses can only dream of. It’s true, eBay has a business model that doesn’t require carrying any inventory. But the real secret of eBay’s unlikely success is this: it’s a master at capturing the awesome communication power of the Internet and tracking customers’ every movement, so new products and services are tailored to just what they want.( ① ) eBay’s customers are its product development, market research, merchandising, and sales department – all rolled into one. It’s not just that they have made eBay into a global marketplace for almost anything, from a $1 baseball card to a $4.9m Gulfstream jet, eBay’s customers also tell the world about eBay by word of mouth.( ② )They crowd online discussion boards, share tips, point out problems, and lobby for changes. eBay’s customers even police the site by rating each other. Imagine a retailer trying to do this: interview every single person leaving every store, post a list of what each thought of the shopping experience, ask them to write up a merchandising plan and call suppliers to arrange deliveries – and oh, by the way, could they keep an eye out for shoplifting? That’s what eBay’s customers voluntarily do each day. Back in 1995, when Pierre Omidyar unveiled Auction Web, he had much more in mind than simply helping his girlfriend trade Pez dispensers. He aimed to create a market for a wide range of goods, but with a difference. “I wanted to give the power of the market back to individuals,” says Omidyar. But his biggest breakthrough was the Feedback Forum, a rating system that made it easy for buyers and sellers to grade each transaction. Amazingly, it worked. And positive ratings, which translated to more sales, kept people from going to other sites. ( ③ )Since early 1999, eBay has regularly flown sellers and buyers to its headquarters in California to interview them, asking for their views on new features and policies. The result: fewer problems. Even when something does go wrong, eBay can respond quickly. eBay business is the company’s latest offering, a new site providing businesses with an e-commerce platform.( ④ )However, many rivals aim to be the biggest places for e-commerce as well, and some are making fast progress. But there’s a bigger question: can eBay’s values survive such grand ambitions? Omidyar worries that the growing participation of large commercial sellers could dilute eBay’s unique culture. eBay’s people power makes building a business simple compared with everything conventional companies must do. Keeping in touch with all those customers from here on won’t be easy.
17. Which of the following features of eBay is true?
- A No carrying inventory is needed.
- B No customer rating is required.
- C No market research is mandated.
- D No customer refund is allowed.
思路引導 VIP
請試著想像一下：如果你今天在網路上賣出一雙二手球鞋，在買家下單之前，這雙鞋子通常會放在你自己的家裡，還是會先寄去拍賣公司的倉庫存放？這反映了這類平台與傳統實體商店在『貨物管理』上有什麼最直觀的差異？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！精準定位關鍵資訊
- 觀念驗證：恭喜你答對了！這題考驗的是「細節定位」。在文章第一段中後半部明確提到：“It’s true, eBay has a business model that doesn’t require carrying any inventory.” (eBay 的商業模式不需要持有任何庫存)。這與選項 (A) 的敘述完全吻合，你成功抓住了文章的核心事實。
- 難度點評：這題難度評定為 medium。雖然文章篇幅較長，容易讓考生產生壓力，但正確答案直接對應原文語句。干擾項 (B) 與 (C) 則是將文中提到的「特色」錯誤地轉化為「不需要」，若讀者沒細看「由誰來做」，就容易被誤導。你能冷靜過濾資訊，表現非常專業！