COLEGIO
ANGLO MEXICANO DE COYOACAN
SECUNDARIA
CICLO ESCOLAR 2016-2017
GUIDE
“LITERATURE” (READING KEYS 3)
OCTOBER
Nombre
del Alumno:__________________________________________________Grado: 3° Sección:
III-IV.
FECHA: _____________________________________
I.
READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW.
Amazon.com - an online
success story
We have all heard of the online retailer Amazon.com, and the chances are that many of us have actually visited the site and even bought something from it. Today, Amazon.com is a household name, but do you know the story behind this company's rise to success? How did a business that began in 1994 in a garage, turn into the world's top online retailer? It is by far the largest in the U.S., with websites all around the world that are visited by hundreds of millions of people every month. Read on, and discover how this extraordinary feat came about.
Amazon.com was founded by a man called Jeff Bezos in 1994, from the garage of his home in Washington. It began as a company that simply sold books via the Internet. He chose the name 'Amazon' after the world's biggest river. At first, it wasn't especially successful because many people felt the website was unattractive. At a time when a lot of new dot.com businesses were expanding rapidly, Amazon seemed to be progressing rather slowly. However, the website worked and the service it offered gained steady support. Bezos was soon joined by other investors who believed in the concept. They helped to redesign the site to be more user-friendly, and it wasn't long before people from all over the U.S. were buying books from Amazon.com. A new feature which allowed people to post reviews of the books they had purchased made the site a lot more interactive, and increased its popularity considerably by creating an online community. Then, when the company expanded its range to include movies and music CDs, things really took off. As the company grew, more items followed ... software, toys, home improvement products, electronics and video games. In 1999, less than five years after it started, Amazon.com had achieved sales of over $1 billion. Bezos was named 'Person of the Year' by Time Magazine, who also called him the 'king of commerce'.
However, despite achieving massive sales, Amazon.com found making a profit more difficult and reported huge losses the following year. The stock price dived, and, along with other companies that had risen quickly, it looked like Amazon.com might dramatically collapse. Many feared that the company would not be able to survive, blaming it for expanding too rapidly and diversifying too much. Some even called the company 'Amazon.bomb'. The future looked very bleak. However, it was at this crucial point that Bezos came up with an innovative strategy that would save the company. First, he restructured the organization, shedding around 1300 jobs (15% of Amazon's workforce) in January 2001, and telling managers to stop selling unprofitable products. He also reorganized the distribution system to make it more streamlined and efficient. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, he managed to convince other companies to sell their products through Amazon.com. While this third-party business provided a small additional income, the main advantage was that it greatly expanded the range of products the company offered. Now Amazon.com could sell clothes, food, home goods, sporting equipment, baby products, just about everything you could think of. The company effectively became an online shopping portal, and exactly a year after the disastrous job cuts it reported its first profit. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength. It has expanded the services it offers and even started to develop and sell its own range of goods. It is today the undisputed champion of Internet commerce. The range offered is so vast that you can buy almost anything, from TVs to baseballs, car accessories, exercise equipment, or even a $150,000 diamond bracelet!
We have all heard of the online retailer Amazon.com, and the chances are that many of us have actually visited the site and even bought something from it. Today, Amazon.com is a household name, but do you know the story behind this company's rise to success? How did a business that began in 1994 in a garage, turn into the world's top online retailer? It is by far the largest in the U.S., with websites all around the world that are visited by hundreds of millions of people every month. Read on, and discover how this extraordinary feat came about.
Amazon.com was founded by a man called Jeff Bezos in 1994, from the garage of his home in Washington. It began as a company that simply sold books via the Internet. He chose the name 'Amazon' after the world's biggest river. At first, it wasn't especially successful because many people felt the website was unattractive. At a time when a lot of new dot.com businesses were expanding rapidly, Amazon seemed to be progressing rather slowly. However, the website worked and the service it offered gained steady support. Bezos was soon joined by other investors who believed in the concept. They helped to redesign the site to be more user-friendly, and it wasn't long before people from all over the U.S. were buying books from Amazon.com. A new feature which allowed people to post reviews of the books they had purchased made the site a lot more interactive, and increased its popularity considerably by creating an online community. Then, when the company expanded its range to include movies and music CDs, things really took off. As the company grew, more items followed ... software, toys, home improvement products, electronics and video games. In 1999, less than five years after it started, Amazon.com had achieved sales of over $1 billion. Bezos was named 'Person of the Year' by Time Magazine, who also called him the 'king of commerce'.
However, despite achieving massive sales, Amazon.com found making a profit more difficult and reported huge losses the following year. The stock price dived, and, along with other companies that had risen quickly, it looked like Amazon.com might dramatically collapse. Many feared that the company would not be able to survive, blaming it for expanding too rapidly and diversifying too much. Some even called the company 'Amazon.bomb'. The future looked very bleak. However, it was at this crucial point that Bezos came up with an innovative strategy that would save the company. First, he restructured the organization, shedding around 1300 jobs (15% of Amazon's workforce) in January 2001, and telling managers to stop selling unprofitable products. He also reorganized the distribution system to make it more streamlined and efficient. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, he managed to convince other companies to sell their products through Amazon.com. While this third-party business provided a small additional income, the main advantage was that it greatly expanded the range of products the company offered. Now Amazon.com could sell clothes, food, home goods, sporting equipment, baby products, just about everything you could think of. The company effectively became an online shopping portal, and exactly a year after the disastrous job cuts it reported its first profit. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength. It has expanded the services it offers and even started to develop and sell its own range of goods. It is today the undisputed champion of Internet commerce. The range offered is so vast that you can buy almost anything, from TVs to baseballs, car accessories, exercise equipment, or even a $150,000 diamond bracelet!
II. DECIDE IF THE FOLLOWING
STATEMENT IS TRUE OR FALSE. FIND EVIDENCE IN THE TEXT TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER.
1. At first, Amazon.com only sold books and
music CDs. ________________.
2. Of all the dot.com
businesses in the late 1990s, Amazon.com expanded the fastest. ________________.
3. The company is only
fourteen years old. ________________.
III. UNDERLINE THE CORRECT ANSWER FROM THE
CHOICES.
4. The range of products Amazon.com sells is rather limited / huge / gradually
decreasing.
5. In the first few years the
company found it hard to expand /
make a profit / increase sales.
6. In 1999, Amazon.com
reported more than $1 billion in sales
/ profit / losses.
.
V. WRITE A SENTENCE USING THE VERB IN PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS OR PRESENT PERFECT.
1. I _____________________________ (lost) my key.
Can you help me to look for it?
2. You look tired
________________________________(you / work) too hard.
3. Look! Somebody _____________________________
(break) that window-
4. I
______________________________(read) the book you gave me,
but I (5)______________________________________(not
/ finish) it yet.
5. “Sorry I’m late.”
“That’s all right. I __________________________________(not/wait) long.
6. Hello! I
_________________________________ (clean) the Windows. So far I
____________________________ (clean) five of them
and there are two more to
do.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario