Episode 155

EPISODE 155
LEVEL A2

READING COMPREHENSION

 

Amazon.com – the world’s largest Internet company

 

Amazon.com is the world’s largest Internet company. It started out as an online bookstore in the middle of the 1990s and grew gradually over the years. Today Amazon sells almost everything from books and CDs to sportswear and electrical appliances. The company also produces its own tablets and e-readers. Amazon offers its services all over the world. It operates its own websites in the UK, Germany, China, Australia, as well as many South American and Asian countries. Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It first operated out of a small garage somewhere in the state of Washington. Within a year Amazon offered hundreds of thousands of books. In 1997 Amazon.com started trading shares on the NASDAQ stock exchange. By 2000 it made over a billion dollars in sales. As time went on Amazon.com grew steadily. It bought many of its rivals and today cooperates with other companies and lets them sell their products via the Amazon website. Amazon.com serves 20 million customers every day. Its annual income is over 34 billion dollars. There are a number of reasons for Amazon’s success. One of them is the company founder Jeff Bezos himself. TIME magazine’s “Man of the Year” of 1999 is a visionary, an ambitious businessman who is not afraid of taking risks, even if it means a downturn for the company at first. Amazon’s website tries to personalize the buying experience for its customers. It knows what you want and what you are interested in. Although Amazon.com is the biggest internet retailer in the world it is often criticized. Economic experts say that Amazon is turning Internet business into a monopoly. Others point out the bad working conditions for Amazon employees. Amazon is a business empire that sells almost anything cheaper and faster than anyone else.

 

 

Exercise 1

Find in the text the words (in bold) corresponding to these definitions:

1. _________________ = hard-working, very motivated
2. _________________ = yearly
3. _________________ = machine that you use for doing something at home
4. _________________ = situation
5. _________________ = to work together with
6. _________________ = a person who buys a product
7. _________________ = when sales go down
8. _________________ = a very large company or group of companies
9. _________________ = worker
10. _________________ = event, something that happens
11. _________________ = slowly, step by step
12. _________________ = the money you get from selling products
13. _________________ = a large company that controls all or most of the business
14. _________________ = to organize something so that it fits the habits of a certain person
15. _________________ = to want to show
16. _________________ = person that sells products to customers
17. _________________ = another company that wants to sell the same products
18. _________________ = the act of selling products
19. _________________ = here: to sell products to
20. _________________ = what a company offers to its customers
21. _________________ = document proving ownership of a part of a company
22. _________________ = clothes you need for doing sports
23. _________________ = a place where you can buy and sell shares
24. _________________ = small computer-like appliance with a touch screen
25. _________________ = someone who has clear ideas and strong feelings about the future

 

 

I know English idioms!

Reading about Amazon, one English idiom comes to mind:

• success story = something or someone that achieves great success, often by making a lot of money
• Her company is a rare success story in these times of recession.
  What other recent success stories can you think of?

 

Phrasals, phrasals…

It started out as an online bookstore in the middle of the 1990s (…) says one of the opening sentences from our text. It also contains a phrasal verb: “start out”. What does it mean? Simply, to begin something in a particular way. Like in this example: 

• He started out as a salesperson in a shop and now owns a retail network.

 

Grammar corner

 

In our text about Amazon we read that Its annual income is over 34 billion dollars. The word “its” means “of Amazon” – it’s an example of the so called possessive pronoun. Let’s recall other such pronouns:

•  I my
• you your
• he his
• she her
• it its
• we our
• you your
• they their

Complete these sentences with correct possessive pronouns:

1. Two students didn’t do ________ mathematics homework.
2. I have a car. ________ color is black.
3. Nancy is from England. ________ husband is from Australia.
4. Alan has a van. ________ van is very old.
5. We go to a high school. ________ high school is fantastic.

 

GLOSSARY

to start out – wystartować
bookstore – księgarnia
in the middle – w połowie
to grow – rosnąć
gradually – stopniowo
sportswear – odzież sportowa
appliance – urządzenie
service – usługa
to operate – prowadzić (działalność)
to trade – handlować
share – udział, akcja
stock exchange – giełda papierów wartościowych
billion – miliard
sales – sprzedaż
steadily – stopniowo, stale
rival – rywal, konkurent
to cooperate – współpracować
to serve – obsługiwać
customer – klient
annual income – roczny dochód
founder – założyciel
visionary – wizjoner
to take risks – podejmować ryzyko
downturn – zła koniunktura
to personalize – spersonalizować
experience – doświadczenie
although – chociaż
retailer – detalista
to be criticized – być krytykowanym
to turn sth into – zamieniać coś w
monopoly – monopol
to point out – wskazywać (na)
working conditions – warunki pracy
employee – pracownik
empire – imperium

 

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