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  3. Of all the depressing statistics about a lifetime of consumer existence, this may be the most distressing: each of us is destine

Of all the depressing statistics about a lifetime of consumer existence, this may be the most distressing: each of us is destine

admin2012-03-23  28
问题     Of all the depressing statistics about a lifetime of consumer existence, this may be the most distressing: each of us is destined to spend roughly 1. 2 years on hold. More than a year of your life will be spent on the phone listening to Musk stations like Aura, Moonscapes, and Tropical Breezes while being serially apologized to by robotic voices better calibrated to taunt than sympathize.
    As you might have feared, there’s nothing random about this common, near-death experience. Modern corporations, with the help of psychologists, have actually made a science out of keeping you on the line, using harmonic soporifics in an effort to subdue your rage. They want you to enjoy the experience—or at least hate it less—in the hope that you will buy what they are selling when you finally get the chance. But where did the idea that music could be a tonic to calm angry consumers come from? What makes us happier. , silence, music, or estimated wait times? And does the practice of interrupting hold music every 30 seconds with a message apologizing for, well, keeping you on hold, make the situation any better?
    Simon Morrison, a musicologist at Princeton University, says that we can thank a French composer named Erik Satire for the birth of background music. Though it hardly seems possible that the Musk pumped into malls could actually influence shoppers, the truth is, alas, that it does. James Cellars, a marketing professor at the University of Cincinnati, says that music can have an impact on a wide array of customers’ behaviors, changing their perception of time, conditioning them to associate a song with a brand, or limiting their ability to critically analyze a potential purchase due to musical distraction. Our brains have a finite bandwidth for taking in and processing information, and clogging that bandwidth with music is sometimes enough to prevent us from making rational purchasing decisions, or worrying about the time.
    An easy-listening version of "Rock and Roll All Nite" might lower your barrier to spending $ 30 on gimmicky boxers, but not all music alleviates the frustrating experience of waiting on hold. Kellaris says that while musical distraction often causes time to feel like it’s passing more quickly, particularly dull, or overly familiar, music can actually make the wait feel longer. Familiar music may act as a sort of "Zip file", says Kellaris, referring to the common format computers use to compress large volumes of data into a smaller package. "If you hear an excerpt of a familiar piece of music, it might cue recall of the entire piece. " Kellaris also cautions that numerous factors, including mindset and setting—and in one of his studies, even gender—determine the effect that background music has on us.
    Anta Rafaela, a professor at the Israel Institute of Technology, and her former graduate students Nina Munich or and Liad Weiss have looked specifically into what keeps us on the line—and happy— when we’re on hold. In a paper Munich or and Rafaela compared hold music, estimated wait times, and recorded apologies for their effectiveness. In the first of two experiments, Munichor and Rafaeli found that callers who were given information about their place in line reported more positive experiences than those who were played background music. And as for recorded apologies? They can make the situation worse, said Rafaeli, since they interrupt background music without providing any useful information. In the second experiment, Munich or and Rafaeli found that the feeling of progressing toward the front of the line, rather than the perception of a short wait, improved caller reactions the most.
    Another surprising finding, said Rafaela, is that interactive voice response (IVR) systems can actually assuage our on-hold rage more effectively than music. Again, the most important thing is the perception of moving toward a goal. "People like to complain about these Virus," said Rafaela, "but usually, I think, the complaints are because the systems are too long and too complicated. "
    All of which raises some disturbing possibilities. Would it be ethical for a company to lie to you about your position in line if it made you feel better and promoted commerce by exposing you to a sales pitch, say, for cheap appetizers when you call the local pizza-delivery joint? What about charging you a fee to jump to the head of the line? The answers are not entirely clear, in part because the science of being on hold is still young and its ethical concerns largely unexplored.
    What is clear is that each day we grow more accustomed to life on hold. By the time intelligent robots rise up and become our overlords, they probably won’t have to subjugate us, Terminator style—they’ll simply lull us into servitude with Ninjas and pitch-perfect estimates of our place in the queue. Perhaps then we’ll yearn for the good old days, when, at the very least, we got an apology for the inconvenience.
According to James Cellars, which of the following is INCORRECT?
选项 A、Background music may let customers feel time pass more quickly instead of slowly.
B、Certain music can lead customers to choose a certain brand of commodity.
C、Distracted by background music customers may fail to choose items rationally.
D、Customers may forget time while shopping with music in the background.
答案A
解析 细节题。回文定位到第三段和第四段。选项[A]“背景音乐使顾客感觉时间飞逝而非缓慢”，这与原文“while musical distraction often causes time to feel like it’s passing more quickly，particularly dull，or overly familiar，music can actually make the wait feel longer”相冲突，故为答案。选项[B]“特定的音乐可能会引导顾客选择某种特定的(商品)品牌”．是原文“conelitioILing them to associate a song with a brand”的正确改写，故排除；选项[C]“由于背景音乐分散了注意力，顾客可能不能理性地选择商品”，是原文“limiting their amity to critically analyze a potential purchase due to musical distraction”的正确改写，故排除；选项[D]“背景音乐的存在可能会使顾客购物时忘了时间”，是对原文“changing their’perception of time”的正确改写，故排除。
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