A guest at the Holiday Inn on Union Square in San Francisco is attempting to turn on the radio in his room. Not matter which button he pushes, the radio will not play. Finally, the guest reports a defective (有毛病的) radio. A hotel employee soon arrives at the guest’s room with a new radio, a box of chocolates, and flowers. As for the radio already in the room, the employee turns it on without difficulty and quickly reassures the guest that the radio is tricky to operate. The employee shows the guest how to work the radio and pleasantly exits the room, leaving the radios, the chocolates and the flowers. An elderly woman is in her favorite food store, Ukrop’s Super Market of Richmond, Virginia. She picks up a large pineapple from the display case, holds it for several moments, and then returns it with obvious reluctance. Ukrop’s president, James Ukrop, witnesses this scene and asks the customer if she would like to buy half of the pineapple, indicating that the store would be glad to cut it in half. The customer accepts and states how she looks forward to visiting Ukrop’s because the staff is so friendly and makes her feel so welcome. Night after night, in Aurora, Colorado, police officers answer calls for break ins of cars parked outside a local dance hall. One officer notes that the burglaries usually involve purses of female customers who say they lock their handbags in their cars, fearing the bags would be stolen from unattended tables during dances. The officer then persuades the dance hall owner to install lockers and the burglary calls drop from dozens each month to two in four months. These three stories emphasize our central argument, that is, the essence of services marketing is service. Service quality is the foundation of services marketing, for the core product being marketed is a performance. The performance is the product; the performance is what customers buy. A strong service concept gives companies the opportunity to compete for customers; a strong performance of the service concept builds competitiveness by earning customers’ confidence and reinforcing branding, advertising, selling, and pricing. The author sets forth the argument of the passage by ______.
A. finding causes
B. giving examples
C. defining a term
D. providing comparisons
Like many of my generation, I have a weakness for hero worship. At some point, however, we all begin to question our heroes and our need for them. This leads us to ask: What is a hero Despite immense differences in cultures, heroes around the world generally share a number of characteristics that instruct and inspire people. A hero does something worth talking about. A hero has a story of adventure to tell and a community who will listen. But a hero goes beyond mere fame. Heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves. Like high voltage transformers, heroes take the energy of higher powers and step it down so that it can be used by ordinary people. The hero lives a life worthy of imitation. Those who imitate a genuine hero experience life with new depth, enthusiasm, and meaning. A sure test for would-be heroes is what or whom do they serve What are they willing to live and die for If the answer or evidence suggests they serve only their own fame, they may be famous persons but not heroes. Madonna and Michael Jackson are famous, but who would claim that their fans find life more abundant Heroes are catalysts (催化剂) for change. They have a vision from the mountaintop. They have the skill and the charm to move the masses. They create new possibilities. Without Gandhi, India might still be part of the British Empire. Without Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., we might still have segregated (实行种族隔离) buses, restaurants, and parks. It may be possible for large scale change to occur without leaders with magnetic personalities, but the pace of change would be slow, the vision uncertain, and the committee meetings endless. The author concludes that historical changes would ______.
A. be delayed without leaders with inspiring personal qualities
B. not occur without heroes making the necessary sacrifices
C. take place if there were heroes to lead the people
D. produce leaders with attractive personalities