TEXT A E-commerce Is Here to Stay Neither the absolute level of Internet sales nor the growth rate tells the whole story, but this year e-commerce became a mainstream retail channel. You don’t have to look far to find reasons for pessimism, however: a sluggish economy, the aftershocks of Sept. 11, and the problems of particular Web retailers. And even if consumer e-tailers don’t post big numbers during the holiday shopping season, Web retailers have done a lot of work behind the scenes to make the Internet a viable channel overall. Web commerce now has a more reasonable set of expectations. Many a dot-com company boasted that it would put traditional stores out of business. Remember Web grocers Like many of their dot-com peers, those who went it alone folded or were consumed by traditional grocers. Now, the once independent Web grocers make up the online channel for retail supermarkets. Likewise, e-tailers seldom think of themselves any more as the entire sales channel -- but that doesn’t mean they are disappearing altogether. Instead, they now form one part of a larger selling strategy. Not only has the Web channel become main stream, but also it has helped make a multichannel approach more effective. A customer can buy a sweater online, and then return it at the store. Or a customer can try that same sweater on in the store but buy it online. An online presence improves the shopping experience for consumers, while retailers benefit from the different points of interaction with potential customers. Finally, retail Web sites have done a better job at fulfillment, especially when dealing with tricky problems such as merchandise returns. Sites have also gotten better at delivering on promises. This year, you probably won’t see as many people complaining that the toys they bought for Christmas haven’t shown up or that orders were duplicated. Customer relationship management technology has helped sites manage customer concerns and improve relationships with customers. So don’t fall for the head-shaking this season over online retail. Business-to-consumer e-commerce is more than just here to stay -- it’s here now. The author’s attitude toward the issue is ______
A. pessimistic
B. optimistic
C. exaggerating
D. ambivalent
Ever since it was built, the Empire State Building has captured the attention of young and old alike: every year, millions of tourists flock to the Empire State Building to get a glimpse from its 86th and 102nd floor observatories; the image of the Empire State Building has appeared in hundreds of ads and movies, not to mention the countless toys, models, postcards, ashtrays, thimbles, etc. that bear the image. Yet, why does the Empire State Building appeal to so many When the Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, it was the tallest building in the world -- standing at 1,250 feet tall. This building not only became an icon of New York City, it became a symbol of twentieth century man’s attempts to achieve the impossible. When the Eiffel Tower (984 feet) was built in 1889 in Paris it, in a way, taunted American architects to build something taller. By the early twentieth century, a skyscraper race was on. By 1909 the Metropolitan Life Tower rose 700 feet (50 stories), quickly followed by the Woolworth Building in 1913 at 792 feet (57 stories), and soon surpassed by the Bank of Manhattan Building in 1929 at 927 feet (71 stories). When John Jacob Raskob (previously a vice president of General Motors) decided to join in the skyscraper race, Walter Chrysler (founder of the Chrysler Corporation) was constructing a monumental building, the height of which he was keeping secret until the building’s completion. Not knowing exactly what height he had to beat, Raskob started construction on his own building. In 1929, Raskob and his partners bought a parcel of property at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue for their new skyscraper. Raskob was able to purchase the site for approximately $16 million. After deciding on and obtaining a site for the skyscraper, Raskob needed a plan. Raskob hired Shreve, Lamb & Harmon to be the architects for his new building. The logic of the plan is very simple. A certain amount of space in the center, arranged as compactly as possible, contains the vertical circulation, mail chutes, toilets, shafts and corridors. Surrounding this is a perimeter of office space 28 feet deep. The race was getting very competitive. With the thought of wanting to make the Empire State Building higher, Raskob himself came up with the solution. After examining a scale model of the proposed building, Raskob said, "It needs a hat!" Looking toward the future, Raskob decided that the "hat" would be used as a docking station for dirigibles. The new design for the Empire State Building, including the dirigible mooring mast, would make the building 1,250 tall (the Chrysler Building was completed at 1,046 feet with 77 stories). What is NOT true of the Empire State Building, according to the passage
A. It has become the image of New York City.
B. It has several floor conservatories for tourists.
C. It has attracted many tourists, old and young.
D. It has appeared in many advertisements.