湖北省2014高考英语 专项训练 阅读理解6.docVIP

2014高考英语冲刺阅读理解专项 50-A So you want to draw money from a bank? Do it yourself. Want to fix a broadband internet connection? Do it yourself. Need a boarding card for your flight? Do it yourself. In theory, companies can save money by replacing human workers with automated self-service systems, while customers gain more choices and control and get quicker service. There is even talk of self-service doing for the service department what mass production did for factories, by enabling the delivery of services cheaply and on a massive scale. Surely the expansion of self-service into more and more areas is to be welcomed? Not necessarily. When it is done well, self-service can do good to both companies and customers. But when done badly—who has not found themselves trapped in a series of endless touch—tone menus? In areas where self-service is only just started, this is less of a problem: angry customers can after all, always take their business elsewhere. But if every bank were to prefer self-service systems, customers would no longer be able to express their discount by voting with their feet. As a result, some banks, for example, already promise that their telephone-banking services always offer the choice of talking to a human operator. But in return for human service, many companies will simply charge more. Another disagreement to self-service is that while it saves companies money, it does not always save their customers’ time. In the best cases, it does, of course: checking yourself in at the airport can be quicker than queuing or making a phone call. But as more and more tasks are on to customers, they may start to hope for the days of old-fashioned service. All of this suggests that there are limits to how far self-service can be taken. Companies that go too far down the self-service route or to do it incorrectly are likely to find themselves being punished. Instead, a balance between self-service and traditional forms of service is necessary. 1．From this passage, w