Online shoppers would rather receive an offer for a product or service than make their own offer 3 according to a study led by a Michigan State University scholar that has implications for the fast-growing e-commerce industry. The findings may come as a surprise given that shopping online is an anonymous(匿名的）process that seemingly can give consumers more confidence to drive a hard bargain,said Don Conlon ，Professor of Management in MSU’s Broad College of Business.
But the study found that participants who made their own offers were less successful in sealing the deal and ，when they were successful? worried they overpaid Many shoppers found the process of researching an offer to be a hassle. “ Americans are very busy，and it’s less time-consuming to be the one receiving the offer rather than the one proposing the offer ” Conlon said. u People tend to be happier when they’re in the receiver role. ”
Online spending in the United States is expected to jump 45 percent in the next four years， from $ 226 billion this year to $ 327 billion in 2017，according to Forrester Research Inc. Nevertheless, researches into this prosperous market remain largely focused on the strategies of companies, rather than those o£ shoppers. Conlon’s study is ，obviously, a rare exception.
Conlon got the idea for the study after considering the difference between two popular sites for hotels and airline flights, priceline.com, which takes bids, and hotwire.com ，which provides offers. Using these two models ，Conlon and his fellow researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 850 people who were charged with booking a fictional hotel room and acquiring a fictional antique car. Not only did participants prefer to receive bids, Conlon said ，but they also secured more deals in that receiver role. Further ，when they had to make the bids ，they were left more mentally taxed and regretful.
From an industry perspective，putting customers in the receiver role may help fill more hotel rooms and airplane seats. “If you’re a business with a lot of products3 ” Conlon said，“you may want to be the one making the offers. ” However, when selling single items, such as an antique car， accepting bids may be a better option since that typically drives up the price, he said.
小题1:What can we learn from Para. 1?
A．The result of the study gives customers more confidence.
B．Scholars aren’t surprised at the findings of the study.
C．Online shoppers don’t bargain as much as expected.
D．E-commerce industry drives more hard bargains.小题2:It can be concluded from Conlon’s experiments that______.
A．online shopping is time-consuming
B．given prices help promote online sales
C．online businesses provide a lot of products
D．receiving offers makes online shoppers regretful小题3:The underlined word “taxed” in Para. 4 probably means______.
A．burdened
B．numbed
C．relieved
D．challenged小题4:The passage is mainly about______.
A．the big advantages of online shopping
B．the rapid development of online shopping
C．online shoppers’ preference for taking offers
D．online companies strategies to improve service
