In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to Lap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion. companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because business people typically know what product they’re looking for.

　　Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.

　　Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools chat allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers, Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offering, or other events.But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. Thar's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.

　　But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money, The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right. kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers, And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop m silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.

　　1.What do we learn about the present Web business?

　　A) Web business is no longer in fashion.

　　B) Business-to-business sales are the trend.

　　C) Web business is prosperous in the consumer market.

　　D) Many companies still lack confidence in Web business.

　　2.Established business partners are preferred in Web business because____________.

　　A) they are more creditable than others

　　B) they specify the products they want

　　C) they have access to the company's private intranet

　　D) they are capable of conducting online transactions

　　3.Pointcast Network is most probably_______________.

　　A) a company that develops the latest push software

　　B) a tool that promotes a company's online marketing

　　C) the firs! company that used an online push software

　　D) the most popular software that helps a company push

　　4.Net purists arc most worried that_________________.

　　A) only the requested information comes to the screen

　　B) the Net is filled with commercial promotion

　　C) the difference between the Web and TV will fade

　　D) push technology will dominate the screen of the computers

　　5.What does the author intend to express by mentioning Amazon.com'?

　　A) Its success is attributed to push strategies.

　　B) It is prosperous without push strategies.

　　C) It is highly concerned about the cost of computing power.

　　D) It is a good example of the flourishing online business.