1. Answer the questions on the text
1) What is Patagonia’s work environment like?
Patagonia has freeform work environments which have become common enough that barefoot employees, cavorting pets and organic chefs hardly merit a second glance. But the bicycles, the surfboards, the solar panels, the Tibetan prayer flags, the shed full of convalescing owls and hawks all suggest that it is not traditional corporate-land, either. The place is all business, but it's business conducted upside down and inside out. Simply put, it's radical.
2) How does Chouinard view average American businesses?
To Chouinard, the average suit ranks somewhere between alcoholic and criminal on the respect scale, and American business, when powered by the endless consumption and discarding of stuff, is unimaginative at best and evil at worst, responsible for clear-cutting forests, polluting oceans, and bulldozing wetlands to make way for the next condo development. Its modus operandi is unsustainable growth, which he compares to an "out-of-control tumor."
3) What was Chouinard’s first try in the business world?
Back in Burbank, Chouinard installed a coal forge in his parents' garage and became a self-taught blacksmith, hammering out pitons - three-inch strips of steel used for anchoring climbing ropes. Chouinard's pitons were stronger and more elegant than their predecessors, a triumph of minimalist engineering. He sold them out of the back of his car for $1.50 and tried to live on the proceeds.
4) What is the “dirtbag” way according to Chouinard? How does he view it?
Chouinard describes as the "dirtbag" way as living as close to the wild as possible with as little as possible. To Chouinard, the “dirtbag” way never seemed like privation. Rather, it was freedom.
5) How do Chouinard and Malina define Patagonia?
It wouldn't release toxins into rivers or cause nervous breakdowns or chase endless growth. It wouldn't make disposable crap that people didn't really need. Anything it produced would be of the highest quality, manufactured in the most responsible way. When the surf was up or the powder wafted down, employees would be where they ought to be: outside. If an employee's child was sick, the parent would also be where he ought to be: at home. They would keep Patagonia privately held and say no to anything that compromised their values.
6) What big lessons did Chouinard learn from scaling the likes of Yosemite’s EL Capitan?
The biggest was that reaching the summit had nothing to do with where you arrived and everything to do with how you got there. Likewise, he thought, with business: The point was not to focus on making money; focus on doing things right, and the profits would come.
7) Who are Patagonia’s potential customers?
There is no one type of customer here. There are couples pushing double-wide strollers, teenagers and grandparents, and even a woman in high heels.
8) What was the result of Chouinard’s effort to use organic cotton?
Patagonia's cotton sales rose 25 percent and, more important, established an organic-cotton industry so that other companies could cross over. Demand grew and prices decreased, leading to even more demand. In 2006, Wal-Mart became the world's largest purchaser of organic cotton.
9) Summarize the measures that Patagonia took in search of greener materials.
a) use organic cotton instead of non-organic cotton
b) use recycled polyester to produce
c) stop using Chlorine in wool products
d) use a product made of crushed crab shells for odor control instead of antimicrobial silver which is a groundwater pollutant.
e) advise customers to use the shipping by ground or sea—which is more energy-saving than airfreight.
10) Why does Chouinard plan to shift his business to watersports?
Climate change. "We're getting into the surf market, because it's never going to snow again, and the waves are going to get bigger and bigger,"
2. Fill in each blank of the following sentences with one of the phrases in the list given below. Make changes when necessary.
1) After school Alan always threw himself into computer games.
2) Some of his good luck must have rubbed off on me.
3) We are taught from childhood to distance ourselves from a bad neighbor so as to avoid possible negative consequences from being in his proximity.
4) He was pissed off by the man’s rude behavior and began to call names.
5) Susan has an annoying habit of spying on her neighbors.
6) She signed on for a concentrated course in the basics of nursing by the Red Cross.
7) The agreement on the venture follows Samsung's recent pledges to break into new industries to develop future growth engines.
8) According to the agenda, the President will be in residence of this hotel this weekend.
9) Chua's celebration of Chinese parenting and her bizarre assertions fly in the face of everything Western parents hold dear.
10) As a result, durable goods tend to punch above their weight) in determining if the economy is booming or slumping.
11) The basketball players are suiting up in the locker room.
12) Saddled with) the heavy burden of supporting the whole family, he could not pursue the dream of his own.
3. Match the terms in column A with the explanations in column B
A B ___
1) going public A) A sector in which companies in the active
outdoor recreation business provide products
and services for a variety of outdoor activities
such as bicycling, boating and climbing. 2
2) outdoor industry B) A term commonly used to describe the world
of corporations within the United States not
under government ownership. 3
3) corporate America C) The process of performing an initial public
offering (IPO) by a firm, and for the first time
the general public can buy its shares. 1
4) environmental assessment D) Things that define or constrain aspects of
business that are intended to assert business
structure or influence the behavior of
business. 8
5) wilderness adventure E) Activities, often regarded as sports or recreations,
performed by people in areas of natural land
without much cultivation or very sparsely
populated. 5
6) flextime F) Programs by governments, enterprises or
individuals to create sensibility of
environmental protection and to encourage
environment-friendly behaviors like energy
efficiency, recycling, and healthy housing. 9
7) gross revenue G) Process of estimating and evaluating significant
short-term and long-term effects of a program
or project on the environmental quality of
a location. 4
8) rules of business H) Money generated by all of a company's
operations, before deductions for expenses. 7
9) green initiatives I) Non-traditional work scheduling practice which
allows employees to choose their individual
working hours certain limits. 6
10) patented product L) A product in respect of which a patent has been
granted and its production and sale are legally
protected by the patent. 10
