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The world is rapidly changing from an industrial economy to a service economy. There are fewer and fewer small factories and farms. As a result, a decreasing number of people are employed in manufacturing. How many shoemakers or bakers do you know? You probably don't
know any, but you do know the advertising people for the shoemakers and salespeople for oven
manufacturers. In a service economy such as ours, there are service providers and consumers,
who receive a service. According to the authority of the provider, there are three basic relationships between service providers and consumers: customer and salesperson, student and
teacher, and patient and doctor.
In the retail industry, people often say,“The customer is always right.” What they mean is that a salesperson never argues with a customer. If a 350-pound man wants to buy a pink bikini swimsuit, that's his business. The salesperson is there to make the customer feel good about shopping at that particular store so that he'll come back again and again. A salesperson can try to interest the customer in a different style, but she never tells the customer what to do. In the service relationship between the customer and the salesperson, the customer has all the authority.
The relationship between a student and a teacher is different all over the world. It also varies depending on the age of the student. We tend to accept that“the teacher is always right”through the years of compulsory education. However, once people are old enough to make some choices about their education, the relationship changes. If you want to learn to play the piano, for example, you will probably look for a teacher who will teach you in the way you want to learn. Nevertheless, you still believe that your teacher knows much more about the subject than you do, so in this service relationship, the teacher has medium level of authority.
Certain service providers have such specialized skills and knowledge that we tend to allow them complete authority in making decisions about what is the best. The doctor-patient relationship is an example of such a relationship. We expect (rightly or wrongly) that the doctor is such an expert that if she says,“You need surgery,”we usually don't say,“No, thank you. ”However, the medical profession is changing as many patients are becoming better educated about their conditions. It is now common practice in many parts of the world to get a second doctor's opinion about how to treat a serious illness. Even so, in the traditional doctor-patient relationship, it is the doctor who has most, if not all, of the authority.
In conclusion, most of us will be on both sides in a service relationship at some point in our lives. You may be a customer at noon and a salesperson at 1 p.m. You may be a teacher at the age of twenty-eight and a student at the age of fifty-eight. If you become an expert in a certain field, such as engineering, medicine, law, or psychology, you may be a client or patient one day and the service provider the next. However, you will never be both at the same time, and providing great service to your clients will still be based on the fundamental principle of understanding what your customer wants and needs.【正确答案】：
Ⅰ. THREE BASIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SERVICE PROVIDERS AND CONSUMERS
Ⅱ. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CUSTOMER AND SALESPERSON
Ⅲ. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT AND TEACHER
Ⅳ. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PATIENT AND DOCTOR
Ⅴ. THE ALTERNATION BETWEEN SERVICE PROVIDERS AND CONSUMERS
【题目解析】：论点式提纲的步骤： 第一步：确定文章主题（题目多是主题） 第二步：确定中心论点（多在首段出现） 第三步：总结各段段落大意 第四步：整理全文提纲本文为一篇说明文，介绍了几种关于提供者和消费者的人际关系，以及人们角色的转变。第一段最后一句为本段主旨句，也是后面三段的总括： 服务提供者和消费者之间的三个基本关系Ⅰ. Three basic relationships between service providers and consumers 第2-4段分别介绍了三种关系：消费者和售货员；学生和老师；病人和医生Ⅱ. The relationship between customer and salesperson Ⅲ. The relationship between student and teacher Ⅳ. The relationship between patient and doctor最后一段介绍了人们在服务提供者和消费者之间的角色的转换Ⅴ. The alternation between service providers and consumers