原文刊登于《Scientific American》（2018.04.10）
原文赏析
①When I was a teenager, my parents often asked me to come along to the store to help carry groceries.②One day, as I was waiting patiently at the check-out, my mother reached for her brand newcustomer loyalty card. ③Out of curiosity, I asked the cashier what information they record. ④He replied that it helps them keep track ofwhat we’re buying so that they can make tailored productrecommendations. ⑤None of us knew about this. I wondered whether mining through millions of customer purchases could reveal hidden consumer preferences and it wasn’t long before the implications dawned on me: are they mailing us targeted ads?
单词实记
grocery 杂货
check-out 收银处
brand new 全新的
loyalty 忠诚
cashier 收银员
keep track of 追踪
recommendation 推荐
preference 偏好
dawn on sb 意识到，想出
targeted 定向的
熟词僻义
tailor 本意为“裁缝”；此处作动词，tailored表示“量身定制的”
mine 本意为“我的”，“矿”；这里作动词，意思是“深入挖掘”
难句剖析
1.He replied that it helps them keep track of what we’re buying so that they can make tailored product recommendations.
主句为“he replied that…”，后面是宾语从句；宾语从句的主干是“it helps them keep track of what”（help sb do sth中，do sth作宾补）；of后面是一个宾语从句，作keep track of这个动词短语的逻辑宾语，what是“we are buying”的宾语。后面的so that……为目的状语。
全文翻译
我年少时，父母常叫我去店里帮着搬货。有一天，我正在柜台边耐心地等着，我母亲来取她的顾客忠诚卡。处于好奇，我问出纳，他们究竟用它来记什么信息。他告诉我，忠诚卡帮他们追踪我们买了什么东西，所以他们可以做出精准的产品推荐。我们谁都没有意识到这一点。我很好奇，究竟研究几百万顾客的消费行为到底能不能揭露他们潜在的购物喜好？不久，我就明白了其用意：他们是不是在给我们发送定向广告？
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