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  3. Cyberia--Internet Cafes Eva Pascoe rides to work

Cyberia--Internet Cafes Eva Pascoe rides to work

游客2023-12-20  21
问题                             Cyberia--Internet Cafes
   Eva Pascoe rides to work on a motorbike. Her business wardrobe features such items as black leggings, furry leopard - skin jumpers, a faded denin jacket and biking leathers. She looks as if she might be a trendy market manager, or someone who works the day shift in a student cafe. In fact she is a very rich, very successful businesswoman.
   Pascoe’s business base is in the city of London, not far from the uban loft space she owns in a fashionable city residential area. But she is as likely to be found at business meetings in Tokyo, New York or Paris. At the age of 31, Pascoe is the brain behind Cyberia, which she claims is the world’s first “cyberia cafe.”
   At Cyberia, experienced Internet surfers can play with the latest cyber technology - Net virgins can learn how to log on - while munching their way through what she describes as an "obscene nacho sandwich" or any of the other dishes offered on the highly priced Cyberia menu.
   Pascoe founded Cyberia with partner Gene Teare in September 1994. Since then, the company has turned over approximately 5 million pounds. Before the end of 1996 Pascoe intends to float the company on the stock market. Yet the venture started out very modestly, in a small cafe behind London’s Tottenham Court Road. The decor there is strictly lowly--stripped floors, distressed walls, ambient music, funky art - yet it has turned into a global concept. Today, Cyberia cafes can be found in the British cities of Manchester and Edinburgh, and in Paris,Tokyo and New York. On the list for future Cyberia are Glasgow, Lisbon, San Franciso, British, Moscow and Delhi.
   The company is diversifying fast. Multimedia training and development sessions are held in the Trans- Cyberia and Sub-Cyberia basement venues beneath the cafes themselves. There is a range of Cyberia designer accessories, such as T - shirts and mousepads. The company even boasts an online dating agency. The Cyberia magazine was launched early in 1996, while the world’s first online “television station”, Channel Cyberia, launched ill Britain in May. Cyberia Records - copies of Samples taken from the Net, for use by DJs - is promised before long. Pascoe is unstoppable, a cyberspace version of the entrepreneur Richard Branson. She grew up in rigidly communist Poland, but has made the transformation to free -wheeling business entrepreneur with incredible ease. At first, however, the prospects for cyberia did not look good. At the lunch of the first cafe, Pascoe spent most of her day trying to buy an espresso machine that could make good coffee. “It was incredibly disorganised,” says someone who worked there as a cyberhost. "There was no proper Kitchen. Four out of the five company directors had other jobs."
   Eighteen months on, many insiders say things are not much changed. "It’s half - cocked," says Ivan Pope; who runs a nearby design agency." You never get served. The coffee’s always cold. It’s chaos. "In- deed, many industry analysis are sceptical about Pascoe’s ambitions. "Cyberia is simply a restaurant chain with a grimmick, "says David Tabizel, director of a multimedia company based in the city of London.
   Cyberia’s trick, however, was to spot - before anyone else - that the Internet was about to turn into an everyday resource. "They managed to capture the mysterious zeitgeist of where people want to be," says John Browning, editor - in - chief of Wired magazine. The company had brilliant branding, too. "It’ s a great name," says David Tabizel, noting the play on words with Siberia, the vast, desolate region in the north of Russia. Another advantage, say analysts,is the company’ s decision not to open clones of its original restaurant in each new location: Every Cyberia is tailored to its city’ s needs.
   It is doubtful that anything would have come of the idea if Pascoe had not been behind it from the start. She has been described variously as" weird and intense", "a magnificent self - publicist", "very charismatic, very smart", "a pioneer in integrating people and technology";" an evangelist for the Internet". She is, indeed, an unstoppable force of nature. "I don’t need that much sleep," she says, in her slightly broken English, downing another black coffee. "Around four or five hours is enough for me."
   Possessions tie her down. "My security is my knowledge... Because information changes so quickly and I get so much input from the Net, I have to keep my home life simple. My apartment is full of white walls... There’s nothing to distract me. "She gets online at 7 a. m. , works weekends, is rarely home before mid- night. She can’t remember her last holiday. Even on weekend trips to see friends in Spain and get some sun she takes her laptop. She has a contract for a book on interfaces; she is trying to write up her Ph. d. thesis on human computer interaction. "I don’t usually eat until the evening, "she says. "I find it distracts my energy. [br] How do people evaluate Eva Pascoe?
选项 A、A very charismatic and smart businesswoman.
B、A conformist.
C、A supporter of knowledge.
D、A pioneer in combining technology and money - making.
答案 A
解析 第8段中“She has been described variously as weird and intense’，‘a magnificent self—publicist’，‘very charismatic，very smart’，‘a pioneer in integrating people and technology’，‘an evangelist for the Internet’”；“charismatic”为“of or relaing to a personal quality attributed to those who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm”领导魅力。
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