【正文】 ncing. Pursuing certification would make sense for American wood panies only if they marketed most of their products abroad. But that is not the case American wood businesses sell most of their products in the United States, catering to a very large customer base that is satisfied with the merchandise. 14 Listening Well, despite what many people say, there’s good reason to think that many American wood panies will eventually seek equal certification for their wood products. First off, consumers in the United State don’t treat all advertising the same. They distinguish between advertising claims that panies make about their own products and claims made by independent certification agencies. Americans have a lot of confidence in independent consumer agencies. Thus ecologically minded Americans are likely to react very favorably to wood products ecologically certified by an independent anization with the international reputation for trustworthiness. Second point, of course it’s true that American consumers care a lot about price. Who doesn’t? But studies of how consumers make their decisions show that price along determines consumers’ decisions only when the price of one peting product is much higher or lower than another. When the price difference between two products is small, say less than 5%, as this case with certified wood, Americans often do choose on factors other than price. And Americans are being increasingly convinced of the value of preserving and protecting the environment. And third, US wood panies should definitely pay attention to what’s going on in the wood business internationally, not because of foreign consumers, but because of foreign petition. As I just told you, there’s good chance that many American consumers will be interested in equal certified products. And guess what, if American panies are slow capturing those customers, you can be sure that foreign panies will soon start crowding into the American market, offering equal certified wood that domestic panies don’t. 15 Integrated writing 8—the Chevalier Reading Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (17251708) wrote a ling memoir recounting his life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous people, including kings and writers, his memoir has bee a valuable historical source about European society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was. For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and it is known that he spend a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money. Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and conversed. However, critics plain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier. Critics have also questioned the memoir’s account of the Chevalier’s escape form a notorious prison in Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Veian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable reading, it is more likely that the Chevalier’s jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier had a number of politically wellconnected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe. 16 Listening No memoir can possibly be correct in every detail. But still, the Chevalier’s memoir is pretty accurate overall, and is by and large a reliable historic source. Let’s look at the accuracy of the three episodes mentioned in the reading. First, the loan from the merchant. Well, that doesn’t mean that Chevalier was poor. Let me explain. We know that in Switzerland the Chevalier spent huge amounts of money on parties and gambling, and he had wealth. But it was a kind of property you have to sell first to get money. So he usually took a few days to convert his assets into actual money. So when he ran out of cash, he had borrowed someone while he was waiting for his money to arrive. But that’s not being poor. Second, the conversations with Voltaire. The Chevalier’s state in his memoir that each night immediately after conversing with Voltaire, he wrote down everything he could remember about that particular nice conversation. Evidently the Chevalier kept his notes of these conversations for many years, and referred to them when writing the memoir. Witnesses who live d with Chevalier in his later life confirmed that he regularly consulted the note and journals when posing the memoir. Third, the Chevalier’s escaped from the prison in Venice. Other prisoners in that prison had even more powerful friends than he did, and none of them were ever able to bribe their way to freedom. So Bribery hardly seems likely in his case. The best evidence, though, es from some old Veian government documents. They indicate that soon after the Chevalier escaped from the prison, the ceiling of the old prison room had to be repaired. Why would they need to repair a ceiling on last year’s escape exactly as he said he d