The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as possible within its doors. The reason for this is simple: The longer you stay in the store, the more stuff you’ll see, and the more stuff you see, the more you’ll buy. And supermarkets contain a lot of stuff. The average supermarket, according to the Food Marketing Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens of thousands more. The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a state of information overload. According to brain-scan experiments, the demands of so much decision-making quickly become too much for us. After about 40 minutes of shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead begin shopping emotionally--which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff in our cart that we never intended buying.
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【参考译文】
超市旨在吸引顾客尽可能长时间地停留在店中。其原因很简单：顾客在店里停留的时间越长，看到的商品就越多；而看到的商品越多，买的也就越多。超市中陈列了大量的商品。根据食品推广协会的调查，普通的超市大概有44,000种不同的商品；还有很多超市出售的商品高达上万种。如此多的选择足以使顾客面对超负荷的信息。根据脑部扫描实验，需要快速地做这么多决定就会让我们难以承受。大约在购物40分钟之后，大多人就不会再努力做出理性的选择了，取而代之的就是冲动购物--此时，我们的购物车中已经装了一半根本就没想过要买的东西了。
【难句解析】
（1）The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as possible.
【解析】句子的主干是“The supermarkets designed to...”被动语态翻译的时候变为主动，不定式短语作目的状语，可以翻译为“旨在……”。“lure... into”表示“引诱……做……”，在这里可以意译为“诱惑……停留”。“as much time as possible”表示“尽可能长的时间”。
（2）The reason for this is simple:The longer you stay in the store，the more stuff...
【解析】本句用连词and连接两个比较句。本句包含一个常用的比较结构“the+形容词比较级+...，the+形容词比较级+...”表示“越……，越……”。
（3）And supermarkets contain a lot of stuff.
【解析】本句是简单的“主语+谓语+宾语”结构。“contain”原本表示“包含，包括”，在本句中可以译为“陈列”。
（4）The average supermarket, according to the Food Market Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens of thousands more.
【解析】and连接两个简单句。第一个简单句的主干是“The average supermarket carries items...”；第二个简单句的主干是“many carry...”。according to...意为“根据……”，作方式状语。
（5）The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a state of...
【解析】句子的主干是“The sheer volume of available choice is enough”，不定式“to...”作目的状语，表示“足够去干……”。
（6）According to brain-scan experiments，the demands of so much decision-making quickly become too much for us.
【解析】句子的主干是“the demands of... become...”，表示“……的需求变得……”。
（7）After about 40 minutes of shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead begin shopping emotionally which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff in our cart that we never intended buying.
【解析】句子主干为most people stop struggling to be rationally selective and instead began shopping emotionally，其中instead和rationally，emotionally含转折和对比的意味。after about 40 minutes of shopping为介词短语作时间状语。which is the point是which引导的非限制性定语从句，修饰前面的整个句子。at which引导限制性定语从句，修饰point，相当于when，这个定语从句中主干成分为we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff，in our cart作地点状语。句中的最后一个that引导定语从句，修饰前面的先行词the 50 percent of stuff，整个句子呈现“从句套从句”的句式。
