Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable prices, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labour, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television licence would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 percent more.
And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven Acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it, and that it represents good value.
Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of. There is one more point I feel I ought to touch on. Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs. He was drawing excessively fine distinctions. Of course advertising seeks to persuade.
If its message were confined merely to information — and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive — advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention. But perhaps that is what the well-known television personality wants.
1.By the first sentence of the passage the author means that_______.
A.he is fairly familiar with the cost of advertising
B.everybody knows well that advertising is money consuming
C.advertising costs money like everything else
D.it is worthwhile to spend money on advertising
2.In the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the advantages of advertising?
A.Securing greater fame. C.Enhancing living standards.
B.Providing more jobs. D.Reducing newspaper cost.
3.The author deems that the well-known TV personality is_______.
A.very precise in passing his judgement on advertising
B.interested in nothing but the buyers' attention
C.correct in telling the difference between persuasion and information
D.obviously partial in his views on advertising
4.In the author's opinion,_______.
A.advertising can seldom bring material benefit to man by providing
B.advertising informs people of new ideas rather than wins them over
C.there is nothing wrong with advertising in persuading the buyer
D.the buyer is not interested in getting information from an advertisement
5.Advertising can be best depicted as_______.
A.distribution of information B.measure of promotion
C.a kind of production cost D.a way to persuade consumer to buy
長難例句分析
［長難例句］Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs.
［結構分析］本句中，主干是I heard a well-known television personality declare...，that引導的是賓語從句。在這個賓語從句中，because it persuades rather than informs是原因狀語從句。Recently是副詞作狀語。
［參考譯文］近來，我聽到一位電視名人聲稱，他反對廣告，因為廣告是在說服人而不是提供信息。
全文參考譯文
把錢花在做廣告上是我知道的最好的花錢方式。廣告直接幫助貨物以合理價格快速銷售，由此建立穩(wěn)定的國內(nèi)市場，并使以競爭價格出口變得可能。通過把人們的注意力吸引到新觀念上來，它有助于極大提高生活水平。通過促進需求的增加，它確保對勞動力的需求增加，所以它是應對失業(yè)的有效方法。它降低了許多服務的成本，沒有廣告，日報價格就會增加四倍，電視收視費也會翻番，乘公交車或地鐵會多花20％。
最重要的也許是，廣告為你所買的產(chǎn)品和服務提供合理的價值保證。除了27個國會法案控制著廣告條款這一事實外，沒有一家廣告商敢于促銷與廣告內(nèi)容不符的產(chǎn)品。他可能會通過令人誤解的廣告，暫時愚弄某些人。但他這樣做的時間不會很長，因為，慶幸的是，公眾有很好的判斷力，他們不會第二次購買質(zhì)量低下的產(chǎn)品。如果你看到一件物品被連續(xù)地做廣告，那么這是我知道的最確信的證明，這件物品名副其實，表現(xiàn)出很高的價值。
廣告比我所能想起的任何其他手段都更能帶給人們物質(zhì)利益。還有一點我覺得應該涉及一下。近來，我聽到一位電視名人聲稱，他反對廣告，因為廣告是在說服人而不是提供信息。他過分挑剔了。廣告的目的本來就是去說服人。
如果廣告僅限于提供信息，其本身即使可能，也會很難實現(xiàn)，因為即使是襯衫顏色的選擇這種細節(jié)也帶有說服性——廣告將會如此令人厭煩，以至于沒有人會注意。但也許那正是那位電視名人所想要的。
題目答案與解析
1.作者在文章的第一句中指出________。
A.他對廣告的費用非常了解 B.人人都知道做廣告耗費金錢
C.做廣告像其他事情一樣需要花錢 D.花錢做廣告值得
【答案】D
【解析】第一句作者指出：“花錢做廣告是我知道的最好的花錢方式?！闭_答案為D項。
2.根據(jù)本文，下面哪項不是廣告的優(yōu)點？
A.獲得更大聲譽?！.提供更多的工作?！.提高生活水平。 D.降低報紙成本。
【答案】A
【解析】從文章第一、第二段可以得出正確答案。B項與文章第一段第四句“通過促進需求的增加，它確保對勞動力的需求，因此是抵制失業(yè)的有效方法”一致。C項與第一段第三句內(nèi)容一致。D項與第一段最后一句內(nèi)容一致。A項在文中未涉及，因此A項正確。
3.作者認為電視名人________。
A.對廣告的評價非常精確
B.只想引起購買者的注意
C.對說服和提供信息之間的區(qū)別的講述是正確的
D.對廣告的看法明顯有偏見
【答案】D
【解析】依據(jù)文章最后兩段。電視名人的觀點在第四段第二句，他反對廣告，認為，廣告的目的在于勸說而不在于提供信息。第三、四句中，作者提出了自己的觀點：“他過分挑剔了。廣告的目的本來就是去說服人?！边@表明作者不同意電視名人的觀點。由此可知。D項為正確答案。
4.根據(jù)作者的觀點，________。
A.廣告不可能通過提供信息給人帶來物質(zhì)利益
B.廣告給人們提供新的觀念而不是爭取購買者
C.廣告勸購物者購物并沒有錯
D.購買者對從廣告中獲取信息不感興趣
【答案】C
【解析】從第四段最后一句“廣告的目的本來就是去說服人”和最后一段第一句可以得出答案。C項為正確答案。A項與第三段作者的觀點相反。B項與作者觀點明顯不符。D項文章未曾提及。
5.做廣告可以描述為______。
A.信息的傳播 B.促銷的手段
C.一種生產(chǎn)成本 D.說服消費者去購買的一種方式
【答案】A
【解析】本文講到了做廣告的各方面作用：促銷產(chǎn)品、產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量的保證、企業(yè)形象等，可以說是綜合信息的傳播。
