Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the CommunityAdvertisers tend to think b

Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the CommunityAdvertisers tend to think b

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Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the Community
Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they’re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. ‘It’s iniquitous,’ they say, ‘that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it’s the consumer who pays…’
The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement.
Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway byelaws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.
We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!
Another thing we mustn’t forget is the ‘small ads.’ which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine.  What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished(完成的,实现的)through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the ‘hatch, match and dispatch’ column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or ‘agony’ column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It’s the best advertisement for advertising there is!
1. What is main idea of this passage?
A. Advertisement.   
B. The benefits of advertisement.
C. Advertisers perform a useful service to communities.   
D. The costs of advertisement.
2. The attitude of the author toward advertisers is
A. appreciative.    B.  trustworthy.   
C. critical.     D.  dissatisfactory.
3. Why do the critics criticize advertisers?
A. Because advertisers often brag. 
B. Because critics think advertisement is a “waste of money”.
C. Because customers are encouraged to buy more than necessary. 
D. Because customers pay more.
4. Which of the following is Not True?
A. Advertisement makes contribution to our pockets and we may know everything.
B. We can buy what we want.
C. Good quality products don’t need to be advertised.
D. Advertisement makes our life colorful.
5. The passage is_______________
A. Narration.     B.  Description.
C. Criticism.     D.  Argumentation.
答案

小题1:C
小题2:A
小题3:A
小题4:C
小题5:C
解析

文章以因果、对比的手法写出有没有广告的后果及广告的真正作用。文章首先指出广告商遭批评的原因:广告商夸大和人们认为广告浪费钱财、商品价格就搞;然后作者以有无广告的后果突出其功能,没有广告,商品价更高,生活单调、乏味。有了广告,商品价低,生活丰富多彩,人们获取各种信息。
答案详解
小题1:广告对社会的服务很有用。作者从三方面来叙述广告作用:第二段点出如果广告不为产品开辟广大的市场,我们就得付出很多钱,正是因为大量的广告费用,消费者的商品才会那么便宜。广告除销售商品外,其重要的功能在通知/告诉信息,有关家用商品的许多只是来自广告,还有新产品的介绍。
第三段讲了美化环境功能。如果火车站的墙上和报上没有广告,那会怎么样。一幅悦人心目,机智的广告将改变一切。
第四段讲了它为我们省钱:别忘了广告对我们口袋作出积极的贡献。报纸、电台、电视台公司没有这笔收入很难生存。我们的报纸,我们付给很少,或者说,我们能享受那么多的节目完全是因为广告商花的钱。如果要我们付报纸的全价,那我们要花多少钱!
最后一段讲了各种专栏的功能。人们可以在这些栏目找工作、买卖房子、宣布婚丧嫁娶信息。这些都围着一个中心:广告对社会服务的有用性。
A. 广告。太笼统。B. 广告之优点。文章不是讲优点,而是讲服务于社会的功能。D. 广告费用。
小题2:欣赏/赞赏。从上述注释也可推知是A项。最重要的,作者提出种种功能,是为了反驳第一段内提到的论点:完全是非生产企业每年吸收几百万镑,这说明这些大公司利润有多高。最重要的是消费者付的广告费等。反驳更说明了A项对。
B. 值得信任。 C. 批评。 D. 不满意。
小题3:因为广告商常常爱吹,。见难句译注1.。
B. 因为批评者认为广告浪费钱。 C. 因为广告促使消费者购买不必要的东西。 D. 因为消费者支付更多。
小题4:优质产品不需要广告。一切产品都需要广告,新产品、老产品都需要。
A. 广告对我们的口袋作出贡献。 B. 我们可以买到我们所需的。 D. 广告使我们生活丰富多彩。这三条都提到也是真实的。
小题5:文章一开始就提到对广告的批评,然后作者以对比的手法说明其功能。A. 叙事。B. 描写。 D. 议论
举一反三
Mules
Although the top men in smuggling(走私)business must work together, most of a syndicate’s(集团)small fry, especially the mules, know only their immediate contacts. If caught there is little they can give away. A mule probably will not even know the name of the person who gives him his instructions, nor how to get in touch with him. Usually he even does not know the person to whom he has to make delivery. He will be told just to sit tight in a certain hotel or bar until someone contacts him. In this way if he is blown, coming through airport customs he cannot unwittingly lead agents to the next link in the chain. All the persons at the receiving end do is to hang around the airport among the waiting crowd, and see that the mule comes through safely. If he does not, he is dimply written off(报废;注销)as a loss. To make identification of mules easier, several syndicates have devised their own “club ties” so that a mule wearing one can immediately be picked out.
Mules often receive careful training before embarking on their first journey. One Beirut organization, for example, uses a room with three airline seats in it. There the trainee mules sit for hours on end wearing weighted smuggling vests beneath their clothes, so that they become accustomed to standing up after a long flight in a natural way, and without revealing what they are carrying. An outfit in Brussels maintained a comfortable apartment where the mules could relax and get a firm grip on themselves on the night before their first journey; they were helped to dress before setting out for the airport in the morning. More often than not a courier will not know precisely where he is going or what flight number is until he is actually handed his tickets at the airport. This prevents the careless boast in some bar or to a girl friend the night before.
Mules occasionally run off with the goods to keep the profit themselves. As insurance against this, a syndicate often sends a high-up on the same plane to keep a wary eye on couriers, particularly new ones. Even then things can go badly wrong. One international currency smuggler who was having trouble getting money out of Britain was offered help by a group of men who said they were in a position to “fix thing” – for a fee of course. Foolishly, the smuggler agreed to accept their help. When he got to London’s Heathrow Airport, he handed over to one of the men a black suitcase containing nearly $90,000 in cash, destined for Frankfurt. Just to keep an eye on things, the smuggler went along on the same plane. When they landed at Frankfurt he was handed back his suitcase. He beat a straight path to the men’s toilet, opened the case, and found only old clothes. The courier had switched suitcase en route, but the smuggler could hardly run to the police and complain that “the man who was smuggling money out of England for me has stolen it.”
小题1:What is a “mule”?
A A person who sends smuggling goods for a syndicate is called mule.
B A person in charge of smuggling goods is called mule.
C A person who makes delivery for a syndicate is called mule.
D A person who receives instructions from a smuggler is called mule.
小题2:The sentence “if he is blown” in line (6) is closest in meaning to
A if he is arrested.                  B if he is recognized, but not necessarily arrested.
C if he is recognized and arrested.     D if he runs away.
小题3:Why does the author give an example in the last paragraph?
A To show how a smuggler is caught. 
B To show a smuggler is afraid of the police.
C To show to keep a wary eye on couriers is useless.
D To show mules may keep the profit for themselves.
小题4:how does a mule work?
A Jointly.                   B Independently.
C consciously.               D Separately.
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
The Development of Cities
Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern(现代文明之前)era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate(财产)subdivision(细分再分的部分)there proceeded much faster than population growth.
小题1:With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
A Types of mass transportation.
B Instability of urban life.
C How supply and demand determine land use.
D The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
小题2:Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?
A To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
B To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
C To show mass transportation changed many cities.
D To contrast their rate of growth.
小题3:According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?
A It was expensive.
B It happened too slowly.
C It was unplanned.
D It created a demand for public transportation.
小题4:The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
A that is large.
B that is used as a model for land development.
C where the development of land exceeded population growth.
D with an excellent mass transportation system.
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Some futurologists have assumed that the vast upsurge(剧增)of women in the workforce may portend a rejection of marriage. Many women, according to this hypothesis, would rather work than marry. The converse(反面)of this concern is that the prospects of becoming a multi-paycheck household could encourage marriage. In the past, only the earnings and financial prospects of the man counted in the marriage decision. Now, however, the earning ability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner. Data show that economic downturns tend to putting off marriage because the parties cannot afford to establish a family or are concerned about rainy days ahead. As the economy comes to life, the number of marriages also rises.
The increase in divorce rates follows to the increase in women working outside the home. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The impact of a wife’s work on divorce is no less cloudy than its impact on marriage decisions. The realization that she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choose divorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally plausible(似是而非的). Tensions grounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. By raising a family’s standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family’s financial and emotional stability.
Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce. On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.
Also, a major part of women’s inequality in marriage has been due to the fact that, in most cases, men have remained the main breadwinners. A working wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Depending upon how the couple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it could create new insecurities.
小题1:The word “portend” (Line 2, Para.1) is closest in meaning to“_____”.
A.defyB.signalC.suffer fromD.result from
小题2:It is said in the passage that when the economy slides_____.
A.men would choose working women as their marriage partners
B.more women would get married to seek financial security
C.even working women would worry about their marriages
D.more people would prefer to remain single for the time being
小题3:If women find fulfillment through work outside the home,_____.
A.they are more likely to dominate their marriage partners
B.their husbands are expected to do more housework
C.their marriage ties can be strengthened
D.they tend to put their career before marriage
小题4:One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that_____.
A.they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom
B.they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands
C.they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations
D.they tend to suspect their husbands? loyalty to their marriage
小题5:Which of the following statements can best summarize the authors view in the passage?
A.The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic situation of the country.
B.Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality in marriage.
C.In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remain independent
D.The impact of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case.

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Antinuclear Demonstration
Police fired tear gas and arrested more than 5,000 passively resisting protestors Friday in an attempt to break up the largest antinuclear demonstration ever staged in the United States. More than 135,000 demonstrators confronted police on the construction site of a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant scheduled to provide power to most of southern New Hampshire. Organizers of the huge demonstration said, the protest was continuing despite the police actions. More demonstrators were arriving to keep up the pressure on state authorities to cancel the project. The demonstrator had charged that the project was unsafe in the densely populated area, would create thermal pollution in the bay, and had no acceptable means for disposing of its radioactive wasters. The demonstrations would go on until the jails and the courts were so overloaded that the state judicial system would collapse.
Governor Stanforth Thumper insisted that there would be no reconsideration of the power project and no delay in its construction set for completion in three years. “This project will begin on time and the people of this state will begin to receive its benefits on schedule. Those who break the law in misguided attempts to sabotage the project will be dealt with according to the law,” he said. And police called in reinforcements from all over the state to handle the disturbances.
The protests began before dawn Friday when several thousand demonstrators broke through police lines around the cordoned-off construction site. They carried placards that read “No Nukes is Good Nukes,” “Sun-power, Not Nuclear Power,” and “Stop Private Profits from Public Peril.” They defied police order to move from the area. Tear gas canisters fired by police failed to dislodge the protestors who had come prepared with their own gas masks or facecloths. Finally gas-masked and helmeted police charged into the crowd to drag off the demonstrators one by one. The protestors did not resist police, but refused to walk away under their own power. Those arrested would be charged with unlawful assembly, trespassing, and disturbing the peace.
小题1:What were the demonstrators protesting about?
A Private profits.     B Nuclear Power Station.
C The project of nuclear power construction.   D Public peril.
小题2:Who had gas-masks?
A Everybody.    B A part of the protestors.
C Policemen.    D Both B and C.
小题3:Which of the following was NOT mentioned as a reason for the demonstration?
A Public transportation.    B Public peril.
C Pollution.             D Disposal of wastes.
小题4:With whom were the jails and courts overloaded?
A With prisoners.        B With arrested demonstrators.
C With criminals.        D With protestors.
小题5:What is the attitude of Governor Stanforth Thumper toward the power project and the demonstration?
A stubborn.       B insistent.     C insolvable.        D remissible.
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Professional sports are very popular in the United States and they are big business. The most popular sports are basketball, football and baseball. ___1___ has its own season. And ___2___ supporters. Professional teams are named for the cities ___3___ they are located. When a team plays in a championship game, most people in the city ___4___ the game with interest and enthusiasm. Basketball is ___5___ around the world. Professional basketball games in the US ___6___ indoors during winter months. From November to April ___7___ can find a professional basketball game several nights a week in most large ___8___ cities. Basketball is an American sport. It ___9___ the national pastime.
The game is played in the evening ___10___ every night of the week and ___11___ weekends as well. The season begins in April and ___12___ in the October. Football ___13___ most popular professional sport in the US. It is played on Sundays ___14___ the fall from August to January. American football is different ___15___ international football, ___16___ Americans called soccer. Both games require ___17___ and specialized skills. Professional players are very ___18___.The most famous players ___19___ millions of dollars for their playing skill. American best players have higher ___20___ than the country’s president.
1. A. Every     B. Both   C. Each   D. All
2. A. million   B. millions     C. million of   D. millions of
3. A. when      B. where C. who    D. whose
4. A. follow    B. walk   C. run     D. jump
5. A. well-known   B. well    C. known       D. fame
6. A. played    B. is played    C. plays   D. are played
7. A. somebody      B. one     C. anyone       D. everybody
8. A. America B. England     C. American   D. English
9. A. was called      B. has been called   C. is called     D. be called
10. A. nearly   B. close   C. closely       D. near
11. A. at  B. in       C. on      D. during
12. A. finish   B. finishing    C. finished      D. finishes
13. A. became B. is become   C. is becoming       D. has become
14. A. during  B. while  C. on      D. at
15. A. of B. from   C. with    D. about
16. A. when    B. that     C. where D. which
17. A. strong  B. strength    C. strengthen  D. stronger
18. A. well pay     B. good pay  C. well paid    D. good paid
19. A. make    B. had     C. got     D. received
20. A. money  B. salaries       C. pay     D. wage
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
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