1995年考研英语阅读第一篇翻译和解析—本文介绍广告对社会的贡献

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 license would need to be doubled and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 per cent 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 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.

11. 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

12. In the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the advantages of advertising?

[A] Securing greater fame.

[B] Providing more jobs.

[C] Enhancing living standards.

[D] Reducing newspaper cost.

13. The author deems that the well-known TV personality is.

[A] very precise in passing his judgment 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

14. In the author’s opinion,.

[A] advertising can seldom bring material benefit to man by providing information

[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

答案解析

11.

[答案]D

[解析]本题考核的知识点是：句意题。

首先看句子语法，第一句的重点是对as well as的理解。as well as 有两种意思：1）相当于in addition (to),意为“除……外，同，和，也”，如：He gave me money as well as advice. 2)用作连词引出比较对象，意为“和……一样好”。第2）种含义放在本文中才讲得通，这里as well as any相当于as well as any（money spent）, I know of 是定语从句，修饰any。其次，看下文内容。从文章第二句“它直接有助于……”可以推出作者对广告的作用持肯定态度。因此第一句应该被理解为“花在广告上的钱和任何别处花的钱一样值得”。 [D]项正是这个含义的概括，因此为正确项。[B]、[C]选项仅停留在“广告花费钱”的含义上，体现不了对广告的肯定态度；选项[A]是对从句“I know of”的错误理解。

命题意图要求考生正确理解句中为避免重复而省略的部分。

12.

[答案]A

[解析]本题考核的知识点是：事实细节题。

第一段作者对广告给予肯定并且列举广告带来的诸多益处：（1）它直接有助于商品以合理价格迅速销出；（2）在稳定国内市场的同时，使产品能够以有竞争力的价格进入国际市场；（3）它给人以新的消费观，从而大大提高人们的生活水准；（4）它有助于增加市场需求，扩大劳动力市场，有效地扩大就业；（5）它使日报等公共事业的服务价格低廉。由此可见，[B]、[C]和[D]选项都在文中直接涉及，可以排除。第二段首句虽然谈到广告为人们购买的产品和服务的合理价格提供了保障，但是未提及[A]选项“保障更高的知名度”的内容，因而为正确答案。

注意：这种“which is not included”题型相当于except题型，一般要在大范围内搜索，排除原文中已经提到的选项或直接找出与原文不符的选项。

潜在命题点：依据此内容可另出一题：What is the biggest advantage of advertising?

A．Providing more jobs.

B．Enhancing living standards.

C．Reducing the costs of many services.

D．Ensuring the quality of the products and services.

答案为[D]。关键是第二段首句“most important of all” 表明下面所述为最重要的优势，因此在列举题中，要注意关联词的作用。此外，也可用排除法，[A]、[B]、[C]在文中并列，作用相仿，成为答案几率均等，故都应该排除。

13.

[解析]本题考核的知识点是：本题考核的知识点是：作者观点题。

题干要求考生回答作者对文中提到的知名人士的看法。文章第四段谈到该知名人士对广告持否定态度，即他批评广告更多的是在劝诱观众，而不是提供信息。这显然与作者前面第三段用大篇幅对广告赞扬的态度大相径庭，所以作者马上对这种观点进行驳斥，以维护自己的观点。作者认为“他把两者区分得过于细微。因为广告不可避免地要劝说消费者，如果广告的内容仅仅限于提供信息，那将会乏味之极”。由引可以推论作者对知名人士看法持否定态度。因此[D]选项为正确选项。

[A]选项和[C]选项都持肯定态度，可以排除。而[B]选项也不对，因为在文中并未讨论知名人士的兴趣和关心对象问题。nothing but意为：只有，除了……之外都不。

命题意图要求考生正确理解文章局部细节体现的作者态度。

14.

[答案]C

[解析]本题考核的知识点是：作者观点题。

本题考查作者对广告所持的观点。读完全文后，我们已经很清楚作者对广告的态度和观点。先是在前三段肯定广告给社会带来的诸多好处，然后在第四段和第四段又指出广告劝说消费者不仅是不可避免的也是必要的，否则便失去了吸引力，不能把广告的劝诱性作为批评它的论据。[C]选项恰恰符合这一观点，为正确答案。

[A]选项与第三段的内容相悖。[B]选项与第四段作者提出的“广告不可避免地要劝说消费者，内容不仅仅限于提供信息”的看法不一致。[D]选项不正确，作者在末段提到，只提供信息的广告不会引起观众的兴趣，不能由此推出，消费者对广告信息毫无兴趣。

win sb. over(to sth.)=win sb. to do sth. 意思是“说服某人做某事”。

注意：做此类局部作者态度题，可以先看选项中是否有直接可排除之选项；不能排除的再定位，对照进行排除。

全文翻译

花在广告上的钱和我所知花在任何别的方面的钱一样是值得的。它直接有利于商品以合理的价格快速地销售，从而建立稳固的国内市场，并且有可能以有竞争力的价格提供出口商品。通过向公众推出新思想，它极大地促进生活水准的提高。通过帮助增加商品需求，它确保对劳动力的更大需求，因此成为对抗失业的一项有效措施。它降低了许多服务费用：没有广告，日报的价格将是现在的四倍，电视许可证价格会翻一番，乘汽车或地铁出行也将贵出百分之二十。

也许最重要的是，广告对你所购买的产品和服务的合理价值提供了一种保障。除了国会制定的27项法案对广告加以约束之外，也没有哪个正规的广告商胆敢推销与广告承诺不符的产品。他也许会通过误导人的广告暂时愚弄一些人。但他这样做长不了，因为所幸的是，公众很明智，不会再次购买劣质商品。 如果你看见一种商品不断地做广告，我认为这就是最可靠的证明，商品一定与其宣传名副其实，一定体现良好的价值。

广告对社会的物质利益所作的贡献比我能想到的任何其他力量都要大。

有一点我觉得应该在此提及。最近我听到一位电视知名人士宣称，他反对广告，因为广告是劝诱性的，而不是客观地提供信息。他在此划了一条过于清晰的界线。当然广告总是试图劝服。

如果广告仅仅限于提供信息——这一点本身如果不是不可能的话，至少也难以做到，因为即使选择一件衬衫的颜色这样的细节也多少隐含劝说之意——那么广告将变得味同嚼蜡、无人理会了。但也许这就是那位电视名人所希望的结果。