[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:Wanted: a Large Biscuit Tin] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.51]Lesson 26 [00:03.81]Wanted: a large biscuit tin [00:13.48]Who won the prize for the biggest biscuit? [00:18.81]No one can avoid being influenced by advertisements. [00:23.11]Much as we may pride ourselvs on our good taste, [00:26.53]we are no longer free to choose the things we want, [00:29.82]for advertising exerts a subtle influence on us. [00:34.69]In their efforts to persuade us to buy this or that product, [00:38.91]advertisers have made a close study of human nature [00:42.68]and have classified all our little weaknesses. [00:47.10]Advertisers discovered years ago that all of us love to get something for nothing. [00:53.00]An advertisement which begins with the magic word FREE can rarely go wrong. [00:59.59]These days, advertisers not only offer free samples, [01:04.08]but free cars, free houses, and free trips round the world as well. [01:11.32]They devise hundreds of competitions which will enable us to win huge sums of money. [01:17.87]Radio and television have made it possible for advertisers [01:22.05]to capture the attention of millions of people in this way. [01:26.77]During a radio programme, a company of biscuit manufacturers [01:31.29]once asked listeners to bake biscuits and send them to their factory. [01:37.00]They offered to pay $10 a pound for the biggest biscuit baked by a listener. [01:43.57]The response to this competition was tremendous. [01:47.14]Before long, biscuits of all shapes and sizes began arriving at the factory. [01:53.45]One lady brought biscuit on a wheelbarrow. It weighed nearly 500 pounds. [02:00.83]A little later, a man came along with a biscuit which occupied the whole boot of his car. [02:07.77]All the biscuits that were sent were carefully weighed. [02:11.85]The largest was 713 pounds. It seemed certain that this would win the prize. [02:20.02]But just before the competition closed, [02:22.79]a lorry arrived at the factory with a truly colossal biscuit which weighed 2, 400 pounds. [02:31.49]It had been baked by a college student [02:33.73]who had used over 1, 000 pounds of flour, 800 pounds of sugar, [02:39.64]200 pounds of fat, and 400 pounds of various other ingredients. [02:45.66]It was so heavy that a crane had to be used to remove it from the lorry. [02:51.12]The manufacturers had to pay more money than they had anticipated, [02:56.15]for they bought the biscuit from the student for $24, 000.