商务英语(BEC)中级考试历年真题(30)

《SELL,SELL,SELL》

　　Last year over 13bn was spent on advertising in the UK and research indicates that most people will have seen 2m sales messages by the time they are 30. Advertising is big business and often acts as the interface between commerce and culture. While there are many adverts that just irritate, there are some that are miniature works of art. (0)... .The advertisers themselves believe they are delivering an important message because they are protecting and promoting a clients brand and extending greater choice to the consumer. (8).........Instead of being free, many TV channels would only be available on subscription packages of about 500 per month and newspapers might cost six times more than their present cover price.

　　There are many different models of advertising practice, but no one is precisely sure what makes a good advert. (9).........While some try to get you to buy a product, others, such as anti-smoking campaigns, aim to get you not to do something. Some adverts are not aimed at consumers at all, but at retailers, shareholders or employees. For example, manufacturers often advertise their products in trade magazines to reassure retailers that a new brand will be widely promoted. Petrol companies often choose to emphasise how environmentally friendly they are; this is to offset any negative public perceptions of the industry rather than to persuade consumers to buy an individual brand of petrol. (10).........This is because petrol is regarded, in advertising terms, as a distress purchase. We get it because we cant do without it, not because we really want it. In general, however, the main aim of advertising is to attribute emotional qualities to a product in order to create an individual brand that the consumer can associate with.

　　Working out whether an advert has been successful is extremely difficult.(11).........For example, what persuaded them to buy a car? You cannot be sure whether it was the advertising, the price, the oppositions distribution, changes in the law or changes in consumer attitudes that was the determining factor. What advertising cant do is make consumers buy something they dont want. It can perhaps persuade you to try something once, but if you dont like what you get, you wont try it again.(12).........In other words, where there is no emotional engagement, such as a consumers feelings about a bag of peas, beliefs are much harder to shift.

　　A Moreover, it is almost impossible to get people to change the way they view things they are indifferent to.

　　B Over the last ten years, other forms of advertising, such as direct marketing, have become increasingly popular as well as scientific.

　　C They dont, as the industry well knows, care enough to be brand loyal to such a product.

　　D Whether you accept this argument or not, you have to recognise that without advertising our world would be very different.

　　E The problem lies in isolating precisely what motivates people to behave in a particular way.

　　FThis is partly because not all advertisements are designed to do the same thing.

　　G The production costs involved in these can reach higher figures than those for the average movie.

《Sell,Sell,Sell》，听名字像是跟销售有关，其实是关于广告的。广告的最终目的就是提升销售。第一段是总体讲述广告业的情况以及广告的作用。第二段介绍了广告的几种形式，不同的公司对广告的要求是不一样的。第三段讲怎么样才能打好广告，一不小心就容易让观众产生逆反心理。

　　第八题，这一空的前后都是在讲广告的作用。前面说做广告的人认为他们是在传递一种重要的信息，因为他们保护并且提升了客户的品牌同时又给消费者提供了更多的选择。后面说要是没有广告的话，很多电视节目就不会免费，而且报纸会比现在贵六倍。从前后的信息可以看出这里是在讲广告的重要性，广告是必不可少的。D选项可以和这里的前后内容相吻合：不管你接不接受这个论断，你都得承认没了广告世界将大不一样。this argument是指前面广告商的那段话，而very different就是引出后面的电视不免费、报纸涨价等等。

　　第九题，这一段是讲广告的不同模式。第一句话就说广告有很多模式，但是没有人能够精确的确定什么才是好的广告。紧接着后面说了不同的广告有不同的目的和侧重点。从while some…的句式可以看出这里是扩展说明的，那么F空应该接一个过渡的句子，表示不同的公司对广告有不同的需求。选项F符合这一特点：这部分是因为不是所有的广告都被设计成干相同的事情。也就是说不同的广告会满足不同的需求。This是指代前面的no one is precisely sure。空格后面的扩展说明可以对应于do the same thing。

　　第十题，这一空前面是以汽油公司为例，说明这些公司的广告并不怎么强调个人品牌，他们更加看重的是整个大环境的友好。后面也是具体解释这一现象的原因。所以相应的第十空也是填入一个过渡句，前面的rather than to persuade consumers to buy an individual brand of petrol是一个暗示，这一空应该填入C：他们并没有像这个行业所熟知的那样看重对这种产品的品牌忠诚度。Brand loyal也就是buy an individual brand of petrol

　　第十一题，最后一段讲什么样的广告才能算是成功的。第一句就说评判很困难。11题空格后面是举例说明。what persuaded them to buy a car是一个关键的句子。因为没有办法判断到底是什么最终说服消费者购买，所以很难评判一个广告是否成功。11题选E，motivate是关键词，可以对应最后一段反复出现的persuade。

　　E选项的句子值得分析理解：The problem lies in isolating precisely what motivates people to behave in a particular way.

　　Isolating在这里不是形容词，孤立的，而是动词的分词形式，isolate此处的用法是：if you isolate an idea, problem etc, you consider it separately from other things that are connected with it。(isolate something from something)将…剔出(以便看清和单独处理)。

　　所以这个句子的含义就是问题在于准确的将人们某种行为的动机给剔除出来。

　　第十二题，这一空的前后都是在说客户对产品喜好的重要性。前面说if you dont like what you get, you wont try it again，后面说where there is no emotional engagement, beliefs are much harder to shift.。没有感情依赖的话，观念很难被转变。从前后内容来看，A选项最适合填入：另外，让人转变对他们不感兴趣的事情的看法几乎是一件不可能的事情。Change the way对应于shift，indifferent to对应 there is no emotional engagement.