Text 3

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 price, 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 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.

51. 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

52. 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.

53. 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

54. 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

55. The best title for the passage would probably be _____.

[A] Positive and Negative Aspects of Advertising

[B] Benefits Brought by Advertising and Its Persuasive Function

[C] Advertising The Best Persuasive and Information Medium

[D] Advertising the Most Effective Way to Promote Products

Text 4

It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia’s Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group’s on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: “We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn’t just something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.”

The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right to life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia—where an aging population, life extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part—other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right to die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.

Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death—probably by a deadly injection or pill—to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. After a “cooling off” period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54 year old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. “I’m not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I’d go, because I’ve watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks,” he says.

56. From the second paragraph we learn that ________.

[A] the objection to euthanasia is slow to come in other countries

[B] physicians and citizens share the same view on euthanasia

[C] changing technology is chiefly responsible for the hasty passage of the law（D）

[D] it takes time to realize the significance of the law’s passage

57. When the author says that observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling, he means ________.

[A] observers are taking a wait and see attitude towards the future of euthanasia

[B] similar bills are likely to be passed in the US, Canada and other countries

[C] observers are waiting to see the result of the game of dominoes（B）

[D] the effect-taking process of the passed bill may finally come to a stop

58. The word “euthanasia” in the second paragraph most probably means ________.

[A] doctors’ sympathy to dying patients

[B] doctors’ aggressive medical measures to dying patients

[C] doctors’ mercy killing to reduce sufferings of dying patients

[D] doctors’ well-meaning treatment to save dying patients

59. When Lloyd Nickson dies, he will ________.

[A] face his death with calm characteristic of euthanasia

[B] experience the suffering of a lung cancer patient

[C] have an intense fear of terrible suffering（A）

[D] undergo a cooling off period of seven days

60. The author’s attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of ________.

[A] opposition

[B] suspicion

[C] approval（C）

[D] indifference