Advertising¹ is a highly² developed twentieth-century industry. The development of radio, television, cinema, magazines and newspapers has gone hand in hand with the development of advertising. Why is advertising so popular? Is it a waste of money? It has been proved again and again that ?repeated advertising increases product sales. Since it increases production, the price can be reduced. Therefore advertising, instead of making a product more expensive, makes it cheaper.

Advertising is now a scientific business. Once managers would say jokingly, " I know that half of what I spend on advertising is wasted, but I don't know which half." Now, all parts of an advertising programme are properly measured and researched.

What makes a good advertisement? There have been major changes in advertising in the past sixty years.. People read advertisements partly for information and partly for pleasure. Today's advertisements often start with a question, or a puzzle, with the purpose of attracting the reader's attention. Of course, most advertisements contain information. But this is usually contained in a text that is interesting and often funny. Humour³ is very important. Sometimes advertisements tell a story, or the story may be continued over a number of advertisements. However, there is a danger in this. It is possible that the reader or viewer⁴ will remember the advertisement but not the name of the product.

1. The purpose of advertising is ____.

A. to increase product sales

B. to make a product much better

C. to spend more money

D. to reduce the production

2. Which of the following can be used in place of the underlined⁵ phrase⁶ "hand in hand" ?

A. Here and there. B. Again and again.

C. As usual. D. At the same time.

3. What is meant by what managers said in the second paragraph⁷?

A. A11 the money on advertising was wasted.

B. Not all the advertisements were well designed.

C.A11 the managers knew about advertising then.

D. Managers spent no money on advertising.

4. What does the writer think of advertising?

A. Useless. B. Unnecessary⁸. C. Important. D. Wasteful⁹.

KEY: 1. A 2. D 3. B 4. C