Vocabulary Task
Script and Answers
1. A: Look at this coat, Liz. It is so beautiful.
B: Yeah, I like it very much, and it is made of tweed. Tweeds are the big thing this autumn, you know. How much is it?
A: ￡100.
B: It’s too expensive. It is beyond my budget.
2. A: Hi, Robbie, how about the lawn mower you bought yesterday?
B: It turned out to be useless. I really got taken this time.
A: What a pity! But you’d better not buy things from the cheap Jack. They often sell things with low quality.
B: Thank you, I won’t do that again.
3. A: Where do you usually go shopping, Kathy?
B: I usually go to the supermarket.
A: Why not the convenience store near your house? You can get everything there.
B: Well, they willingly score up customers’ indebtedness on a blackboard. I dislike their doing so.
4. A: I never buy things from the peddlers. They just try to sell you a cheap bill of goods.
B: Neither do I. You know, they always price their wares very high and then discount them. I really hate bargaining with them.
A: And in fact what they sell are usually a dime a dozen.
B: That’s right. I think that’s why many people would rather go a long way to buy things in the department store.
5. A: Jane, why did you buy this car so eagerly?
B: You know. It is so far from my company to my home.
A: How much is it?
B: Well, it cost me $30 000. I had to really dig deep to pay for it, because I’ve been tired of the public transport.
Listening Task
2. Listening Activity
1) First Listening
Answers
1. The first is the appeal to deep-seated drives in the minds of consumers.
2. The second is information regarding the goods or service being sold: its name, its manufacturer, its packaging, its objective attributes, its functions.
2) Second Listening
Answers
1. An advertisement communicates by making use of a specially selected image like a beauty, a curly-headed child, or a celebrity. The image is designed to stimulate “sub-rational impulses and desires” even if they are unacknowledged by their possessor.
2. Some few ads have their emotional appeal in the text, but for the greater number by far the appeal is contained in the artwork. This makes sense, since visual communication better suits more primal levels of the brain. If the viewer of an advertisement actually has the desire, and if the appeal is sufficiently well-fashioned to call it up, then the person can be hooked. The product in the ad may then appear to take on the desirable qualities. Many ads seem to be saying, “If you have this need, then this product will help satisfy it.” It is a primitive equation, but not an ineffective one for selling.
Script and Answers to Self-study
Consumers hooked on advertising
The nature of effective advertisements was recognized fully well by Marshall McLuhan, the late media philosopher. In his Understanding Media, the first sentence of the section on advertising reads, “the continuous pressure is to create ads more and more in the image of audience motives and desires.”
Advertisers are ever more compelled to invoke consumers’ drives and longings; this is the “continuous pressure” McLuhan refers to. Over the past century, the American marketplace has grown increasingly overcrowded, and more products have entered into the mad competition after the public’s dollars. In order to stay in business, an advertiser must strive to cut through the considerable commercial stir by any means available. A study done a few years ago at Harvard University pointed out that the average American is exposed to some 500 ads daily from television, newspapers, magazines, radio, direct mail and so on. To be among the few messages that do manage to gain access to minds, advertisers must be strategic, perhaps even a little underhanded at times.
An advertisement communicates by making use of a specially selected image like a beauty, a curly-headed child, or a celebrity. The image is designed to stimulate “sub-rational impulses and desires” even if they are unacknowledged by their possessor. Some few ads have their emotional appeal in the text, but for the greater number by far the appeal is contained in the artwork. This makes sense, since visual communication better suits more primal levels of the brain. If the viewer of an advertisement actually has the desire, and if the appeal is sufficiently well-fashioned to call it up, then the person can be hooked. The product in the ad may then appear to take on the desirable qualities. Many ads seem to be saying, “If you have this need, then this product will help satisfy it.” It is a primitive equation, but not an ineffective one for selling.
Thus, by giving form to people’s deep-seated desires, and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for, advertisers have the best chance of arresting attention and affecting communication. And that is the immediate goal of advertising. In a word, most advertisements appearing in national media can be understood as having two orders of content. The first is the appeal to deep-seated drives in the minds of consumers. The second is information regarding the goods or service being sold: its name, its manufacturer, its packaging, its objective attributes, its functions.
Real World Listening
1. Predict
Answers
□ Because her coats are a bit small.
□ Because there is a sale on at all department stores.
□ Because Linda may give her some advice.
2. Get the Main Ideas
Answers
Question 1:
□ Bluish gray.
Question 2:
□ Because there is no room for her to bargain with the salesgirl.
Script
Buying a coat in a department store
Jane: My coats seem a bit small for me, as if they have all shrunk.
Linda: hear that there is a sale on at all department stores, and plan to go and have a look. Would you like to go with me?
Jane: reat. Perhaps you could give me some advice.
(At a department store)
Linda: What did you have in your mind to buy? Formal or casual wear?
Jane: I’d better have a look at both.
Linda: How do you like this coat?
Jane: The color is too bright and doesn’t really suit me.
Jane: How about that one? It has a good color and design. What do you think?
Linda: You have a good eye. That’s this year’s latest design.
Jane: Really? Miss, please bring me a coat in this style to try on.
Salesgirl: Which color would you like?
Jane: What colors does it come in?
Salesgirl: Black, white, orange, bluish gray and light brown.
Jane: I most like bluish gray.
Salesgirl: What size are you?
Jane: I am not sure. Please help me to find one that fits.
Salesgirl: Given your height and figure, you could probably wear a size L.
Jane: (after putting it on) This coat doesn’t fit very well. It’s loose at the waist and shoulder. And the sleeves are too long.
Salesgirl: Let me find a smaller one for you to try.
Jane: This one is a good fit, both in waist and length. What do you think, Linda?
Linda: It fits you like a glove.
Jane: How much is it?
Salesgirl: It’s this year’s latest design, so there is no discount. It’s $295.
Jane: It’s too expensive. Can you give me a discount?
Salesgirl: We don’t haggle over prices here.
Linda: There is generally no bargaining in big department stores, but there is in small boutiques and clothes markets. Shall we go and have a look? You may find what you want there. |