英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 24

[00:01.00]Lesson 24 II.Read 4.Jewellery Shining Once Again in China;

[00:07.90]Strolling through nearly every city,;

[00:11.71]you can find jewellery shops and women wearing necklaces,;

[00:16.71]earrings,rings and bracelets.;

[00:20.89]"Things have changed dramatically,"said a middle-aged woman;

[00:25.88]who had just bought a diamond ring at a jewellery exhibition;

[00:30.61]held by a small arts and crafts store in Beijing's Chaoyang District.;

[00:36.47]"I'm the kind of woman;

[00:38.97]who loves dressing up more than anything else," she said.;

[00:43.05]"But to my great regret,during the cultural revolution,;

[00:47.28]when I was a young woman,I couldn't make myself beautiful;

[00:51.32]by wearing fashionable clothes and beautiful jewellery.;

[00:55.59]Now I am happy to have a chance to wear jewellery again;

[01:00.36]now that it is becoming popular in China.";

[01:04.49]People,both young and old,women and men,;

[01:09.22]have begun showing new interest in jewellery,;

[01:12.58]especially since 1982,;

[01:15.67]when the government reopened its domesitc gold market;

[01:19.75]after it was shut down for 21 years.;

[01:23.75]But different people think of jewellery in different ways.;

[01:29.93]Recompense;

[01:32.61]Fu Cong,60, a retired man in Hohhot,;

[01:37.65]capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,;

[01:41.37]spent 700 yuan he had saved up for a couple of years;

[01:45.96]to buy his wife a gold wedding ring for her 58th birthday.;

[01:51.32]"I consider it a recompense," he said.;

[01:55.05]"When we were married 30 years ago,;

[01:58.09]I had neither the money nor the idea to buy her a wedding ring;

[02:02.90]since in the 1950s, a gift like this;

[02:06.63]would have been considered wasteful and bourgeois.";

[02:10.81]Overjoyed at wearing the precious gift her husband gave her,;

[02:15.94]his wife said that she has taken the ring as a good sustenance;

[02:20.89]and hopes that their marriage will last forever.;

[02:25.07]"Wearing rings, earrings,necklaces and other ornamental jewels;

[02:31.52]was very popular when I was a child,"she said.;

[02:35.20]"My ears were pierced a few days after I was born;

[02:39.20]as were most little girls' at that time,;

[02:42.01]and I began wearing a pair of earrings when I was a child.";

[02:46.74]She said that she never had a necklace or a ring;

[02:51.05]because wearing jewellery was no longer done when she grew up,;

[02:55.09]and people were criticized for wearing jewels.;

[02:59.13]Wang Weilan,another woman in Hohhot,has another view toward jewellery.;

[03:06.04]A few months ago, she spent several thousand yuan on a gold ring;

[03:11.58]and a pair of earrings.;

[03:13.90]"I would rather rely on gold and jewels;

[03:17.35]than on paper currency for protection;

[03:19.94]against price increases," she said.;

[03:23.16]"Although I've put some of my money in a bank,;

[03:26.21]I'm still afraid of devaluation.";

[03:29.98]Wealth For many elderly people,;

[03:35.34]jewellery is no longer an ornament to enhance beauty;

[03:39.33]but a symbol of wealth or a memento.;

[03:43.10]So they pay less attention to the external design;

[03:47.42]and care much more about intrinsic value.;

[03:51.55]But most who wear jewellery these days do so for beauty's sake.;

[03:57.86]"Even a few years ago,I considered jewellery a luxury.;

[04:03.22]I preferred durable consumer goods,like colour televisions,;

[04:08.08]refrigerators and highgrade furniture.;

[04:12.08]Now that I have these things I think of jewellery as a necessity,";

[04:17.26]said He Ming, a 24-year-old Beijing woman.;

[04:21.76]Cheap,imitation gold and ivory rings and necklaces;

[04:26.71]were very popular a couple of years ago;

[04:29.52]and had a special appeal to young women with low incomes.;

[04:34.34]They liked gilt necklaces and earrings,;

[04:37.52]because they look like the real thing but were much cheaper.;

[04:42.70]But with expanding jewellery markets,;

[04:45.97]the introduction of foreign products and rising living standards,;

[04:50.51]many people, especially young women,have become more selective;

[04:55.73]and are no longer satisfied with traditional designs of rings,;

[05:00.50]earrings,necklaces and bracelets.;

[05:04.59]And they're paying great attention to value as well.;

[05:11.13]Lesson 25;

[05:14.91]Do Advertisements Play a Positive or Negative Role in Our Society?;

[05:21.88]Text People Change Their Attitudes towards Ads;

[05:29.78]One night,when television began broadcasting a boring TV show,;

[05:36.62]I said to my wife,;

[05:38.98]"The programme is even less interesting;

[05:42.14]than the advertisements,or commercials.Let us have a change.";

[05:47.88]My wife,who happened to have a remote control in her hand,;

[05:53.50]consented immediately,;

[05:55.78]switched to another channel;

[05:57.88]and enjoyed an advertisement of rice flour with me.;

[06:02.18]Just at the moment,;

[06:04.50]I found that we were no longer as disgusted with the commercials;

[06:08.93]as we had been before.;

[06:11.65]The next day when I told my experience to my colleagues,;

[06:16.87]they,to my surprise, all had the same feeling.;

[06:21.56]A few even sang several of the commercials songs.;

[06:26.52]A few years ago, when advertisements began to appear in the Chinese media,;

[06:33.22]most people, including myself, were against the practice.;

[06:39.27]Some sighed:"The socialist TV, newspapers;

[06:44.84]have started imitating the Western bourgeois media too!";

[06:50.02]What has changed the audience's mentality;

[06:53.74]in only several years' time?;

[06:57.08]First,Chinese advertisements;

[07:00.63]have improved their advertising techniques.;

[07:04.27]At the beginning, the language of advertisements was simple,;

[07:09.49]the music insipid and the images coarse and crude.;

[07:15.19]Later,some better foreign advertisements;

[07:19.09]ame to Chinese TV and newspapers.;

[07:22.81]"Where there is a mountain,there is a road;;

[07:26.32]where there is a road,there is a Toyota.";

[07:30.31]The words of the Japanese advertisement;

[07:33.47]publicizing the Toyota car;

[07:35.84]are very absurd but impressive and easy to memorize.;

[07:41.41]"Nestle coffee is tasty indeed.";

[07:45.75]The American advertisement;

[07:47.90]promoting the sale of the Nestle brand coffee;

[07:51.27]has become a new household phrases in China.;

[07:55.35]Gradually,Chinese advertisements also have learned how to dress themselves up.;

[08:02.19]They have strange and humorous associations,;

[08:06.53]charming,deep male voices,colourful images;

[08:11.49]and songs that are pleasing to the ear and easy to learn.;

[08:16.44]For these reasons, the commercials for Santana cars,;

[08:21.44]Fuda colour film and Orient beverages;

[08:25.21]have successfully attracted a TV audience.;

[08:29.60]Second,life needs advertisements.;

[08:33.98]Everything in modern society is linked to information,;

[08:38.80]while the main function of advertisements;

[08:41.52]is to disseminate information on commodities, service,;

[08:46.48]culture,employment, student enrollment and even marriage.;

[08:53.54]Of course,one can obtain such information;

[08:57.79]by listening to hearsay and making on-the-spot investigation,;

[09:03.40]but the information provided by advertisements;

[09:07.57]in doubtless the most direct, comprehensive and detailed.;

[09:14.10]As society advances,;

[09:17.35]people's demands have become more and more diversified,;

[09:22.08]and the commodities and service provided by society;

[09:26.73]have also become more and more diversified.;

[09:30.90]On the other hand, as living tempo quickens,people have less leisure time.;

[09:38.39]If they want to spend time finding suitable commodities,;

[09:42.56]service and employment opportunities,;

[09:45.67]they have to rely on advertisements.;

[09:48.96]So,unconsciously, people have changed their hatred for advertisements;

[09:55.58]to an acceptance and utilization of them.;

[09:59.92]But,due to certain conditions in China,;

[10:04.57]the Chinese do not have a great need for advertisements for the time being.;

[10:10.40]That is because Chinese economy is not highly developed,;

[10:15.62]and the supply of many commodities falls short of consumers' demands.;

[10:22.72]So the more consumers see the advertisements,the angrier they become.;

[10:29.04]Second,people's living pace has not quickened to the extent;

[10:34.83]that they have no time to go shopping leisurely.;

[10:38.47]Many can even find time to walk the streets during their work hours.;

[10:44.65]There is no need for them to read "the shopping directory".;

[10:49.78]There are even fewer people depending on advertisements to seek employment,;

[10:55.65]for there is not much flow of the labour force.;

[10:59.77]Earlier this year, I discovered;

[11:03.37]that the annual business volume of a US advertising corporation;

[11:08.33]was as high as $6 billion,;

[11:11.92]more than 12 per cent of that of China's exports last year.;

[11:17.18]I was really taken aback to find that an advertisement corporation;

[11:22.84]had developed to such an extent.;

[11:26.57]It is said that advertising is indispensable;

[11:30.86]to the lives of people in developed countries.;

[11:34.50]Without exception,;

[11:36.65]people read advertisements before going shopping;

[11:40.12]or looking for jobs.;

[11:42.35]It is against this social background;

[11:45.42]that advertising has developed so much in these countries.;

[11:50.25]An idea comes to me:As the economy develops,;

[11:55.33]advertisements may finally penetrate every corner of our life.;

[12:00.86]The day will come when all Chinese will realize;

[12:04.98]that advertising is essential to all of us.;

[12:10.11]II.Read Read the following passages.;

[12:18.04]Underline the important viewpoints while reading.;

[12:22.91]1.The Function of   Advertisement;

[12:28.92]Robert:We're having a debate on advertising tomorrow;

[12:33.00]and I have to take part.;

[12:35.45]Mr.Lee:That's interesting.;

[12:37.34]I should like to hear what young people think about advertising.;

[12:42.25]Robert:Well,we wouldn't know what there was to buy;

[12:45.49]if we didn't have advertisements.;

[12:47.95]Mr. Lee:Yes,that's true--up to a point.;

[12:52.07]Advertisements provide information that we need.;

[12:55.84]If someone has produced a new article,;

[12:58.95]naturally the seller wants to tell us about it.;

[13:02.46]Robert:Yes,and advertisements tell us which product is the best.;

[13:07.99]Mr.Lee:Do they? I don't think so.;

[13:11.23]Every manufacturer says that his product is the best,;

[13:15.66]or at least tries to give that impression.;

[13:18.99]Only one,can be the best,so the others are misleading us, aren't they?;

[13:25.26]Robert:Well,in a way,I suppose,;

[13:28.60]but we don't have to believe them, do we?;

[13:31.80]Mr.Lee:Are you saying that advertisements aren't effective?;

[13:35.92]I don't think that intelligent businessmen;

[13:39.08]would spend millions of dollars on advertising;

[13:42.23]if nobody believed the advertisements, do you?;

[13:46.49]Robert:Perhaps not, but after all,;

[13:49.86]it's their money that they're spending.;

[13:52.54]Mr.Lee:Is it? I think not.;

[13:55.17]The cost of advertising is added to the price of the article.;

[14:00.17]You and I and all the other people who buy the article;

[14:04.86]pay for the advertising!;

[14:07.27]Robert:Well,I suppose we get something for our money;

[14:11.17]-- some information.;

[14:13.28]Mr.Lee:Yes,but don't forget it's often misleading information,;

[14:18.19]and sometimes harmful.;

[14:22.40]2.Advertisers   Perform a Useful   Service to the   Community;

[14:30.86]Advertisers tend to think big;

[14:34.28]and perhaps this is why they're always coming in for criticism.;

[14:39.32]Their critics seem to resent them;

[14:42.61]because they have a flair for self-promotion;

[14:45.72]and because they have so mueh money to throw around.;

[14:49.71]"It's iniquitous," they say,;

[14:52.56]"that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that);

[14:58.35]should absorb millions of pounds each year.;

[15:02.17]It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making.;

[15:07.69]Why don't they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods?;

[15:13.00]After all,it's the consumer who pays...";

[15:17.78]The poor old consumer!;

[15:20.63]He'd have to pay a great deal more;

[15:23.08]if advertising didn't create mass markets for products.;

[15:27.64]It is precisely because of the heavy advertising;

[15:31.72]that consumer goods are so cheap.;

[15:34.92]But we get the wrong idea;

[15:37.29]if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods.;

[15:42.46]Another equally important function is to inform.;

[15:47.77]A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods;

[15:52.42]derives largely from the advertisements we read.;

[15:56.80]Advertisements introduce us to new products;

[16:01.10]or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about.;

[16:06.49]Supposing you wanted to buy a washing-machine,;

[16:10.22]it is more than likely;

[16:12.19]you would obtain details regarding performance, price,etc.;

[16:17.15]from an advertisement.;

[16:19.78]Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements,;

[16:24.87]but this claim may be seriously doubted.;

[16:29.03]It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days.;

[16:34.34]And what fun they often are,too!;

[16:37.40]Just think what a railway station;

[16:40.47]or a newspaper would be like without advertisements.;

[16:44.68]Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall;

[16:48.28]or reading railway bye-laws while waiting for a train?;

[16:52.80]Would you like to read only closely- printed columns of news;

[16:56.96]in your daily paper?;

[16:58.98]A cheerful,witty advertisement;

[17:02.05]makes such a difference to a drab wall;

[17:05.16]or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.;

[17:10.12]We must not forget, either,;

[17:12.83]that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets.;

[17:17.88]Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies;

[17:23.14]could not subsist without this source of revenue.;

[17:27.17]The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper,;

[17:31.78]or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes;

[17:35.33]is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers.;

[17:40.33]Just think what a newspaper would cost;

[17:43.44]if we had to pay its full price!;

[17:46.99]Another thing we mustn't forget is the "small ads";

[17:51.60]which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine.;

[17:55.76]What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community!;

[18:01.42]Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns.;

[18:06.28]For instance,you can find a job, or sell a house,;

[18:11.42]announce a birth, marriage or death;

[18:14.92]in what used to be called the "hatch,match and dispatch" columns;;

[18:20.67]but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or "agony" column.;

[18:27.64]No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading;

[18:33.56]or offers such a deep insight into human nature.;

[18:38.16]It's the best advertisement for advertising there is!;

[18:44.39]3.Some Ads May   Be Too Good to   Be True;

[18:52.68]Advertisements for vocational training courses;

[18:57.41]are seen all over China nowadays.;

[19:00.83]But not all of them are reliable.;

[19:04.38]A spare-time training school;

[19:07.59]affiliated with the Tiexi District library in Shenyang;

[19:12.45]offered a hairdressing course nine times;

[19:15.74]from October 1987 to April 1988,;

[19:20.48]attracting a total of 1,628 students.;

[19:27.10]The eighth term was attended by 348 students.;

[19:33.19]But afterwards, "100 of them sued the school,;

[19:37.80]charging that they had been cheated with false advertising.;

[19:43.15]The ad had stated that two well-known hairdressers from Hong Kong,;

[19:49.20]one of them a woman, would teach the class;

[19:52.70]and that a third from Shenzhen;

[19:55.16]and a fourth from Guangzhou would also teach.;

[19:59.06]But as turned out, one of the "Hong Kong hairdressers";

[20:03.53]was a man from Henan Province;

[20:05.99]who had been living in Shenyang since his marriage,;

[20:10.64]and the woman hairdresser was from Guangzhou.;

[20:15.11]The one from Shenzhen never materialized.;

[20:19.71]The ad also stated that a Hong Kong beauty salon;

[20:24.58]would provide textbooks for the students.;

[20:27.87]But the texts turned out to be only pamphlets;

[20:32.25]printed by a jobless young man.;

[20:35.50]The ad promised to provide an official certificate;

[20:40.19]from the city's education bureau at the end of the course,;

[20:44.53]but the seal on the certificate was that of the school.;

[20:49.27]The ad said that a spacious;

[20:52.38]and well-furnished classroom would be provided,;

[20:55.71]but a small and dilapidated room;

[20:58.52]which could hold no more than 100 people was used instead.;

[21:03.78]A conference room was added,;

[21:06.41]but half of the students still had to stand during the lectures.;

[21:11.24]The school took a group photo of all 348 students;

[21:16.76]on the first day of the course;

[21:19.13]and started to hand out certificates the following day.;

[21:23.56]A total of 160 certificates were sent out in 20 days,;

[21:29.96]long before the students completed the course.;

[21:34.26]As a result of the suit,the library was fined 15,000 yuan;

[21:40.61]and the jobless young man had to pay 2,000 yuan.;

[21:45.52]The proliferation of vocational training courses in China;

[21:50.39]has given rise to a proliferation of related advertisements;

[21:55.61]-- in newspapers and on radio and television.;

[22:00.26]A study of a local newspaper;

[22:03.59]by Shenyang's Industrial and Commercial Bureau;

[22:07.19]found that from January to March 1988;

[22:10.87]the paper ran 220 advertisements and that 99 of them,;

[22:17.23]or 45 per cent,were for vocatoinal training courses.;

[22:23.45]With flowery phrases and possibly empty promises,;

[22:28.54]these advertisements are often tempting to those who want to get rich quick.;

[22:34.28]In most cases,the shorter the vocational training courses,;

[22:39.15]the easier they appear and the sooner the enrollees;

[22:43.36]hope they can start earning money with what they learned in class.;

[22:48.45]So,naturally,the ads for short courses are all the more tempting.;

[22:55.24]Who could resist an ad like this:;

[22:59.28]"Want to learn the most updated technique of making detergent?;

[23:04.58]You need no equipment except four tubs.;

[23:08.66]Attend our course, and within a week you will learn how to produce;

[23:13.97]150 kilograms and earn more than 150 yuan a day.";

[23:20.37]The eagerness;

[23:21.86]with which many people rush to attend vocational training courses;

[23:26.90]in the belief an easier life awaits them;

[23:30.19]afterwards leaves them vulnerable to cheating.;

[23:33.74]In 1987,a man from a rural area in Shenyang;

[23:39.49]who was anxious to make money met the manager of a soap factory.;

[23:44.84]By various illicit means,he got hold of the business license;

[23:50.40]and the seal of the factory.;

[23:53.08]He decided to open a training course on soap and detergent production;

[23:58.95]under the factory's name and to charge a tuition fee;

[24:03.38]of 200 yuan from each applicant.;

[24:07.28]He advertised in newspapers read by farmers in Liaoning,;

[24:12.81]Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces.;

[24:16.36]He immediately received applications;

[24:19.83]from 100 people from 60 counties.;

[24:23.46]The man pocketed 20,000 yuan in tuition fees,;

[24:28.60]but never gave the course.;

[24:31.10]He ended up in jail for fraud,;

[24:34.21]and the factory's business license was revoked.;

[24:40.79]4.Fake Advertising Seeks the Gullible;

[24:47.41]Want to make gasoline and diesel fuel in your own home?;

[24:52.84]Want to have the capacity;

[24:55.30]to drink a thousand shots of booze without being tipsy?;

[25:00.03]Want to add three centimetres a month to your height? Sounds ridiculous?;

[25:07.93]These impossible dreams have been offered to people in this country.;

[25:13.45]And they are just a few examples of the false advertising;

[25:18.36]that has become one of the major problems;

[25:21.04]hounding a modernizing Chinese society.;

[25:25.42]Last year,the Chinese Consumers' Association alone;

[25:30.68]received 55,871 complaints about the deceptive advertising,;

[25:39.19]more than doubling the figure for 1987.;

[25:43.93]In spite of repeated crackdowns;

[25:47.35]their numbers are still increasing each year,;

[25:50.77]according to officials;

[25:52.61]with the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).;

[25:59.10]Fake advertising, which appears mostly in print media,;

[26:04.80]cheats consumers, and in some serious cases,;

[26:09.67]threatens gullible people's lives.;

[26:13.74]As part of the latest campaign against phoney hucksters this year,;

[26:19.36]the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce;

[26:23.52]has just forbidden all publications to carry the column called;

[26:28.30]"Tips on how to get rich.";

[26:31.54]Though many people have learned about a product;

[26:34.92]or a technology through the column,;

[26:37.55]much of the information in the column is provided by swindlers.;

[26:42.95]For instance,after a private school advertised;

[26:47.55]that it was offering a course;

[26:49.61]on how to make fluorescent lamp tubes at home,;

[26:53.29]a farmer from Jilin Province came to Beijing to learn the skills.;

[26:58.69]However,after spending 30,000 yuan of family savings,;

[27:04.87]the farmer didn't produce a single tube.;

[27:08.60]Realizing the whole thing was a hoax,;

[27:12.06]the bankrupt farmer repeatedly attempted suicide.;