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.;