When you turn on the radio, you hear an advertisement. When you watch television, you hear and see an advertisement. If you turn the pages of a newspaper or magazine, again you find an advertisement. If you walk down the street, you see one advertising board after another. All day, every day, people who want to sell you something compete to catch your attention. As a result, advertisements are almost everywhere.

In the West, advertisements are the fuel that makes mass media work. Many TV stations, newspapers, magazines, radio stations are privately owned. The government does not give them money. So where does the money come from? From advertisements. Without advertisements, there would not be these private businesses.

Have you ever asked yourself what advertising is? Through the years, people have given different answers to the question. For some time it was felt that advertising was a means of keeping your name before the public? and some people thought that advertising was “truth well told.” Now more and more people describe it in this way: Advertising is the paid, non-personal, and usually persuasive(有说服力的) description of goods, services and ideas by identified sponsors(明确的出资者) through various media.

First, advertising is usually paid for. Various sponsors pay for the advertisements we see, read, and hear over the various media. Second, advertising is non-personal. It is not face to face communication. Although you may feel that a message in a certain advertisement is aimed directly at you, in reality, it is directed at large groups of people. Third, advertising is usually persuasive. Directly or indirectly it tells people to do something. All advertisements try to make people believe that the product, idea, or service advertised can do good to them. Fourth, the sponsor of the advertisement must be identified. From the advertisement, we can see if the sponsor is a company, or an organization, or an individual. Fifth, advertising reaches us through traditional and nontraditional mass media. Included in the traditional media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and films. Nontraditional media include the mail, matchbox covers, and billboards.

小题1:The existence(存在) of the privately owned mass media depends financially(经济上地) on _________.

A．the government

B．their owners?families

C．advertisements

D．the audience小题2:according to the passage, who are most probably paying for the advertisements?

A．Companies.

B．Organizations.

C．Individuals.

D．All of the above.小题3:Which of the following is considered nontraditional mass media?

A．Newspapers.

B．The mail.

C．Magazines.

D．Films.小题4:according to the passage, which of the following statements about the features of advertisements is NOT true?

A．Advertising must be honest and amusing.

B．Advertising is meant for large groups of people.

C．Advertising tells people to do something directly or indirectly.

D．The sponsors are always mentioned in the advertisements.