廣告的作用
【內容提示】
請用英語寫一篇文章，從正面說明廣告在現代社會中的作用。具體內容如下：
①廣告是企業的喉舌。它可告訴人們關於廠家和產品的信息。
②廣告在貨物的流通中起著舉足輕重的作用，它在廠家、商店和消費者之間架起了橋樑。
③廣告可以刺激競爭，提高產品質量。
④廣告可以創造大眾需求，大眾市場，從而支持了大批量生產，進而降低產品價格。
【作文示範】
The Role of Advertisement
Advertisement has been called “the voice of business”, for it announces new products and describes new uses and improved features of familiar ones. It seeks to make people know the things they need and to make them want to buy these things, and it tells what products or services are on the market, and how they can be obtained①.
The advertisement plays a vital② role in the spread-out and flow of goods. It puts up a bridge between factories or companies and shops, or stores and customers. Either side of them has no difficulty in finding cooperative partners.
Advertisements lead to improving products by stimulating competition③. Through advertisements, companies selling the same or similar products try to win each other for the attention of the buyers. The competition forces companies to improve their products so that people will buy them.
Advertisements can also lower the prices of products by creating the mass demand, or mass markets that help support mass production. Mass production lowers the costs of manufacturing④, and then the manufacturer can lower his selling prices. As a result, customerswill buy commodities⑤ at cheap prices.
【詞語解釋】
①obtain[+b＇tein] v．獲得；得到
②vital[＇vaitl] a．極其重要的；必不可少的
③stimulate competition[＇stimjuleit ?k&mpi＇tiM+n] 刺激競爭
④manufacture[?m$nju＇f$ktM+] v．（大量）製造；加工
⑤commodity[k+＇m&d+ti] n．日用品；商品
【寫法指要】
1）本文是講廣告功能的說明文。文章單刀直入、開門見山，沒有引言段，直接寫出了廣告的四種作用。每段寫一種功能，各段第一句均為主題句，支撐句 （supporting sentences）都用來展開各個主題句中的制約思想。第一段闡述“企業的喉舌”，第二段說明“在商品流通中的重要作用”，第三段寫“通過刺激競爭改進產品質量”，第四段寫“創造批量生產降低價格”。
2）第一段中“familiar ones”中的“ones”是代詞的指稱（reference）用法，它指代前面的“products”一詞。這樣做可以避免無表達力的重複（inexpressive repetition）。但是，“to buy these things”中的“things”則不能用代詞“them”指稱，否則會產生歧義（ambiguity）現象，讀者搞不清“them”指的是上文的“things”還是“people”。
3）第一段中“it tells”中的代詞“it”最好不要省掉，因為整個句子並列成分多，如果只用“tells”，句子開頭的主語“It”離得太遠，會使讀者產生誤解。