Whenever advertisers want you to stop thinking about the product and to start thinking about something bigger, better, or more attractive than the product, they use that very popular wore "like". The word "like'' is the advertiser's equivalent of the magician's use of misdirection.

　　"Like" gets you to ignore the product and concentrate on the claim the advertiser is making about it.

　　"For skin like peaches and cream" claims the ad for a skin cream. What is this ad really claiming? It doesn't say this cream will give you peaches-and-cream skin. There is no verb in this claim, so it doesn't even mention using the product. How is skin ever like "peaches and cream" '?

　　Remember, ads must be read exactly according to the dictionary definition of words. This ad is making absolutely no promise for this skin cream. If you think this cream will give you soft, smooth, and youthful-looking skin, you are the one who has read the meaning into the ad.

　　The wine that claims "It's like taking a trip to France" wants you to think about a romantic evening in Paris as you walk along the street after a wonderful meal in an intimate craft. Of course, you don' t really believe that a wine can take you to France, but the goal of the ad is to get you to think pleasant, romantic thoughts about France and not about how the wine tastes or how expensive it may be. That little word "like" has taken you away from crushed grapes into a world of your own imaginative making. Who knows, maybe the next time you buy wine, you'll think those pleasant thoughts when you see this brand of wine, and you'll buy it.

　　How about the most famous "like" claim of all, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should Ignoring the grammatical error here, you might want to know what this claim is saying.

　　Whether a cigarette tastes good or bad is a subjective judgment because what tastes good to one person may well taste horrible to another. There are many people who say that all cigarettes taste terrible, other people who say only some cigarettes taste all right, and still others who say all cigarettes taste good.

　　1. The word "like" in an ad often focuses the consumer's attention on ______.

　　A. what the advertiser says about the product

　　B. what magic the product really possesses

　　C. why the advertiser promotes the product

　　D. why the product is as good as promised

　　2. The author suggests that language in ads should be understood ______.

　　A. according to its dictionary definition

　　B. according to its contexts

　　C. imaginatively

　　D. impartially

　　3. To promote sales, advertisers often exploit consumers' ______.

　　A. economic status

　　B. practical need

　　C. emotional need

　　D. social status

　　4. Advertisers often use ambiguous language to ______.

　　A. promise excellent quality

　　B. cash in on grammatical errors

　　C. appeal to consumers' rational judgments

　　D. take advantage of consumers' imagination

　　5. The best title for the passage would be ______.

　　A. The Magic of "Like" in Advertising

　　B. The Promise of "Like" in Advertising

　　C. The Definition of "Like" in Advertising

　　D. The Application of "Like" in Advertising

　　參考答案：

　　1. A。細節(jié)題。由文章第一段第一段…Like gets you to ignore the product and concentrate on the claim the advertiser is making about it."呵知."like"一詞將觀眾的注意力集中到了廣告詞上。

　　2. A。細節(jié)題。從文章第一段倒數第三句"Remember，ads must be read exactly according to the dictionary definition of words."可見，作者認為觀眾應該根據字典的解釋來看待廣告詞。

　　3. C。推理題。本題應從第二段推測，第二段主要意思是廣告怎樣使你沉浸在美好的想象中，且從文章的用詞(pleasant，romantic.。.)我們可知，所產生的聯想都是與精神和情緒有關的。

　　4. D。推理題。題于為"廣告商通常使用暖昧、不明確的語言來…"，本文說的是廣告詞使觀眾產生聯想，與此有關的選項是D。

　　5. D。主旨題。文章主要說的是"像"一詞在廣告詞中的應用，B，C與文意無關…且從作者的語氣我們可以判斷作者對廣告商的這種做法是持反對態(tài)度的，從而排除A。故選D。