Question

Never go into a supermarket hungry! This is a good piece of advice. If you go shopping for food before lunchtime, you’ll probably buy more than you plan to. Unfortunately, however, just this advice isn’t enough for consumers these days. Modern shoppers need an education in how and how not to buy things at the store. First, you check the weekly newspaper ads. Find out the items that are on sale and decide if you really need these things. In other words, don’t buy anything just because it’s cheaper than usual! “New and Improved!” or “All Natural” on the front of a package influence you. Instead, read the list of ingredients(contents) on the back. Third, compare prices: that is, you should examine the prices of both different brands and different sizes of the same brand.

Another suggestion for consumers is to buy ordinary items instead of famous brands. Ordinary items in supermarkets come in plain packages. These products are cheaper because producers don’t spend much money on packing or advertising. The quality, however, is usually as good as the quality of well-known name brands. In the same way, in buying clothes, you can often find high quality and low prices in brands that are not famous. Shopping in discount clothing stores can help you save a lot of money. Although these stores aren’t very attractive, and they usually do not have individual dressing rooms, not only are the prices low, but you can often find the same famous brands that you find in high-priced department stores.

Wise consumers read magazine ads and watch TV commercials, but they do this with one advantage: knowledge of the psychology behind the ads. In other words, well-informed consumers watch for information and check for misinformation. They ask themselves questions: Is the advertiser hiding something in small print at the bottom of the page? Is there any real information in the commercial, or is the advertiser simply showing an attractive image? With the answers to these questions, consumers can make a wise choice.

1. All the following statements are true about the phrase “ordinary items” in Paragraph 2 except ____.

A.     ordinary items never say “New and Improved” or “All Natural”

B.     ordinary products are usually cheaper than famous brands

C.     producers spend less money on packaging of ordinary items

D.     the quality of ordinary items is usually as good as that of famous brands

2. What does the writer think about ads?

A.     They are believable.

B.     They are attractive.

C.     They are full of misinformation.

D.     They are helpful to consumers.

3. One of the author’s suggestions to consumers is ____.

A.     to make use of ads

B.     not to buy items with words like “New and Improved” or “All Natural”

C.     to buy high quality items such as famous brands after lunch

D.     to buy any ordinary items instead of famous brands

4. The author implies that ____.

A.     going into the supermarket hungry, you may buy more than you plan to

B.     the quality of ordinary items is usually high and the prices are relatively low

C.     discount clothing stores are good places to go to

D.     ads sometimes don’t tell the truth

Answer 1

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