阅读理解

　　Wugging, or web-use giving describes the act of giving to charity at no cost to the user．By using Everyclick．com, which is being added to a number of university computers across the UK, students can raise money every time they search; but it won’t cost them a penny．

　　Research shows that students are extremely passionate about supprting charity-88％ of full-time students have used the In tenet to give to charity．This age group is often the least likely to have their own income．19％ of 22 year olds have short-term debts of more than ￡5, 000．With rising personal debt levels in this age group, due to university tuition fees or personal loans and a lack of long-term savings, traditional methods of donating to charity are often not appealing or possible．

　　Beth Truman, a 21-year-old recent university graduate, has used Everyclick．com to donate to her chosen charity, the RSPCA, for two years and has seen the “wugging” grow in popularity with students．“wugging”grow in popularity with students．“When you’re at university you become more socially aware, but it’s sometimes hard to give to others when you have little money yourself, “says Beth．“Wugging is great for people in this age group as it allows them to use the technology on a daily basis to give to charity, without costing them a single penny．”

　　Wugging is perfect for people who want to be more socially aware and supportive but don’t feel they have the means to do so．Students using the web can raise money for causes they care about without costing them anything in terms of time or money, and charities get a valuable source of funding．

　　Everyclick．com works like any other search engine, allowing users to search for information, news and images but uses can decide which of the UK’s 170, 000 charities they would like to support through their clicks, Everyclick．com then makes monthly payments to every registered charity．

　　Launched in June 2005, Everyclick．com is now the eighth largest search engine and one of the busiest charity websites in the UK．

阅读理解

　　Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they’re always coming in for criticism(批评)．Their critics seem to hate or resent them because they have a gift for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around．“It’s unfair,” they say, “that this entirely unproductive industry(if we can call it that)should absorb millions of pounds each year．It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making．Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it’s the consumer who pays…”

　　The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products．It is exactly because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap．But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods．Another equally important function is to inform．A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods comes largely from the advertisements we read．Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about．Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more likely that you would obtain details about performance, price, etc．, from an advertisement．

　　Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted．It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days．And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements．Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway regulations while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely-printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a dull wall or a newspaper full of the daily amount of great disasters．

　　We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets．Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not survive without this source of income．The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers．Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!

　　Another thing we mustn’t forget is the “small ads”, which are actually in every newspaper and magazine．What an extremely useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns! For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the “hatch, match and dispatch” column but so far the most fascinating section is the personal or “agony” column(读者来信专栏)．No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature．It’s the best advertisement for advertising there is!