No one knows for sure when advertising first started. It is possible that it grew out of the discovery that some people did certain kinds of work better than others did them. That led to the concept of specialization, which means that people would specialize, or focus, on doing one specific job.
Let’s take a man we’ll call Mr. Fielder, for example. He did everything connected with farming. He planted seeds, tended the fields, and harvested and sold his crops. At the same time, he did many other jobs on the farm. However, he didn’t make the bricks for his house, grind the wheat for his flour, or cut his trees into boards. He also did not make the plows(犁), the work boots, or any of the other hundreds of things a farm needs. Instead, he got them from people who specialized in doing each of those things.
Suppose there was another man we shall call Mr. Plowright. Using what he knew about farming and working with iron, Mr. Plowright invented a plow that made farming easier. Mr. Plowright did not really like farming himself and wanted to specialize in making really good plows. Perhaps, he thought, other farmers will trade what they grow for one of my plows.
How did Mr. Plowright let people know what he was doing? Why, he advertised, of course. First he opened a shop and then he put up a sign outside the shop to attract customers. That sign may have been no more than a plow carved into a piece of wood and a simple arrow pointing to the shop door. It was probably all the information people needed to find Mr. Plowright and his really good plows.
Many historians believe that the first outdoor signs were used about five thousand years ago. Even before most people could read, they understood such signs. Shopkeepers would carve into stone, clay, or wood symbols for the products they had for sale.
A medium, in advertising talk, is the way you municate your message. You might say that the first medium used in advertising was signs with symbols. The second medium was audio, or sound, although that term is not used exactly in the way we use it today. Originally, just the human voice and maybe some kind of simple instrument, such as a bell, were used to get people’s attention.
A crier, in the historical sense, is not someone who weeps easily. It is someone, probably a man, with a voice loud enough to be heard over the other noises of a city. In ancient Egypt, shopkeepers might hire such a person to spread the news about their products. Often this primitive form of advertising involved a newly arrived ship loaded with goods. Perhaps the crier described the goods, explained where they came from, and praised their quality. His job was, in other words, not too different from a TV or radio mercial in today’s world.
【小题1】What probably led to the start of advertisement?A．The discovery of iron.B．The specialization of labor.C．The appearance of new jobs.D．The development of farming techniques.【小题2】To advertise his plows, Mr. Plowright .A．praised his plows in publicB．placed a sign outside the shopC．hung an arrow pointing to the shopD．showed his products to the customers【小题3】The writer makes up the two stories of Mr. Fielder and Mr. Plowright in order to .A．explain the origin of advertisingB．predict the future of advertisingC．expose problems in advertisingD．provide suggestions for advertising【小题4】In ancient Egypt, a crier was probably someone who .A．owned a shipB．had the loudest voiceC．ran a shop selling goods to farmersD．functioned like today’s TV or radio mercial【小题5】The last two paragraphs are mainly about .A．the history of advertisingB．the benefits of advertisingC．the early forms of advertisingD．the basic design of advertisingB
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(答案→)B
解析：
【小题1】可根据第一段最后一句That led to the concept of specialization, which means that people would specialize, or focus, on doing one specific job.推断出来，选B。
【小题2】可根据第四段第三句First he opened a shop and then he put up a sign outside the shop to attract customers.判断出选择B。
【小题4】通过最后一段最后一句His job was, in other words, not too different from a TV or radio mercial in today’s world.可推断出Crier的功能类似与今天的电视或广播的广告，故选D
【小题5】通过倒数第二段最后一句Originally, just the human voice and maybe some kind of simple instrument, such as a bell, were used to get people’s attention和最后一段可知，讲述的是广告的早期形式，没有媒体，靠的是人声，故选C。