Interactive television advertising,which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control. "it's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years," says Collin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy. So the news that Cablevision, an American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year. Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising, "many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV," says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes. In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spot or not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant , which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average. The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. Yet there are doubts whether people... By saying "It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years"Colin Dixon means_. A) Interactive television advertising has not achieved the anticipated results. B) Interactive television advertising is successful when incorporated into situation comedies. C) Interactive television advertising has been under debate for the last decade or so. D) Interactive television advertising will become popular in 10-12 years.
A
(Question)
Without most people realizing it, there has been a revolution in office work over the last ten years. Before that time, large computers were only used by large, rich companies that could afford the investment. With the advancement of technology, small computers have come onto the market, which are capable of doing the work that used to be done by much larger and expensive computers, so now most smaller companies can use them. The main development in small computers has been in the field of word processors , or WPS as they are often called. 40% of British offices are now estimated to have a word processor and this percentage is growing fast. There are many advantages in using a word processor for both secretary and manager. The secretary is freed from a lot of daily work, such as re-typing letters and storing papers. He or she can use this time to do other more interesting work for the boss. From a manager's point of view, secretarial time is being made better use of and money can be saved by doing daily jobs automatically outside office hours. But is it all good? If a lot of daily secretarial work can be done automatically, surely this will mean that fewer secretaries will be needed. Another worry is the increasing medical problems related to work with visual display units . The case of a slow loss of sight among people using word processors seems to have risen greatly. It is also feared that if a woman works at a VDU for long hours, the unborn child in her body might be killed. Safety screens to put over a VDU have been invented but few companies in prefix = st1 /Englandbother to buy them. Whatever the arguments for and against word processor are, they are a key feature of this revolution in office practice. It can be concluded from the passage that _ . A) safety screens are of poor quality B) working at a VDU for a long time is good for one's health C) more and more British offices will use word processors D) British companies will need fewer and fewer managers
(Answer)
C
Ques:Some time ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there are a lot of antique shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair. The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth...So I decided that my approach must be wrong. I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair?" He looked it over carefully and said, "Yes. How much do you want for it, sir?" "Twenty pounds,"I said, "OK,"he said. "I'll give you twenty pounds." "It's got a slightly broken leg,"I said. "Yes, I saw that, it's nothing." Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done." "I'11 buy it." I said. "What do you mean?" "You've just sold it to me." he said. "Yes, I know but I've changed my mind. I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.""You must be crazy. "he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. "I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair." "You're right."I said. "And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, 'Would you mend this chair for me?'" "I wouldn't have agreed to do it," he said. "We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I'll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?" He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing. We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer _ . A) was rather impolite B) asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair C) was warmly received D) asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

Ans:
B