根据下列内容，回答211-215题。Advertiserst-名校题库网

根据下列内容，回答211-215题。

Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they're always coming in for criticism.

Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because theyhave so much money to throw around. "It's iniquitous," they say, "that this entirely unproductiveindustry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to showhow much profit the big companies are making. Why don't they stop advertising and reduce theprice 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 massmarkets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are socheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. An-other equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about house-hold goods derives largely from the advertisements we read.

Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we alreadyknow about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would ob-tain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement.

Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriouslydoubted. 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. Wouldyou enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bye-laws while waiting for a train? Would youlike to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper?A cheerful, wittyadvertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration ofcalamities. We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to ourpockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without thissource of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broad-cast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaperwould cost if we had to pay its full price!

Another thing we mustn't forget is the"small ads." which are in virtually every newspaper andmagazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about any-thing can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell ahouse, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the "hatch, match and dis-patch" column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or "agony" column. No otheritem 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!

What is the main idea of this passage?__________