Part A: Reading Comprehension

Directions: Read the following text. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

Text 3

The rough guide to marketing success used to be that you got what you paid for. No longer. While traditional “paid” media-such as television commercials and print advertisements-still play a major role, companies today can exploit many alternative forms of media. Consumers passionate about a product may create “earned” media by willingly promoting it to friends, and a company may leverage “owned” media by sending e-mail alerts about products and sales to customers registered with its Web site. The way consumers now approach the process of making purchase decisions means that marketing’s impact stems from a broad range of factors beyond conventional paid media.

Paid and owned media are controlled by marketers promoting their own products. For earned media, such marketers act as the initiator for users’ responses. But in some cases, one marketer’s owned media become another marketer’s paid media-for instance, when an e-commerce retailer sells ad space on its Web site. We define such sold media as owned media whose traffic is so strong that other organizations place their content or e-commerce engines within that environment. This trend, which we believe is still in its infancy, effectively began with retailers and travel providers such as airlines and hotels and will no doubt go further. Johnson & Johnson, for example, has created BabyCenter, a stand-alone media property that promotes complementary and even competitive products. Besides generating income, the presence of other marketers makes the site seem objective, gives companies opportunities to learn valuable information about the appeal of other companies’ marketing, and may help expand user traffic for all companies concerned.

The same dramatic technological changes that have provided marketers with more (and more diverse) communications choices have also increased the risk that passionate consumers will voice their opinions in quicker, more visible, and much more damaging ways. Such hijacked media are the opposite of earned media: an asset or campaign becomes hostage to consumers, other stakeholders, or activists who make negative allegations about a brand or product. Members of social networks, for instance, are learning that they can hijack media to apply pressure on the businesses that originally created them.

If that happens, passionate consumers would try to persuade others to boycott products, putting the reputation of the target company at risk. In such a case, the company’s response may not be sufficiently quick or thoughtful, and the learning curve has been steep. Toyota Motor, for example, alleviated some of the damage from its recall crisis earlier this year with a relatively quick and well-orchestrated social-media response campaign, which included efforts to engage with consumers directly on sites such as Twitter and the social-news site Digg.

31. Consumers may create “earned” media when they are

[A]

obsessed with online shopping at certain Web sites. 

[B]

inspired by product-promoting e-mails sent to them. 

[C]

eager to help their friends promote quality products. 

[D]

enthusiastic about recommending their favorite products. 

32. According to Paragraph 2, sold media feature

[A]

a safe business environment. 

[B]

random competition. 

[C]

strong user traffic. 

[D]

flexibility in organization. 

33. The author indicates in Paragraph 3 that earned media

[A]

invite constant conflicts with passionate consumers. 

[B]

can be used to produce negative effects in marketing. 

[C]

may be responsible for fiercer competition. 

[D]

deserve all the negative comments about them. 

34. Toyota Motor’s experience is cited as an example of

[A]

responding effectively to hijacked media. 

[B]

persuading customers into boycotting products. 

[C]

cooperating with supportive consumers. 

[D]

taking advantage of hijacked media. 

35. Which of the following is the text mainly about?

[A]

Alternatives to conventional paid media. 

[B]

Conflict between hijacked and earned media. 

[C]

Dominance of hijacked media. 

[D]

Popularity of owned media. 

Answers & Explanations (答案与深度解析)

试题精解

31. [D] enthusiastic about recommending their favorite products.
【解析】细节题。文章第一段指出：Consumers passionate about a product may create “earned” media by willingly promoting it to friends（对产品充满热情的消费者通过自愿向朋友推广来创造“赢得”媒体）。D 选项中的 enthusiastic 对应 passionate，recommending 对应 promoting，其意完全一致。

32. [C] strong user traffic.
【解析】细节题。第二段给出了 sold media 的定义：We define such sold media as owned media whose traffic is so strong that other organizations place their content...（我们将这种售出媒体定义为流量如此强劲，以至于其他组织在该环境中放置其内容或电商引擎的自有媒体）。故选 C。

33. [B] can be used to produce negative effects in marketing.
【解析】推理题。第三段提到，由于技术变化，热情的消费者会以破坏性更强的方式表达意见，产生 hijacked media（被劫持媒体）。这种媒体是 earned media 的反面（opposite），即由正面的“口碑推广”转变为负面的“指控和抵制”。因此，earned media 这种模式若失控，会产生负面营销效果。故选 B。

34. [A] responding effectively to hijacked media.
【解析】例证题。第四段提到丰田公司的例子。在召回危机中，热情的消费者试图说服他人抵制其产品（hijacked media 的体现），丰田通过快速且精心策划的社交媒体回应（well-orchestrated response campaign）减轻了损害。这被引用为有效应对“劫持媒体”的成功案例。故选 A。

35. [A] Alternatives to conventional paid media.
【解析】主旨题。文章第一段首句点明：以前营销成功靠投入（付钱），现在不再如此。随后全文介绍了 earned, owned, sold, hijacked 等多种区别于 conventional paid media（传统付费媒体）的新型媒体形式。因此全文主旨是介绍传统付费媒体的替代方案。故选 A。

考研核心句型与长难句

【长难句剖析】

1. 抽象概念定义句：
"We define such sold media as owned media whose traffic is so strong that other organizations place their content or e-commerce engines within that environment."
【解析】define A as B 结构。whose 引导定语从句修饰 owned media，从句中又包含 so... that...（如此...以至于...）结构。

2. 技术风险描述句：
"The same dramatic technological changes... have also increased the risk that passionate consumers will voice their opinions in quicker, more visible, and much more damaging ways."
【解析】主语是 technological changes，谓语是 have increased。that 引导同位语从句解释 risk 的具体内容。