Module 6

Exercise 1. Translate the following words.

To pin down the meaning, vague words, excellence, to define, selling points, durability, craftsmanship, dependability, virtue, manufactured goods.

Exercise 2. Read and translate the following text.

What quality means

Even the dictionary finds it difficult to pin down the meaning of the word quality. It has to use other vague words like excellence. Why is quality so hard to define? Is it because it is such an abstract word and can mean so many different things? Or because its meaning depends so much on what it describes? How can you define high quality when applied to the things you buy, for example, a pop record, a pair of shoes, a meal in a restaurant? You'll probably have three different definitions of quality for the three different things.

Quality is also hard to define because it can be such a subjective word-it means quite different things to different people, even when they use the word to describe the same thing. A Pink Floyd album may in your view have quality, but your friend may consider that the same album is a waste of good money.

Yet another problem is that the meaning of quality changes over the years. Things which you think have quality may not be seen in the same way by older people. Just ask your grandmother what she thinks of the Stones? For example, consider the two ads. Both advertise clothes for men. Advertisers stress the points which they think sell quality to prospective buyers. The selling points that are stressed in 1897 ad are durability, craftsmanship, dependability, tradition.

What about the ideas of quality in the present-day ad? Present-day ads do not talk about tradition or craftsmanship, dependability or durability. They stress the virtues of newness, of being different, sometimes of being way out. Cheapness may be, emphasized too, the fact that almost everyone can afford the product. Does this mean that quality in manufactured goods is disappearing now that most things are mass-produced?

Exercise 3. Answer the questions.

1. Why is it difficult to define the word quality?

2. What does this word mean to different people?

3. Why does the meaning of this word change over the years?

4. What points were emphasized in the ad of 1897?

5. What points are emphasized now?

Exercise 4. Scan the text and find the endings of the following sentences.

1. A Pink Floyd album may...

2. The selling points which are stressed...

3. Yet another problem is that...

4. Advertisers stress the point...

5. Things which you think have quality...

6. Cheapness may be emphasized...

Exercise 5. Put the following sentences into the order according to the text.

1. Advertisers stress the points which they think sell quality.

2. Quality is an abstract word.

3. Most things are now mass-produced.

4. The word quality may mean different things to different people.

5. There may be three definitions of quality for three different things.

Exercise 6. Ask questions about the words written in italics.

1. Quality is hard to define because it can be such a subjective word.

2. Even the dictionary finds it difficult to pin down the meaning of the word quality.

3. Things which you think have quality may not be seen in the same way by older people.

4. Both ads advertise clothes for men.

5. Your friend may consider that the same album is a waste of good money.

Exercise 7. Discuss the following points.

1. Do you know a good thing when you see one?

2. What influences your opinion about various things? Is it mass media, opinions of your friends and relatives or is it your own ideas?

3. Do you and your parents have a similar idea of quality?

4. On what points defining quality do you disagree with your parents?

5. Which points would you stress if you were to buy clothes/electric appliances/music records?

6. Can you explain what quality of life means?

7. What things are important to quality of education?

8. Do you read papers that contain advertising only? Which ones?

9. What do you think of TV advertising? What are your favorite ads on TV?

10. Many experts say that Ukrainian viewers find western ads silly. Do you also think so? Why?

Exercise 8. Comment on the following points.

1. "Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. " (Thomas Jefferson, 1819)

2. "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don't know which half. " (Confessions of an advertising man)