Preparing for Civil Service Examination: Reading Comprehension Practice 9

Do you often worry about how to improve your reading comprehension level efficiently? Now, our website has carefully prepared a series of reading comprehension questions closely related to Civil Service Examination, covering a wide range of topics and question types, aiming to hone your reading analysis and comprehension skills in all aspects.

Read the passages and answer the questions that follow. Good luck!

 

In 1977, an international tobacco industry trade group, including representatives of all major cigarette companies, noted in a document on the social acceptability of smoking that “cigarette smoking is becoming a downscale social activity.” As the disease effects of smoking became better understood, more affluent and educated people were the most likely to quit. Cigarette companies thus increasingly marketed toward lower-income, less educated, and minority segments of the U.S. population. A marketing study done for R.J. Reynolds (RJR) noted in a downscale market profile that this demographic was “more impressionable to marketing/advertising . . . they’re more susceptible. They’re less formed intellectually . . . more malleable.” In addition to general marketing efforts directed toward downscale
consumers, by the early 1990s the homeless had become one of the sub-populations specifically targeted by major cigarette companies. For example, RJR included direct targeting to the homeless as part of an urban marketing plan in the 1990s, focused on the advertising of “value” brands to “street people.” In 1990, American Tobacco paid for product placement and supplied cigarettes for the movie Robocop 3, which showed homeless activists smoking Pall Malls and Lucky Strikes. In addition to advertising, tobacco companies gave away cigarette brand logo products to the homeless; for example, in 1994 Philip
Morris (PM) apparently distributed 7,000 Merit cigarette brand labeled blankets to New York homeless shelters and homeless individuals. By the late 1990s, the ties between homelessness and smoking
had grown so overt that a major marketing periodical characterized the target market of Brown and Williamson’s GPC brand as “Homeless Man.”

Offering free samples is a well-established strategy by which tobacco companies recruit new smokers, and cigarette samples were distributed to homeless shelters, mental hospitals, and homeless service
organizations. In 1988 alone, Lorillard Tobacco Company spent over $570,000 on cigarette donations, though not all of these were distributed to marginalized populations. Internal company documents show
that in a single month in 1990, however, Lorillard distributed over 100 sample packs apiece to a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, and a mental health association. Similar donations were logged regularly from 1983 to at least 1993.

 

1. According to the passage, what other demographics will likely be targeted by the tobacco industry?
a. senior citizens
b. adolescent children
c. the homeless
d. the affluent
e. actors

Correct Answer: c

Answer Explanation:

The passage reports that smoking is becoming a “downscale social activity.” The homeless are the only answer here that would be specific to downscale and social. Neither senior citizens nor adolescent children were mentioned as a target. The affluent were mentioned as a group likely to quit smoking right now, and actors weren’t mentioned at all.

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2. The author implies that the motivation of RJR to distribute Merit cigarette brand labeled blankets to homeless shelters in New York City was to
a. elevate public opinion of the tobacco industry.
b. give back to the community it was receiving business from.
c. illustrate compassion for humanitarian concerns in the face of scrutiny from the medical field.
d. target homeless people as a marketing strategy.
e. achieve recognition as a charitable organization.

Correct Answer: d

Answer Explanation:

The passage states “Cigarette companies thus increasingly marketed toward lower-income, less educated, and minority segments of the U.S. population.” Distribution of blankets is one of the marketing tools employed. The tobacco industry did not seek better public opinion, so choice a is incorrect. Although the industry may have been thanking the homeless for doing their part to keep them in business, this wasn’t the motivation, so choice b is incorrect. There is no mention of seeking compassion from anyone, so choice c is incorrect. The author does not imply that seeking to be seen as charitable is any sort of motivation, so choice e is incorrect.

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3. Taken in context with the passage, malleable most nearly means:
a. breakable
b. refractory
c. pliable
d. malicious
e. intractable

Correct Answer: c

Answer Explanation:

A tobacco industry representative stated that this demographic would be more susceptible to marketing and therefore more easily moldable or pliable to suit the needs of the company. The tobacco industry wouldn’t benefit from a breakable new demographic; a stubborn, or refractory, demographic wouldn’t be ideal so choices a and b are incorrect. The answer is not choice d because it would not make any sense. The answer is not choice e. Intractable is synonymous with stubborn, so again, this wouldn’t be ideal.

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