Reading and Writing 3

Unit 4 Test A
Name: ______________________________________ Date: _____________

Unit 4 Test Purposes

▪ Identify the main ideas in a text (Reading comprehension)
▪ Understand and use target vocabulary from the unit (pp. 82 and 89)
▪ Identify if a statement is a fact or an opinion (Reading Skill)
▪ Recognize the part of speech of a word based on its suffix (Vocabulary Skill)
▪ Use conjunctions “and”, “but”, “so”, and “or” to make compound sentences (Grammar)
▪ Write an opinion paragraph

I. Reading Comprehension
A. Read the article about advertising. Match the correct headings to the Sections. There is one
option you will not have to use.
1. Section I: ___ 2. Section II: ___ 3. Section III: ___ 4. Section IV: ___ 5. Section V: ___
a. What Exactly Is Honesty in Advertising?
b. The Wedding Industry’s Advertising Tricks
c. The Rights and Wrongs of Using AI in Advertising
d. A More or Less Honest Use of Your Data
e. A Less Fair Kind of Advertising
f. Customers Should Control Their Data
Section I
The advertising industry has always been interested in understanding human behavior.
Technology is making this easier and easier. There are billions of Facebook users and even more
tweets shared on Twitter, as well as Google searches completed every second. On top of all this
now we have location-based data from mobile phones and transactional data from credit cards.
With the help of advanced algorithms, we can now understand in detail the motivations of almost
every consumer. These are powerful tools, and no one can blame the advertising industry for
using them. But AI also introduces worrying questions. Advertisers may soon know us better than
we know ourselves. They'll understand our most personal motivations and weaknesses. And if we
are not careful, they may start actually controlling our behavior instead of just trying to persuade
us. For these reasons, we need a new set of rules that will guide our use of AI in marketing.
Section II
One of the new rules marketing professionals should follow is not to mislead customers on
purpose. Unfortunately, some companies currently do this, either by not being honest about the
way how they monitor your online activity, or why they do it. Providing users with information
about these is often not enough, however. If this information is at the bottom of the page in small
letters, it is very hard to notice or understand. Truth telling is more than just avoiding lying.
Consumers should always be told about how their personal data is being collected and used. In
practice this means that companies should make a reasonable effort to make sure that customers
truly understand how they do this. If they present the information in a way that is unclear to the
average consumer, we can’t really say that they’re telling the truth.
 Reading and Writing 3
Unit 4 Test A
Section III
When you look at a webpage, some ads might appear on the side. These are called “contextual
ads” and are related to the webpage you visit at any online session. For example, a consumer
looking at a travel website for airplane tickets to Paris might see some ads for hotels in Paris on
the same webpage. These types of ads are three times as effective as regular online ads. They are
fairly innocent from a privacy perspective. The site collects little information about the consumer.
It doesn’t store much information about the visitor past the visit to this webpage. Also, customers
can immediately see the connection between the page and the ad. In other words, the consumer
is usually aware how the advertiser is using his information.
Section IV
Search engines (such as Google) and free email are more problematic. In 2012, Google put
together all the information it had about its clients from different products. The information came
from cell phones, search engines, email and YouTube. Now they know everything about us. This is
why if you send an email to a friend about getting engaged, Google might recommend wedding
videos to you on YouTube and ads about wedding rings elsewhere. Google says their goal is to
make their ads “just as useful to users as the search results themselves”. This seems to be an
innocent goal. However, it is worrying that as Google users search the Internet, Google is
collecting data about them. In other words, the viewer becomes the viewed, without even
knowing it.
Section V
Consumers must have the opportunity to take control of their own information. They should be
able to decide what data is collected about them and how it is used. They should also have the
freedom to “opt out”, that is, to not participate in this practice. A better system would be if online
marketers could buy consumers’ private information. They would pay for it either with money or
free access to websites. In such a system, consumers would be selling their own data, instead of
others who don’t even inform them of this.

1 point for each correct answer 5

B. Read the statements. Write T (true) or F (false).

6. ___ It is not clear to consumers why they see the contextual ads they are shown on a site.
7. ___People criticize the ad industry for using technology to collect data about the customer.
8. ___ The author thinks that nobody should be selling anybody’s data.
9. ___The author believes companies should try harder to explain how they handle our data.
10. ___ The author believes it is a good thing that Google ads are as useful to the users.

1 point for each correct answer 5

II. Vocabulary
A. Match each word with the correct definition.
11. annoying ____ 12. support ____ 13. imply ____ 14. annual ____ 15. donation ____
a. happening every year
 Reading and Writing 3
Unit 4 Test A
b. indirectly suggest something
c. hard to forget
d. making you feel a bit angry; unpleasant
e. give help to, particularly financially
f. precise, exact
g. keep a group of people interested or enjoying themselves
h. an amount of money you give to a charity

1 point for each correct answer 5

B. Complete the paragraph with the correct form of a word from the word bank.

accurate annoying factor impact relevant specifically suggest support

Many consumers don’t know this, but there are some (16) _____________ new targeting
technologies that are almost impossible to avoid. In the past, if you regularly deleted the
“cookies” from your computer as (17) _____________ by computer experts, your information was
safe. Today, however, there is a new (18) _____________ affecting who can see your activity. Now
sometimes the same tracking information is coded into other software you need on your
computer. One such program is the common multimedia player Adobe Flash. This means that
even if you delete all the cookies from time to time to protect your privacy, your search history is
still available to advertisers. As a result, they can show you ads that they believe may be (19)
_____________ interesting for you. This may be the case if the product or service is somehow
especially (20) _____________ to your needs.

1 point for each correct answer 5

III. Reading Skill: Distinguishing facts from opinions

Read the statements. Write F (fact) or O (opinion).
21. It seems that even people who are good with computers can be the victims of advertising. ____
22. Consumers should be aware of the techniques being used to market to them. ____
23. Context-based ads are three times as effective as regular online ads. ____
24. I find pop-up ads especially frustrating when I’m browsing the internet. ____
25. Google processes more than forty thousand searches every second. ____
26. We can now assess an individual's online activity, including all their searches and words. ____
1 point for each correct answer 6

IV. Vocabulary Skill: Suffixes

Decide which part of speech each word is based on its suffix. Write “adj” (adjective), “adv”
(adverb) or “n” (noun).

27. accurately ____ 28. acknowledgement ____ 29. memorable ____

 Reading and Writing 3
Unit 4 Test A
30. impactful ____ 31. annually ____ 32. relationship ____

1 point for each correct answer 6

V. Grammar: Compound sentences

A. Choose the correct function of each conjunction used in the sentences below.

choice contrasting ideas related ideas result

37. I regularly buy things online, so I’m a bit worried about who knows information about me.
Function: ___________
38. Most ads that pop up when you’re browsing are annoying, but there are some funny ones too.
Function: ___________
39. You may see a lot of ads online, but you should never decide to buy anything based only on an ad.
Function: ___________
40. Many people delete the cookies from their computer, and think their information is
completely protected.
Function: ___________
41. Consumers should be able to keep their privacy, or decide to sell their data by themselves.
Function: ___________

1 point for each correct answer 5

B. Combine the sentences with and, or, but, or so. Add commas where necessary.

42. We often think we would never buy something based on an ad. Research shows we buy things
based on an ad.
43. Advertising is good for professional sports. It is annoying when they stop a match for a
commercial.
44. It would be boring to live without advertising. Let’s enjoy the commercials on TV.
45. Advertisements provide people with information about important issues. They sell some
useful products.
46. Commercials often educate people about certain diseases. Commercials help them avoid
medical problems.

1 point for each correct answer 5

VI. Writing

Write an opinion paragraph (about 140 words) about the biggest problems with online
advertising. Say why these problems are bad.

Points Section VII 20