IELTS Writing Task 2 (Exercises) : Advertising (Part 2)

Words/Phrases

1. censor (v/n) – censorship (n)
2. dual (adj/n)
3. exaggerate (v)
4. extract (n)
5. fall victim to (collocation)
6. fierce (adj)
7. gain an edge over (collocation)
8. identical (adj)
9. impulsive (adj)
10. in an attempt to (collocation)
11. manipulate (v)
12. overstate (v)
13. predecessor (n)
14. processor (n)
15. proliferate (v)
16. rational (adj)
17. rival (n)
18. vet (v)

Exercises:

Task 1: Write sentences from given cues. Make changes to the cues when needed.

1. airline / admit / involve / dirty tricks / campaign / win / customer / their rival. _______________________________________________________
2. scientist / theory / base / rational evidence / been / prove / laboratory / experiment. _______________________________________________________
3. opposition / leader / accuse / government minister / manipulate / statistic / suit themselves _______________________________________________________
4. impact / new legislation / been / great / overstate.
   _______________________________________________________

5. fierce / wind / blow / threaten / capsize / our boat.
   _______________________________________________________

Task 2: Fill in the blanks with suitable words/phrases

Consumers are faced with increasing numbers of advertisements from competing companies.
To what extent do you think are consumers influenced by advertisements?
What measures can be taken to protect them?

Recently, commercial advertisements have 1___________ in a variety of television channels, newspapers, magazines and websites, as a result of 2___________ competition in the market. I would contend that these advertisements may have a negative impact on their audience as people start to purchase unnecessary products. To prevent this from happening, I believe the authorities should take some definite actions, such as exercising stricter 3___________on all forms of advertising.

I agree that customers often 4___________ companies’ advertising campaigns. This is primarily because large companies often 5___________the usefulness of a few small features of their products when advertising. This advertising technique can be seen in the case of the latest Apple Phone 7 Plus smartphone, which is nearly 6___________to its 7___________, except for the new 8___________system and a slightly faster 9___________. 10___________gain a competitive advantage over their 11___________Samsung’s Galaxy S7, Apple’s marketers used emotional appeal to encourage 12___________rather than 13___________spending.

Censorship, from my perspective, is the key to addressing the problem. This can be done by establishing an authority specialising in 14___________ all new advertisements. The censorship process should be stringent enough so that all the 15___________that contain any form of exaggeration are taken out before these advertisements are published. This exclusion of exaggerated content ensures that no companies can use advertising to 16 ___________their customers, and consumers may stop buying the goods they do not truly need.

In brief, many businesses use advertising to 17___________their competitors rather than to fulfil customers’ needs, which results in people buying unnecessary goods. The best remedy for this issue, in my opinion, is censoring all new advertisements before airing them, in order to safeguard consumers against 18___________ information.

291 words,

Key/Answer

Task 1:

1. The airline admitted being involved in a dirty tricks campaign to win customers from their rival.
2. The scientist’s theory was based on rational evidence that had been proven in laboratory experiments.
3. The opposition leader accused government ministers of manipulating the statistics to suit themselves.
4. The impact of the new legislation has been greatly overstated.
5. Fierce winds were blowing, threatening to capsize our boat.

Task 2:

• (1) proliferated
• (2) fierce
• (3) censorship
• (4) fall victim to
• (5) exaggerate
• (6) identical
• (7) predecessor
• (8) dual-camera
• (9) processor
• (10) In an attempt to
• (11) rival
• (12) impulsive
• (13) rational
• (14) vetting
• (15) extracts
• (16) manipulate
• (17) gain an edge
• (18) overstated