①The 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.

②Paid 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.

③The 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.

④If 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.

1.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

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据题干关键词把答案出处定位到第一段，根据“Consumers passionate about a product may create “earned” media by willingly promoting it to friends”，可知对产品充满热情的消费者可能会心甘情愿地将其推广给朋友，即D项，enthusiastic与passionate、recommending与promoting分别为同义词。故选D。

2.According to Paragraph 2, sold media feature_______.

A a safe business environment

B random competition

C strong user traffic

D flexibility in organization

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。题干意为：根据第二段可知，出售媒体的特点是_______。根据sold media定位到第二段第四句：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. 由此可知C项（强大的用户流量）符合。故选C。

3.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

解析：选B。B 推理判断题。根据题干关键词earned media定位到第三段的Such hijacked media are the opposite of earned media（这类“劫持”媒介是口碑媒介的反面），那什么是“劫持”媒介呢？热情的消费者会以更快、更明显、更局破坏力的方式在口碑媒介表达自己的观点，就形成了“劫持”媒介，即口碑媒介可能被用于制造营销的负面影响，故选B。

4.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

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据题干关键词Toyota Motor定位到第四段。本段第一二句指出：“劫持”媒介形成时，充满激情的消费者可能会纠结其他消费者共同抵制产品，影响公司的声誉，这时就要求公司做出快速有效的回应，接下来列举丰田汽车公司（Toyota Motor）有效回应劫持媒介以降低损失的案例对该论述进行佐证，故选A。

5.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.

解析：选A。A 主旨大意题。 通览全文，第一段指出，市场营销的影响不仅来源于传统付费媒介，还来源于一系列其他因素（出售媒介、自有媒介、口碑媒介、劫持媒介等）。接下来的第二段重点论述“出售媒介”给营销商带来的机遇，第三、四段则描述了劫持媒介可能带给营销商的风险并说明公司应如何应对。由此可见，本文主要围绕“营销新媒介”的主题展开论述，故选A。