Page 18 - In Focus (demo)

UNIT 1

3 Reading skills

A Pre-reading questions

1 Have you ever bought a product because of an advertisement you saw?
What was it? Why did you buy it?

2 What is one positive effect and one negative effect of advertising?

B Reading

Read the text. Highlight an interesting idea in each paragraph.

You Are What You Buy

Over the last 60 or 70 years,
consumerism has been a trend
in developed countries. People
buy things they do not need, and
5 they replace things before they
wear out. We used to repair
(1)
things when they were broken, but
today we throw out old things and
replace them with new models.
10 Indeed, many of the things we use
cannot be repaired. Once, products were made to last for
many years. Now, they are designed to last only a few years.
Advertising supports this behavior of buying things that we do
not really need. Advertisements (or ads) make us notice products and brands by having
(2)
15 them repeatedly appear in our lives, especially on television. There are many interesting
programs on television. The advertising industry tells us that to be happy we need this or that
product in our lives. It does this with images that connect the product to happy, successful,
or beautiful people. We assume that to be successful or happy, we must buy the product or
brand or we must wear the same designer label as the beautiful, successful people in the
20 advertisement.
(3)
The negative results of this consumerism are easy to see. As people spend more and
more of their income on things they do not need, they have to work more to pay for them.
This prevents people from spending time with their family or spending money on education
or healthy food. In America today, there are more shopping centers than high schools, and
25 parents spend about 6 hours per week shopping but only 40 minutes playing with their
children.
Another negative result is that we become more tolerant of lies and half-truths. To increase
profi ts and stock prices, companies make many false claims about their products. Can we
really lose weight simply by taking a pill, without dieting or exercising?
30 People also warn us of the negative effects of consumerism on the environment. We use
(4)
energy to produce these unnecessary goods, and that energy use puts more CO 2 into the
air and causes climate change. When we throw away goods, they are either burned or
buried, again causing damage to the environment.
Advertisers say that all they do is inform us. But in reality they have tricked us into working
35 longer hours, buying stuff we don’t need, and thinking we need their products to impress
others.
4 4