UNIT 10. CONSUMERISM AND SPENDING HABITS. EXPRESSION ORALE. Q1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Give your reasons: a. People should consume because consumption is the key to a recovery. b. If we stop consuming unemployment will skyrocket. c. We tend to buy things we don’t even want. d. Women have worse spending habits than men. e. Shopping has the power to make people happier. f. Shops should organize special offers and big sales all year round. Shops should be opened on Sundays. g. People’s spending habits are difficult to change. h. Consumerism is related to a European “throwaway culture”. i. Banks should keep consumption loans available.

Q 2. Answer the following questions: What are your spending habits? What are the bad things about consumerism? What role does consumerism play in the environment, the economy, and in our daily life? Do you think consumerism can affect our well being? How has the role of marketing and advertising influenced consumerism? Can you give any specific examples? Have you ever heard of Buy Nothing Day ? * Buy Nothing Day is where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from buying stuff

COMPREHENSION ECRITE ET VOCABULAIRE NEW WAYS OF CONSUMING Q 3. Read each paragraph and choose the appropriate heading: a) b) c) d)

Eco-consumption Back to old ways of consuming. Freeganism. A trend of buying more second-hand or discount.

…………………………………………………………………………………………… More and more people even from the middle or upper middle classes don’t hesitate to go to charity shops for books, household items or more clothes, to buy from car boot sales to barter or to go on websites like eBay. More people also go to discounters for their everyday shopping. 1

…………………………………………………………………………………………… Many people nowadays tend to grow their own fruit and vegetables when they can or they buy more locally and concentrate on cheaper seasonal produce. In addition, there is a trend to buy fewer disposable, hard-to-recycle items and more recyclable ones. …………………………………………………………………………………………… Consumers also try to know more about the products they buy, with the will to be more environmentally-friendly or to participate in fair-trade. They make a point of buying rechargeable batteries, non-tropical wood… …………………………………………………………………………………………… Some people have adopted a lifestyle philosophy focused on adopting alternative means to satisfy needs in order to minimize dependence on what is termed the "conventional economy." Some people scavenge for discarded items (i.e. dumpster diving), barter or create their own goods. They do hitchhiking for transportation and squatting or camping for housing. Q 4. Read the text: “Spending boom fuelled by the desire for happiness” Q5. Do the following crossword containing words from the lesson.

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MUC: EXPRESSION ECRITE. À rediger en anglais. Q6. Using the information given in the table, analyse the changes in people’s spending habits. Draw your conclusions. (100 words at least)

Q7. What are your spending habits? Do you think that “doing” is more important than “having”? (150 words at least)

NRC: EXPRESSION ORALE. Q4. Watch the video: Neat Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exEXnMuV5TU 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What is being advertised? Who is the ad aimed at? What is specifically highlighted about the product (the benefits)? How does the ad help to sell the product? Where and when might the ad appear in order to reach its target audience?

Some useful sentences: What we have here is a commercial (ad, advert, advertisement) about … We have no information about the moment when was created but we can guess it’s recent. The voice over says… The slogan of this corporate is … Concerning my opinion of this video …. This video is well organize, interesting because evokes a topical issue, easy to understand…The scene present in this video catch my eye / very attractive…

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VOCABULAIRE Charts and tables : Table: tableau Bar chart: histogramme Pie chart: camembert Line graph: courbe Chart: graphique Diagram: diagramme To begin: This chart shows… According to this chart, … We can see from this graph that… Time span: From 2001 to 2003… Over a period of two years, … Since 2004… Upward changes: There has been a 10% rise in… There was an increase of 20% in 2006 … has grown up/rose by 15% a year … peaked in 1999 … have risen a little = slightly Downward changes: There was a decrease in… There was a 10% fall … reached in lower point in January 2009 … have been dropping slowly but steadily No change: … have remained stable = steady = constant … stayed the same There has been no change in … Forecast: If present trends continue, it could increase by 10% It should improve soon It is expected to rise by the end of the year A drastic change is bound to occur soon

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