Warm up area

Answer the following questions:

• Are you fond of shopping? Or is it a nightmare for you?

• Where do you usually do your shopping? How often?

• Do you use a shopping list? Why?

• What is a shopaholic? What about you?

• Do you do shopping on the internet? Can you name advantages and disadvantages of internet shopping?

Discussion area

Look through the text. Get ready to discuss.

Hooked on shopping

Over the years, shopping has become a very common activity. Many people enjoy going to malls or stores more and more everyday, but it's more than a common hobby for some of them. They have turned into shopaholics. They are people who simply enjoy shopping and walking around spending money without being able to stop doing it.

Shopaholics, also called compulsive spenders, are people like any addicted people who are hooked on something. They are hooked on shopping. They really like shopping and usually buy things that they don't need. Even though they don't have enough money, they buy everything they want.

The question is: why do they have this addiction? There isn't a specific answer. Some people go shopping when they are sad, worried, upset or lonely and they want to feel better. They use this activity as a way to forget their problems. Shopaholics say that they feel more important and better after they buy something.

They also tend to have this addiction when they feel guilty. For example, a husband might buy very expensive presents for his family to try to make up for his lack of love for them.

We are used to thinking that women enjoy shopping more than men; but according to some studies, that's not true. Men really like shopping because they feel they have power and control. They get whatever they want. Also, men usually buy big items while women spend their money on clothes, cosmetics, decorations for their houses, or things for family.

Shopaholism seems to be a harmless addiction, but the fact is it can cause many problems. Some of them can be psychological; and in that case, people addicted to shopping should go to a support group or learn about behavior therapies to help them break this habit. However, the process, like for most addictions, is long, and they suffer a lot. It can also cause financial problems.

Shopaholics don't even worry if they have enough money to afford what they want. They just think about satisfying their feelings, so they spend money they don't have. They get deep in debt, and they can even go bankrupt and get sent to jail.

In conclusion, if you are a person who enjoys shopping, be careful. Try to control yourself. The power of the mind is great, and if you make a few efforts, you will be able to avoid this addiction. Next time you go shopping, stop a second and think about it. Examine your shopping habits. Later might be too late.

Read and translate the text.

Shops and shopping

Going shopping is a part of our everyday life. For some people it's a pleasant pastime while for others it's an everyday routine or even a nightmare.

Today people do a lot of shopping or at least window-shopping every day. In large cities and even in small towns there are all kinds of shops and stores as well as supermarkets.

The bakery offers you bread of all kinds, the butchery sells meat, the grocery is the place to buy flour, sugar, salt and alike foodstuffs, the greengrocery will supply you with fruits and vegetables, the confectionery is the place for a sweet tooth, dairy has a wide choice of dairy products including milk, yoghurt, cheese, etc. There are shops specializing in coffees or teas, clothes shops, footwear shops, bookshops, fabric shops, jewellery shops and many, many others.

Supermarkets are big self-service shops where one can buy a lot of goods cheaper than at local grocer's. When people go to supermarkets they are often looking for bargains. By the way these shops are brightly lit and usually well laid out. Everything from quick-frozen food to washing powder, from shoe-polish to tooth paste can be bought there. All these things are displayed in such a way that people are often tempted to purchase things they don't need. It's a so called marketing trick; that's why it's better to make shopping list before going to a shop. With shopping list you can avoid impulse purchases and overbuying perishables.

If you are going to buy some clothes, electrical appliances, souvenirs and so on, the best place to visit is a department store. A department store is a store which sells many different kinds of goods, each in a separate department. Modern department stores serve the needs of the entire family. Usually people enjoy buying goods in such shops as they can make all their purchases under one roof. A typical department store occupies a large building with separate departments, located on a number of floors.

Besides supermarkets and department stores every sizeable town has a market where local people sell spare potatoes and carrots from their gardens and where larger traders arrive in big trucks that are overloaded with melons, oranges, bananas, etc in order to sell them. One can find dried fruit, cheese, nuts, honey, cereals and other food in the markets as well.

Certainly some people dislike shopping and place their orders by the phone or order goods on the Internet. Today you can buy everything on the Internet starting with books and finishing with clothes, but it's really not easy to find a store with the best prices and more convenient delivery hours because today there are so many stores and companies on the Internet. Internet shopping is meant to be time-saving, because at present we want to save as much time as possible. In addition usually it's cheaper to buy things on the Internet, you won't face long waiting lines in each register, endless queues and deal with intrusive shop assistants.

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