What is Fashion?
Fashion is something we deal with every day. Fashion is revealing. Clothes reveal what groups people are in. In high schools, groups have names: “goths, skaters, preps, herbs”. Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercing as an outsider. But to another person the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.
Fashion is a language which tells people a story about the person who wears it. Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand.
Fashion is a state of mind. A spirit, an extension of one’s self.
Why is it important? Fashion is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life. It’s a way of celebrating diversity and variety of the world in which we live. Fashion is needed to keep us safe, tell us apart, expresss our bodie, and for our own enjoyment. One very important thing in fashion is change which is necessary to keep our life interesting. Fashion is a way measuring a mood that can be usefull in many aspects, culturally, socially, even phychologically. At the same time, fashion shouldn’t be taken too seriously or you lose the fun of it.
“Glossy syndrome” is a serious problem. It is one of the major illnesses of the modern society. Some people aspire to change their appearance and style and forget about truly important qualities such as individuality, mind, intelligence.
Fashion is not a sense of life – it is just a medium for self-expression.
4.2 2nd reading for more detailed comprehension. Answer the questions.
1. What do clothes reveal?
2. Do clothes separate people into groups or do they unite them?
3. What message do some young people deliver by their garments and accessories?
4. What does fashion give people?
5. How should fashion be taken? Can it be a sense of life?
5 Oral Practice
Asking for Permission to Do Something. Requests, Polite Enquiries, Replies
5.1 Learn the following requests and replies.
A. Formal
1 Would you please allow - Of course, no problem.
me to look for the book Go ahead and find it.
on the shelves myself?
2 Would you mind my - No, of course not.
opening the window? (Not at all.)
3 May I ask you for a favour? - Certainly. You want my help?
4 Would you be so kind as to - With pleasure.
pass me the butter, please? (Certainly).
5 Could you possibly tell - Yes, certainly. Go straight ahead and
me the way to the then turn right.
British Museum?
6 Would you mind not - Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you
smoking here? don’t like it.
B. Informal
7 Try to come on time. - Sure. I’ll be there on the dot.
8 Can Jack borrow your bike? - No, he can’t. I need it at the moment.
9 Please be seated. - Thank you.
10 Give me that magazine, - Here you are. (Here it is.)
will you?
5.2 Read the following illustrative dialogues.
1. At home. Ann and her mother.
Ann: May I go to the cinema?
Mother: Yes, you may, if you think you’ll come home on time. Don’t forget tomorrow is a school day.
2. Two students in a classroom.
Ann: Listen.
John: What is it now?
Ann: Can you get the theatre tickets and come straight to the theatre after classes?
John: You are really taking advantage of me. But I’ll do it, although I was planning to do some work in the library.
3. In the street.
- Have you got a watch? Would you tell me time, please?
- Yes, I would if my watch isn’t slow.
5.3 Make up short dialogues in which you address somebody with a request using the following: “Would you mind…?”, “Would you please…?”, “Could you do me a favour…?”, “Will you…?”, “Please don’t…”.
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