Favourite Things, Timesavers All

You would never find them in a survival kit, but they are the things Americans say they cannot live without: everything from microwave ovens and videocassette recorders to Scotch tape and aluminum foil.

Until recently, experts say, the fondness that people expressed for certain items tended to correspond to how long the items had been used in their homes.

’It used to be, in order not to live without it, you had to live with it, for a while,’ said Dr. Steve Barnett, a cultural anthropologist at Holen North America, a consumer research company in New York.

That has changed. The public’s appetite for new products emerges vividly from consumer research done by the Roper Organization, a public opinion research company in New York.

In a society full of households in which both partners work, anything that uses time more efficiently will catch on rapidly.

That includes computers that allow executives to squeeze in a few hours of work before bedtime, videocassette recorders that let viewers skip commercials, and microwave ovens that can bake a potato in minutes.

’In the 1990s, time is the scarce resource, and the kinds of things people will not be able to live without will be the kinds of things that free up time,’ Barnett said.

Libby Zurkow, 64, a real-estate broker in Wilmington, Delaware, is a case in point. The microwave oven she purchased seven years ago has meant she can prepare drop-dead candlelight dinners quickly.

’The greatest thing to have come along in modern times,’ she said of her oven. I just love great food, and I just don’t have the time or interest to stay home all day.’

Cars, followed by clothes washers, consistently lead Roper’s must-have lists for more than eight out of ten adults.

The bigger story, however, is how some new products are capturing consumers’ souls.

Almost a quarter of the respondents said they could not live without microwave ovens. It has taken other products many years to achieve such acceptance.

Sometimes it is the little things that make life easier.

In the 1985 Roper survey, more people said they could not live without Scotch tape, no-iron cotton and aluminum foil than any of the other 20 items on the list.

This love affair with new products is not just an American phenomenon, experts say. Burnett said people in other cultures are just as dependent on new products as Americans are.

B. Show your notes to a partner. Are the favourite things of Americans similar to your favourite things? Do you agree with the last paragraph?

C. Find synonyms in the text for the following words and phrases.

love, affection to become very clear to become popular to fit (into a busy schedule) to make smth available doesn’t need ironing

smth valuable but limited very elegant or special (informal) taking by force or surprise a washing machine smth that is so good, that you think people should have it (informal)

— Speaking

Think about the material things you own. Which things are essential for your life – so important that you can’t live without them? Make a list. Work with a group. Tell each other your lists. Write down all the things your groupmates mention. Which things were mentioned most often? Report back to the class.