From the following list of claims select the ones that are the claims of value. Then defend or reject all of the claims on the list.

1. The more expensive the product, the more satisfactory it will be.

2. Women prefer to look fashionable rather than feel comfortable.

3. Shop-assistants always exaggerate about the goods they are selling.

4. Men enjoy shopping as well as women.

5. Shopping is often thrilling and entertaining.

6. Shopping is a wasteful of time and money.

7. Making too much fuss about your clothes is not intelligent.

8. Women are mercilessly exploited year after year by top-fashion designers.

9. Like your house, car, and the school your children go to, your clothes can be a status symbol.

10. Customer is always right.

DISCUSSION POINTS

1. Some people think shopping may be hard work. Others might say it can be also great fun. Do you sometimes find shopping boring, terrible, depressing, irritable, stressful, not appealing to the imagination? Do you often find it enjoyable, creative, good exercise, relaxing, a good source of entertainment, the best treat of all?

2. Are you a shopping addict?Do you use the day to the full when you do shopping? Do you often go shopping willingly? Do you always have to be cautious, wary, thrifty, rational, and reasonable when you do shopping? Have you ever indulged yourself with a shopping spree? What was it like?

3. Shop-assistants must do all they can to make their customers feel comfortable. What precisely do they do? What might be some good or bad points about their job? Does it sometimes seem fairly routine to some people? Sometimes they call their customers annoying. When? Do such customers ask to show them almost everything they see in a shop? Do they try on everything? Do they ask for help? Can they always buy what they need?

Comment on the following proverbs and sayings.

a) Clothes do not make the man.

b) Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin.

c) A light purse is a heavy curse.

d) Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.

e) Money is a good servant but a bad master.

TASKS FOR WRITING

Main writing form: Narrative Paragraph

Narrative Paragraph gives the details of an event or experience in a story form or in the order they happened. Some of the stories may be written in a form of a dialogue, but take great care to punctuate direct speech correctly. Do not use dashes in place of inverted commas, or employ quotation marks which are not normally used in English. It is generally preferable to keep to the past tense.

Linking words expressing time – after, before, during, first, second, third, till, until, meanwhile, today, tomorrow, next week, yesterday, soon, later, afterward, immediately, finally, then, next, as soon as, when– can be used to write such stories.

1. Stories are good examples of narrative writing. Here is a small text about Abraham Lincoln who worked in a general store when a boy. The sentences are jumbled up. Put them in the correct order.

Fill in the blanks with the following linking words: as soon as; later; years later; when; one day; long afterward

Honest Abe

1. ..., Lincoln’s reputation for honesty helped him in his political career, and it was one of the reasons he got elected President of the United States.

2. ...he realized his mistake, Lincoln walked several miles to the man’s house to give him the correct change.

3. It was because of deeds like this that ... Lincoln became known as ‘Honest Abe’.

4 ... Abraham Lincoln was a young man, he had a job working in a general store.

5. The man was surprised and delighted, and he told everyone about Lincoln’s honesty...

6. … he mistakenly overcharged one of his customers.

2. Choose one of the following situations to write a narrative paragraph. You have been given the first and the last sentences and should add those that come between.

a) One day my friend and I went shopping …………….

When we got back my friend said, ‘Shopping is really a form of therapy for me.’

b) One day I went on a shopping spree……………………

When we got back we found out that…………………..That was my most memorable shopping!

c) ‘Good morning, madam (sir),’ said the shop-assistant politely when I entered the Women’s (Men’s) clothes …………….

‘All I know, young man,’ said I angrily, ‘that I’m not leaving the store till I’ve got my money back.’