UNIT 2, Listening 2: multiple choice (Part 3), Exercise 2

Дата публикации: Apr 02, 2014 10:46:8 AM

You will hear part of a radio programme in which a sociologist, Graham Styles, and a journalist, Sally Greengrass, are discussing the effects of consumerism in society. Choose the answer (А. В. С or D) which fits best according to what you hear.

Interviewer: Today we're talking about money and whether having a good salary and a good standard of living actually makes you happy. I'm joined in the studio by the sociologist Graham Styles and by the Journalist Sally Greengrass. Let's turn to Graham first, who's going to tell us about some research into this area.

Graham: Yes, a study undertaken in Cambridge established that more than six out of ten people questioned in the city feel they couldn't afford to buy everything they really needed, even though the vast majority, judged by world standards, live lives of luxury. People there earn, in real terms, three times what people did in the 1950s. But the survey shows that they're no happier than they were then. I think this is very worrying and we should be asking ourselves why people have such perceptions.

I: But what does this mean in practical terms, Graham!

G: OK, what it means is that while a £300 fridge will do perfectly well, people actually yearn for a £3000 luxury model. It's what you might call 'luxury fever'. The desire to emulate the lifestyles of the very rich has led to booming sales of luxury cars, professional-quality home equipment, even cosmetic surgery. And the media and our cult of celebrity is partly to blame. It's always been the case that people wanted to keep up with the Joneses, but it used to be that the Joneses lived locally. Now they're the people we see on television – everyone thinks that the celebrity lifestyle is within their reach.

I: But does it really matter? Sally, what do you think?

Sally: I do agree, that rampant materialism to impress the neighbours is unattractive, but isn't Graham rather overstating the case here! It seems to me that aspiring to own objects that are beautiful, well-crafted and, yes expensive, is part of the natural human pursuit of pleasure. Owning something aesthetically pleasing that you love and have striven for is satisfying and helps promote well-being. I can't see anything wrong in that, or that people are any different now to what they've always been in that respect.

I: Graham, how would you respond to that?

G: No, Sally's right. I wouldn't deny people the right to have luxuries in their lives. I have a nice laptop and an expensive watch myself. I'm not saying we should go around wearing rags and living in tents or anything like that. The problem with consumerism isn't the objects themselves, but the attachment we have to them. It's that our possessions can end up owning us because we don't really have the means to pay for them. And this does matter because these attitudes are damaging the quality of our lives and damaging the planet too. Credit card debt has trebled in the last seven years and this has been accompanied by a sharp rise in personal bankruptcies. People appear to want everything now and are willing to go into the red to get it, added to which producing all this stuff only adds to pollution and uses up finite resources.

I: Sally!

S: Well, not all luxury goods production pollutes, but it does all create employment and so also creates wealth. The largest luxury goods companies employ tens of thousands of people, and that's without counting the retail sector. When several British fashion houses closed recently, there was a lot of concern because some of the world's most skilled seamstresses and embroiderers were left without employment prospects. Happily, many of them have now joined companies producing deluxe ready-to-wear clothes - companies kept afloat by exactly the prosperous consumers whom Graham despises - people who can afford to buy quality craftsmanship. I'm not sure what sort of world Graham is actually proposing - I seem to remember my parents complaining that the 1950s were rather dull and grey.

I: Graham - a last word from you!

G: Well firstly, I don't despise anyone. But I do think we have to look at the wider costs of rampant consumerism. And I think perhaps the most serious aspect to all this is the damage it does to family life. British parents are sacrificing time with their families in order to work longer hours, and they're doing this so that they can earn the money to keep those families in just the sort of luxuries we've been talking about. And it's all thanks to advertising, to the television and celebrity magazines and all that. So the time parents spend earning money to provide so-called celebrity lifestyles for their children often comes at the cost of those children's emotional well-being.

S: Well, sorry, I think that's really simplistic Lots of things affect the quality of family life.

I: I'm sorry Sally, that's all we have time for. Obviously this is a topic that'd be worth returning to on the programme, but now it's time to go over to ..

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