Unit 6 Shop till you drop. 1.Leading-in 2. Language Points 3. Guided Writing 4. Presentation and Exercises Active reading 1 Retail therapy or shopaholism.

Unit 6Shop till

you drop

1. Leading-in2. Language Points3. Guided Writing4. Presentation and Exercises

Active reading 1 Retail therapy or shopaholism

Lead-inBackground Information

Sex and the City is a popular US television series set in New York City, featuring the professional and romantic lives of four women.

MirandaCharlotte

Carrie

Samantha

Each of the four characters in Sex and the City has had a distinct style carefully developed for her.

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is fearlessly fashionable: her style ranges from uptown chic to whimsy.

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) wears sexy styles that exude confidence. She is a Woman (with a capital “W”) and the message comes across loud and clear through strong styles and bold color.

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) looks like a very well-dressed career gal with chic suits and androgynous styles.

Charlotte (Kristin Davis) has a sweet, preppy style that is always accompanied by the proper bag and shoes. Bows, cute prints and feminine styles play up the kind nature of her character.

Carrie is one of the characters

in Sex and the City, played by

Sarah Jessica Parker, who

loves fashionable clothes and

especially Manolo Blahnik

shoes.

Manolo Blahnik is a

famous designer of highly

expensive women’s shoes.

Manolo Blahnik (1942 – )

is a Spanish born fashion

designer and founder of the

self-named, high-end shoe

label.

Jimmy Choo ( 周仰杰 ) , a Malaysian citizen of Hakka Chinese descent born in Penang, Malaysia, is a London-based luxury fashion designer best known for his hand-made women’s shoes, Jimmy Choo Ltd.

Choo currently resides in London. He is currently involved in a project to set up a shoemaking institute in Malaysia, where his iconic status is often evoked to inspire budding shoemakers and fashion designers.

In 2004, Jimmy Choo was awarded the title Dato ( 马来西亚尊称 ) by the Governor of his home state of Penang.

He was also awarded a fellowship by the University of the Arts London, conferring the use of the title Professor.

Victoria Beckham is the wife of the footballer

David Beckham, and a member of the girl band,

the Spice Girls.

Victoria Beckham has found more success

as an internationally recognised and

photographed style icon. She has had a

career in fashion, designing a line of jeans

for Rock & Republic and later designing her

own denim brand, dVb Style.

Beckham has brought out her own range of

sunglasses and fragrance, entitled Intimately

Beckham, which has been released in the UK

and in the United States.

Two terms on bankruptcy

go into debt: You can get into debt by spending more money than you actually have; so you end up in debt and the debts may accumulate. You can get out of debt by paying off or re-paying what you owe. If the creditors (the people or companies to whom you owe money) decide that you no longer need to pay, then the debt is written off, or cancelled.

The 2008 “credit crunch”, in which American and European banks found they couldn’t pay their debts to other banks and had been over-lending by giving mortgages to people who did not have the means to pay, shows how heavily some Western societies have relied on systems of debt.

go bankrupt: This means that someone – or a company – has officially admitted that they have no money and cannot pay what they owe (they are insolvent or financially ruined). This is a serious situation in law. If they become solvent again, they can clear their debts and clear their name.

Language points

• Sentence Study

• Word Study

Sentence Study

I get a real buzz when I hand over my credit card … (Para 3)

What does buzz mean here? The word buzz here means “a strong feeling of pleasure,

excitement or achievement”, eg I get a real buzz out of travelling.

Translate the sentence into Chinese. 递上信用卡的时候，我无比兴奋… ..

Psychologists see shopaholism as an addiction which can benefit from treatment. (Para 5)

What does shopaholism mean here? Shopaholism refers to the general condition or “illness”

of being a shopaholic – someone who enjoys going shopping even when they don’t need anything and cannot pay for what they buy. Sufferers may not recognize the effect of their shopping behaviour (they “avoid reality”), they cannot control their spending habits (“a loss of control”), but think they are free to spend the money they don’t have (“an illusion of freedom”).

Shopaholism may bring a temporary feeling of well-being and distract the person from the worries or anxieties of everyday life, but sufferers often feel guilt or shame. Doctors and psychologists use the medical term oniomania to refer to shopaholism and they would advise the sufferers to be treated.

If you don’t have time to go to the mall, there are many other ways to shop till you drop, such as home shopping on the television, mail order catalogues and buying online. (Para 5)

What does shop till you drop mean here? This means to keep on shopping until you are exhausted.

Then you drop, or fail down. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 你如果没有时间去商场购物，还可以通过很多其他的

办法将购物进行到底，如电视居家购物，商品目录邮购和网上购物。

And like all addicts on the road to recovery, they take it one day at a time. (Para11)

What does the expression take it one day at a time mean here?

The expression take it one day at a time is used when you are in a difficult situation or have such severe problems that you can only plan and act for the present, and adopt the step-by-step approach.

Translate the sentence into Chinese. 像所有的上瘾者一样，购物成瘾的人需要有足够的耐

心才能走完康复之路。

Word Study

label n. [C] a piece of paper or material fastened to an object

that gives information about it 标签；标记 Read the washing instructions on the label.

阅读标签上的洗涤说明。 vt. to put a label on an object 给……加标签（或标记） These three bottles must be clearly labelled “Poison”.

必须清楚地在这三个瓶子上标明 “毒药”。

comparable

a. equal to something else in quality or importance （质量或重要性）比得上……的，可以相提并论的

No comparable studies exist.

目前还没有可比的研究。

bankrupt

a. unable to pay the debt （人或企业）破产的，倒闭的 Many of the companies that they had invested in went

bankrupt. 他们投资的许多公司都破产了。intellectually bankrupt: a person or group with poor ideas

or lacking in real thought.

morally bankrupt: a person or society with very poor

moral standards or lacking in thinking about moral

problems.

illusion

n. [C] a false or wrong belief or idea 幻觉；错觉；错误观念

Many people still have the illusion that full

employment is possible.

许多人还有这种错觉，认为充分就业是可以实现的。

combination

n. [C] something that combines several things 组合体；混合体

a striking colour combination 显眼的颜色搭配 [U] joining or putting together 结合；组合；混合 Never take this medicine in combination with alcohol.

千万别把这种药和酒混在一起服用。

addicted

a. (+ to) enjoying a particular activity very much and spending

as much time as you can doing it 入迷的，上瘾的

1. He is addicted to PC games. 他沉迷于电脑游戏。

2. I don’t want the kids getting addicted to stupid TV

programmes.

我不想让孩子沉迷于无聊的电视节目中。

conscious

a. noticing that something exists or is happening and realizing that it is important 意识到的

He was fully conscious of his guilt.

他完全意识到了自己的罪行。

class-conscious fashion-conscious

gender-conscious self-conscious

end in

to have something as a final result 以……告终 1. Their so-called ideal marriage end in divorce.

他们所谓理想的婚姻以离婚告终。2. His attempt to persuade the boy ended in failure. 他

说服那个男孩的企图以失败告终。

Guided Writing

Reformulation: paraphrasing or clarifying

We sometimes need to reformulate something to explain it. We can do this by expressing it in a different way (paraphrasing), or by providing more information to make it clearer (clarifying).

1. that is to say / that is We use these expressions to explain or define exactly what we mean by something. We sometimes see the initials ie (short for id est, the Latin equivalent of that is).

2. or more precisely We use this expression to give more precise information about something. There are commas before and after it.

3. namely We use this word to identify or specify something we have just referred to. There’s no comma after it.

4. in other words We use this expression for restating what we have just written in a way which is easier to understand. At the beginning of a sentence, it’s followed by a comma. In the middle of a sentence, there are commas before and after it.

Find other sentences which use the same words and expressions for paraphrasing or clarifying.

1. The best way to check is “to do as the Romans do”. In other words, watch if the locals ... (Para 4)

2. It’s rare to bargain in markets, or more precisely, in markets which sell food and clothes ... (Para 5)

3. The only exception is“flea markets”, that is to say, markets where you can buy second-hand goods and antiques. (Para 5)

4. ... then make them an offer, or more precisely, about 40 per cent of their price ... (Para 5)

5. Today Christmas markets open for Advent, in other words, the start of December ... (Para 6)

6. ... and sell traditional handmade goods, namely cakes and biscuits ... (Para 6)

Write a passage about markets in China. Use the questions in Activity 2 in Reading across cultures to help you. Try to include some words and expressions for paraphrasing or clarifying.

assignment

Presentation and Exercises

Thank you!