Reading practice

BUY NOTHING DAY

Once a year, in countries around the world, people demonstrate their discontent with consumer culture by holding a Buy Nothing Day. Buy Nothing Day began in 1990 in ten countries and has been celebrated every year since then. Each year, more and more people and countries join in the celebration. The intention is to encourage people to say no to consumerism and to remind them that they shouldn’t be slaves to material possessions.

On Buy Nothing Day, activists organise various free and creative forms of entertainment to prove to people that it is possible to have fun without spending money. Activists also pass out colourful booklets and stick up posters to encourage people to think twice about the dangers of consumerism. Some activists publicly cut up their credit cards at mass demonstrations, as a protest against the pressure on people to spend more than they can afford.

Buy Nothing Day campaigners in the United States have also produced a special TV commercial called an “uncommercial”, which asks people not to buy anything! However, the most imaginative suggestion of the Buy Nothing Day activists is their “Christmas Gift Exemption Vouchers”. The idea is to give people you love a voucher which states that they are exempt from buying Christmas presents, on condition that they spend quality time with you instead.

The message of Buy Nothing Day is not supposed to be heard only once a year. Its supporters insist that the spirit of simplicity is timeless, and they want people to fight materialism with imagination and creativity all year round.

Question 1 Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text
a) The aim of the Buy Nothing Day activists is to show people how consumerism is enslaving them.
b) The more money you spend, the more fun you have.
c) Buy Nothing Day activists try to make people aware of the dangers of consumerism.
d) The idea behind Buy Nothing Day is to criticise materialism once a year.

Question 2 Answer these questions in your own words:
a) Why was Buy Nothing Day created?
b) What things do activists do on Buy Nothing Day?

Question 3 Find a word or phrase in the text that means the same as:
a) deny (par.1)
b) distribute (par. 2)
c) excused, without obligation (par. 3)

KEY

Question 1
a) TRUE “... and to remind them that they shouldn’t be slaves to material possessions.”
b) FALSE “On Buy Nothing Day, activists organise various free and creative forms of entertainment to prove to people that it is possible to have fun without spending money.”
c) TRUE “Activists also pass out colourful booklets and stick up posters to encourage people to think twice about the dangers of consumerism. “
d) FALSE “... , and they want people to fight materialism with imagination and creativity all year round.”

Question 2
a) Buy Nothing Day was created because people felt the need to express their rejection of materialism and consumerism and wanted to encourage others to spend less money and enjoy having fun more.
b) On Buy Nothing Day, activists prepare interesting things for people to do or watch free of charge, to make them realise that having fun does not always have to cost money. They also distribute advertising literature to make people aware of the problems of consumerism and some even destroy their credit cards as a protest against over-spending.


Question 3
a) say no
b) pass out
c) exempt

Oral skills. Listening

“Somewhere Only We Know” (Keane), the singer walks “across an empty land” and knows “the pathway like the back of my hand.” 

Find your way through the maze to read and understand the lyrics of the song while facing a series of challenges related to grammar and sentence structure along the way. The use of articles and possessive adjectives, or differences such as “been”/”gone” or “say”/”tell” to solve as you connect the words. Also, fill in the circles with a suitable preposition. 

Somewhere Only We Know.pdf

We’ve been asked whether “Somewhere Only We Know” is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs… It’s perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message… Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time… Richard Hughes

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