CONSUMERISM and the HUMAN BRAIN
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 2020.
Reading
Comprehension
BUSINESS and MONEY
UNIT 3
«Prosperity is a way of living and thinking, and not just money or
things. Poverty is a way of living and thinking, and not just a lack of
money or things. » Eric Butterworth
Scholar, author of Spiritual Economics (1916-2003)
1. Give your comment on the given above saying.
2. Why do people shop? Name ten things.
3. What are some reasons that people choose one brand of a product instead of similar brand of the same product?
4. How does advertising influence people?
Part I
- Read the following paragraphs, and after each paragraph write its topic and the main idea.
- Make up a summary of the text. Remember that a summary is shorter than the original.
| A | We are all consumers. We all buy and use products and services; that is, we consume. The word comes from the Latin consumere, which means “to use up, to waste or destroy”. Most of us don't think of ourselves as wasteful or destructive, but the world of economy is based on consumerism. Today, people worldwide have greater access than ever before to a huge variety of products and, often, to dozens of brands of the same product. What makes us decide to buy Brand A instead of Brand B, when the two items are really identical? Why do we buy things that we don't actually need? The answer lies in marketing – the advertising and selling of products. Successful marketers use their knowledge of psychology and, increasingly, of recent studies of the human brain, to persuade us to consume more and more. |
| Topic:____________________________________________________________ Main idea: _________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ | |
| B | A good understanding of human weakness is essential if a company wants to sell a product. One way that advertisers persuade us to buy a product is by targeting our dissatisfaction with ourselves, our fears. Consider for a moment a typical fear – fear of being offensive to other people. Advertisers persuade us, for example, that if we don't buy their mouthwash, we'll have bad breath and offend other people. Dentists tell us that mouthwash is actually unnecessary; they explain that we need only simple dental hygiene – regular, correct use of a soft toothbrush and of dental floss. But we continue to spend money on mouthwash, breath freshener, and breath mints. Our fear of offending people outweighs our dentists' logic. |
| Topic:____________________________________________________________ Main idea: _________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ | |
| C | In similar way, advertisers also take advantage of our need for a good self-image, our desire to appear attractive, successful, and even exciting. Take the example of the Marlboro cowboy. For years, this famous image has appeared everywhere, in even the smallest rural villages. Many men see it and think that's the kind of person they would like to be – strong, handsome, and adventurous – a person with an exciting life. Although it's irrational – impossible to explain reasonably – they buy the cigarettes because they want to be like the Marlboro man. It's common knowledge that the original model for these advertisements was a man addicted to smoking who died of lung cancer. However, this brand of cigarettes remains very popular. Another example is the recent popularity in the United States of SUVs – sport utility vehicles. These vehicles are more expensive than most cars. They use more gas and create more pollution than most cars. They take up more space than most cars. But TV commercials show them climbing rocky mountain roads and crossing rivers, which seems exciting to many people. Most people who buy an SUV never get out of the city. They spend their morning commute in gridlock, not driving up and down mountains. Although it may seem irrational, advertisers persuade them that SUV owners are people with an exciting life. |
| Topic:____________________________________________________________ Main idea: _________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ | |
| D | With so many different (but almost identical) brands of the same product, what causes us to choose one brand instead of another? According to Dr. Alan Hirsch, our sense of smell actually influences our opinion of a product and our decision to buy it. A scientist at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Hirsch ran a careful, well-organized study. There were two identical rooms with an identical pair of Nike sneakers in each room. There was only one difference: he sprayed one of the rooms with a scent of flowers. Volunteers entered each room and answered questions about the sneakers. The result was that 84 percent of the people preferred the sneakers in the room with the floral smell even though they were exactly the same as the ones in the other room. |
| Topic:____________________________________________________________ Main idea: _________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ | |
| E | There is also the effect of self-fulfilling prophecies. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a situation in which people cause a prediction to come true. (For example, a teacher tells a class that they are especially intelligent, and that semester the class does especially well on exams.) In marketing, a successful advertisement persuades consumers that a product works well; their belief causes them to use the product in such a way that it does work well. For example, the ads for Brand X of a diet pill say, “Take this pill, and you will lose weight because you won't be hungry.” So people buy Brand X. because they believe it will cause weight loss, they begin to eat less. They establish a new habit of eating less. The result? They lose weight. Is this because of the pill or because they are eating less? |
| Topic:____________________________________________________________ Main idea: _________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ | |
| F | Most of us like to think that we are reasonable, independent thinkers. We like to believe that we have a good reason for our choices. We don't want to buy products because of some strange compulsion – some irrational desire that we can't control. The truth is, however, that with their increasing knowledge of what goes on in the human brain, marketers might have more power over us than we realize. |
| Topic:____________________________________________________________ Main idea: _________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ |
- Look back at the text to find the meaning of the following pronouns. What does each pronoun refer to?
| their (Paragraph A, line 10) | ||
| they (Paragraph B, line 18) | ||
| they (Paragraph C, line 28) | ||
| it (Paragraph D, line 58) | ||
| he (Paragraph D, line 64) | ||
| their (Paragraph E, line 74) |
- Tell whether the following statements are true or false:
1. Paragraph A implies that people are more wasteful than they think they are.
2. Paragraph A infers that successful marketers are in favor of more consumption.
3. We can infer from Paragraph B that good tooth care stops bad breath.
4. In Paragraph C, the author implies that SUV owners live an exciting life.
5. In Paragraph C, the author infers that SUV owners do not use their vehicles for exciting trips.
6. Dr. Hirsch's research implies that a product could sell better if it smells better.
7. Paragraph E implies that diet pills really do reduce a person's weight.
8. Paragraph E implies that people believe diet pills work better than they actually do.
9. The author implies throughout the reading that advertisers try to manipulate consumers' thoughts.
10. Most readers will imply that this article takes a negative view of
advertisers.
Part II
1. Previewing the topic. What do you think about the following actions? Are they acceptable? Are they wrong? Some things may seem more wrong to you than others.
a. A student doesn't want to buy a book he needs, so he copies some chapters on a copy machine.
b. A student copies a friend's paper and gives it to her teacher with her own name.
c. A man finds a purse with $500 in it. He keeps the money.
d. A man needs some money. He copies paper money on a copy machine.
e. A woman needs some money. She takes $50 from her mother's wallet.
2.Background
When you read a story, there may be many words you don't know. Often you can still understand the story, and sometimes you can even understand these new words.
Read the following story. See if you can understand it even though some words are missing. Answer the questions that follow. Discuss your answer with a classmate.
One day in 1993 some New York City garbage workers were very surprised when they emptied a trash can. Along with the banana peels and empty Coke cans, they found $18 million in new (1) ___________.
Who would throw out all that money? The workers felt that something was not right, so they called the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the department that makes paper money. The government workers said that the money looked real but that it was actually (2) ________ - and not legal. The garbage belonged to (3) _____, people who make money that is not real. They make the money by using (4) ___________ similar to those for making books or newspapers or by using (5) __________ and other computer equipment. These counterfeiters probably made a lot of money and weren't happy with how it looked. So they threw it out and made some more.
1. What did the New York garbage workers find?
2. Who threw out all money?
3.Reading the text. The following article is about how counterfeiters make fake money. It is also about how the U.S. government tries to stop counterfeiting. In groups of three, make a list of things that you think the government might do to make money harder to copy.
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