Level 2 l Upper intermediate

Transcription

1 1 Warmer Complete the shopping questionnaire. 1. How often do you shop online? a. every day b. once a week c. once a month d. never 3. What is the biggest problem with online shopping? a. You can t actually see or touch the product. b. security c. the length of time it takes for your order to arrive d. problems if you have to send a product back 2. What do you buy online? You can select more than one answer. 2 a. music b. clothes c. books d. electronic goods Key words Complete the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you. purchaser rating mediocre bin bag blackout blind repeatedly exposure handful grating review 1. A is a window cover that blocks out light. (para 1) 2. A is a written opinion about something. (para 1) 3. If something is, it is average or below average in quality. (para 1) 4. A is a measurement of how good something is. (para 1) 5. A is a plastic bag you put rubbish in. (para 2) 6. A is a very small number of people or things. (para 3) 7. is the fact of seeing or experiencing something. (para 6) 8. If something happens, it happens again and again. (para 6) 9. If something is, it is unpleasant and annoying. (para 6) 10. A is someone who buys something. (para 7) 3 Find the information Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible. 1. What did the author want to buy? 2. How much time does the author of the article have between the time his baby goes to bed and the time he falls asleep himself? 3. What is Derek Powell s job? 4. Why do grating TV adverts work?

2 Shopping online? Don t fall into the ratings trap Oliver Burkeman 10 November, In the summer of 2016, I fell straight into a trap that, I now know, is common when shopping online. Our baby goes to bed before dark so I wanted to make the bedroom darker. I stumbled upon a blackout blind that promised to stick to the windows as if by magic (though, actually, by static electricity). It got plenty of reviews online but a mediocre average rating because, in many cases, it didn t stick at all. 2 Yet, I figured that a product bought by so many people couldn t be so bad. Unfortunately, it was. For the money I paid, I could have taped bin bags on the windows, then spent the rest on a nice bottle of whisky to enjoy in the 45 minutes I have each evening between the baby going to bed and me falling asleep. 3 It s reassuring, I suppose, to learn from a paper just published in Psychological Science that this seems to be a basic human tendency: we re influenced more by how many other people have chosen a product than by what they thought of the product. The Stanford University psychologist Derek Powell and his colleagues showed people pairs of products as they might show up on Amazon, one with a poor average rating based on lots of reviews, the other with a low rating based on only a handful of reviews. People chose the product with more reviews. 4 This makes no sense, statistically speaking: the larger the number of reviews on which a bad rating is based, the higher the likelihood the product really is bad. 5 This is the law of large numbers. If you ask a crowd of 1,000 to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar, the average of their guesses will be very close to the truth. If you ask three people, it probably won t. So, if forced to choose between two such products, you re actually better off selecting the one with fewer reviews, since there s a bigger chance the people who hated it are exceptions and their bad experience won t be the same as yours. 6 This is similar to the exposure effect, which describes the way we start to like anything to which we re repeatedly exposed, regardless of any other reason to like or dislike it. That s one reason that grating TV adverts work. Sure, they re annoying but the fact that they are grating guarantees you ll notice them lots and noticing leads to liking. 7 In both cases, we seem designed to find sheer quantity (of product reviews, of times seeing an ad) reassuring at a basic level. It takes more conscious reasoning to see, in the case of online shopping, that the larger the quantity of purchasers, the more seriously you should recognize their judgement and not buy something if they hated it. 8 This is the kind of reasoning it s much harder to practise when you re tired. Guardian News and Media 2017 First published in The Guardian, 10/11/17

3 4 Comprehension check Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text? 1. The blackout blind the author bought got a lot of reviews online. 2. Unfortunately, it wasn t a good product. 3. People are less influenced by the number of people who have chosen a product and more influenced by people s opinion of the product. 4. If you ask three people to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar, the average guess will be closer to the real number than if you ask 1,000 people. 5. It s better to choose a product with a larger number of mediocre reviews. 6. It s more difficult to think logically when you are tired. 5 Find the word Find the following words and phrases in the text. 1. a two-word phrasal verb meaning find something by accident (para 1) 2. a verb meaning believe something is true although you do not know for certain (para 2) 3. an adjective meaning making you feel less worried (para 3) 4. a noun meaning the chance that something might happen (para 4) 5. a two-word adjectival phrase meaning in a better position (para 5) 6. an adjective used only before a noun, emphasizing the amount or degree of something (para 7) 7. a noun meaning the process of thinking about something in an intelligent and sensible way in order to make a decision or form an opinion (para 7) 8. a noun meaning an opinion you have after thinking carefully about something (para 7) 6 Prepositions Complete the phrases from the text with these prepositions. between by on into of to 1. fall a trap 2. close the truth 3. choose two products 4. magic 5. regardless something 6. based something

4 7 Word-building Complete the table using words from the text. verb noun 1. rate 2. reason 3. expose 4. purchase (person) 5. guess 6. produce 8 Discussion Discuss the statements. Internet shopping will lead to the death of city centres. Television advertising should be banned.

5 KEY 2 Key words 1. blackout blind 2. review 3. mediocre 4. rating 5. bin bag 6. handful 7. exposure 8. repeatedly 9. grating 10. purchaser 3 Find the information 11. a blackout blind minutes 13. psychologist 14. because people notice them a lot 5 Find the word 21. stumble upon 22. figure 23. reassuring 24. likelihood 25. better off 26. sheer 27. reasoning 28. judgement 6 Prepositions 29. into 30. to 31. between 32. by 33. of 34. on 4 Comprehension check 15. T 16. T 17. F 18. F 19. F 20. T 7 Word-building 35. rating 36. reasoning 37. exposure 38. purchaser 39. guess 40. product