Discuss the following questions

1. Do you know any books / films / song / games about shopping? Which are they?

2. Why are they so popular?

3. Do they promote consumerism and overconsumption? How?

4. Should they be banned? Why / Why not?

5. How should we bring up the younger generation to resist temptation?

4.2. Look at the book / disc covers and discuss which of them better reveals the problem of consumerism. Why?

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4.3. Discuss the following.

1. What is “shopping season”? When is it? Which countries are involved?

2. What is “Black Friday”? How does this day relate to shopping?

3. How can people resist shopping? Should they?

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4.4. Listen to excerpt from CNN News about “Buy Nothing Day” and fill in the gaps.

1. Black Friday is almost gone, but not everyone was in _______________.

2. The average Northern American consumes 5 times more than a _______________,10 times more than a _______________ and 30 times more than _______________.

3. _______________ is “Buy Nothing Day”.

4. They couldn’t buy any time on TV channels for their ad because _______________.

5. They started Buy Nothing day back in _______________ and it is celebrated in _______________.

6. People who go and buy the next day after Thanksgiving do not understand the consequences of overconsumption – _______________, _______________, _______________ consequences.

7. Buying noting can influence economy only _______________.

8. We are living off the backs of _______________, _______________.

9. Since WW2 we have increased our consumption by _______________ but our happiness has not gone up.

4.5. Make up the derivatives of the word “consume” (using the affixes - able, -ed, -er, -ing, -ism, -ist, -ive, -ly, -s, -tion, non-, over-, post-, un-, under), find out what they mean and complete the following spidergram.