Reading 30 minutes
1 Read the text in exercise 2
quickly, and put the
following points in order to
fo rm a summary o f the
a rticle.
a Thousa n ds live o n the
street.
b Tile Big Issue is a financial
success, an d it generates
huge a mo unts of money
to be spe n t o n good
causes.
c Cu lt ural landmarks stan d
n ext to te m porary she lters
for pe op le slee p ing rough .
d In the 1980s, many people
arr ived in the ca pita l in
sea rch of a home and a
job.
e The Big Issu e is n ow an
internati on al initiative.
f Th e life of h omeless
people o n the Sout h Bank
was im mo rta lised in a
t heatre play.
g People can offer suppor t
t hrough special
o rgan isatio ns a nd by
bu ying Tile Big Issue.
1 which gives them a chance to earn money and retain a sense of dignity.
2 Encourag ed by its succ ess in Brita in. The Big Iss ue has beco me
3 international. and now seventeen titles thro ug ho ut Euro pe are being
4 published.
5
6
7 A But it's virt ua lly im possibl e to get a job in Brita in wit ho ut a
EXAM TIP
Before yo u fill in t he gaps, read
through the text to ge t a ge neral
sense of what each paragraph is
about. This will help you decide
which extracts belong to which
part of th e text.
24 PEOPLE AND SOCIETY
READING EXAM ~ 20 minutes
2 Read the newspaper article about Tile Big Issue magazine.
Five sentences have been removed from the text. Put the
correct se n ten ce from A-F below in ea ch space to form a
logic al , cohere n t a n d co rrect text. There is one extra
se ntence you are n o t going to n eed.
From Rags To Riches
t the southern end of Waterloo Bridge in Londo n, by the banks of
A the River Thames, stand the Royal .Nationa l Theatre, the Nation al
Film Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall. 1 _ _ They have
become a mecca for the homeless. The place is littered with the cardboard
boxes and old mattresses that they use as beds. It became so popu lar there in
the 1980s that each person had their own, much-prized space that they would
guard carefully. 2 _ _ This was also the name of a theatr e play directed by
the now famous Oscar-winner (for American Beauty) Sam Mendes.
The 1980s saw an enormous increase in people sleeping rough in
Brita in, as many unemployed came to cities in the south, espec ially London.
where j obs were easier to f ind. 3 _ _ They ended up with no work and
nowhere to live. Today the housing charity Shelter estimates there are around
100,000 homeless people in London alone, who are eith er in tempo rary
acco mmodation or simply living on the streets. These people ofte n hang
around ra ilway stations and other public places asking for money.
The British public are asked by their government not to give money to
street beggars. 4 _ _ Another way you can help is to buy a copy of The Big
Issue weekly magazine.
Run for the homeless, The Big Issue is a success on many levels. Its first
issue was published in 199 1, it won the Magazine of the Year award in 1993,
and sells 270,000 copies week ly, which means a readership of over one
million. s_ _ The maga zine is actually sold by the homeless themse lves,
pe rma ne nt ad d ress, and it 's very diffi cu lt to get so mew h ere
to live if you don 't have a job, so most of th ose people got
trapped .
B Peop le sym path eti c to the h o m eless are bein g to ld to donate
m oney to ch arities who spec ia lise in car ing fo r th e poor o r to
offer beggars gifts of foo d or clo thes ins tead of mone y.
C It gave th em a sense of secur ity an d became so permanent
that the locals ga ve t h e area a n ickname - Card board City.
D The Lab ou r Party admin istration cla ims th at many of t he se
people are h omeless by choice, and that there are many d rug
ad dicts among t hem .
E All profits are reinvested into t h e m agazine or diverted to
The Big Issue Foun da tion, a charity t hat runs m an y soc ial
sup po rt programmes for th e homeless.
F In stark co ntrast t o this centre of London 's cu ltu ral activity,
are the subways close by, which offer so me relief from the
cold at ni ght.
Answ e rs on p ag e 163
Smart answer key on page 163
Reading
1 Read the questions below and fin d answers to them in the
article in exercise 2. Try to do this within four minutes.
1 What secto r o f the Jap an ese m arket is the text about?
2 W hat grou p of cus to mers d o es it co ncern?
3 W hat m ak es this gro u p exceptio nal?
READING EXAM
2 Read the article a bout shopping trends in Ja p an, and d ecide which of se ntences
1-8 are true (T) and which are false (F), a c cord in g to the text.
BUSY LITTLE BUYERS
It's a typ ical Sunday afternoon at Tokyo's Girl Is
Girl store and cus tome rs crow d into thi s mecca of
ja pane se teen fashion. Ll-year-old Chihiro hold s
up a lem on yellow sh irt w ith hearts and stars and
says lon gingl y, 'This is so cute. The next time I'll
come wi th Mum .' Her two friends nod in
agreement.
C hih iro and her fri ends are no ordinary
shop pe rs; they are abo ut the only d ynamic
consumers left in the slug gish Japanese economy
Mark eters call them 'bubble juniors': the 9- to 14-
year-old dau ghters of japanese women who spent
lavi shly as ca ref ree twentysomethings during
jap an 's 'bubble' years of the 1980s. They are the
potential trendsett ers , like college girls in the
1980s and high-school girl s in the 1990s.
Since Japan entered its reces sion , th e retail-
clothing industry ha s been in a tailspin. Clothes
sales at jap an 's department stores have shru nk by
almos t 10% in th e last five year s. All th e
traditional market sectors - men's, women 's and
children's - have suffered. Only recently did
jap anese clothing lines aw aken to the purchasing j
power of the bubble juniors.
The girls are a unique and profitable nich e.
They d on't w an t to wear what's in the kid s'
section . Rather, they mix mature styles with bright
colours and child like frills . Last March an entire
floor of one of Tokyo's biggest fashi on sho pping
centres w as ren ovated to serve the jun ior girls.
Sales have since jumped 30%.
The m arke t expa ns ion is all th e more
impressive given that the target age group is
shrinking. While it may not be an endless supply
o f co ns u me r en ergy, thi s bright sp o t in th e
nati onal economy is enough to excite ev erybody
from clothing de signer s to magazine publishers.
J 8 Ma rket t rends emerging in Ch in a are similar
_-----~----~--J
34 SHOPS AND SERVICES
~ 25 minutes EXAM TIP
Reme mber to mark a sente nce as
true only if it fully, and not only
partly, matches the informat ion in
the text.
~ 15 minutes
Total financial d ep enden ce on their parents
w ould seem to be a se rious strike aga ins t these
junior shop pers. But it's not a problem , say
anal ysts. A girl often has a fashionable mum and
two set s of doting grandpare nts. Bubble mums,
unlike those o f ea rlie r ge ne ra tions, a re
comfortable spe nding a fortune on ou tfits that
might be w orn for only one season.
Industr y insiders are betting that the bubble-
junior craze can be exported elsewhe re in Asia. So
far th e signs look good . Nicola, a monthly
magazine that is the bible for bubble juni ors,
pr inted 10,000 copies of an issue in Shang ha i,
China, and im mediately sold out. The affluent
midd le class in China's coas tal cities offers more
yo ung cus tomers. Their increasing in teres t in
fashion and the culture in which the y take good
care of their children is promisin g.
Ad apted from Newsweek
--
1 ' Bu b ble ju niors' are a ll Japa nese children
fro m a certain age group. T / F
2 Young girls have been known to set fas h ion
trends in Japan before. T / F
3 Clot h es sa les in Ja p an have increased by
10% in recent yea rs. T / F
4 Japanese 9- to 14-year-ol d girls choose
clothes tha t give them a mature loo k . T / F
5 Analys ts estimate t h e number of 'bubble
juniors' in Jap an w ill shrink. T / F
6 Young girls ' m others today ar e less w illing
t han their grandparents to spen d on thei r
children's clothes. T / F
7 Nicola magazine se lls 10,000 copies ea ch
month. T / F
to those in Japa n . T / F
Answers
Smart answer key on page 166