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Name: ___________________________________________Date:____________________________

Class: _____Nr:_____Teacher________________Evaluation:______________E.E________________

The Disposable Society

We live in an age where everything gets thrown away. From disposable cameras to disposable
diapers, few products marketed to consumers are made to last.

Creating products that aren't meant to last is a very viable business strategy as this means that
consumers will need to buy replacement products. Consider the straight razor that your great
grandfather used or the cloth diapers that your great grandmother probably made for her
children. If you can find it and sharpen it, that razor can still be used today and those diapers
were probably used for multiple children and then put to further use sopping up spilled milk or
scrubbing floors. In more recent years, those long-lived products have become bad news for
companies that need to sell more products this year than last year to keep their stock prices high.

Building low quality products also results in higher profit margins for manufacturers. Using
throw-away materials not only guarantees a repurchase of the same item (in a new model, with
more features, at a higher price), but the cost savings also end up being pure profit for the
manufacturer.

Most consumers are so acclimated to the process that they don't even think about it. After all,
advertising has taught us that new is good and that old isn't. So, we spend, spend and spend
some more until, in the worst case scenario, even our creditors won't let us buy anything else.

Personal finances aside, there is also an environmental price to pay for consumerism. Constant
manufacturing of new and unnecessary products uses up raw materials and contributes to
pollution, impacting the quality of the water we drink and the air we breathe. The products
themselves end up in landfills, taking up space that is often at a premium.

Combating the costs of our disposable society is a major challenge, but there are ways to fight
back. The Amish, often noticed for their style of dress and lack of focus on material goods, are
the most visible representatives of the modern-day voluntary simplicity movement. They
eschew modern conveniences and luxury items in favor of a simpler way of living.

www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/disposablesociety. asp(adapted)

Vocabulary:

Disposable: designed to be thrown away after use


Cloth: fabric made from wool, cotton, or a similar fibre
Diapers: a piece of cloth or other absorbent material folded and worn as underpants by a baby
not yet toilet-trained.
Razor: a tool with a sharp blade, used to remove hair from your skin
Sop up: to absorb liquid
Acclimated: accustomed
Landfills: the disposal of waste material by burying it
Eschew: abandon, renounce

A- Say if the following are True or False. Correct the False ones

1- Nowadays nothing is made to last for a long period of time______________


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2- Companies prefer creating good quality products ______________________
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3- Manufacturers earn more money if they sell disposable products _________
____________________________________________________________
4- Consumers are worried about the quality of the things they buy __________
_____________________________________________________________
B- Find synonyms of the following words in the text:

1- Get rid of: _____________________________


2- Substitution: ___________________________
3- Gain: _________________________________
4- Influencing: ___________________________
5- Producing: ____________________________

C- What do the underlined words in the text refer to?


1- Her: ______________________________
2- They: _____________________________
3- It: _______________________________
4- Their: ____________________________

D- Answer the questions:


1- Why is it a viable business for the companies to build low quality products?
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2- Are good products seen as something positive by the companies?
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3- Are consumers concerned about the way they spend their money in certain
products?
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4- How do the Amish act towards consumerism? Do you agree? Why/Why not?
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E- Comment on the following statement:

Getting and spending has become the most passionate, and often the
most imaginative, endeavor of modern life.

F- James Twitchell, Two Cheers for Materialism, in The Consumer Society Reader

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