Добавил:
Upload Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз: Предмет: Файл:
Let’s Talk and Write English.doc
Скачиваний:
472
Добавлен:
13.04.2015
Размер:
17.86 Mб
Скачать

2.29. Comment on the following proverbs and sayings about money, buying and bargains. Which one do you like best? Why? Which one do you disagree with?

Citations about the about money, buyin and bargains:

  1. Everyone is model size when it comes to handbags. (Karl Lagerfeld)

  2. [A bargain] is anything a customer thinks a store is losing money on. (Kin Hubbard)

  3. [A bargain] is a transaction in which each participant thinks he has cheated the other. (Anonymous)

  4. [A bargain is] something you have to find use for, once you’ve bought it. (Franklin Jones)

  5. [Money is] sweet balm. (Arabian proverb)

  6. [Money is] a good servant, but a bad master. (Henry G. Bohn)

  7. [Money is] a new form of slavery. (Leo Tolstoy)

  8. [Money is] a eel in the hand. (Welsh proverb)

  9. [Money is] the best messenger. (Yiddish proverb)

  10. [Money is] like an arm or leg – use it or lose it. (Henry Ford)

  11. [Money is] the sixth sense which enables you to enjoy the other five. (William Somerset Maugham)

  12. [Money is] a kind of disease which those who have it don’t like to spread. (Mendel Maranz)

  13. [Money is] read medicine. (Latin proverb)

  14. For some people, shopping is all about the thrill of the hunt; for some, it's the high of the purchase; and for some, it's the socialization with the salesperson -- the acknowledgement and reinforcement they get. (April Lane Benson, a New York City psychologist specializing in "overshopping" and the author of I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self)

2.30. Read the text and answer the questions below, then discuss it in class.

Fresh Fish

Don Pedro wishes to attract the attention of the entire neighbourhood upon opening his new shop and for this reason spends a great deal of money on a sign. In bright colours, the sign bears the following words: FRESH FISH IS SOLD HERE. The very day of the shop’s opening a customer tells Don Pedro: "Why do you have the word HERE on the sign? Every­one knows that it is here and not on the other block where fish is sold. The word HERE is unnecessary."

The observation seems reasonable to Don Pedro. So he calls the painter and has the word HERE removed from the sign.

A few days later, a lady convinced Don Pedro that the words IS SOLD are not needed, since nobody is going to assume that the fish is given away free in the shop.

Without the words IS SOLD the sign will be much more beautiful, says the lady. “The only words that are necessary are FRESH FISH.”

Thoroughly convinced, Don Pedro calls his painter and has the words IS SOLD removed.

But the same week an employee from the telephone company comes around and after praising the beauty of the sign, says: “It seems to me that the word FRESH is one too many. No one is going to doubt that your fish is not fresh. How can you sell it rotten? You must remove the word FRESH. FISH is enough.”

Convinced again, Don Pedro calls his painter and has word FRESH removed. Good Heavens, how many expenses the fa­mous sign brings about! But now it is very nice with only one word FISH. In spite of everything, Don Pedro feels satisfied.

But his joy doesn’t last long. In a few days a friend of his, who lives in the country, passes through there, and shouts to him from the sidewalk across the street: "What a fool you are, Pedro! From far away everyone can tell, from the smell, that it is here where fish is sold. Why do you need that sign? The word FISH is not needed. Everyone knows that it is fish and not perfume which you sell here."

And poor Don Pedro, desperate, has the last word removed.

Questions:

1. Why did Don Pedro put a sign on his new shop? How do we call it now?

2. Why did the sign prove worthless? Do you agree with it?

3. What could Don Pedro have written on his sign to make it worthwhile?

Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]