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Date: Jul 4, 2007
THE ARTICLEPlastic replacing cash in UKPlastic cards are the UK’s favourite way to pay for goods and services, according to a new report by APACS, the body that monitors payments in Britain. Spending on plastic cards overtook cash in 2004 and has continued growing ever since. British consumers’ love of plastic means that spending on credit and debit cards has trebled over the past decade. A little under a third of total consumer spending is now charged to cards. Plastic transactions increased to a record $600bn last year. APACS director of communications Sandra Quinn said: "The last 10 years have seen a rapid rise in the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth." She added: "Consumers enjoy the ease and convenience plastic cards bring, and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service providers." Last year saw new ‘smart card’ technology introduced into the world of card payments. However, these technological advances have not stopped an increasing reliance on plastic, which is responsible for the rising mountains of debt British people now have. In the first three months of this year almost 17,000 people were declared bankrupt a 10 percent rise on the previous year. There is also a parallel, worrying trend regarding the opportunities plastic creates for fraud. In 2006, conmen stole almost a billion dollars using stolen cards and personal information. Soon, people will be carrying a single card in their wallet which will combine debit and credit cards and other financial transactions. This is another step toward a cashless society, but one that might increase personal debt and credit card fraud. WARM-UPS1. CREDIT CARDS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about credit cards. Are they better than cash? Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. FINANCIAL DANGERS: In pairs / groups, discuss which of the items in the table are most dangerous. Which do you use regularly?
4. HEADLINES: Talk with your partner(s) about these headlines. What are the stories behind the headlines? Do you think they’ll come true? Change partners and share what you said and heard.
5. CREDIT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “credit”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think credit cards are better than cash. Students B think cash is better than credit cards. Change partners often. Share your findings. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text. Plastic replacing cash in UK
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Plastic cards are the UK’s favourite ________ to pay for goods and services, according to a new report by APACS, the body that ________ payments in Britain. Spending on plastic cards overtook cash in 2004 and has continued growing ________ since. British consumers’ ________ of plastic means that spending on credit and debit cards has trebled over the past decade. A little ________ a third of total consumer spending is now charged to cards. Plastic transactions increased to a ________ $600bn last year. APACS director of communications Sandra Quinn said: "The last 10 years have seen a rapid rise in the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth." She added: "Consumers enjoy the ________ and convenience plastic cards bring, and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service ________." |
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ease |
Last year ________ new ‘smart card’ technology introduced into the world of card payments. However, these technological advances have not stopped an increasing ________ on plastic, which is responsible for the rising ________ of debt British people now have. In the first three months of this year almost 17,000 people were ________ bankrupt a 10 percent rise on the previous year. There is also a parallel, worrying ________ regarding the opportunities plastic creates for fraud. In 2006, conmen stole almost a billion dollars using stolen cards and personal information. Soon, people will be carrying a single card in their wallet which will ________ debit and credit cards and other financial transactions. This is another step toward a ________ society, but one that might increase personal debt and credit card ________. |
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fraud |
Listen and fill in the spaces.
Plastic cards are the UK’s ____________________________ goods and services, according to a new report by APACS, the body that monitors payments in Britain. Spending on plastic cards overtook cash in 2004 and has ____________________________. British consumers’ love of plastic means that spending on credit and debit cards ________________________ decade. ________________________ total consumer spending is now charged to cards. Plastic transactions increased to a record $600bn last year. APACS director of communications Sandra Quinn said: "The last 10 years ________________________ the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth." She added: "Consumers ________________________ plastic cards bring, and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service providers."
Last year saw new ‘smart card’ technology ________________________ card payments. However, these technological advances have not stopped an ________________________, which is responsible for the rising mountains of debt British people now have. In ________________________ year almost 17,000 people were declared bankrupt a 10 percent rise on the previous year. There is also ________________________ regarding the opportunities plastic creates for fraud. In 2006, conmen stole almost a billion dollars using stolen cards and personal information. Soon, people will be carrying a single card in their wallet ________________________ credit cards and other financial transactions. This is ________________________ society, but one that might increase personal debt and credit card fraud.
1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘credit’ and ‘card’.
credit |
card
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2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?
4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.
5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
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Write five GOOD questions about CREDIT CARDS in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.
When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.
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STUDENT 1 _____________ |
STUDENT 2 _____________ |
STUDENT 3 _____________ |
Q.1. |
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Q.2. |
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Q.3. |
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Q.4. |
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Q.5. |
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STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
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STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.
CORRECT WORD: Put the correct words from ad below in the article.
Plastic cards are the UK’s favourite way to (1) ____ for goods and services, according to a new report by APACS, the body that monitors payments in Britain. Spending (2) ____ plastic cards overtook cash in 2004 and has continued growing (3) ____ since. British (4) ____ love of plastic means that spending on credit and debit cards has trebled over the past decade. A little under a third of total consumer spending is now charged to cards. Plastic transactions increased to a record $600bn last year. APACS director of communications Sandra Quinn said: "The last 10 years have seen a rapid (5) ____ in the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth." She added: "Consumers enjoy the ease and convenience plastic cards (6) ____, and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service providers."
Last year saw new ‘smart card’ technology introduced into the world of card payments. However, these technological advances have not stopped an increasing reliance (7) ____ plastic, which is responsible for the rising mountains of debt British people (8) ____ have. In the first three months of this year almost 17,000 people were (9) ____ bankrupt a 10 percent rise on the previous year. There is also a parallel, worrying trend regarding the opportunities plastic creates (10) ____ fraud. In 2006, conmen stole almost a billion dollars using stolen cards and personal information. Soon, people will be carrying a single card in their wallet which will combine debit and credit cards and other financial transactions. This is another step (11) ____ a cashless society, but one that might increase personal debt and credit card (12) ____.
1. |
(a) |
borrow |
(b) |
use |
(c) |
spend |
(d) |
pay |
2. |
(a) |
on |
(b) |
in |
(c) |
of |
(d) |
by |
3. |
(a) |
never |
(b) |
for |
(c) |
ever |
(d) |
did |
4. |
(a) |
consumer’s |
(b) |
consumers’ |
(c) |
consumers |
(d) |
consumer |
5. |
(a) |
fall |
(b) |
decrease |
(c) |
raise |
(d) |
rise |
6. |
(a) |
gave |
(b) |
take |
(c) |
bring |
(d) |
brought |
7. |
(a) |
on |
(b) |
in |
(c) |
of |
(d) |
by |
8. |
(a) |
new |
(b) |
now |
(c) |
know |
(d) |
no |
9. |
(a) |
declaring |
(b) |
declared |
(c) |
declaration |
(d) |
declares |
10. |
(a) |
for |
(b) |
by |
(c) |
with |
(d) |
on |
11. |
(a) |
reward |
(b) |
backward |
(c) |
toward |
(d) |
forward |
12. |
(a) |
defraud |
(b) |
defrauds |
(c) |
fraudulent |
(d) |
fraud |
Write about credit cards for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.
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_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.
2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information about credit and credit card use in your country. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.
3. CREDIT: Make a poster showing the advantages and disadvantages of cash and credit. Show your poster to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?
4. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about the dangers of having too many credit cards and going into debt. Describe what someone might do if they became bankrupt.
Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Which article was best and why?
5. LETTER: Write a letter to the boss of a credit card company. Give him/her advice on how to make cards easier to use. Give three suggestions about what they can do to stop people using their cards too much. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.
TRUE / FALSE:
a. F |
b. T |
c. T |
d. F |
e. T |
f. T |
g. F |
h. F |
SYNONYM MATCH:
1. |
body |
a. |
organization |
2 |
monitors |
b. |
oversees |
3. |
trebled |
c. |
increased three fold |
4. |
rapid |
d. |
swift |
5. |
ease |
e. |
simplicity |
6. |
advances |
f. |
breakthroughs |
7. |
reliance |
g. |
dependence |
8. |
parallel |
h. |
corresponding |
9. |
conmen |
i. |
fraudsters |
10. |
combine |
j. |
merge |
PHRASE MATCH:
1. |
the body that monitors |
a. |
payments in Britain |
2 |
British consumers’ love |
b. |
of plastic |
3. |
a third of total consumer spending is |
c. |
now charged to cards |
4. |
a rapid rise in |
d. |
the popularity of plastic |
5. |
Consumers enjoy the ease and |
e. |
convenience plastic cards bring |
6. |
an increasing reliance |
f. |
on plastic |
7. |
almost 17,000 people were |
g. |
declared bankrupt |
8. |
There is also a parallel, |
h. |
worrying trend |
9. |
combine debit and credit cards |
i. |
and other financial transactions |
10. |
another step |
j. |
toward a cashless society |
GAP FILL:
Plastic cards are the UK’s favourite way to pay for goods and services, according to a new report by APACS, the body that monitors payments in Britain. Spending on plastic cards overtook cash in 2004 and has continued growing ever since. British consumers’ love of plastic means that spending on credit and debit cards has trebled over the past decade. A little under a third of total consumer spending is now charged to cards. Plastic transactions increased to a record $600bn last year. APACS director of communications Sandra Quinn said: "The last 10 years have seen a rapid rise in the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth." She added: "Consumers enjoy the ease and convenience plastic cards bring, and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service providers."
Last year saw new ‘smart card’ technology introduced into the world of card payments. However, these technological advances have not stopped an increasing reliance on plastic, which is responsible for the rising mountains of debt British people now have. In the first three months of this year almost 17,000 people were declared bankrupt a 10 percent rise on the previous year. There is also a parallel, worrying trend regarding the opportunities plastic creates for fraud. In 2006, conmen stole almost a billion dollars using stolen cards and personal information. Soon, people will be carrying a single card in their wallet which will combine debit and credit cards and other financial transactions. This is another step toward a cashless society, but one that might increase personal debt and credit card fraud.
LANGUAGE WORK
1 - d |
2 - a |
3 - c |
4 - b |
5 - d |
6 - c |
7 - a |
8 - b |
9 - b |
10 - a |
11 - c |
12 - d |
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