【一起听英语】一起来剁手

Kate: Hello and welcome to this week's 6 Minute English where and I'm joined

again by Rebecca. Hi Rebecca. Well, when it comes to subject of money

and shopping most of us have been tightening¹ our belts over the last year

or so. This is a phrase that means that we’ve been trying to spend less

money than before.

Rebecca: Yes, but unfortunately many people have found this very difficult for

various reasons and find themselves buying more than they can afford on a

regular basis. In today's programme, we're going to try to understand why

we spend money, our emotional response to it and the first step in how to

control it.

Kate: So, how about you Rebecca – do your emotions control your finances² or are

you quite restrained in your spending?

Rebecca: Well, I'm quite good with money usually. But sometimes buying a new pair

or shoes to make me feel better when I'm a bit down or depressed³.

Kate: Shopping can be a great way of forgetting our troubles. This is something

which is sometimes called retail⁴ therapy – shopping to make ourselves feel

better. This is great when we have the money to spend freely but what

happens when our spending gets out of control? 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2008

Page 2 of 4

Rebecca: Well, we develop a debt culture. This is when people live off credit. They

spend money they don’t actually have by using credit cards and borrowing

from the bank. Of course when people don’t have the ability to pay the

money back then it can cause real problems.

Kate: Yes, sometimes people who spend a lot of money on things they don’t really

need or can't afford are called shopaholics – these are people who are

compulsive shoppers and simply can't stop themselves buying things….

which leads on to my question for this week.

According to some sources, what percentage of the population are

shopaholics? Is it:

a) 1%

b) 10%

c) 50%

Rebecca: answers

Kate: We'll check your answer at the end of the programme. Now we're going to

here from a real shopaholic. She's called Helen Macnallan and when she

lost her job, she found that her spending got out of control. Let’s listen to

the type of things she bought:

Extract⁵ 1

At first I would buy expensive suits because I was desperate to get back to work.

Then it went on to antique⁶ furniture for our house… that didn’t even fit in the house and that

was £25,000 in a day. Then I bought diamond earrings⁷ which were £10,000. It was money we

didn’t have. I feel sick thinking about it now but at the time I didn't realise why I was doing it. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2008

Page 3 of 4

Rebecca: Goodness – she said she bought expensive suits, antique furniture (that didn't

fit into her house) and diamond earrings!!! And she said she didn't realise

why she was doing it.

Kate: So why was she doing it? In the next extract she mentions the word selfesteem.

What does this mean?

Rebecca: Self esteem⁸ is how you feel about yourself. If your self-esteem is high, then

you feel good about yourself as a person and if it's low then you have a poor

or a bad opinion of yourself.

Kate: And mood?

Rebecca: mood is the way you feel at a particular time.

Kate: Let's listen to the next extract. Try to listen out for the reasons why Helen

bought so many things?

Extract 2

There seemed to be a correlation⁹ between how down I was feeling and how much money I

would spend. My shopping was a way of controlling my mood. My self-esteem was

extremely low. We're all bombarded these days with pictures of happy successful, beautiful

people with the latest handbag…the latest shoes and I thought that if I bought the same stuff

as they were buying, then I would have that same happy, successful, beautiful feeling. But

that feeling lasted for about as long as it took to pay for the item, to get it home and unwrap it.

Rebecca: She said shopping helped her control her mood. She felt bombarded by

pictures of happy successful people everywhere and thought if she bought the

same things as them then she would be as happy and beautiful as them.

But then unfortunately the feeling would only last until she got home! Oh dear! 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2008

Page 4 of 4

Kate: I’m sure this feeling is very common. So if we’re guilty of doing this, how do

we manage to stop and prevent ourselves spending more money that we should

or indeed have?! Let’s listen to what a professional, Dr Graham Lawlor has to

say. He uses the word leakage¹⁰ which means something which we lose or

which disappears without us really noticing. What advice does he give?

Extract 4

You have to manage very, very carefully and you have to catergorize what you're spending

your money on and I recommend you literally¹¹ go out with a piece of paper and a pencil and

you write down everything and that way you can track the leakage. Because the majority of

people are leaking cash and they don’t know where it goes and unless you record that, you're

never going to know.

Rebecca: Mmm - some good advice there. He recommended that we write down

everything we spend and then you can track where all your money is going.

Kate: We’re nearly at the end of our programme so now to the question I asked you

earlier. What percentage of the population is a shopaholic?

Rebecca: And I said 50%.

Kate: Thankfully the answer is actually 10% which is still quite high. Moving on,

let's go over some of the vocabulary we've heard in today's programme.

Rebeca: First we had the expression, tightening our belts, then retail therapy, debt

culture, shopaholic and self-esteem, mood, and leakage.

Kate: Thanks Rebecca. Well, I’ll certainly be getting that pen and paper out next

time I go shopping! What about you? That's all we've time for today. Thanks

for joining us and until next week. Goodbye! 

1 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

2 finances   

n.(pl.)财源，资产

参考例句：

• I need a professional to sort out my finances. 我需要专业人士为我管理财务。
• The company's finances are looking a bIt'shaky. 这个公司的财政情况看来有点不稳定。

3 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

4 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

5 extract   

vt.取出，提取，获得，摘录；n.摘录，提出物

参考例句：

• The article was a choice extract from her writings.这篇文章是从她的著作中摘录出来的精粹。
• We can extract oil from olive.我们可以从橄榄中榨油。

6 antique   

adj.古时的，古代的；n.古物，古器，古玩

参考例句：

• The Sunday antique market is a happy hunting ground for collectors.周日的古董市场是收藏家的淘物乐园。
• I saw the vase in the window of an antique shop.我在一家古玩店的橱窗里看见了这个花瓶。

7 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 esteem   

n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• The veteran worker ranks high in public love and esteem.那位老工人深受大伙的爱戴。

9 correlation   

n.相互关系，相关，关连

参考例句：

• The second group of measurements had a high correlation with the first.第二组测量数据与第一组高度相关。
• A high correlation exists in America between education and economic position.教育和经济地位在美国有极密切的关系。

10 leakage   

n.漏，泄漏；泄漏物；漏出量

参考例句：

• Large areas of land have been contaminated by the leakage from the nuclear reactor.大片地区都被核反应堆的泄漏物污染了。
• The continuing leakage is the result of the long crack in the pipe.这根管子上的那一条裂缝致使渗漏不断。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。