Методические указания по работе с темой "Clothes and Fashions". Дедова С.А - 15 стр.

                            III. READING                                                 − Are you a slave of fashion? Why/ why not?

                                                                                                   Positive                                    Negative
Text 1. Read the text and see if the author’s ideas are the same as yours.
                                                                                    1. Delightful detail of human life.         1. People are slaves of fashion.
                                    Fashions
       Fashion is an entirely unnecessary and yet delightful detail of human       Text 2.
life. No one could contend that a person who didn’t follow the fashion was         Read the text and the article from a fashion magazine and get ready to discuss
lacking in any great mental or moral quality; yet to be in fashion has given joy   the problem of fashion.
in age, not only to the women who are thus up-to-date in their costume, but to             Spring, summer, autumn, winter: every season there are new clothes
the men who behold them.                                                           and new fashions in the shops. Colours and styles keep changing. One season
       As a rule, men’s attitude towards women’s fashions is one of amused         black is the “in” colour, but the next season everyone is wearing orange or
tolerance. They pretend that they are unable to detect the nice distinctions       pink or gray. One season tight-fitting clothes are fashionable, and the next
between the latest model from Paris and a dress that is hopelessly out of date.    season baggy clothes are “in”.
But they are in reality just as eager to conform to the popular idea of what is            The length of women’s skirt goes up and down from year to year. In
and what is not worn.                                                              the 1960s, mini skirts became very fashionable and a woman could wear a
       But men’s fashions change slowly, and men, unlike women, like to be         skirt twenty or thirty centimetres above the knee. A few years later, maxi
the last to leave an old fashion rather than the first to embrace a new one.       skirts became trendy and then you had to wear skirts twenty or thirty
They have no desire either, that their womenfolk should be in the very front       centimetres below the knee. Each season there is always a “correct” length
rank of fashion. It would make them embarrassed to be seen in public with a        and if your skirt is just a little too long or too short some people will think that
woman wearing something that caused every eye to be turned upon her. But           you are very unfashionable.
they like their wives to be dressed as most other women are dressed.                       Men have similar problems with their shirts. Some years it is
       Fashion is an arbitrary mistress to whom most women are slaves, but         fashionable to wear very small collars. Another year small collars become
though her mandates are often unreasonable and not seldom absurd, she is           out-dated and large button-down collars are trendy. Sometimes it even
followed willingly, for the reward she offers is that sense of adventure and       becomes fashionable to wear shirts with no collars at all. A shirt you once
variety which is the spice of life.                                                thought was trendy can look strangely old-fashioned a few years later. And
                                                                                   your father’s shirts, which you always thought were very conservative and
Tasks.                                                                             traditional, can suddenly seem very stylish.
1. Answer the questions                                                                    Keeping up with fashions can be very expensive. So one way to save
       − Is fashion an important and necessary sphere of our life or just a        money is never to throw your old clothes out. If you wait long enough, the
         pleasant trifle thing?                                                    clothes that are out of fashion today will be back in fashion tomorrow.
       − How does the fashion influence our life?                                  Yesterday’s clothes are tomorrow’s new fashion.
       − What is men’s attitude towards fashion? Do you agree with the
         author’s point of view?                                                   I. Answer the questions
       − Do all women like to be in the very front rank of fashion? What do              − What styles and colours are fashionable at the moment for men and
         you think on the point?                                                           for women?

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