Activity
Complete each sentence choosing the correct option
The attendees are approximately 95% male. Of the women here, many are the mothers of young boys. One of the few women not chaperoning a child is Helen. She lives in a rented three-bedroom house on the outskirts of London with her husband, Luke, and his collection of trainers. The shoes ______(fill) up the loft and the spare room. When they began to invade her bedroom, Helen told Luke she needed some space. The couple booked a table at Sneaker Con, where their stall is piled with trainers which cumulatively cost tens of thousands of pounds. This expense_____ (become) a source of tension. “That’s why he had to stop,” Helen tells me. “Some are quick-strike releases: we’d be on a night out and have to pull over on the motorway to follow a Twitter link to get a pair of trainers.”
Helen says Luke has spent a lot of time investing in “one-off” trainers that are now being rereleased and are no longer unique. Luke tells her they are an investment, but unless they can turn a profit, they ______( be) a poor one.
Luke walks up to the stall shrugging his shoulders and frowning. “It’s dead for Jordans,” he says. “No one is buying Jordans.”
In the global marketplace, labels____ (come) to mean everything. A shoe that is “hyped” and worth hundreds of pounds at Sneaker Con one day can become worthless the next. Basing value on symbolism, rather than usability, means it lingers for a brief moment before the shoe needs replacing, fuelling production and an environmental impact.
Unwanted trainers are now a certified global product. For Helen and Luke, they have come) at the cost of a comfortable home to live in. Scale this up to the 24.2bn pairs of shoes that World Footwear estimates were manufactured in 2018, and they represent something more: the threat not just to one home, but to the planet
Helen says Luke has spent a lot of time investing in “one-off” trainers that are now being rereleased and are no longer unique. Luke tells her they are an investment, but unless they can turn a profit, they ______( be) a poor one.
Luke walks up to the stall shrugging his shoulders and frowning. “It’s dead for Jordans,” he says. “No one is buying Jordans.”
In the global marketplace, labels____ (come) to mean everything. A shoe that is “hyped” and worth hundreds of pounds at Sneaker Con one day can become worthless the next. Basing value on symbolism, rather than usability, means it lingers for a brief moment before the shoe needs replacing, fuelling production and an environmental impact.
Unwanted trainers are now a certified global product. For Helen and Luke, they have come) at the cost of a comfortable home to live in. Scale this up to the 24.2bn pairs of shoes that World Footwear estimates were manufactured in 2018, and they represent something more: the threat not just to one home, but to the planet
Source: The Guardian
Discussion
Practice your writing skills by discussing the questions below
- Can you relate with the article? In what way?
- How many pairs of shoes/sneakers do you have?
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