Dexway English Magazine: B2 – Edition 6
IMPULSE BUYING
We all have done this before… you are queuing up at the supermarket and while you ́re waiting for your turn; you scan over the magazines and confectionary choices at the cash register…our eyes land on chocolate bars or other candy. Before we even think, we are reaching out and putting it in our basket. Or you are shopping with children who ask for everything and eventually you cave…
We have just fallen victim to impulse marketing, an emotion-related spur-of-the moment unconscious act. We often are not fully aware of the choices we are making, many of them are automatic. Our choices rely on many circumstantial factors. Food placement is very important for grocery stores as they try and attract our attention and we sometimes buy things we normally wouldn’t.
Consciously we think people who buy impulse items simply lack self-control, but ultimately our ability to resist certain products can be triggered when we are tired, stressed or distracted. Our capacity for thinking about making healthy choices goes out the window. There are many factors that come into play, our culture of consumption, our emotional wellbeing and our personality.
In an unprecedented move, Tesco stores in the UK that have candy and chocolate at their registers will be removing them by the end of 2014. They say it is easy to be tempted and 66% of their customers agree. The UK government also likes their idea saying it was positive. Many experts say to stick to the outside aisles as this is where more of the unprocessed foods are; vegetables, fruit, eggs, meat and fish.
What are the alternatives to these foods at the registers? I don’t think anyone is going to buy boiled potatoes or carrots to snack on when they can have crunchy savoury crisps or gooey chocolate … there is just no comparison.
ENVIRONMENT AND POLLUTION
Unlike global warming, pollution is something that we have made. We are so addicted and hungry for energy, for oil and for gas, that we literally create trillions (1,000,000,000,000) of tonnes of rubbish and pollution each year. We consume massive amounts of resources but our systems for recycling are not up to this challenge. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a common slang we are taught to help the environment.
Reducing the amount of things we throw out or how much electricity, gas and water we use is the first step. It is not an easy task. If we throw something away or recycle it, there is no magic wand to turn that item into something else; it takes hours of labour and a lot of extra energy to turn our recycled material into something useful.
Maybe we should concentrate on re-using rather than recycling, because recycling uses energy that creates pollution. This never ending cycle is why governments give recyclers a pat on the back but don’t push non-recyclers to recycle.
An experiment in perception
A few people went past him and stopped but they would not stop more than a few minutes before looking at their watch and rushing away. The only people who seemed to pay the most attention to the player were children. A mother with her young boy around 3 years old tried to hurry him along but the child stopped to look at the violinist but eventually, the parent hurried the child along. This action was repeated several times with more children.
After 45 minutes of playing, he stopped and silence took over. No one seemed to pay attention and certainly no applause or recognition. About 20 people gave him money and in total the violinist received $32 USD. The most interesting part of this story is the violinist´s name is Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. Two days before he had played a Boston theatre with ticket prices around $100, but people in the subway got to listen for free. Oh and by the way the violin he was playing is worth 3.5 million dollars!
No “I” in team
In the first stage forming, the basic team is formed, people avoid conflict at this stage and do not share feelings. In this stage we are sizing each other up, we decide on team organisation such as who does what and when. Storming is the stage the team reviews the problems, putting ideas and objectives forward. We may also see conflict at this stage as team members open up to each other, clicks begin to form. It is often the most unpleasant stage.
In the norming phase, the team comes to a goal and mutual plan to allow the team to achieve. The team needs to pick and choose ideas based on the team´s mutual plan and finally if the team is lucky, they will move to the last stage. Performing stage is when everybody knows their role, the team functions as a unit but at the same time each team member can make decisions without direct supervision.
Very few teams reach the performing stage and teams often get caught in storming or norming. The teams can progress but will never reach a high level of productivity.
How well do you work in a group?
The Universe
What makes the universe so difficult to understand is the fact that most of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy – both of these things are poorly understood: even by scientists! Many top researchers are working at the laboratory in CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to try and re-create the atmosphere of the beginning of the universe. If more work can be done to understand how the universe began, we could have a greater understanding of dark matter and energy.
Many parts of the universe can only be seen in small segments by powerful telescopes. Since our planet, Earth, has a relative understanding of our basic laws of physics, looking at a far-away galaxy can only yield so much information. This is why many scientists have invested time and energy to look inward and try to understand our own world as best we can before trying to grasp the worlds of the galaxy.
What do you think of when you see the stars?
The changing role of workers
The first category is called MILLENNIAL or generation Y. Generation Y are people who are more connected with technology than ever, born around 1980 to 2004, they display characteristics that are considered new, for example higher than average instances of narcissism and feelings of self-entitlement often attracting the term “The Me generation.” In the workplace, we understand the power of social networks and computers and harness that power to get our work done. We have ideas which really can make the difference.
The second group is termed “anytime, anywhere worker” these workers use the power of their mobile devices and various apps and often work away from the office for a longer time, digital labour, is a new reality and one that many companies most adapt.
The entrepreneur are responsible for product innovation and sometimes surprise their bosses with their ideas.
The office analytic loves data and numbers and sees them as vital for any task or project to work. If you want to know if installing new computers will be a good saving benefit ask this worker.
Finally, Seasoned incumbents the person who has been in the office too long, before computers were part of the workplace, often they don’t understand about social networking or the internet, this is where we should spend money on technology training and education.
Can you see these people in your office?
