PART C. READING (35 POINTS) Read the following passage and choose the best answer to each of the following questions. In Britain, the average person spends more than £1,000 on new clothes a year, which is around four per cent of their income. That might not sound like much, but that figure hides two far more (51)………..trends for society and for the environment. First, a lot of that consumer spending is via credit cards. British people currently (52)……….. approximately £670 per adult to credit ...

PART C. READING (35 POINTS)

Read the following passage and choose the best answer to each of the following questions.

In Britain, the average person spends more than £1,000 on new clothes a year, which is around four per cent of their income. That might not sound like much, but that figure hides two far more (51)………..trends for society and for the environment. First, a lot of that consumer spending is via credit cards. British people currently (52)………..

approximately £670 per adult to credit card companies. That’s 66 per cent of the average wardrobe budget. Also, not only are people spending money they don't have, they're using it to buy things they don't need. Britain throws away 300,000 tons of clothing a year, most of which (53)………..landfill sites.

People might not realize they are part of the (54)………..clothing problem because

they donate their unwanted clothes to charities. But charity shops can't sell all those unwanted clothes. ‘Fast fashion’ goes out of fashion as quickly as it came in and is often too poor quality to recycle; people don't want to buy it second-hand. Huge quantities (55) ……….. being thrown away, and a lot of clothes that charities can't sell are sent

abroad, causing even more economic and environmental problems.

However, a different trend is springing up (56)……….. consumerism - the ‘buy

nothing’ trend. The idea originated in Canada in the early 1990s and then moved to the US, where it became a rejection of the overspending and overconsumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday during Thanksgiving weekend. On Buy Nothing Day people organize various types of protests and cut up their credit cards. Throughout the year, Buy Nothing groups organize the (57)………..and repair of items they already own.

The trend has now reached (58)………..on social media who usually share posts of

clothing and make-up that they recommend for people to buy. Some YouTube stars now encourage their (59)………..not to buy anything at all for periods as long as a year. Two

friends in Canada spent a year working towards buying only food. For the first three months, they learned how to live (60)………..buying electrical goods, clothes or things for

the house. For the next stage, they gave up services, for example haircuts, eating out at restaurants or buying petrol for their cars. In one year, they’d saved $55,000.

(adapted from iearnenglish.britishcouncil.org)