英语博客:Smart shopping（在线收听）

Junk mail can be a real pain sometimes. You know the kind: offers from credit card companies, catalogues that you will never use, and all sorts of letters and advertisements that try to get you to spend money in some way or other. I receive a lot of coupons in the mail, mainly from local supermarkets where I shop. Now these are actually useful. Most people I know use coupons at least part of the time; it's a smart way to shop. My sister-in-law is an expert at using coupons. When the coupons come out in the local newspaper on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she spreads them out on her kitchen countertop, and when she has time, she scans all of them, searching for the ones that she can put to use. Because she has done this for so long, she is quite knowledgeable about what is a good deal and what isn't. To be a good coupon user, you must always keep them close to your shopping list, and remember to throw the expired ones away. Coupons have been around for a long time. It was in 1887 that Coca-Cola started using new advertising ideas. One of these was to put coupons in newspapers. By 1913 8,500,000 free drinks had been consumed, but the company had grown so much that the drink was being consumed in every state. Now, each year, coupons generate 3 billion dollars in sales. Now that's a lot of sales. So, the little pile of coupons that I receive each day in the mail (post) is just a tiny part of that advertising machine, trying to get us to spend money by saving money. It's a great idea when you think of it.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: catalogue, to scan, knowledgeable, expired/ expiration date, to generate.

1. I ordered some new shoes from a catalogue.

2. The hunter scanned the field to see if there were any deer there.

3. The professor really knows his subject well; he is truly knowledgeable.

4. The cheese spread had expired; its expiration date was two months ago.

5. Our advertising campaign has generated a huge amount of sales.