Shopaholics(购物狂)

BBC Learning English
6 Minute English
Shopaholics（购物狂）
NB: This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript¹
Kate: Hello and welcome to this week's 6 Minute English where and I'm joined
again by Rebecca. Hi Rebecca. Well, when it comes to subject of money
and shopping most of us have been tightening² our belts over the last year
or so. This is a phrase that means that we’ve been trying to spend less
money than before.
Rebecca: Yes, but unfortunately many people have found this very difficult for
various reasons and find themselves buying more than they can afford on a
regular basis. In today's programme, we're going to try to understand why
we spend money, our emotional response to it and the first step in how to
control it.
Kate: So, how about you Rebecca – do your emotions（n. 情感） control your finances or are
you quite restrained in your spending?
Rebecca: Well, I'm quite good with money usually. But sometimes buying a new pair
of shoes to make me feel better when I'm a bit down or depressed³.
Kate: Shopping can be a great way of forgetting our troubles. This is something
which is sometimes called retail⁴ therapy – shopping to make ourselves feel
better. This is great when we have the money to spend freely but what
happens when our spending gets out of control?
Rebecca: Well, we develop a debt culture. This is when people live off credit. They
spend money they don’t actually have by using credit cards and borrowing
from the bank. Of course when people don’t have the ability to pay the
money back then it can cause real problems.
Kate: Yes, sometimes people who spend a lot of money on things they don’t really
need or can't afford are called shopaholics – these are people who are
compulsive（a. 强制的,强迫的） shoppers and simply can't stop themselves buying things….
which leads on to my question for this week.
According to some sources, what percentage of the population are
shopaholics? Is it:
a) 1%
b) 10%
c) 50%
Rebecca: answers
Kate: We'll check your answer at the end of the programme. Now we're going to
here from a real shopaholic. She's called Helen Macnallan and when she
lost her job, she found that her spending got out of control. Let’s listen to
the type of things she bought:
Extract 1
At first I would buy expensive suits because I was desperate to get back to work.
Then it went on to antique furniture for our house… that didn’t even fit in the house and that
was £25,000 in a day. Then I bought diamond earrings⁵ which were £10,000. It was money we
didn’t have. I feel sick thinking about it now but at the time I didn't realise why I was doing it.
Rebecca: Goodness – she said she bought expensive suits, antique furniture (that didn't
fit into her house) and diamond earrings!!! And she said she didn't realise
why she was doing it.
Kate: So why was she doing it? In the next extract she mentions the word selfesteem.
What does this mean?
Rebecca: Self esteem⁶ is how you feel about yourself. If your self-esteem is high, then
you feel good about yourself as a person and if it's low then you have a poor
or a bad opinion of yourself.
Kate: And mood?
Rebecca: mood is the way you feel at a particular time.
Kate: Let's listen to the next extract. Try to listen out for the reasons why Helen
bought so many things?
Extract 2
There seemed to be a correlation（n. 相互关系,相关,关连） between how down I was feeling and how much money I
would spend. My shopping was a way of controlling my mood. My self-esteem was
extremely low. We're all bombarded these days with pictures of happy successful, beautiful
people with the latest handbag…the latest shoes and I thought that if I bought the same stuff
as they were buying, then I would have that same happy, successful, beautiful feeling. But
that feeling lasted for about as long as it took to pay for the item, to get it home and unwrap it.
Rebecca: She said shopping helped her control her mood. She felt bombarded by
pictures of happy successful people everywhere and thought if she bought the
same things as them then she would be as happy and beautiful as them.
But then unfortunately the feeling would only last until she got home! Oh dear!
Kate: I’m sure this feeling is very common. So if we’re guilty of doing this, how do
we manage to stop and prevent ourselves spending more money that we should
or indeed have?! Let’s listen to what a professional, Dr Graham Lawlor has to
say. He uses the word leakage⁷ which means something which we lose or
which disappears（vi. 消失,不见了） without us really noticing. What advice does he give?
Extract 4
You have to manage very, very carefully and you have to catergorize what you're spending
your money on and I recommend you literally⁸ go out with a piece of paper and a pencil and
you write down everything and that way you can track the leakage. Because the majority of
people are leaking cash and they don’t know where it goes and unless you record that, you're
never going to know.
Rebecca: Mmm - some good advice there. He recommended that we write down
everything we spend and then you can track where all your money is going.
Kate: We’re nearly at the end of our programme so now to the question I asked you
earlier. What percentage of the population is a shopaholic?
Rebecca: And I said 50%.
Kate: Thankfully the answer is actually 10% which is still quite high. Moving on,
let's go over some of the vocabulary we've heard in today's programme.
Rebeca: First we had the expression, tightening our belts, then retail therapy, debt
culture, shopaholic and self-esteem, mood, and leakage.
Kate: Thanks Rebecca. Well, I’ll certainly be getting that pen and paper out next
time I go shopping! What about you? That's all we've time for today. Thanks
for joining us and until next week. Goodbye!（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

3 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

4 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

5 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 esteem   

n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• The veteran worker ranks high in public love and esteem.那位老工人深受大伙的爱戴。

7 leakage   

n.漏，泄漏；泄漏物；漏出量

参考例句：

• Large areas of land have been contaminated by the leakage from the nuclear reactor.大片地区都被核反应堆的泄漏物污染了。
• The continuing leakage is the result of the long crack in the pipe.这根管子上的那一条裂缝致使渗漏不断。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。