Reading

READING SKILLS
TASK 1
Match sentences A-F with gaps 1-4 in the text. There are two extra sentences.
THE KING OF THE SHOPPING MALL

It was on 22 March 1954 that the world’s first shopping mall, Northland,
opened. Built in a suburb of Chicago, USA, the designer of Northland,
Victor Gruen, told the press that it was the ‘shopping centre of the future’.
Gruen was half-right, because although Northland was the world’s first
purpose-built shopping centre, it was his next design, Southdale in
Minnesota, that became the model that architects all over the world
would copy. Opened two years after Northland, Southdale was the first
shopping centre where the shops were enclosed in one enormous
building, and shopping mall architects have followed Gruen’s model ever
since. 1 _____________.
However, if Victor Gruen invented the mall, businessman Alfred Taubman
perfected it. Taubman took Gruen’s design and added a few rules to
encourage consumers to spend as much money as possible. Taubman
decided that shops should only occupy two floors. Furthermore, the
escalators to move shoppers between the floors should always be at the
two ends of the mall, forcing people to walk past all the shops on a floor.
He also insisted on glass safety barriers on the first floor, allowing
consumers to easily see the shops above and below them, and on
opening up the front of shops completely by removing their big glass
windows. 2 _________________. Taubman also wanted shoppers to spend as
much time as possible in the malls so they would spend more money.
He suggested letting plenty of natural light into them by constructing
huge glass ceilings. Taubman also installed artificial lights next to the
glass ceilings, so that as daylight faded, the artificial light increased and
shoppers were unaware of the passing of time. Holding different events
every week and local festivals in the space inside the mall would bring in
even more people. 3 ____________________
Today, shopping malls have grown to the size of small towns and contain
a lot of leisure facilities such as theme parks, artificial lakes and even ski
slopes to attract customers. 4 ____________. However, although shopping
malls are carefully designed to make consumers part with as much of
their money as possible, it is unlikely that they will notice. Many people
see a visit to a shopping mall as a leisure activity and that is perhaps
Taubman’s biggest legacy.
A. This took away a major obstacle between shoppers
and the brands on sale inside.
Despite that, if you spend a little time looking around the
B. next mall you visit, you’ll see that Taubman’s ideas are still
being put into practice.
However, seldom do shoppers notice that the day seems

C. to last longer in a shopping mall.
The layout of a modern shopping mall is very similar to the

D. layout of those first malls from nearly seventy years ago.
E. Restaurants and cafés were placed at the end of the malls

because they were only used at certain times of the day.
F. The idea was to create a space that people

would feel like spending a whole day in.
TASK 2
Match paragraphs A-C with questions 1-6. Each paragraph matches
two questions.
A secret job in the retail trade

A.
I am in a supermarket, doing my best to look like any other shopper
browsing the shelves. My opinion on this trip is to buy something I fancy
from the bakery, which means I’ll have to interact with the person at the
counter. I’m hoping to pass off the handwritten notes I’m carrying as a
shopping list, because no one must know why I am here. I have to keep
my identity secret because I am a mystery shopper.
My job involves visiting five to ten different stores a day and scoring
В. them on, among other things, their appearance and cleanliness.
With the €20 I am given to spend at each store, I purchase the
obligatory item that enables me to assess the service I receive at
the checkout. Adding the value of my purchase to the €225 I make
in a typical day of eight hours of visits and two hours filing reports, I
earn more than enough to live on.
However, assignments paying as well as mine are becoming few and

far between due to the soaring demand in my line of work. Retailers
increasingly need to maintain standards so as to offer consumers a
С.
quality shopping experience and keep them from turning to the
internet. However, to date, there are more than half a million mystery
shoppers registered in the UK, making competition for jobs very
fierce. Today it isn’t only other shoppers I hide my identity from; even
my friends and family don’t know who I work for.
In which paragraph does the author mention
1. an extra received on top of the wages?

2. something that might give away the identity of the worker?
3. a trend which has changed employment prospects?
4. typical consumer behaviour?
5. the difficulty of finding a job in the field?
6. a good reason for doing the job?
TASK 3
All things, for all people everywhere

A _____________________________________________________________
"Enter a Different World", it says on the doormat, and this is

what you do when you visit Harrods in Knightsbridge,
London. Harrods is “the world’s most celebrated store" says
Chairman Mr. Mohamed Al Fayed.
B _____________________________________________________________
In the beginning, through, Harrods was just a small grocer's

shop. It was opened in 1849 and run by Charles Henry Harrod.
His son took over and added medicines and perfumes, as
well as fruit, flowers, sweets and a van delivery service.
Over the years, Harrods has survived a fire, two Worlds Wars
and even two bombings. In 1983, Harrods moved abroad and
opened a branch in Japan and later others in Hong Kong,
Singapore and Taiwan, as well as airports shops in most major
European cities.
C _____________________________________________________________
Today around 35 000 people visited Harrods every day. It has

got 300 departments spread over seven floors and employs
over 4000 staff. It also has eight doormen, known as "Green
Man", as well as its own fire brigade, security personnel,
doctors and nurses.
Harrods is the official supplier of certain goods to The Royal
Family, and selis everything from clothes to caviar.
The Food Halls are still the heart and soulof Harrods. In
addition to the nineteen bars and restauraunts in the
store, there is a bank, a travel agent's, a dry cleaner's and
the biggest hair and beauty salon in Europe.
D _____________________________________________________________
January and July are very busy months for Harrods because
they are sale times. Over 300 000 customers visit the store
on the first day alone. Many people sleep outside the store
all night to be first in when the doors open on the first day.
E ___________________________
Read the article and
"All things, fr all people, fill in the headings
everywhere" is the store's
motto. The Harrods History of the store
name means the best of The sales
British quality, service Location & Management
and style. All in all, Recommendation
Harrods is a fascinating Departments & Services
place to visit.
Read the following text consisting of three paragraphs (A-C) and
TASK 4 the four questions (1-4) relating to the paragraphs. Match each
question with the corresponding paragraph. Put the answers in
the correct boxes. One paragraph can match two questions.
Which paragraph
suggests that the malls have become oversized? _______

uses a comparison to clarify a claim? _______
quotes statistics to make a point?! _______
mentions that shoppers are consciously _______

manipulated?
SHOPPING MALLS TODAY
The idea of building shopping malls was to bring a whole range of
shops and services together under one roof, ostensibly making
shopping more convenient for customers. I believe that the
underlying intention was to encourage shoppers to spend more
A
money, tempted by the goods seen as people pass a variety of other
shops on their way to their destinations. This is a little like the
common practice of supermarkets where they place the staple foods
such as bread and milk in strategic positions so that shoppers need to
go past higher priced items to get to them. Malls also encourage us to
linger by providing cafes and restaurants. Everything is designed to
entice us in and trap us for as long as it takes to persuade us to part
with as much money as possible!
People are now very used to the experience of shopping in big malls
but has this been to the detriment of the smaller specialist shops in
the locality? It was believed a few years ago that smaller shops were
suffering badly as a result of the bigger malls and there were scenes
B
of deserted high streets because shoppers were forsaking them in
favour of the more convenient malls. However, as malls have
increased in size in recent years, it is now feared that they have tried
to get too big too quickly and boarded up shop windows are
appearing more and more often in the new, modem malls. Perhaps
this will mean that a revival of the High Street is on its way.
These days shopping malls are having to compete for business with a
formidable opponent - the Internet. As money has got tighter, people
are turning to shopping online to find the best range of products at
the best prices. Recent figures show that footfall at a shopping mall,
C
only constructed three years ago, was down by twenty five per cent
on the previous year. Customers are being encouraged to return to
this mall by the offer of a range of entertainment such as music
groups and competitions for children - even games and quizzes, as
well as cultural events such as art exhibitions and book readings by
new authors. Will this bring us back? I'm not so sure.

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READING SKILLS

THE KING OF THE SHOPPING MALL

However, seldom do shoppers notice that the day seems

The layout of a modern shopping mall is very similar to the

E. Restaurants and cafés were placed at the end of the malls

F. The idea was to create a space that people

A secret job in the retail trade

However, assignments paying as well as mine are becoming few and

In which paragraph does the author mention

1. an extra received on top of the wages?

All things, for all people everywhere

"Enter a Different World", it says on the doormat, and this is

In the beginning, through, Harrods was just a small grocer's

Today around 35 000 people visited Harrods every day. It has

Read the following text consisting of three paragraphs (A-C) and

suggests that the malls have become oversized? _______

mentions that shoppers are consciously _______

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