A Theory of Shopping - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation
The IELTS reading section examines a candidate’s comprehending skills within the stipulated amount of time. The reading section comprises passages followed with different kinds of questions to holistically judge a student’s grasping abilities while reading. This particular IELTS Reading Practice Test has a passage on- A Theory of Shopping, which consists of the following type of question:
- Choose the correct answer
- Yes/No/Not Given
- No more than three words
The IELTS Reading Practice Tests contain a variety of sample passages with different kinds of questions which will equip a student with all the possible dimensions of this section. These practice tests should be taken with utmost seriousness to perform brilliantly on the D-Day.
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
A Theory of Shopping IELTS Reading Sample
- For a one-year period, I attempted to conduct an ethnography of shopping on and around a street in North London. This was carried out in association with Alison Clarke. I say ‘attempted’ because, given the absence of community and the intensely private nature of London households, this could not be an ethnography in the conventional sense. Nevertheless, through conversation, being present in the home and accompanying householders during their shopping, I tried to reach an understanding of the nature of shopping through greater or lesser exposure to 76 households.
- My part of the ethnography concentrated upon shopping itself. Alison Clarke has since been working with the same households, but focusing upon other forms of provisioning such as the use of catalogs (see Clarke 1997). We generally first met these households together, but most of the material that is used within this particular essay derived from my own subsequent fieldwork. Following the completion of this essay, and a study of some related shopping centers, we hope to write a more general ethnography of provisioning. This will also examine other issues, such as the nature of community and the implications for retail and for the wider political economy. None of this, however, forms part of the present essay, which is primarily concerned with establishing the cosmological foundations of shopping.
- To state that a household has been included within the study is to gloss over a wide diversity of degrees of involvement. The minimum requirement is simply that a householder has agreed to be interviewed about their shopping, which would include the local shopping parade, shopping centers and supermarkets. At the other extreme are families that we have come to know well during the course of the year. The interaction would include formal interviews, and a less formal presence within their homes, usually with a cup of tea. It also meant accompanying them on one or several ‘events’, which might comprise shopping trips or participation in activities associated with the area of Clarke’s study, such as the meeting of a group supplying products for the home.
- In analyzing and writing up the experience of an ethnography of shopping in North London, I am led in two opposed directions. The tradition of anthropological relativism leads to an emphasis upon difference, and there are many ways in which shopping can help us elucidate differences. For example, there are differences in the experience of shopping based on gender, age, ethnicity and class. There are also differences based on the various genres of the shopping experience, from a mall to a corner shop. By contrast, there is the tradition of anthropological generalization about ‘peoples’ and comparative theory. This leads to the question as to whether there are any fundamental aspects of shopping which suggest a robust normativity that comes through the research and is not entirely dissipated by relativism. In this essay, I want to emphasize the latter approach and argue that if not all, then most acts of shopping on this street exhibit a normative form which needs to be addressed. In the later discussion of the discourse of shopping, I will defend the possibility that such a heterogeneous group of households could be fairly represented by a series of homogenous cultural practices.
- The theory that I will propose is certainly at odds with most of the literature on this topic. My premise, unlike that of most studies of consumption, whether they arise from economists, business studies or cultural studies, is that for most households in this street the act of shopping was hardly ever directed towards the person who was doing the shopping. Shopping is therefore not best understood as an individualistic or individualizing act related to the subjectivity of the shopper. Rather, the act of buying goods is mainly directed at two forms of ‘otherness’. The first of these expresses a relationship between the shopper and a particular other individual such as a child or partner, either present in the household, desired or imagined. The second of these is a relationship to a more general goal which transcends any immediate utility and is best understood as cosmological in that it takes the form of neither subject nor object but of the values to which people wish to dedicate themselves.
- It never occurred to me at any stage when carrying out the ethnography that I should consider the topic of sacrifice as relevant to this research. In no sense then could ethnography be regarded as a testing of the ideas presented here. The Literature that seemed most relevant in the initial analysis of the London material was that on thrift discussed in chapter 3. The crucial element in opening up the potential of sacrifice for understanding shopping came through reading Bataille. Bataille, however, was merely the catalyst, since I will argue that it is the classic works on sacrifice and, in particular, the foundation to its modern study by Hubert and Mauss (1964) that has become the primary grounds for my interpretation. It is important, however, when reading the following account to note that when I use the word ‘sacrifice’, I only rarely refer to the colloquial sense of the term as used in the concept of the ‘self-sacrificial’ housewife. Mostly the allusion is to this Literature on ancient sacrifice and the detailed analysis of the complex ritual sequence involved in the traditional sacrifice. The metaphorical use of the term may have its place within the subsequent discussion but this is secondary to an argument at the level of structure.
Section 2
Solution With Explanation
Questions 1-3
Choose THREE letters A-F.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
Which THREE of the following are problems the writer encountered when conducting his study?
- uncertainty as to what the focus of the study should he
- the difficulty of finding enough households to make the study worthwhile
- the diverse nature of the population of the area
- the reluctance of people to share information about their habits
- the fact that he was unable to study some people’s habits as much as others
- people dropping out of the study after initially agreeing to take part
Answer 1: option C
Supporting Sentence: To state that a household has been included within the study is to gloss over a wide diversity of degrees of involvement.
Keyword: diversity of degrees
Keyword location: third paragraph
Explanation: The answer to this question lies in the third paragraph starting lines. The whole third paragraph talks about the difficulties faced by the writer while conducting the study. The writer states that for conducting the study he has to gloss over a wide diversity of degrees of involvement.
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Answer 2: Option D
Supporting Sentence: To state that a household has been included within the study is to gloss over a wide diversity of degrees of involvement. The minimum requirement is simply that a householder has agreed to be interviewed about their shopping, which would include the local shopping parade, shopping centers and supermarkets. At the other extreme are families that we have come to know well during the course of the year.
Keyword: minimum requirements
Keyword location: third paragraph
Explanation: The whole third paragraph talks about the difficulties faced by the writer while conducting the study. The writer has encountered a diverse population for conducting his study. He states that he has encountered some people who were willingly helping him to conduct his study but some were extreme.
Answer 3: Option E
Supporting Sentence: To state that a household has been included within the study is to gloss over a wide diversity of degrees of involvement. The minimum requirement is simply that a householder has agreed to be interviewed about their shopping, which would include the local shopping parade, shopping centers and supermarkets. At the other extreme are families that we have come to know well during the course of the year.
Keyword: shopping parade, shopping centers and supermarkets
Keyword location: third paragraph
Explanation: The whole third paragraph talks about the difficulties faced by the writer while conducting the study. He states that he encountered a varied number of people during his study. Some easily helped him with the interview and other formalities while at the other extremes are the families that he had come to know for a year.
Questions 4-11
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 4-11 on your answer sheet write
YES if the statement agrees with the news of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
- Anthropological relativism is more widely applied than anthropological generalization.
- Shopping lends itself to analysis based on anthropological relativism.
- Generalizations about shopping are possible.
- Tire conclusions drawn from this study will confirm some of the findings of other research.
- Shopping should be regarded as a basically unselfish activity.
- People sometimes analyze their own motives when they are shopping.
- The actual goods bought are the primary concern in the activity of shopping.
- It was possible to predict the outcome of the study before embarking on it.
Answer 4: Not Given
Answer 5: Yes
Supporting Sentence: This leads to the question as to whether there are any fundamental aspects of shopping which suggest a robust normativity that comes through the research and is not entirely dissipated by relativism.
Keyword: robust normativity
Keyword location: fourth paragraph
Explanation: The answer to this question lies in fourth paragraph middle lines where the writer tries to state that is there any other aspect of shopping which suggests a robust normatively that comes through research and doesn’t dissipate only through relativism.
Answer 6: Yes
Supporting Sentence: there is the tradition of anthropological generalization about ‘peoples’ and comparative theory.
Keyword: anthropological generalization
Keyword location: fourth paragraph
Explanation: In these lines, the writer states that in his essay he would try to approach anthropological generalization to prove that not all but most acts of shopping exhibit the generalization aspect.
Answer 7: No
Supporting Sentence: Following the completion of this essay, and a study of some related shopping centers, we hope to write a more general ethnography of provisioning.
Keyword: general ethnography, provisioning
Keyword location: second paragraph
Explanation; The writer has mentioned in the starting of his essay that whatever would be the conclusion of his study that wouldn’t be carried for further research.
Answer 8: Yes
Supporting Sentence: Shopping is therefore not best understood as an individualistic or individualizing act related to the subjectivity of the shopper.
Keyword: individualistic or individualizing act
Keyword location: fifth paragraph
Explanation: The answer to this lies in fifth paragraph middle lines. In these lines the writer states that shopping should not be only considered an individualistic act rather, it should be mainly directed for otherness.
Answer 9: Not Given
Answer 10: No
Supporting Sentence: the act of buying goods is mainly directed at two forms of ‘otherness’. The first of these expresses a relationship between the shopper and a particular other individual such as a child or partner, either present in the household, desired or imagined.
Keyword: buying goods, household, desired, imagined
Keyword location: fifth paragraph
Explanation: The answer to this lies in the fifth paragraph where the writer states that buying the goods is not the primary purpose of shopping, rather it is the value which one wishes to dedicate themselves to.
Answer 11: No
Supporting Sentence: It never occurred to me at any stage when carrying out the ethnography that I should consider the topic of sacrifice as relevant to this research.
Keyword: sacrifice, ethnography
Keyword location: sixth paragraph
Explanation: According to the writer it wasn’t possible to predict the outcome of the study before embarking on it. The writer has to study it thoroughly and interview 76 householders to draw the conclusion.
Questions 12-14
Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 3.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answer in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet.
- The subject of written research the writer first thought was directly connected with his study was
- The research the writer has been most inspired by was carried out by
- The writer mostly does not use the meaning of ‘sacrifice’ that he regards as
Answer 12: Thrifṭ
Supporting Sentence: The Literature that seemed most relevant in the initial analysis of the London material was that on thrift discussed in chapter 3.
Keyword: initial analysis, London material, thrift
Keyword location: sixth paragraph
Explanation: The answer to this lies in the sixth paragraph starting lines. According to these lines the topic which the writer thought connected with his study was Thrift.
Answer 13: Hubert and Mauss
Supporting Sentence: since I will argue that it is the classic works on sacrifice and, in particular, the foundation to its modern study by Hubert and Mauss (1964) that has become the primary grounds for my interpretation.
Keyword: classic works on sacrifice, foundation, modern study
Keyword location: sixth paragraph
Explanation: The writer states that the foundation of its modern study by Hubert and Mahas become the primary ground for his interpretation.
Answer 14: Colloquial/metaphorical
Supporting Sentence: It is important, however, when reading the following account to note that when I use the word ‘sacrifice’, I only rarely refer to the colloquial sense of the term as used in the concept of the ‘self-sacrificial’ housewife.
Keyword: sacrifice, colloquial sense
Keyword location: sixth paragraph
Explanation: The writer states that when he uses the term “sacrifice”, he rarely uses the colloquial sense of the term.
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