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The pop-up phenomenon A phenomenon has been sweeping the UK - the pop-up shop. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, many businesses had to shut down. Shops, warehouses and offices were left vacant when they stopped trading. But what happened to all these empty buildings? Here's an article on the pop-up craze in many towns and cities in the UK. While you're reading the first time, decide which is the best summary of the story.   

Pop-ups are shops that will save the high street. Pop-ups allow people freedom when they set up a business. Pop-ups have no risks when they are started. Read the text and complete the activity

Perfect pop-ups What is a 'pop-up'? Pop-up shops first popped up in the UK in the early 2000s, with the economy booming and the high streets bustling. They were originally a way for small, niche companies to rent retail space in great locations. This was while landlords who owned these spaces looked for permanent ( lâu dài) tenants. Popup shops can take a number of different forms. They might be temporary ( tạm thời ) >< eternal shops in the high street or a shopping centre. They might be simple market stalls. They could be based in some kind of transport, like a food truck. Or they could be run by people who visit different establishments, like travelling chefs who take over pub and restaurant kitchens temporarily. Almost anything that can be on a high street can also be a pop-up. There have been pop-up shops, art galleries, theatres, cinemas and restaurants among others! Why are pop-ups becoming so popular? For would-be pop-up entrepreneurs (doanh nhân ), the appeal of this temporary shopping concept is clear. They can start a business with much lower risk. There are fewer overheads, such as paying wages or heating and lighting for their premises. The temporary nature of a pop-up gives the opportunity to test a product and develop a customer base, without being tied in to a long-term renting contract. Being small, with minimal staff, makes it much easier for pop-ups to expand if they are successful. Pop-up shops are a way for landlords to fill up empty property they may have. When the economy took a downturn after 2008, many shops became vacant after they went out of business. It makes sense for landlords to be able to allow people to come in and set up a temporary shop as a stopgap and use the available space. When you look at the business sector, pop-ups make a lot of sense. According to a 2014 report by the Centre of Economic and Business Research, the pop-up industry was worth £2.1bn and is expected to grow by 8.4% in 2015. Charles Davis of the CEBR also said that the pop-up sector "is growing faster than the overall retail sector." What is the future like for pop-up shops?

With banks remaining reluctant to lend money to new businesses and landlords(chủ nhà) still with lots of empty units to fill, there seems to be a future for pop-up shops in towns and city centres. There is also the threat of online shopping, which means that anyone can buy anything they want without leaving their home. If high streets all feature the same selection of shops, there is no variety. Pop-up shops add vibrancy to the high street and make it different and distinctive. Did you work out which was the best summary of the article? Here is the answer: Pop-ups are shops that will save the high street. (No. Pop-ups can take many forms: shops, cinemas, restaurants and more. They might benefit the high street, but they might not save it completely.) Pop-ups allow people freedom when they set up a business. (Yes. Starting a pop-up can mean few overheads or expenses for the people who set them up.) Pop-ups have no risks when they are started. (No. Pop-ups might have a lower risk than traditional businesses, but there is still some risk.)

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Haggling in English That's too expensive! Welcome to the first of our special activites which help you learn practical English for real situations. In life, whether you love it or hate it, sometimes you need to haggle - you need to try to get a better price for something. Some people are natural hagglers, and even if you are, you can still learn some useful English expressions to help you get the best deal. In the UK, haggling is not as common as in some other countries. You wouldn't normally haggle in a department store here, or in other big shops. But you might haggle in a market, or for something like a second-hand car... To do Listen to the audio. Rob is trying to buy a car from Neil, while Finn explains some of the language they use. How much does Rob eventually pay for the car? While you listen for the answer, make a note of the haggling phrases and expressions that Finn talks about. You'll also find some definitions of key words in the vocabulary area. Listen to the audio and complete the activity Show transcript Downloads You can download the programme and transcript from our Unit 1 Downloads page. Key language So, Rob paid £600 in the end. And here are the 'haggling expressions' that Finn talked about: 1. 'Do' = sell When we are haggling, instead of using the verb sell, we often use do. We use it with can/can't and could/couldn't:    

I can probably do it for about £650. Can't you do it a bit cheaper? Could you do it for 500? You couldn't do it for £550? 2. To 'knock off' This phrasal verb means 'lower the price'.

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Can you knock off another £30? I could knock off £10 for you. 3. When you've got a deal: 'Go on then' To show that the price is agreed, it sounds very natural in spoken English for the buyer and/or the seller to say: Go on then.

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Buyer: £600? Seller: Go on then. Buyer: I'll give you £40 for it. Seller: Go on then. to haggle to argue about a price a bargain a very cheap price

you can't say fairer than that (idiom) that's very fair to knock off (here) to lower a price I haven't got that kind of money I haven't got enough money for that silly stupid

Talent shows: from human judges to computers Most of us will be familiar with the traditional talent show set up: thousands of hopefuls lining up outside the audition room, ready for their shot at stardom. After they have been waiting for hours and hours, they go in and perform for a panel of judges. Then these wannabe popstars could be lucky and get through to the next round, or they might hear the line, "Sorry, it's a 'no' from me". But what do the judges actually bring to a talent show? Music talent show judges attract millions of viewers each week to their programmes. Their high public profile can make them an important part of advertising campaigns for these programmes. But they often receive high salaries and can be temperamental. Are they really worth the expense and difficulties that they can cause? One solution might be to replace them with computers. Can computers really match human judges, with their general musical knowledge and ear for a tune? Scientist Dr Nick Collins and his team at the University of Sussex think they can. Dr Collings has been working on a project that involves programming three computerised judges that he says would be far more consistent in their judgement of musical performances. Using a highly versatile programming language, Dr Collins's digital judges can be trained up by 'listening' to particular musical genres. After they have been listening for a while, the programming language allows these judges to spot the specific features of the music. It takes eight hours to train the electronic judges in this way. During this time they analyse lots of information about each track they listen to, including the pitch, the timbre of the music, the rhythm and the way the tracks change over time. Collins even says that the "judges also have pet hates and guilty pleasures" and that he "can't anticipate how they will turn out". He adds, "The judges' listening capacity is not yet on a par with a human ear" but that they won't be as annoying as some human reality TV show judges. And maybe that is the problem with this electronic musical innovation. Real human judges on talent shows interest us with their personality, decisions and catchphrases. Will a computer program be able to do the same? For more information about these computer talent show judges, you can read this original BBC News story. So, did you work out which was the best summary of the article? It was 'A computer program might replace TV talent show judges.' You can find out why the other possible summaries were wrong in our quiz. 

past it (informal) too old or out-of-date to be interesting or useful

format the way something (for example, a TV show) is arranged shake-up a complete reorganisation hopefuls people who are hoping to succeed panel a small group of people who make a decision wannabe short for 'want to be' (like someone or something else) temperamental having a mood that can change quickly and unreasonably ear for (something) able to recognise, appreciate and produce sounds, especially music consistent behaving in the same way over a period of time

versatile able to change easily programming language the language that gives instructions to computers genres types timbre the quality of a musical sound pet hates minor or small things or habits that a person finds particularly annoying, usually more than for other people guilty pleasures things that a person likes, even though that they are not considered to be very good or fashionable on a par with (something) at the same level as (something) catchphrases well-known sentences or phrases, usually associated with a particular famous person

How money can affect your feelings More money might not mean more happiness

Would you have the kind of reaction you can see in this picture if you were suddenly given a lot of money? It might seem greedy to want all this cash, but for some people there is nothing better than holding a wodge of notes. For them, life with money is much easier. Paying bills, eating in fancy restaurants, buying expensive luxury items – these are all things you can do if you have the money. You don't have to worry about paying the rent every month. Each time you need to replace something in your home, like a washing machine – no problem, you can pay for it. Money does make life easier in some ways.

But money does not always equal happiness in every situation. There are places in the world where people don't have much money, but they are still happy. They make do with what they have and don't need money to buy expensive things. And in the past, money wasn't seen as the key to happiness. For example, parents wouldn’t buy expensive toys for their children. Instead, the children were content to play with things they found, like sticks and stones in the garden. Today in the developed world however, money might be central to our happiness. Having to pay more and more for things means we place more and more value on each coin and note in our pockets. So, the amount we earn in our jobs becomes crucial to our opinions about happiness. When we earn more, we feel happier. When countries become wealthier, there is usually improvement in education, lower child mortality, and longer life expectancy. The problem with this is that there is only so much of these things that money can buy. Things can't keep on getting better continuously. And is there a point at which money can make us decidedly unhappy? For example, high-paid jobs often come with a lot of stress. There is only so much pressure you can take before you might need to quit the rat race, however good the pay is. Not to mention that it is very difficult, maybe almost impossible, to define what happiness actually is. Did you work out which was the best summary? It was: Money helps us do a lot of things but it can't make our lives get better forever. 

wodge a large amount of something

notes banknotes fancy (here) posh and expensive luxury items things that aren't necessary but make our lives more comfortable and that are usually highly desired make do manage in a situation even if you don't have a lot of resources or help content happy be central to be important to crucial very important

wealthier richer child mortality number of children between 1 month and 5 years of age who die life expectancy the average number of years people live keep on continue decidedly absolutely the rat race the competitive and stressful world of work

Are we 'stuffocating'? Can having too much harm your health? In this session we hear an interview with a British author who believes that having too many things is very bad for us. James Wallman thinks that having so much stuff makes us suffocate - or as he calls it - 'stuffocate'. So how much is too much? And what can we do about it? Listen to the audio and complete the activity Hide transcript Chris Evans Define 'stuffocation' for us please, James. James Wallman Too much stuff. It's that feeling, Chris, when you go to your wardrobe, you open up the doors, and it's full of things that you could wear but there's nothing you actually want to put on. Or you go to a cupboard and you have to root around through loads of things that you never even use to find the one thing you actually need at the time. Chris Evans But we know that don't we? We do know that anyway. But you take it a lot further: you say that stuff can kill you, almost?

James Wallman Well, the thing is, materialism and the consumer revolution… Best idea of the 20th Century: so all of the stuff we are into, buying lots of stuff gave people lots of great jobs and it transforms standards of living in the 20th Century. So it was a great idea: it solved the problem of scarcity but it's given us the problem of abundance. So much stuff that it's causing stress and anxiety and depression in record levels and that point about 'too much stuff can kill you' comes from a study from some psychologists did in Los Angeles that found, in particular for women, that for women who had too much stuff in their home and talked about too much stuff in their home, had this signature pattern of something called cortisol, which is the pattern that people have who have post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fatigue and a higher risk of mortality. So it's not quite a kind of 'too much stuff will kill you' but there is a very close kind of correlation, too much stuff, in a headline, will lead you to an earlier grave. I think one of the interesting things about the book, and the idea of stuffocation, is just that we can all relate to it. If you mention stuffocation to people, everyone has got a story, everyone has got too much stuff. We've all got too much stuff. Chris Evans So what's the answer? James Wallman The answer is doing things. For me it's what I call 'experientialism'. Instead of thinking that were going to find happiness, identity, status and meaning in things, in stuff, I think we're going to find the best place to find happiness, identity, status and meaning is in experiences instead. suffocate die because you can't breathe root around look around (for something) materialism belief that having money and things is important consumer revolution big change in society where people buy and sell more things that are made in factories transforms changes scarcity not having enough abundance having enough or too much signature pattern recognisable pattern 

to break up to end a relationship to break down (of a car or vehicle) to stop working to break out (here) to escape from prison to break in to use force to enter a place to break off 1) to separate something from something else 2) to end a relationship 3) to suddenly stop speaking to check in to arrive at a hotel and register your details; also to give your information at an airport before you fly to check out to pay the bill and leave a hotel 

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) mental illness caused by stressful or frightening events chronic fatigue illness where you feel tired all the time mortality death correlation connection grave (here) death status position in a group or society

to pick (someone) up to collect someone from a place to see (someone/something) off to go to a place that someone is leaving from to say goodbye to take off (of a plane) to leave the ground to touch down (of a plane) after flying, to touch the ground again to set off to begin a journey to get in (of a plane or train) to arrive...