London: Shopping in the City

London is "a good buy", as INEZ SHARP reports in her cover story on shopping in London (Spotlight 2/2009). The city is currently almost affordable, with the pound so low against the euro. And unless you're a compulsive big spender, there is plenty of fun to be had just by window shopping in the city's traditional shops. So what kind of language would you need if you went there on a shopping spree?

This week our exercise has four parts:

1. Dictogloss
2. What Ms S. said
3. The language of shopping
4. About the traditional shops of London

Dictogloss

Practise your listening and writing skills by listening to and reconstructing the introduction to Inez Sharp's article. Click on the arrow symbol beside the speaker below. As you listen, write the key words you hear into the box. Listen to the text a second time and add more keywords. Finally, fill in words between your keywords to reconstruct the text. Done? Then click on the "Show the text" button to read the whole text, and compare it with what you have written.