LOST...

aNd FOUNd

REAdiNG I
Think about it!
ANSWERS ON PAGE

Englishman & Irishwoman track

Do you often lose things? Why? Which objects do you lose most frequently? What was the last thing you lost and then found? Whats the most valuable thing youve ever lost? How did it happen? How do you decide where to put things?

Lost... and Found

45

The results of a survey on the things we cant stop losing!

Look at this list of objects. Which ones have you lost? Which ones do you lose frequently?

Pre-reading

hen was the last time you lost something? What was it? According to a recent survey, we spend about ten minutes a day looking for lost things. Over an average lifetime, this adds up to an incredible 3,680 hours (or 153 days). Is there anything we can do about it? The study of 3,000 adults was carried out by home insurance company esure. They found that mobile phones and car keys were the most frequently lost items. Other things on the list included: house keys, bills, receipts, sunglasses, glasses, purses, wallets, hairbrushes, gloves, umbrellas, bank cards, train or bus tickets, coats, diaries, personal organisers, batteries, passports, ID cards, software installation CDs, caps, hats, laptops, watches, socks, jewellery (particularly rings and earrings), shoes, slippers, tablets and e-readers. So, whats going on? Most blame it on a hectic lifestyle, says Nikki Sellers, the head of esure. Others say its the fault of spouses or children for not putting things back where they belong. A few admitted to untidiness, absent-mindedness and a poor GLOSSARY add up to exp memory, with more than half wishing they were more organised. to total; to be the total So, whats the solution? You need to assign a place for something and always put it back there, said self-help guru Abbie Gale. And you need to make sure everyone else in the house knows where to put it back too. You also need to keep your house tidy, label boxes clearly and designate a place near the front door for all the items that you need in the morning. A good idea would be to have a shelf there with a bowl for your keys, purse, wallet and anything else, she added. If youre still having trouble finding things, dont worry things could be a lot worse: fourteen people in the survey said they spent over an hour every day looking for lost items. Surely you cant be as bad as that!
a bill n a piece of paper that tells you how much you must pay for something a receipt n a piece of paper that has information about something you have bought a purse n an object women use to carry their money a wallet n an object men use to carry their money a ring n a round piece of jewellery you put around a finger an earring n a piece of jewellery that people wear in their ears a hectic lifestyle n if someone has a hectic lifestyle, they do many things and have no time to relax a spouse n your spouse is your wife/husband/ partner to belong vb the place where something belongs is the place where it normally goes untidiness n the state of not being tidy: not putting things back in the place where they normally go absent-mindedness n if someone is suffering from absentmindedness, they often forget things or cant remember them a self-help guru n an expert on how to be successful / happy / rich / organised, etc. to label vb if you label an object, you put a piece of paper on it with information about it to designate vb if you designate a place for an object, you choose that place for that object and say it must go there

Mobile phone

Keys Umbrella

Glasses Sunglasses

Batteries Gloves Passport

Coat

ID card

Socks Laptop / e-reader / tablet

Where is it?

Jewellery 2

Slippers Watch

Which objects from the Pre-reading task are the most frequently lost? Think. Then, read the article once to compare your ideas.
3

Reading I

Read the article again. Then, write T (true) or F (false) next to each statement. 1. Organisers of the study spoke to 3,000 people. 2. Coats and diaries were the most frequently lost items. 3. Some people blamed work colleagues for losing things. 4. Abbie Gale suggests always putting things back where you found them. 5. Some people in the survey said they spent two hours a day looking for things.

Reading II

Other tips for not losing things include the following: Immediately file phone numbers or business cards. Put bills and receipts away as soon as you get them. Write down the number of the parking space when you park your car in a busy car park. Attach a paging device to your keychain. Keep your mobile on ringtone (not vibration), so you can call it to find it. Keep like items together and create boxes for them, labelling them clearly: a Christmas box, a cables box, a box for old batteries, etc. Never put keys, mobile phones or wallets on the table in restaurants. Before you leave a bus or train, etc., turn around and look back at your seat to make sure you havent left anything behind.

6 I www.hotenglishgroup.com Check out the interactive PDF offer. Visit: www.hotenglishmagazine.com