Shopping online?

Don’t fall into the ratings trap

Level 2 l Upper intermediate
1 Warmer
Complete the shopping questionnaire.
1. How often do you shop online? 3. What is the biggest problem with online shopping?
a. every day a. You can’t actually see or touch the product.
b. once a week b. security
c. once a month c. the length of time it takes for your order to arrive
d. never d. problems if you have to send a product back

2. What do you buy online? You can select more than

one answer.
a. music
b. clothes
c. books
d. electronic goods
2 Key words
Complete the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.

purchaser rating mediocre bin bag blackout blind

repeatedly exposure handful grating review

1. A _______________________ is a window cover that blocks out light. (para 1)

2. A _______________________ is a written opinion about something. (para 1)
3. If something is _______________________, it is average or below average in quality. (para 1)
4. A _______________________ is a measurement of how good something is. (para 1)
5. A _______________________ is a plastic bag you put rubbish in. (para 2)
6. A _______________________ is a very small number of people or things. (para 3)
7. _______________________ is the fact of seeing or experiencing something. (para 6)
8. If something happens _______________________, it happens again and again. (para 6)
9. If something is _______________________, it is unpleasant and annoying. (para 6)
10. A _______________________ is someone who buys something. (para 7)

3 Find the information

Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible.
1. What did the author want to buy?
2. How much time does the author of the article have between the time his baby goes to bed and the time he falls
asleep himself?
3. What is Derek Powell’s job?
4. Why do grating TV adverts work?
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NEWS LESSONS / Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap / Upper intermediate
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Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
Shopping online? Don’t fall into the
ratings trap
Oliver Burkeman
10 November, 2017
1 In the summer of 2016, I fell straight into a trap
that, I now know, is common when shopping
online. Our baby goes to bed before dark so I
wanted to make the bedroom darker. I stumbled
upon a blackout blind that promised to stick to
the windows as if by magic (though, actually, by
static electricity). It got plenty of reviews online
but a mediocre average rating because, in many
cases, it didn’t stick at all.
2 Yet, I figured that a product bought by so many
people couldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately, it was.
For the money I paid, I could have taped bin bags
on the windows, then spent the rest on a nice
bottle of whisky to enjoy in the 45 minutes I have
each evening between the baby going to bed and
me falling asleep.
3 It’s reassuring, I suppose, to learn from a paper
just published in Psychological Science that this
seems to be a basic human tendency: we’re
influenced more by how many other people have
chosen a product than by what they thought of
the product. The Stanford University psychologist
Derek Powell and his colleagues showed people
pairs of products as they might show up on
Amazon, one with a poor average rating based
on lots of reviews, the other with a low rating
based on only a handful of reviews. People chose
the product with more reviews.
4 This makes no sense, statistically speaking: the
larger the number of reviews on which a bad
rating is based, the higher the likelihood the
product really is bad.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2017
NEWS LESSONS / Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap / Upper intermediate
5 This is the “law of large numbers”. If you ask
a crowd of 1,000 to guess the number of jelly
beans in a jar, the average of their guesses
will be very close to the truth. If you ask three
people, it probably won’t. So, if forced to choose
between two such products, you’re actually better
off selecting the one with fewer reviews, since
there’s a bigger chance the people who hated it
are exceptions and their bad experience won’t be
the same as yours.
6 This is similar to the “exposure effect”, which
describes the way we start to like anything to
which we’re repeatedly exposed, regardless
of any other reason to like or dislike it. That’s
one reason that grating TV adverts work. Sure,
they’re annoying but the fact that they are grating
guarantees you’ll notice them lots and noticing
leads to liking.
7 In both cases, we seem designed to find sheer
quantity (of product reviews, of times seeing
an ad) reassuring at a basic level. It takes
more conscious reasoning to see, in the case
of online shopping, that the larger the quantity
of purchasers, the more seriously you should
recognize their judgement – and not buy
something if they hated it.
8 This is the kind of reasoning it’s much harder to
practise when you’re tired.
© Guardian News and Media 2017
First published in The Guardian, 10/11/17
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Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?

1. The blackout blind the author bought got a lot of reviews online.
2. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good product.
3. People are less influenced by the number of people who have chosen a product and more influenced by
people’s opinion of the product.
4. If you ask three people to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar, the average guess will be closer to the real
number than if you ask 1,000 people.
5. It’s better to choose a product with a larger number of mediocre reviews.
6. It’s more difficult to think logically when you are tired.

5 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text.

1. a two-word phrasal verb meaning find something by accident (para 1)

2. a verb meaning believe something is true although you do not know for certain (para 2)
3. an adjective meaning making you feel less worried (para 3)
4. a noun meaning the chance that something might happen (para 4)
5. a two-word adjectival phrase meaning in a better position (para 5)
6. an adjective used only before a noun, emphasizing the amount or degree of something (para 7)
7. a noun meaning the process of thinking about something in an intelligent and sensible way in order to make a
decision or form an opinion (para 7)
8. a noun meaning an opinion you have after thinking carefully about something (para 7)

6 Prepositions
Complete the phrases from the text with these prepositions.

between by on into of to

1. fall ___________ a trap

2. close ___________ the truth

3. choose ___________ two products

4. ___________ magic

5. regardless ___________ something

6. based ___________ something

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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2017

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NEWS LESSONS / Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap / Upper intermediate
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 Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
7 Word-building
Complete the table using words from the text.

verb noun
1. rate
2. reason
3. expose
4. purchase (person)
5. guess
6. produce

8 Discussion
Discuss the statements.
• Internet shopping will lead to the death of city centres.
• Television advertising should be banned.

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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2017

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NEWS LESSONS / Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap / Upper intermediate
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Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
KEY

2 Key words 5 Find the word

1. blackout blind 21. stumble upon

2. review 22. figure
3. mediocre 23. reassuring
4. rating 24. likelihood
5. bin bag 25. better off
6. handful 26. sheer
7. exposure 27. reasoning
8. repeatedly 28. judgement
9. grating
10. purchaser
6 Prepositions

3 Find the information 29. into

30. to
11. a blackout blind 31. between
12. 45 minutes 32. by
13. psychologist 33. of
14. because people notice them a lot 34. on

4 Comprehension check 7 Word-building

15. T 35. rating

16. T 36. reasoning
17. F 37. exposure
18. F 38. purchaser
19. F 39. guess
20. T 40. product
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NEWS LESSONS / Shopping online? Don’t fall into the ratings trap / Upper intermediate
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