自考英语二(新版) 原文 Unit 6 The Value of Money.doc

Unit 6 The Value of Money A Famous Quote: Never spend your money before you have it. – Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the third President of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Text A Teaching Children to Spend Pocket Money Wisely Pre-reading Questions: Recall and describe how your parents allocated pocket money to you and how you spent it. What influence does that way of giving pocket money have on kids finance management? School-going children need pocket money for food, stationary and bus fare. Parents give pocket money to their children in different ways. Some give a lump of sum at the beginning of a month or a week. Others prefer to give pocket money on a daily bias. The way in which pocket money is given affects how money is spent or saved. On the other hand, the children’s spending habits may affect how pocket money is given. Pocket money given on a daily bias is sometimes termed as “food money”. Children usually use the pocket money to buy food during recess and also at lunch hour if they have school activities in the afternoon. They learn how to manage small sums of money. As the money is limited, they have to control their spending. Some parents choose this method of allocating pocket money in order to prevent their children from overspending, hoping that in time they can be trusted with larger sums of money. Parents who earn daily wages may also opt for this due to financial constraints. Giving pocket money on a daily bias places responsibilities of budgeting on the parents, instead of child. The child may spend every single cent of the daily pocket money by overindulging in junk food, as they know they will get another sum of money the next day. This results in children being short-sighted in their spending. The thought of saving money never crossed their minds. They may develop the mentality that money is meant to be spent. Others spend more than they are given. They borrow from their siblings or t