A Store Owner

in Connecticut, US

 
 
 
Cort talks about globalization and history.

Vocabulary

provide	basically	health food store
organic	vitamins	supplement (2)
natural	product	things like that
obvious	integrate	around the world
mutual	dependent	look at (2)
related	template	each other
fit (2)	pretty (2)	bad/worse/worse
certainly	customer	foundation
expect	absolutely	omnivorous
deep (2)	research	controversial
debate	set forth	what amounts to
saying	recession	civilization
colony	definitely	in terms of
curious	definition	strong/strength
kind (2)	weakness	concerned
tend	be able to	intellectual
guy	catch (2)	colonialism
sell	complex	country (2)

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Hello. My name is Cort Wrotnowski. I’m 56 years old, and I live in Greenwich, Connecticut.

What do you do for a living?

Basically, I’m running this health food store provides vitamins and supplements, organic and all natural products for people, salads, sandwiches, things like that.

What does globalization mean to you?

The obvious definition is the integration of economies around the world. We’re becoming more mutually dependent upon each other. But when you really look at economies in different parts of the world, it’s a very, very complex picture.

And the template of globalization does not fit very well with the economies of the world.

What worries you?

You see that American economy is having problems, and the signs look pretty strong that it’s going to get pretty worse before it gets better. Certainly we are concerned that the recession could be deeper than we expect.

What’s your favorite food?

I run an organic store and I like to go for organic. Oh, I’m definitely omnivorous.

Which country would you like to visit?

It would have to be England. Absolutely. England is a very controversial country, historically speaking in terms of setting forth these foundations for what amounts to civilization, you know.

So we can have all the debates about colonialism . . . But there’s a saying you should look at the strengths instead of the weaknesses.

What makes you happy?

More customers. That always makes me happy. I tend to be more of the intellectually curious kind of guy, so when I have the time you know I like to be able to sit down and catch up on things that are going on in medical research into the latest advances in the products that I sell.

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Questions

1. Who is this person? What’s his name? How old is he? Where does he live?

2. Is he a store clerk or manager or owner of a health food store?

3. Cort explains globalization in terms of trade and business. True or false? Do some countries benefit more from free trade and globalization, while others lose out?

4. Does he say he worries about his family? What are his worries?

5. He eats processed foods. Is this right or wrong? Is he a vegan?

6. He would like to visit . . . . . . . because . . . . . . . Is England a perfect country?

7. Being with his friends and family makes him happy? Is this correct or incorrect? What makes him happy?

 
 
A. Is there a health food store in your city? What can you find there?

B. Are people healthy conscious?

C. Are you from the United States? Do you live in the US? Have you been to US?

D. Have you met anyone from the US? Who were they? What were they doing?

E. Describe the geography and climate of the the US.

F. Describe the economy of the US What does it import and export, buy and sell?

G. Does the US have any problems or challenges?

H. What is American food like? Describe the cuisine of the United States.

I. What are some tourist attractions (cultural, historical, natural)?

J. What comes to mind when you think of the US? What do you associate with the US?