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FASHION

Text for dictation:

Fashion forms a key part of many of our important industries, especially those involving design, such as cars, computer printers and clothing. In the world of machines, changes in design often accompany technical improvements.

However, new design in clothing is more commonly motivated by fashion. Differences in the climate from season to season and the tendency to equate each new year with a new look provide textiles companies with frequent opportunities to renew their sales.

These marketing opportunities are often realised by associating products with people. Fashion models are highly paid to provide appropriate images of good health, comfortable life-styles, success and beauty.

Fashion is usually regarded as fun and provides the focus of many popular magazines. However, controversy occurs in some instances. The image provided by the fashion model may shock, it may fail to have any connection with the product itself or it may endorse a product such as a fur coat which some people find offensive.



  1. Get a good English speaker to dictate the text giving you a second reading with pauses so that you can write it down.
  2. Afterwards you can look at the above text to check your spelling.
  3. Next, using a red pen, put a small vertical mark high up before each stressed syllable in the text.
  4. Now click here to check that you have marked the correct syllables as the stressed ones.
  5. Finally, read the text aloud, taking care to stress the "stressed syllables" and not to stress the "weak" syllables.