PeopleCert LanguageCert Academic Test (Reading)
Reading

Read the article from an international news magazine. Drag and drop the correct sentence (A-H) to complete the six gaps in the text. There are two extra sentences you will not need.
Passion for possessions

Psychologist Anna Tomkins believes that ownership of objects plays a critical role in human identity.

Our predilection for object ownership seems to be a uniquely human trait. It is true that other primates have been observed in the wild fashioning basic tools out of sticks or stones for cracking nuts or prodding termite hills. . Some animals, notably a number of different bird species, collect objects, but this type of collecting seems purely instinctual. In contrast, humans produce, collect, contemplate, exchange, value and even adore objects for their own sake.

Early evidence of this is a 70,000-year-old block of ochre engraved with crosses found in the Western Cape of South Africa, most likely a piece of art or possibly a sacred object. It’s clear that a considerable amount of time and effort must have gone into making it. . After all, the hours devoted to creating them would mean less time available for activities vital for survival such as foraging or hunting.

Needless to say, we live in a very different world today. Manufacturing technologies have all but replaced the need for us to make our own things, and we are said to live in a disposable age. Nevertheless, we still retain a need for ownership, and forge emotional attachments with objects that extend far beyond their functional use or market value. It’s a phenomenon that appears early in development. . These precious items, no matter how tatty they become, are considered unique and irreplaceable: they cannot be swapped for identical copies or newer versions, and bonding with more than one item is rare.

Probably all of us own things to which we are sentimentally attached for one reason or another. However, possessions have another purpose – they can also serve as an expression of personality, taste or status. . Advertisers have been exploiting this for years. They understand that consumers identify with brands and that creating a strong brand image for a product will make it more saleable.

Professor of Marketing, Russell W. Belk of York University in Canada calls this materialist perspective the ‘extended self.’ According to this theory, someone’s possessions are a very important part of their sense of identity. This explains why some of us react to the loss of, or damage to, our belongings as if it were a personal tragedy. . However, on a psychological level, it is perfectly rational.

In my lab, we are investigating children’s attitudes toward ownership. We know that young children see ownership as limited to their own possessions, whereas adults respect the belongings of others. We are trying to clarify exactly when in childhood the more mature understanding of ownership develops. . Understanding this matters because our deep-seated human need to own things is a crucial psychological process that shapes the way we view ourselves and others.
A.
Many children become inseparable from objects such as stuffed toys or blankets
B.
Asking participants to do this should have proved whether valuing objects is a basic part of human cognition
C.
Getting a sense of the timing of this transition may bring us closer to the origins of our conventions about who owns what
D.
However, these artefacts are often discarded after they have served their temporary function
E.
That is, individuals choose to acquire things they believe reflect qualities they would like to be associated with
F.
What is more, simply choosing an object endows it with more worth, in our mind, than an identical object we did not select
G.
From the point of view of an outsider, this may look like a silly overreaction
H.
This tells us a great deal about how highly such items must have been valued