Giftgiving

I. Vocabulary
drawers = [drawr] a sliding, lidless, horizontal compartment, as in a piece of furniture, that may be drawn out or pulled in order to gain access to it.
cobble = [kob-uh l] type of coal in lumps larger than a pebble and smaller than a boulder.
winding up = [wahyn-ding] leading to.
present = [prez-uh nt] gift
ornament = [awr-nuh-muh nt] an accessory, article, detail or any thing used to beautify the appearance of something to which it is added or of which it is a part.
premises = [prem-is es] a building together with its grounds. examples shop, store, school.

If your drawers are packed with the ghosts of Christmases past in the shape of unwanted gifts, a new Slovenian shop may be just the thing for you this year.
On a narrow cobbled street winding up to a mediaeval castle overlooking the Slovenian capital, Darilnica (the Gift Shop) opened this month as a place where Christmas, birthday, anniversary, indeed gifts of any kind, can be exchanged for something you do want.
Four young women - three architects and a public relations expert - decided to open the shop to make people think before giving presents, particularly at Christmas.
"People get and give too many presents nowadays so we believe there is a need for a shop where you can exchange gifts, so that every present gets an owner who will find good use for it," one of the four women, Masa Cvetko, told Reuters.
She was wrapping up an ornament, a crystal cross that one of the customers got at her wedding a few years ago. She never liked it and eventually brought it to the shop, where it was exchanged for a piece of soap someone else brought in.
"We set no price on the presents, one can take anything we have in exchange for any present they bring and there is no money involved," Cvetko said.
"We hope to make people think before giving a gift and make them give presents that mean something, that have a symbolic, personal value," she added.
Each present is put in a box, wrapped up neatly and placed under a large Christmas tree while its photo is put on the wall so people can choose presents from the photos.
In the first week since opening some 200 presents have been exchanged but more are expected to come in after Christmas and New Year, so the shop will stay open until January 8.
The women running the shop are not paid for their work and the premises were made available to them by the local community free of charge.

III. Comprehension

1. What did you think of the story?
2. Do you think people just give gifts without thinking about it?
3. Is opening a shop where people can exchange their gifts a good idea or bad idea? Why?

IV. Discussions

1. What was the best gift you received?
2. Describe to me your ideal gift.
3. Does a gift need to be expensive to be beautiful?

V. Essay

What do you think about this quote:

“You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. “?