Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/23

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● This insert contains the reading texts.

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Read both texts and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A: Paying digitally – will paying by cash soon be a thing of the past?

As more retail outlets, festivals and transport networks adapt to contactless cards and tap-and-go
digital technology, fewer people are paying by cash. In some UK cities, buses and cafés simply
refuse to handle notes or coins. Many shops worldwide, from health-food stores to local bakers,
already only accept payment by cards and other digital technology, with retailers describing going
cash-free as ‘cleaner’ or ‘safer’. From Seattle to Singapore, cities are spearheading a global 5
drive to go digital. Cash is a dinosaur, it seems.

Many people are happy to tap cards or phones to hop on a bus, buy a coffee or pay for groceries
and no longer need to carry cash at all. But what might the rise of the cashless city mean for
street vendors and market traders, street performers, waiters or any charity relying on people
donating their spare change? 10

People on the lowest incomes often can’t get a bank account and may become excluded from
mainstream commercial life by their dependence on traditional forms of currency. There’s also
little enthusiasm for abandoning cash, mostly along demographic lines: older people in rural
areas are the least tech-savvy and resent the emergence of entirely cash-free urban zones. ‘The
beauty of cash is that it’s a simple, direct transaction between all kinds of different people – rich, 15
poor, old or young,’ explains financial writer Damien Geales. ‘If society goes cash-free, there’s a
real danger of exclusion.’

Big businesses, equipped with the latest online technology, increasingly insist that bills are paid
electronically. Some offer discounts for services purchased digitally, like train tickets. Some banks
offer training on payment technology for independent traders, though considerable running costs 20
remain for small businesses that need to accept payment from customers keen to do everything
digitally.

The defence for pushing everyone into using digital payments is that a clear trail can be followed
whenever a payment for goods or services is made, but some cultures are deeply reluctant to
give up cash. In some countries, according to recent surveys, most consumers believe that using 25
cash gives them better control over their spending.

‘It’s senseless to try to make everyone go cash-free,’ argues Geales. ‘But big stores see younger
customers using payment apps on their phones to buy everything. The ease of electronic
payments is simply too attractive.’

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/O/N/24

Text B: Do you still use cash?

This passage is a blog about the writer’s spending habits.

Scrolling through my online bank statements recently, I was surprised to find that I hadn’t removed
cash from a cash machine for months. Had I not been spending? I wish. No, it just seems that
thanks to technology, it’s become increasingly easy to glide around restaurants, shops and cafés
dispensing my personal wealth.

Driving my son back from school yesterday, I realised another consequence of my pay-by-card 5
habit. I needed to buy fuel from the garage and as ever the pressure was on me to add that
tempting bag of his favourite sweets to my bill. Negotiations complete, we decided he could use
his pocket money for the purchase. I like my son to develop a responsible attitude to spending;
going up to the counter himself to pay and check his change is an important way to reinforce
both maths skills and the value of hard-earned cash. However, further examination revealed I’d 10
no cash in my wallet to give him his allowance. Once back home, I could find only the crumpled
bank note I keep in my running shorts, a safety precaution when heading out for a run. Eventually,
I raided my ‘emergency’ fund, a bottle in my kitchen where I save small change, to pay my debts.

Today, tucking my bank card firmly away, I decide to see how far real cash will get me. Not far.
Any high-priced items it seems are strictly cashless affairs: my rent and telephone bill among 15
them. I meet with baffled expressions and some resistance from the assistant at the agency I rent
my apartment from. ‘I can’t remember the last time we received a cash payment,’ she says. ‘We
don’t like keeping cash in the office, we don’t have a safe, and banks charge you for depositing
cash.’ I see her point. Later, as my daughter cracks open her money box and counts out her
small stash of coins, I realise that the cost of depositing her savings into her bank account this 20
month will wipe them out.

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