Шпаргалка по "Английскому языку"

In both Britain and the US only the Post Office or Postal Service can deliver mail, though private couriers, are allowed to offer express services. This competition has hurt the postal services. They have lost further business as electronic communication, such as e-mail, has become more common. 

7. Shopping. At a supermarket.

Shopping centers and supermarkets have become very popular all over the world. They have various departments or shops under one roof in one huge building. The shopping centers are very convenient for the customers. These spacious stores and supermarkets are well-stocked with a lot of beautifully-arranged goods. There you can buy practically all you need in the way of foods – groceries, meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy products,  bread and cakes, baby foods and many other things. The goods are ready packed and have clearly-marked prices on them; they are displayed on shelves, in reach-in refrigerator units or in trolleys and are always within easy reach for the customers. Many factors can explain the popularity of such shops: first of all they have an excellent assortment of goods; secondly, you have an opportunity to choose the goods you like – they are displayed openly for you to choose them; then, the service is swift there; you save a lot of your precious time if you buy everything in one shop, under one roof; and, which is also of great importance, you save your money, because large supermarket buy a lot of products on cheap, wholesale prices, and they sell them cheaper.

Let us go to one of the big food stores. It has several departments to sell various foodstuffs under one roof. There you can see the bakery department, the grocery department, the confectionery department, etc.

At the confectionery counter you can buy all sorts of sweets, chocolates, cakes, fancy cakes etc. The bakery counter is well stocked with fresh white and brown bread, rings, rolls, buns, rusts etc. After that we come to the grocery department where you buy flour, cereal, tea, spices, sugar. Everything is sold ready-packed. Vegetable oils are sold ready-bottled. There is also a big dairy counter with a good variety of dairy products: sweet or salted, fresh butter, margarine, eggs, cheese, soft (cottage) cheese, bottled and loose milk, cream, sour cream. Next to it the delicatessen and smoked meats and sausages counter. This counter sells ready-to-serve foods such as roast duck, prepared meat, etc. Here one is offered a variety of sausages, ham, bacon, rolled meat, and smoked pork. There is a special counter where they sell butcher's meat and fowl, lard and other animal fats. A special counter sells frozen and fresh fish. At the greengrocery department you can buy potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, green peas, beetroot etc. If you want some fruits you can go to the fruit counter where they sell nuts, jams, fruit juice, tinned fruit, marmalade, dry fruits, berries, grapes, tangerines, oranges, apples, pears, pineapples, peaches, bananas etc. At the smoked fish and caviar counter they keep a wide assortment of smoked fish, herring, caviar, fish delicacies and tinned fish.

If we want to buy things, we can go either to specialized shops or large department stores, for example, we buy cloth at a draper’s and ready-made clothes at a dress shop or a department store. The hatter sells men’s hats, but milliner’s sells hats for ladies. The hosiery’s sells hosiery or knitted goods like stockings, socks and underwear. Those who need paper, pens, ink, rubbers, rulers, notebooks, exercise books, glue can get them at the stationery counter. The haberdashery department has a wide assortment of various goods such as umbrellas, handkerchief combs, toothbrushes, kerchiefs, shawls, purses etc. The perfumery sells lotions, lipsticks, powders, scents, mascara, eau de cologne, shaving creams etc. At a ready-made clothes department you can buy skirts, blouses, trousers, suits, costumes, dresses, overcoats, raincoats etc. The jewellery department sells jewellery and also things of gold and silver, ornaments. The china department has a large stock of china, porcelain. The household department sells things for your home from nails to gardening-tools, and labor-saving devices for the home. At the electrical appliances department you can buy electric devices, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, electric stoves, microwave stoves etc. Nowadays we can buy a lot of things either for cash or on hire-purchase, that is the customer pays the deposit on the goods and pays off the balance in installments. Payment may be spread over the period of two years. This hire-purchase system helps people to buy such expensive things as, refrigerators, colour and black-and-white TV sets, radio sets, tape-recorders, washing machines, sewing and knitting machines, sets of furniture, and many other things.

When I was in Moscow I visited one supermarket called “Ashan”, which united the food store and department store. There you can buy anything, starting from food and finishing with modern house machinery: food, clothes, household chemical goods, ware, gardening-tools, souvenirs and so on. It was such huge, that supermarket workers used roller skaters to move around this shop and 100 girls at the cash register served customers.