XLV. Choose one topic and write a small composition.

1. Write a short story about an ideal holiday / weekend / spare evening / camping holiday.

2. Student’s summer in town. How we survived.

3. It was really a very romantic evening…

4. It was a disaster / a real joy to go to that museum!     

 'Shopping'

Buying foodstuff

I. Read the text. Make sure you know the words and word combinations printed in bold. Look them up in the dictionary if there is any need.

It's a very exciting topic for most women and it's very boring for the greater part of men. Now we can buy practically everything when you have one thing – money. But when you have no money you can simply go to shop around or look at the shop-windows. There are a lot of shops in our city. When we need some foodstuff we can go to a supermarket or to a food store.  Now we have huge shopping centres that include a food store and a department store with many departments. But I prefer to go to small shops – the bakery, the dairy, the greengrocery. I can buy fish at the fishmonger's, meat at the butcher's and salt, vinegar, sugar and flour at the grocery. And of course when I want some cakes or fresh-baked pies I go to the confectionery. In such shops sales-assistants are usually very friendly towards customers. They know you and your wishes; they can advise you something new. You can have a chat with them about your weak hearts and broken hopes. Everybody knows that a visit to a good shop is worth two visits to a good doctor.

Sometimes when you look at displays you are at a loss – you can't decide what to choose and what to buy. All those tins, transparent wrappings, bottles, packets, cartons, see-through trays with food, jars, tubs, drums, and boxes with bright labels attract your attention and make you spend more money than you have planned at home.

Supermarkets are much the same the world over – especially the queues. When you come to a shop first of all you take out your shopping list, have a look at prices offoodstuff on the racks, think if you can afford all you want and only then you begin to load your trolley or shopping / wire basket. After that you go with all your purchases to a check-out point. There a cashier runs her pen over the barcodes of the foodstuff, adds up prices and totals up. Usually you pay in cash but now some people write out a cheque. You give her money and she gives you a check and your change.

II. Answer the following questions.

1. What emotions arouse a trip to shops? 2. What can you do if you have no money? 3. What kind of a shop is a shopping centre? 4. At what shops can you buy fish, meat, vegetables, cakes, flour, and milk? 5. Why do many people prefer to go to small shops but not to a supermarket? 6. What does everybody knows (except some men)? 7. Why are you sometimes at a loss? 8. What do customers do before they begin to load their trolleys or shopping-baskets? 9. What does a cashier do when you come up to the cashier desk? 10. Do people pay in cash or write out a cheque?

 

III. Here is a shopping list. Say what shops can you buy these things?

a loaf of brown bread a loaf of long French bread 1 large cod 1 kg of pork 3 lemons 0,3 kg of ham biscuits a family-size pack of yoghurt a 1 litre packet of milk

1 small cabbage a tin of condensed milk a bunch of radishes a drum of margarine 0,5 kg of cheese a 2 kg bag of flour a packet of frozen cauliflower two bottles of mineral water a jar of honey

a bottle of vinegar 2 medium-size herrings a tin of sardines in oil 2 kg of potatoes a large chicken a 0,5 kg pack of sour cream 0,2 kg of butter a packet of orange juice a box of chocolate

 

IV. Think and say what else can be sold in cartons, bunches, etc.

a packet of – 1.                 2.                 3.	a tin of – 1.           2.           3.	a drum of – 1.                2.                3.
a jar of – 1.            2.            3.	a box of – 1.             2.             3.	a bunch of – 1.                2.                3.
a bottle of –1.               2.               3.	a carton of – 1.                2.                3.

V. Match the phrases in the left column with the words in the right column.

1. a bottle of 2. a drum of 3. a cake of 4. a packet of 5.a carton of 6. a jar of

7. a tin of 8. a tube of 9. a bunch of 10. a box of 11. a tub of

a. jam b. parsley c. toothpaste d. cleanser e. juice f. chocolate

g. eggs h. honey i. sugar j. soap k. luncheon meat

 

VI. What do we buy A) by kilos, B) by quantity, C) by tens in Russia?

Fish, carrots, cabbage, kiwi, meat, eggs, pineapples, sausage, rye bread, oranges, tinned fish, chocolate, garlic, turkey, bananas, lettuce.

VII. Look through the list of products and say which of them are sold A) in quantity, B) in dozens, C) in lb* in Great Britain.

*lb – abbreviation from the Latin word "libra" – " фунт ", in speech it is pronounced "pound".

   F.e. – 3lb – three pounds

Cheese, lemons, grapes, white bread, ham, mangoes, eggs, potatoes, chickens, oysters.

 

VIII. Say which products are priced A) per kilo, B) per each.

Onions, tomatoes, pineapples, kiwi, long French bread, tinned meat, cabbages, mangoes, buns, chops, apples, cucumbers, yoghurt. 

 

IX. Exclude (исключите) from the lists below products which cannot be sold as it mentioned.  

pre-prepared*	frozen	dried	tinned
garlic steaks fish fillet potatoes tomatoes	cherries onions turkey bread spaghetti	banana fish meat ham plums	flour pork peaches lettuce tuna	pre-prepared* - полуфабрикаты prepackaged / prepacked - расфасованные

 

X. What are the measures of weight and volume in Russia, Great Britain and the USA? Do you know them?*

Russia	Great Britain and the USA
1 kg =1000 g = 2,2046 lb.	1 ounce (oz) ['auns] = 28,35 g 1lb. = 16 oz = 0,4536 kg 1 stone = 14 lb. = 6.35 kg
1 litre = 1000 millilitres = 1dm3 = 0.2200 Imp gal = 0,2642 US gal	1 gallon Imperial = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 4.546 litres 1 gallon US = 0.833 British gallon = 3.785 litres 1 quart British Imperial = 2 pints = 1.14 litre 1 quart US = 0.833 British quart = 0.946 litre 1 pint British = 0.57 litre 1 pint US = 1/8 US gallon = 0.47 litre

 

XI. What do you know about money in Great Britain and the USA? Do you know them?*

British: 1 pound of the UK has 100 pennies. There are coins (монеты) of 1 penny, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence and 50 pence. There are banknotes of 1 pound (£1), 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 20 pounds and 50 pounds.

They have their nicknames:

£1 - quid;  £20 – pony;

£5 – fiver;  £100 – ton;

£10 – tenner;   £1000 - grand

American: 1 dollar has 100 cents. There are coins of 1 cent (a penny), 5 cents (a nickel), 10 cents (a dime), 25 cents (a quarter), 50 cents (half dollar) /In brackets their nicknames are given/

 

XII. Read these dialogues and act them.