Lifestyle in Britain. Дворжец О.С. - 84 стр.

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A shop by itself in a resi-   On tins and packets of food in           The best known supermarket
dential area is often re-     British shops the weight of an           chains are Sainsbury and
ferred to as ‘the corner      item is written in the kilos and         Tesco, although there are
shop’. These sometimes        grams familiar to people from            others. Asda is the best
sell various kinds of food,   continental Europe. However,             known of many discount
but they are not always       most British people have little          stores.
general grocers. Usually      idea of what these terms mean.           There are several department
their main business is in     Therefore, many of their packets         stores with a large number of
newspapers, magazines,        and tins also record their weight        branches e.g. Debenhams and
sweets and tobacco prod-      in pounds (written as lb). More-         BHS, which are all over the
ucts. It is from these that   over, for all fresh food items, such     country. Marks & Spencer is
most ‘paper rounds’ are       as meat, cheese, fruit and vegeta-       one of the most famous ones.
organized. Only in corner     bles, the price is listed only in this   It is so well-known that it is
shops do shopkeepers          latter way. Nevertheless people          often referred to as ‘Marks &
know their customers per-     sometimes ask for a kilo of apples       Sparks’ or just ‘M & S’. To
sonally. Only in them is      or 200 grams of cheese. Because          the British, clothes at M & S
the interaction across the    of European regulations, super-          are typical of the middle
counter often social as       markets have to price produce in         range: they are neither cheap
well as transactional. Peo-   kg. You can ask for either kg or lb      nor expensive, fairly good
ple working in other shops    in a shop. If those were the             quality and rather conserva-
are often very helpful, but   amounts you wanted, you would            tive. Unlike most other de-
the conversation usually      have to ask for ‘two pounds or so’       partment stores, M & S also
has some clear purpose.       of apples and ‘half a pound or           has a ‘food hall’, where items
In the last quarter of the    less’ of cheese and you would be         are more expensive than they
twentieth century, many       about right.                             are in supermarkets.
corner shops have been        Shoe and clothing sizes are also         In a category all by itself is
taken over by people from     measured on different scales in          Woolworth’s, which used to
southern Asia who have        Britain. The people who work in          have a branch in almost every
delighted the neighbour-      shops which sell these things usu-       high street in the country. It
hood by staying open very     ally know about continental and          sells mostly sweets, music,
long hours.                   American sizes too, but most Brit-       toys and children’s clothes of
                              ish people don’t.                        the cheaper kind.


3.2 Which questions does your profile answer?
     ƒ What is ‘the corner shop’?
     ƒ What can you buy in corner shops?
     ƒ Do shopkeepers know their customers?
     ƒ Who are the owners of shops in Britain?
     ƒ In what way do many packets and tins record their weight?
     ƒ What scale is used for measuring shoe and clothing sizes?
     ƒ What is the best-known discount store?
     ƒ Can you name the only department stores with a large number of branches?
     ƒ What is Woolworth’s known for?
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