Текст для чтения среднего уровня сложности.
If I have to buy something, I can go either to a market, or to a shop. Both shops and markets have their own advantages. At a market one can easily get whatever he wants without wandering from one place to another. It is very convenient and saves you a lot of time. But on the other hand, markets are dirty and one can never be sure of that the goods he’s bought are of supreme quality. That’s the reason why I prefer shops to markets, especially that recently there appeared a lot of supermarkets, where one can buy any food he needs. As for clothes, books, china, you can find them all at a department store.
When one comes to a shop, he should come up to the counter and choose whatever he wants to buy. He can also consult the shop assistant to make the right choice. Then the customer goes to the cash desk and pays for what he buys.
But apart from department stores and supermarkets there exist a lot of small shops that specialise in selling just a few kinds of goods. The grocer’s is a place where one can buy flour, sugar and food in cans. If you need some fruit or vegetables, you can get them at the greengrocer’s. Sometimes one who sells fruit is called a fruiterer, but nowadays this name sounds a bit old-fashioned. My favourite shop is the confectioner’s, because it’s the place where all kinds of sweet and tasty things are sold, such as sweets, cakes, tarts and others. A confectionery is often situated in the same building with the baker’s, where the customers are offered a great variety of bread and buns. If you need any meat, fish or poultry for your dinner, you should go to the butcher’s, fishmonger’s or poulterer’s.
Our house is situated within easy reach of shops and I know all of them because it’s me who does the shopping in our family. A boot shop, dress shop, draper’s, stationer’s and bookshop are just at a stone’s throw from our place. As for china and furniture shops, watchmaker’s and jeweller’s, we have to go there by bus. But these are the shops that we go to very seldom.
Words and expressions:
counter — прилавок
shop assistant — продавец
cash desk — касса
cashier — кассир
market — рынок
to wander — скитаться, бродить
on the one hand — с одной стороны
on the other hand — с другой стороны
supreme quality — высшее качество
to prefer shops to markets — предпочитать рынкам магазины
customer — покупатель
