17 SHOPPING AND SHOPS

Going shopping is a part of our everyday life. For some people it's a pleasant time while for others it's an everyday routine. Some people like doing shopping and they are happy if they can pick up a bargain in the sales. But whether you like shopping or not you have to do it because it's a necessity. (whether = if)

I'd like to say that at present shopping has become more exciting than it used to be several decades ago(decade=desetiletí). Today people do a lot of shopping or at least window-shopping every day, because all necessary goods are provided for them (provide=zajištěné), goods=zboží). In large cities and even in small towns there are all kinds of shops and stores as well as supermarkets.

Supermarkets are big self-service food shops (and not only food nowadays) where one can buy a lot of goods cheaper than at local grocer's. When people go to supermarkets or other large food stores they are often looking for bargains (bargain = výhodná koupě). By the way these shops are brightly lit and usually well laid out; pleasant music is always playing while you are walking along the shop. The goods are tidily arranged on trays and long endless shelves on which various prices are clearly marked. The shelves are well stocked with a wide selection of attractively packed goods. Everything from quick-frozen food to washing powder, from shoe-polish to new-laid eggs, from tinned fish to tooth paste can be bought there. All these things are displayed in such a way that people are often tempted to purchase things they don't need (to be tempted = být v pokušení). It's a so called marketing trick; that's why it's better to make shopping list before going to a shop. With shopping list you can avoid several costly mistakes. After a person has found everything he needs he takes his trolley and goes to the cash desk where a casher reckons up bills on a cash register. There are often long queues there especially on Friday afternoons.

If you are going to buy some clothes, electrical appliances, souvenirs and so on, the best place to visit is a department store. A department store is a store which sells many different kinds of goods, each in a separate department. Modern department stores serve the needs of the entire family. Usually people enjoy buying goods in such shops as they can make all their purchases under one roof. A typical department store occupies a large building with separate departments, located on a number of floors. Some departments provide special services among them there can be a travel agency or a chemist's for example. These stores started in America more than 50 years ago, and then the idea was brought to European countries. And today we can hardly imagine our life without these stores; people really enjoy shopping there.

Besides supermarkets and department stores every sizeable town has a market where local people sell spare potatoes and carrots from their gardens or farms. One can find dried fruit, cheese, nuts, honey, cereals and other food in the markets as well. Markets are nice places to visit even if you don't need to buy anything; go there early in the morning.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money you can watch newspaper sales ads or you may go to different sales.

Certainly some people dislike shopping and do their orders by the phone or order goods on the Internet (it's becoming more and more popular). Today you can buy everything on the Internet starting with books and finishing with clothes, but it's really not easy to find a store with the best prices and more convenient delivery hours because today there are so many stores and companies on the Internet. When you make a request they send you a courier or if you order a present for instance for you friend they can deliver it directly to his or her house. Another reason why people prefer to use the Internet today to buy this or that thing is that it's time-saving, because at present we want to save as much time as possible. In addition (navíc) usually it's cheaper to buy things on the Internet, you won't face long waiting lines in each register, endless queues and deal with intrusive shop assistants. For all these reasons shopping on the Internet is a great relief for many people.

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Your experience.

Where do you go shopping?

What do you usually buy?

How often do you go shopping?

Do you do window shopping?

Do you like shopping centres?

What do you prefer and why - supermarkets/local shops?

If I need to buy some clothes and shoes I prefer to do it with .......................... And the worst shopping experience I had when I went shopping with ...................................

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Do you agree with these statements?

It's a well known fact that women are not very quick shoppers while men usually are.

Women on the other hand seem less decisive (rozhodné) when shopping; they enjoy spending hours walking around the shopping mall.

21 MASS MEDIA

In today's time MASS MEDIA have a great importance. All people around the world are curious and want to be informed about the world's events (event - událost). That's the reason why they read newspapers, listen to the radio or watch television.

I'm going to begin my speech with the oldest one of them and that is the press. (press - tisk/noviny/časopisy..)

Press is the oldest way of distributing information. First newspaper appeared in the 17th century. Nowadays we buy newspapers, magazines, brochures (broušrs - brožura/reklamní prospekt) and other kinds of press. Newspapers, which are issued (išjůd - vydávány) daily, are the most common, then magazines that are printed weekly, monthly or in another period. The Daily newspapers can be divided into two large groups. The first are the broadsheets (the quality press) and the second are the tabloids (popular press). The broadsheets are newspapers, in which there is only serious information. These newspapers are mainly old, some with more than a hundred-year tradition. They contain political, industrial and cultural news and there are also pages with finance matters and international news. As the most important Czech daily broadsheets I would mention Mladá fronta Dnes that I read and The Times from the world I would like to read.

The tabloids are newer than the broadsheets - the most popular is Blesk. They are printed on smaller papers and they use colours. They contain sensational stories about famous people, violent crimes and other topics that attract people. You can't find much information in there but there are lots of pictures!!

Now I would like to mention some information about the radio.

Radio was invented at the beginning of 19th century and it is another means of communication. It gives us a lot of information from the world and local recent events and also music. There are a lot of radio stations in the Czech Republic; we can divide them into two groups - state and private. One of state stations is Radiožurnál it is mostly a reporting station. Other stations broadcast for example classical music, or programmes specially prepared for a certain group of people. But radio broadcasting includes many private stations that produce short news every hour and then they are focused on some sorts of music like pop, rock and so on. The most famous are Evropa 2, Vltava or Rubi.

The last kind of mass media is television.

It is probably the most common kind of media. There are a lot of people who cannot imagine their lives without television (lives - životy). In the Czech Republic there are not as many television stations as in other countries. As you know we have four main channels. Two of them are state - ČT1 and ČT2. Prima and Nova are private commercial television channels. Their main income is from advertisements. So there are really a lot of them between the programmes or during the films. You can also watch some series, soap operas, and main news in the evening. But sometimes they broadcast very interesting films usually from Hollywood production. The other kind of TV station is the state one. These channels are financed from a charge, which everybody has to pay. (Even these who don't own a TV set.) State TVs broadcast more documentary and educational programmes than the private ones. Especially ČT2. You can also watch some music programmes and sport transmissions there.

As the science is moving on there are many new ways of communication for example the Internet.

It is an international network of computers. You can get information from the whole world just sitting at home in front of your PC. You can contact anyone, send emails, chat with your friends or just surf the Net.