Maturitní téma na angličtinu:

Shopping

and

clothing

Hana Kyselová

Shopping

Shopping is an activity that is necessary in our lives. Most people have to spend part of their day doing some kind of shopping for food or other essential items. We have a number of choices about where we go shopping. We can go to a big department store, a mall, a smaller local shop, or an outdoor market. Here are some of the more common specialty shops and what they sell there.

At a bakery you can buy bread, rolls, cookies, and cakes.

At a butcher shop you can buy meat and sausages.

At a clothing store you can buy clothes for men, women, or children.

At an electronics store you can buy TV sets and other electrical appliances.

At a florists you can buy flowers and plants.

At a garden shop you can buy grass seed, fertilizer, and garden supplies.

At a greengrocers you can buy vegetables and fruit.

At a hardware store you can buy tools, nails, and other building supplies.

At a shoe store you can buy shoes and shoe polish.

At a stationary store you can buy paper, stationery, and envelopes. 

At a sweet shop you can buy cakes, pastries, candy, and ice cream.

At toy store you can buy dolls, games, balls, and other toys.

Probably the type of store that people shop at most often is the supermarket. At a supermarket you can buy most any type of food: meat, cheese, eggs, milk, butter, bread, sugar, flour, tea, coffee, fruits, vegetables, and food preserved in jars and cans. There is much more available at a supermarket like cleaning supplies such as soap, washing powder and polishes and you can also find small household items.

Another place where people do a lot of their shopping is at a department store. A department store has different sections where you can buy almost anything: clothes for men, women, and children, household supplies, hardware, garden supplies, electronics, CD's and tapes, books, furniture, jewellery, perfume and cosmetics.

An average Czech family goes shopping almost every day to a local market for necessary food. Once a week they might do a larger shopping trip for the weekend. Foreigners visiting our country might buy a nice picture book about our country, a record or compact disc, cut glass, china and dolls in national costumes.

Nowadays it is especially a fashion shops which spreaded very quickly. It appeared many shops with the clothes from the fashion designers in comparison with a normal original mark clothes like Nike, Adidas, Reebok etc. For example Italian fashion - designers like Versace, Jannis etc. The clothes is starting to be very expensive. For example trademarks like Benetton or Boss - there you can buy common clothes three times more expensive than in other shops.

In the most of the malls and shopping centres you can buy everything from food over hardware to fashion. In these big stores you can pay by cash or by plastic money. It exists two kind of them: credit card (you have a credit limit at the bank or some other financial institution, you have to pay the money back to the bank later). There are a various types of the credit cards. It is divided by the companies, which are producing them - Access, MasterCard, Visa etc. The second kind is a debit card (you are not limited that strictly as if you have a credit card, you can spare the money which you have at the bank plus some minus values from your account - but you have to pay the money back in some time period). You can pay on the mall desk directly by the plastic money or you can withdraw the cash from the ATMs. But when you are using the plastic money, you have to pay the fees and taxes to the bank, where you have an account. So the banks is offering a supporting the plastic money very much.

In London there is a Oxford Street. It is the main shopping centre. The best-known department stores in London are Marks and Spencer, Selfridges, Harrods etc.

I prefer shopping in a department stores because nowadays I study in a high school in Liberec so I have an opportunity to shop in Hypernova or Tesco. I do not have to visit many shops when I need more things like food, notebooks, some clothes and something like that. All these things I find in this one place and I save a time witch I need to a study. Sometimes I have a hoarding spree. It happened when I am sad and frustrated. It is a kind of medicine for me. In this case I want to buy many things but I have not got enough money so I go to “second hand” shops and shops “all for 39” and find bargains.

Clothing

One of the most important factors in how people see each other is the clothes they wear. This is especially important to teenagers. Their clothes express the image they want to project. They might choose old jeans and a torn T-shirt or they might be very concerned with having the latest fashion. In my case, I prefer to dress simply. According to the temperature, I choose what to put on. Usually I like to wear a T-shirt and jeans. If it's colder outside I wear a sweater. In winter I wear a winter coat. In summer I like to wear light shorts or a light cotton dress. As for shoes I prefer sandals but in winter I wear my boots. If I go to the theatre or a ball I wear a dress and dress shoes.

There is an English proverb "The clothes make the man" even though men tend to be more conservative. They usually wear pants or trousers, shirts, and pullovers or sweaters. For more casual dress they might wear jeans and a T-shirt. At work they might wear a suit or dress pants and a shirt with a vest. On cold days they wear an anorak, a winter coat, a rain coat, gloves, and scarves. Men don't have many decorative items, maybe a tie or bow tie, a belt, or some suspenders. The tie should match the shirt as well as the suit. Lots of men prefer buying ready made clothes because they are much cheaper. Young people these days are most comfortable in jeans and a loose jacket.

Women wear a dress or a blouse and a skirt, a pair of stockings or tights and shoes. Of course they can also choose to wear pants and a casual shirt. In winter they wear a winter coat, an anorak, some gloves or mittens, and boots. Women going to a concert or the theatre might wear an evening dress. Women have many more choices about decorative items. They can wear jewellery, like a necklace, a bracelet, earrings or rings made of gold or silver. Ladies carry a handbag in which can be found a handkerchief, a mirror, a lipstick, a coin purse, keys, a driver's license or perhaps some photos.

Style, cuts, designs and the length of clothes change. Miniskirts are favourite in at one time. Soon they are replaced by loose dress or maxi-style. Fashion often reverts to older styles. Traditional natural materials such as cotton, wool, linen or silk. Favourite material is denim. Design can be plain or patterned.

In summer we wear light summer dresses, loose blouses, skirts, shorts and T-shirts. On our feet we pull on sandals. In winter we need to wear something warm - jeans, cardigans, sweaters, anoraks and boots. On special occasions we like to be dressed properly too. When we go to a concert or to the theatre we are dressed up. During the day in a work we wear an evening dress, such as shirt, trousers, tie and dress. For sports we put on sports wear, such as jeans, shorts, T-shirts. At home we like to feel comfortable, and so we prefer leisure wear, such as trousers, T-shirts. Special kinds of clothes are uniforms and costumes. Uniforms are worn particularly by professionals such as the police, the armed forces or health workers.

Some people do not choose their dress with regard to the latest fashion. The most important thing is that such dresses are neat and clean. I like wearing leisure wear, such as jeans, trousers, T-shirt or shirt. I do not like wearing skirts. I wear clothes according to moods so that feel comfortable.

I think today exists one stereotype of clothing. Young people who have rich parents and a high pocket money buy in shops like Terranova, New Yorker and other expensive shops and wear still same clothes. I do not like this because It seems all these people are the same and they dress only according to a fashion and they detest cheap clothes.

Shopping in our country and Great Britain

Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic there are more possibilities for private shops and duties after revolution in 1989, shops are not only Czech, but also foreigner companies discovered our market for their business, we can meet with many foreigner shops (Makro, Bauhaus, Kaufland, Salamander...), our businessmen have to count with a big competition from abroad. It could be good for customers, because the shopkeepers must keep the prices low, we can buy cloth in the boutiques, but there are all kinds of cloth very expensive, because those are originals.

Great Britain

There are big supermarkets out of the city. People do big shopping and pay with credit cards not in cash. Tesco is supermarket for not very rich people, the goods is not arranged very well and lower prices are there. Opposite this there is Harold's. It is shop for very rich people, you don't see prizes, staff is very polite and dressed in special costumes. It has got long tradition, you have to be well dressed to get in. Next favourite shop in Great Britain is Marks & Spencer. It is a clothes shop, not very expensive for English. There is also Body shop - very expensive small shop with cosmetics, natural products (not tasted on animals), nothing artificial. In Boots you can find chemist's, cosmetic, detergents, in the USA also some refreshment. Very popular shop in Great Britain is One pound shop, but goods have a bad quality.

Shopping

market place (subst.) - tržnice
stall (subst.) - stánek
flea market (subst.) - blešák
cash and carry (subst.) - zaplatit a odnést
shopkeeper (subst.) - majitel obchodu
shopper (subst.) - nakupující
consumer (subst.) - spotřebitel
consumer goods (subst.) - spotřební zboží
cashier (subst.) - pokladní
trolley (subst.) - vozík
wire basket (subst.) - košík
shelf (subst.) - regál
counter (subst.) - pult
deep freeze locker (subst.) - mrazící box
fixed (adj.) - pevný
fluctuating (adj.) - pohybující se (o ceně)
moderate (adj.) - umírněný
trade (subst.) - obchod
to buy in bulk (verb) - nakupovat ve velkém
bargain (subst.) - výhodná koupě
get a discount (verb) - dostatr slevu
reduced price (subst.) - sleva
cut-price goods (subst.) - slevněné zboží
closing-down sale (subst.) - sleva (výprodej
in instalments (subst.) - na splátky
to leave a deposit (verb) - nechat zálohu
purse (subst.) - peněženka
wallet (subst.) - náprsní taška
banknote (subst.) - bankovka
change (subst.) - drobné nazpět
rip sb off (verb) - natáhnout
butcher's (subst.) - řeznictví
veal (subst.) - telecí
smoked meat (subst.) - uzené
minced meat (subst.) - sekaná
kidneys (subst.) - ledviny
fishmonger's (subst.) - prodejna ryb
carp (subst.) - kapr
trout (subst.) - pstruh
pike (subst.) - štika
cod (subst.) - treska
poultry (subst.) - drůbež
goase (subst.) - husa
baker's (subst.) - pekárna
roll (subst.) - rohlík
bun (subst.) - houska
doughnut (subst.) - kobliha
cake (subst.) - zákusek
wet fish (subst.) - živé ryby
greengrocer's (subst.) - zelenina
healthfood (subst.) - zdravá výživa
sweet shop (subst.) - cukrárna
haberdasher's (subst.) - galanterie
optician's (subst.) - optika
drugstore (subst.) - drogerie
florist's (subst.) - květinářství
stationer's (subst.) - parírnictví
electrical appliancies (subst.) - spotřební elektronika
ironmonger's (subst.) - železářství
D.I.Y. do it yourself (subst.) - obchod pro domácí kutily
toyshop (subst.) - hračky
giftshop (subst.) - dárkový obchod
antigues (subst.) - starožitnosti
glassware (subst.) - sklo
china shop (subst.) - porcelán
leather goods (subst.) - opravna obuvi
heel bar (subst.) - výroba klíčů

Clothing

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