Самостоятельная работа по чтению.

1. Прочитайте текст и сделайте по нему задание True, False, Not stated

Supermarkets

It is believed that the idea of supermarkets first belonged to an American businessman who opened a self-service grocery store in 1916. The main advantage of the new American store was that the goods were stocked on the shelves, so the customers could take their own goods and bring them to the front of the store to pay for them. Although there was a high risk of stealing, the owner found the new shop's organisation more effective because it allowed him to reduce the number of shop assistants. Later the new shop organisation spread widely throughout European countries.

Nowadays supermarkets are as British as football and cricket. In the UK 90% of all food is bought at five different supermarket chains. That makes these companies extremely powerful, especially when they deal with small businesses, for example farmers. Milk is a good example. Supermarkets like to use things such as milk and bread, which are at the top of almost everyone's shopping list, to attract customers. To offer the lowest price the supermarkets need to buy milk from dairy farmers very cheaply, so big supermarket chains agree on a very low price and dictate it to farmers. If the farmers don't agree to that price, supermarkets start to look for the cheapest possible products abroad instead.

The consumers are of course happy to get cheaper products, but they should also keep in mind the influence supermarkets have on the environment. First of all there's packaging. Supermarkets like all the products to be packed because it makes it easier to put them neatly on the shelves. Consequently, supermarkets produce nearly 10 million tons of waste packaging in the UK every year, less than 5% of which is recycled. Some supermarkets put large recycling bins in their car parks, trying to create the image that they are environmentally friendly. However, that is just an image.

To reach the supermarket shelves the products often have to travel half the globe. Due to preservatives even milk products can stay unspoiled for months. It's a great advantage for the supermarket as yoghurt bought from a farmer can't be kept for longer than 2 days. That is why many small farmers do not even get a chance to compete with long-lasting imported goods.

When a new supermarket is planned, everyone says that a lot of new jobs will be created. In reality the number of jobs lost in the area is greater than the number of new positions in the supermarket. Within a 15km radius of every new supermarket that opens the number of people working in the food business goes down. It happens because all the small shops nearby are forced to close.

1. The first supermarkets appeared in the USA.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

2. Most British people buy their food in supermarkets.

1) True

2) False 3) Not stated

3. Supermarkets offer local farmers good prices for their products.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

4. People prefer to buy food in bright packages.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

5. All the waste packaging of supermarkets is recycled.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

6. Supermarket managers change the price of the products every month.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

7. Supermarkets prefer fresh products from local farmers to imported goods.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

8. New supermarkets reduce the number of jobs in the local food industry.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

2. Прочитайте тексты и установите соответствие между текстами А–G и заголовками 1–8. В ответ запишите цифры, в порядке, соответствующем буквам. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок.

1. Traditional delivery

2. Loss of popularity

3. Money above privacy

4. The best-known newspapers

5. Focus on different readers

6. The successful competitor

7. Size makes a difference

8. Weekend reading

A. As in many other European countries, Britain’s main newspapers are losing their readers. Fewer and fewer people are buying broadsheets and tabloids at the newsagent’s. In the last quarter of the twentieth century people became richer and now they can choose other forms of leisure activity. Also, there is the Internet which is a convenient and inexpensive alternative source of news.

B. The ‘Sunday papers’ are so called because that is the only day on which they are published. Sunday papers are usually thicker than the dailies and many of them have six or more sections. Some of them are ‘sisters’ of the daily newspapers. It means they are published by the same company but not on week days.

C. Another proof of the importance of ‘the papers’ is the morning ‘paper round’. Most newsagents organise these. It has become common that more than half of the country’s readers get their morning paper brought to their door by a teenager. The boy or girl usually gets up at around 5:30 a.m. every day including Sunday to earn a bit of pocket money.

D. The quality papers or broadsheets are for the better educated readers. They devote much space to politics and other ‘serious’ news. The popular papers, or tabloids, sell to a much larger readership. They contain less text and a lot more pictures. They use bigger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. They concentrate on ‘human interest stories’ which often means scandal.

E. Not so long ago in Britain if you saw someone reading a newspaper you could tell what kind it was without even checking the name. It was because the quality papers were printed on very large pages called ‘broadsheet’. You had to have expert turning skills to be able to read more than one page. The tabloids were printed on much smaller pages which were much easier to turn.

F. The desire to attract more readers has meant that in the twentieth century sometimes even the broadsheets in Britain look rather ‘popular’. They give a lot of coverage to scandal and details of people’s private lives. The reason is simple. What matters most for all newspaper publishers is making a profit. They would do anything to sell more copies.

G. If you go into any newsagent’s shop in Britain you will not find only newspapers. You will also see rows and rows of magazines for almost every imaginable taste. There are specialist magazines for many popular pastimes. There are around 3,000 of them published in the country and they are widely read, especially by women. Magazines usually list all the TV and radio programmes for the coming week and many British readers prefer them to newspapers.

1. Составьте 3 вопроса к тексту №1.