Ex.7 Read the text and say what new you have learned about the postal industry in Belarus.

Topical Vocabulary

How much is a letter to ... ? What's the weight limit? I'd like to have a return receipt.

Types of mail

Postal services

delivery of letters / parcels

selling of postage stamps

payment of weekly pensions / license

wrapping and packing service

public / fax / E-mail / telephone service

Postal windows

Text 1

Ex.1 Read the text and tell the class about your last visit to the post-office. You wanted to pay rental services / to send a greeting telegram / some books / a parcel by post.

At the Post-office

The Post-office is a great service industry in Britain and one of the biggest employers in Europe. It employs about one in sixty of all workers in this country (17,000 staff). It's made up for four large businesses, Posts, Telecommunications, Giro, and Data Processing Services.

The post-office gives the services which customers require. Its main task is to deliver mail: newspapers, magazines, telegrams, parcels. Here you can also buy envelopes, stamps, postcards, pay communal services. At a post-office you can have some services similar to those available in banks known as the "National Savings Bank".

You can find post-office in every town and city, but there are numerous sub post-offices in suburbs and in smaller places. Sub post-offices are smaller and are often part of a general store, but they offer all the usual services.

Now let us pay a visit to a local post-office. There are many of windows with a notice in big letters showing the operation handled. The first one is marked "Parcel Post", the next one is "Money Orders". Then there's one marked "Post Restante" (Am. – "General Delivery"). Going down the line you will see: "Stamps", "Post Cards", "Stamped Envelopes", "Registered Letters", "Air Mail". In some conspicuous places you will find a board with the postal rates. This will give you information about how many stamps are needed for inland and foreign letters, that is how much postage must be paid on those letters. Then somewhere near the entrance you will see a notice giving the hours of delivery. The windows marked "Parcel Post" handles all parcels or packages. Don't forget to insure your parcel if you've got something really valuable in it. This cost to buy a trifle, but makes delivery double sure. The larger post-office even maintains a wrapping and packing service.

If you want to send printed matter (newspapers, magazines, books) you'll have to go to the window marked "Book Post".

The "Post Restante" window keeps mail until it is called for. The post-office maintains this service for those who prefer to pick up their mail in person.

If you are in a hurry to post a letter and have no stamps at the moment, that does not keep you from sending it. Just mark it "Collect and the addressee pays the postage due".

When sending a letter of particular value you should have it registered (with or without declared value). The advantage of this service is that registered letters are not left with the ordinary mail in the letter box, delivered personally (the addressee has to sign them). The sender is given a receipt at the post-office so he can always trace a letter. Of course, there will be a special charge.

The "Money Orders" window needs almost no explanation. You may send money orders by mail or by telegram and whatever you do, don't lose the receipt.

Ex.2 Read these dialogues between a postal clerk and a customer.

1 – How much is postage for a picture postcard?

– Are you sending it in the United States?

– Yes, I am.

– It's fifteen cents.

2 – How much is postage to Europe?

– First class is forty-five cents a half ounce. We also have aerograms.

– No, I don't want aerograms. Here are my letters. I want to send them airmail.

3 – I want to send a letter to my aunt in Miami, Florida. What's the ZIP code?

– Don't know. Here's the directory.

– Thank you. Here it is. The ZIP code is 33143.

4 – I want to send a money order to my cousin in Mexico.

– What's his name?

– It's Luise Gonzalez.

– How much do you want to send?

– Two hundred dollars.

– OK, there's a fee of a dollar ten. It's $201.10.

– Fine. Here's the cash.

– Thank you. Sign here, please.

5 – Could you tell me how much this parcel to Germany is?

– I'll have to check/look up/make sure. Is there anything else?

– Yes. Half a dozen air mail labels and a roll of twenty-five cent stamps. I mayalso need a large registered envelope soon.

– That'll be 8.95 in all.

– Thank you. Here it's. Could you give me a 2 p. piece in the change? I want to make a phone call.

Ex.3 Act as a postal clerk and a customer. The customer wants to:

1. to send a money order to a friend in Brest. 2. to send this package book rate. How much is it? 3. to mail a letter to Frankfurt, Germany. How can he/she know the ZIP code there? 4. to send a letter by registered mail. 5. to mail a picture postcard to Europe. How much is the postage?

Ex.4 Recommend an Englishman where it's better to go if he needs some postal services in Minsk and how to make arrangements with the local post-office to have his mail forwarded.

Ex.5 Practise short conversations based on the following statements.

1 Stamps teach history and geography, art and technology.

2 Writing letters is a real art.

3 All means of communication through letter writing seem to be most reliable.

Ex.6 Read the text and compare different ways mail is delivered in Great Britain with those in our country. Then rate different classes of mail and types of letters according to the degree of reliability.

The post-office in Great Britain has different classes of mail. First class is for letters, personal mail, and packages. First class mail is a fast mail. Second class is for magazines. Third class is for advertisements, calendars, and other printed matter. Third class is for light packages, too. There is another class for books. Book rate is slow, but it's not expensive.

The post-office sends different types of letters. There are certified, registered, and special-delivery letters. The post-office sends a certified letter with regular mail. You receive proof of sending the letter. Registered mail is for valuable letters. The post-office insures delivery of letters. Special-delivery mail arrives quickly. The post-office delivers special-delivery letters before other mail.

Ex.7 Read the text and say what new you have learned about the postal industry in Belarus.

Post service in Minsk got its development after the treaty of 1667 between Russia and Poland. The Vilensk post was erected on the Moscow – Mozhaisk – Smolensk – Mogilev – Vilno route. Later in the first half of the 19^th century there emerged a passenger coach mail from Petersburg to Kiev and to the Radzivil's estate.

The first post-office in Minsk was founded in a brick four-storeyed building in Gubernatorskaya street (now Lenin street) where a sport store is situated nowa­days. The first mail boxes were enstalled in the most densely populated areas at Troitskaya Gora, at Krasnaya Gorka and another box was enstalled at the entrance of the post-office.

Being admitted to the service postmen had to give an oath or a written promise that they wouldn't participate in strikes. The women were admitted to the post-telegraph service in 1864 on condition they would never get married. In addition they were supposed to have secondary education and were obliged to know not less than two foreign languages (another demand was that they could speak not less than two foreign languages).