Post service

Post communication or mail is a kind of communication which carries our regular transfer of items of mail – the written correspondence, periodicals, remittances, parcel posts.

In the post office there is a number of windows with a sign showing the operations handled. You can buy here all kinds of stamps, post cards, and envelops.

There are post offices in every town and nearly every village in the country. If you want to post an ordinary letter or a post card, you need not go to the post office; you can drop it into the nearest pillar-box. Pillar-boxes are emptied twice a day. If you want to send a telegram, you can either take it to the nearest post-office or dictate it over the telephone.

When sending a letter of special value, you should have it registered. Registered letters are not left with the ordinary mail in the letter-box, but delivered personally. The sender is given a receipt at the post office, so he can always trace the letter. Of course, there is a special charge for this service.

At the post-office we can send all kinds of telegrams: photo-telegrams, express-telegrams, ordinary and urgent telegrams. You can subscribe to different newspapers and magazines at the window «Printed matter». At the post office, there are also P.O. boxes. P.O. box means a post office box, it is a numbered box to which someone’s mail can be sent.

The «Post Restate» window keeps mail until called for. The post-office maintains this service for those who prefer to pick up the mail in person.

The window marked «Parcel Post» handles all parcels or packages. The amount you have to pay depends on the weight of the parcel. You must not forget to insure your parcel if you have got something valuable in it. The larger post offices maintain a wrapping and packing services.

At the «Money Order» window we can send the money. If a remittance is received to our name we can get the money there. We are given a printed form to fill in. The clerk asks for our passport, checks it up with the filled printed form, returns the passport and hands us the money.

At some post-offices there is a special window where you may pay bills for your telephone, gas and electricity.

Today, besides the ordinary post service we have the express mail delivery services, such as DHL, FedEx. These services can deliver your letter or parcel during 1-3 days to any part of the world. Of course such kind of service is more expensive than ordinary post service.

And finally, with the development of new technologies a new type of mail «e-mail» has appeared. Nowadays people use it wider for personal and professional use than any other kind of service.

Exercises

Задание 1. Ответьте на вопросы по содержанию текста.

1. What kinds of service does the post communication carry out?

2. Do you need to go to the post-office, if you want to send a letter?

3. What can you buy at the post-office?

4. What are the windows at the post-office?

5. What is the difference between the ordinary letter and registered letter?

6. How can you get the remittance?

7. What is a P.O. box?

8. Where may you pay your telephone, gas and electricity bills?

9. What do you know about the «e-mail»?

Задание 2. Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык:

1. Отправляя письмо, не забудьте наклеить на конверт марку, иначе письмо не дойдет до адресата.

2. За границу удобнее всего посылать письмо авиапочтой.

3. Подписка на газеты и журналы производится на любом почтовом отделении.

1. Выемка почты из уличных почтовых ящиков производится несколько раз в день.

2. Пожалуйста, дайте мне бланк телеграммы.

4. Я надеюсь, что телеграмма прибудет вовремя.

5. Почтовые расходы зависят от веса посылки и от расстояния, на которое она посылается.

6. Запишите, пожалуйста, почтовый индекс.

7. Мне нужны авиамарки для отправки письма в Европу.

8. Вы хотите отправить их бандеролью или посылкой?