2.6. Shopping

1. Do you like to go shopping? What are your favourite shops?

2. How often do you do the shopping?

3. What do you usually have to buy?

4. Do you prefer going shopping alone or in a company? Why?

5. Who usually does shopping in your family?

6. Do you remember your first purchase? What did you buy?

7. What is the best time for shopping: morning, afternoon, evening; a weekday or a weekend?

8. How do supermarkets operate?

9. Have you ever had any bad experience while shopping? What happened?

10. Do you prefer to do the shopping in a street market or at a department store? Give reasons.

11. What kind of purchase would you call a bargain and what are the best places to look for bargains?

12. What do you think about the service in most of the Russian shops? Has it become better over the past few years?

13. When does a shopper have a right to complain?

14. What shopper would you call careless? What about you? Do you spend or waste money?

15. Do you agree that for some people shopping is a good way to overcome stress?

2.7. Money. Banks

1. What currencies do you know?

2. What do we mean by ‘pocket money’?

3. When did you start to get pocket money from your parents?

4. Do you spend money or waste it?

5. How much money do you spend a month?

6. What do you usually buy?

7. Have you got a bank account? If yes, what kind of account is it?

8. What services do banks offer?

9. What do you know about the history of money?

10. What is the best way to save up money?

11. Do you think it is right to give children money? If yes, up to what age? If no, why?

12. Comment on the saying: Money doesn’t buy happiness.

13. Do you agree that money is the root of all evil?

14. What would you do if you won a big prize in a lottery?

15. What is gambling?

2.8. Post. Telephone

1. How do you prefer to communicate with people: to write letters or to speak on the phone?

2. How often to you go to the post office and what for?

3. How much does a telephone call with your parents cost?

4. What is the correct way of reading telephone numbers in English? What is your phone number?

5. When did you get your first telephone?

6. Where do people have and use telephones nowadays?

7. How should you begin the telephone conversation?

8. What do you do if you don’t know the number?

9. What number do you dial in case of emergency in the UK, in the USA, in your country?

10. What is a transferred charge call?

11. If you need to send urgent information what means of communication do you choose?

12. What is the typical order of writing addresses when writing a letter abroad?

13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a telephone?

14. Name and compare different ways of sending mails?

15. Is it difficult for you to speak to the answer machines? Why?

2.9. Travelling

1. Why do people travel?

2. Which means of transport do you know and prefer?

3. Which means of transport is reliable / cheap / safe / dangerous?

4. What do you usually take with you when you travel?

5. What should a person do before a trip?

6. What traveling experience have you had? What cities and countries have you visited?

7. What were your best impressions?

8. Which means of transport is the most popular in our country? Give reasons.

9. Why do millions of people like to spend their holidays traveling?

10. How do you usually spend holidays?

11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling by car?

12. How do you think a person should behave during the journey?

13. What are the main problems of the public transport system in our country and abroad?

14. What would you do you found yourself in trouble in a foreign country?

15. Some people would like to travel all their life. What about you?

2.10. The UK

1. What is the official name of the political union of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland?

2. Where is it situated?

3. Which countries is the UK made of?

4. Which is the largest and the richest country?

5. What is the population of the country?

6. What big cities do you know? Which is the capital city?

7. What rivers, lakes and mountains do you know?

8. What kind of state is the UK?

9. What is the political role of the monarch?

10. Who does the real power belong to?

11. What is the role of the Parliament?

12. What is peculiar of the UK constitution?

13. How can you characterize the climate of the country?

14. Why do you think most British are so fond of the Royal family?

15. Do you agree that nowadays the knowledge of English is absolutely necessary for all people?

2.11. The USA

1. Where is the USA situated?

2. How many states make up the country?

3. What big cities do you know? Which is the capital city?

4. Which cities and states would you like to visit? What would you like to see?

5. What rivers, lakes and mountains do you know?

6. Who is currently the president of the country?

7. What is the nickname of the USA flag?

8. Why are there 13 stripes and 50 stars?

9. What kind of state is the USA?

10. What is the role of the president?

11. How often is the president elected?

12. What is the role of the Congress?

13. How can you characterize the climate of the country?

14. What do you know about the economy of the USA?

15. What should a person remember when visiting the USA?

2.12. Sports. Healthy way of life

1. What sports and games are you fond?

2. Do you practise them or do you prefer to watch them?

3. Do you prefer team games or individual kinds of sports?

4. Are you more interested in summer sports or winter sports?

5. Do you go in for sport? If yes, how often?

6. Do you think it is enough or do you think you should do it more often?

7. Have you ever taken part in any sport competition? If yes, when, where? Did you win?

8. What is the most popular kind of sport in our country? In Britain? In the world?

9. What kind of sport would you call the most beautiful / the most dangerous?

10. When and where did the Olympic Games begin?

11. Why do think they are so popular?

12. What habits make a person healthy?

13. Is sport important in you future job?

14. What are the main problems the international sport is facing nowadays?

15. Comment on the following statement: if you are not interested in sport, you are not interested in life.

2.13. Staying at a hotel

1. Have you ever stayed at a hotel? If yes, when and where?

2. If you need to stay at a hotel, should you book a room beforehand? Why?

3. What services can you get at a modern hotel?

4. What kind of room would you take if you traveled alone on business / if you traveled with your family / if you traveled with your friend? Give reasons.

5. What articles would you like to have in your room?

6. What advantages of staying at a motel do you know?

7. Would you prefer to stay at a hotel or rent a flat in a strange city? What would it depend on?

8. What famous hotels do you know?

9. How are hotels subdivided according to the services they offer?