Supermarkets

Supermarkets are an important part of daily life in Britain. The five biggest supermarkets sell 80% of all groceries. 2,000 shops in Britain and is the third biggest supermarket in the world. Two of them, Asda an Tesco, are also the biggest sellers of clothes in Britain. In the larger supermarkets you can buy just about anything. Food and drink you need. You can buy sports equipment, bicycles, books, toys and games, CDs and DVDs. The very big supermarkets are usually on the edge of towns and most people drive to them. This of course means that they can buy more and take it home in the car. There are many more supermarkets now than 20 years ago. It's even more convenient to shop from home. A lot of people now use online shopping. Tesco Online delivers over 100.000 orders each week in Britain and Sainsbury's delivers 30,000. It's becoming a very popular way to shop. But not everyone likes supermarkets. Small shops in towns and villages are closing because supermarkets can sell the same things cheaper. As a result, the big supermarkets have started to open mall shops in town and city centers. Many supermarkets are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so people can shop 24/7. But not on Sundays when shops can only open for five hours. that's enough for most people! But you can still shop online.

SOAP OPERAS IN BRITAIN

The most popular British soap operas are Eastenders and Coronation Street. Many people are addicted to soap operas. There are also web sites for all the main soap operas. These have got information about the actors and stories from future episodes. Eastenders is set in the east end of London and has been broadcast since 1985. It was first broadcast in 1960. Then there's also Emmerdale which takes place in a village in the Yorkshire countryside. It started in 1972 and is on TV every evening from Monday to Friday. As well as showing everyday life in the village there are sometimes special episodes. The villagers are gathered to celebrate a birthay when somethingsd very unsual happens...

Scotland

There are four main regions in Britain, England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Scotland is in the north of Britain and has got a lot of wild, mountainous countryside in the Highlands. It's famous for its lakes which are called lochs in Scotland. Has got only nine per cent of the population. The majority of Scottish people live in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Although Scotland is a part of Britain it's got its own parliament, like many parts of Britain, Scotland has also got its own traditions. For special occasions some Scottish men wear a kilt rather than trouseres. The patterns are called "tartans". The unusual instrument know as the bagpipes is also a part of Scottish tradition. Sport is very important in Scotland. There are lots of golf courses and each year in the Highlands there are Highland Games with some familiar events and some unusual ones. Tere are lots of famous Scottish people. One of them is Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He was an architect and designer. His designs are still very popular today. Lots of famous things come from Scotland too. One of them is a drink Scotch whiskey, a strong spirit made from barley, yeast and water. They enjoy climbing mountains, fishing and visiting its famous castles. Lots of tourists also like going to Loch Ness People say there's a monster there, and Scotland's a wild place, so ... who knows...?

WELLCOME TO ENGLISH PROJECT 2

Today Júlia and I start the English project 2. These year the project talk about Scotland, Soap Operas in Britain, Supermarkets, Law, British horror stories, Shopping in Britain, Transport, Computers in our lives and British health care system.

The weather

The weather is a very popular topic of conversation in Britain. When the weather is good, people complain that it's too hot. When it rains, they say it's too wet. When it isn't sunny, they say it's too cold.
The seasons in Britain are fairly clear. Winter lasts from December to February. It's cold and wet but doesn't often snow. Spring is from March to May.The summer months are June, July and August when it can be very hot. Then the autumn - September, October, November - often has foggy, cold, wet days and the leaves fall from the trees.

It's not surprising that Britain has got one of the most important weather centers in the world. They provide weather forecasts for radio, television and newspapers - and on the Internet. Two huge supercomputers analyses information from many sources including satellites. This is very different from some of the early weather forecasts.
These instruments were used for the earliest weather forecasts. The Met Office also looks at environmental issues such as global warming and climate change. The computers can predict the tropical storms and hurricanes that cause so much damage around the world.

Reading

British people read a lot. They read books, newspapers and magazines. And of course they read text messages on their mobile phones. There are bookshops.

In the library you can borrow books but you can also buy a cup of coffee, look at an art exhibition, sit in a quiet study are or connect to the Internet. You can also now borrow CDs, videos and DVDs of films and television programmes. Some libraries even let you borrow computer games.

There are often reference rooms where you can go to look something up or go to study. Many libraries have also got special rooms with books and photograph about the history of the area.

Libraries are very important in schools and universities both for study and for reading for pleasure.

British sports

At the weekend in Britain, millions of people take part in some kind of sporting activity.

Even more people spend part of the weekend watching sport-especially football. The top evel of the games is professional in the Premiership. Football is played in schools and as leisure activity. Both girls and boys play.

Cricket is the main summer sport in Britain. Local teams play in towns and villages every Saturday and Sunday from April to September.

Cricket is played between two teams of 11 people.

Tennis is another popular sport, especially in the summer aftr the famous Wimbledon championships. there are tennis courts all over Britain.

Other popular sports are golf, swimming, cyclin, keep fit and walking. But there is no doubt that for most people football is the national sport.