Postal Services

In the civilised world of today there are many institutions which make our life easier. Instead of preparing our food at home we can have it at a restaurant. We can get our clothes cleaned at the cleaner's, our shoes repaired at the shoemaker's, our coats, skirts, blouses or other pieces of garment mended or made to measure, our TV or radio - sets or record players, tape recorders repaired at a repair shop. It has become quite natural that more or less often we go to the hairdresser's or a barber's to have our hair done or cut.
One of the most used institutions is the post-office. We go there whenever we need to phone somebody, to send a letter, a cable or a parcel, to buy stamps, to send money etc. In all towns and almost in every village there is a post-office. The main post-office, called the General Post-Office can be found in every larger town and they are opened longer than the other branch post offices.
I often go to the post-office to send a letter to my foreign friends. I often write in English and I want to mention some specialities in writing letters in English. They open letter with Dear ...and close with Your sincerely ...depending on whom it is addressed to. There are some differences in writing the address, too, e. g. the number of the house comes in front of the name of the street. When we have written a letter, we sign it, fold it and put it into an envelope. We stick down the envelope (we can seal the letter, too), writes the address and buy a stamp. We stick it on the right-hand upper corner. Stamps can be bought at the post-office or from a slot machine. In England they do not sell stamps at the tobacconist's. Then we take the letter to the post-office or we can drop it in the nearest pillar-box. Every pillar-box has a tab indicating when the letters are collected. From the pillar-box the letters are taken to the post-office where they are sorted and marked. Then they are brought to the station and transported in a mail-coach on the train. Some hours later the letters are delivered.
For sending registered letters, however, we have to go to the post-office. Inside the post-office there is a long counter divided into departments for parcels, stamps, registered letters, telegrams, postal-orders (for small sum, money-orders /for larger sums), telephone calls and the saving bank. When sending a registered letter, we must fill in a certificate of posting and pay the registration fee.
For sending parcels we must go to another department. There we have to get the well-packed parcel weighed, fill in a form, and stick a label on the parcel and pay. If sending something valuable we can have it insured. If we want to send a telegram, we take a telegram form from the desk, fill it in and hand it in the telegram counter. The clerk counts the words and says how much we are to pay for it. When we wish to ring somebody up we may go to the post-office or simply to the telephone directory, then we pick up the receiver and insert a coin into the slot. We hear the ringing tone and dial the number. The dialling tone informs us that we are through and we only wait till the phone is answered. When it is so we must press the button immediately and speak. When the call is over, we replace the receiver and leave the box.

Vocabulary
cable - telegram
parcel - balík
stamps - známky
to send money - poslat peníze
other branch post offices - ostatní druhy poštovních úřadů
sign - podepsat
fold - složit
put it into an envelope - vložit do obálky
We stick down an envelope ...- Zalepíme obálku ...
seal - zapečetit
stick - nalepit
slot-machine - automat
drop - vhodit
pillar-box - schránka
they are sorted and marked - jsou tříděny a razítkovány
the letters are delivered - dopisy jsou doručeny
registered letters - doporučené dopisy
counter - přepážka
postal orders - poukázky (malé sumy)
money orders - poukázky (velké sumy)
saving bank - spořitelna
certificate of posting - podací lístek
We have to get the well-packed parcel weighed. Musíme dát dobře zabalený balík zvážit.
stick a label - nalepit štítek
valuable - cenný
insure - pojistit
hand it - podat to
how much we are to pay - kolik platíme
receiver - sluchátko
coin - mince
dial - vytočit
dialing tone - vyzváněcí tón
we are through - jsme spojeni

Maturita.cz - referát (verze pro snadný tisk)
http://www.maturita.cz/referaty/referat.asp?id=4757