Money:sometimes in a shop they ask you: “How do you want to pay?” You can answer: “Cash./ By check./ By credit card.” When you buy (or purchase more formally) something in a shop, you usually pay for it outright but sometimes you on credit. Sometimes you may be offered a discount or a reduction on something you buy. For example, you might get₤10 off perhaps because you are a student. You are often offered a discount if you buy in bulk. It is not usual to haggle about prices in a British shop, as it is in, say, a Turkish market. If you want to return something which you have bought to a shop, you may be given a refund, i.e. your money will be returned, provided you have a receipt.
British currency (= the type of money used in a country) is called sterling.
GREAT BRITAIN
₤ - pound; p – pence
100 pence (100 p) = 1 pound (₤1)
THE USA
$ - dollar; ¢ - cent
100 cents (100 ¢) = 1 dollar (1$)
amount
coin
amount
coin
½ p
a half penny, half a penny
a half penny
a cent
a penny
1 p
a penny
a penny
five cents
a nickel
2 p
twopence, two pence
a twopenny piece
ten cents
a dime
a pound, (sl.) a quid
a pound note
twenty-five cents
a quarter
5, 10, 20
five/ ten /twenty pounds, (sl.) five / ten/ twenty quid
a five/... pound note
half a dollar, (sl.) half a buck
a half-dollar (note)
3.82
three pounds eighty-two (pence)
$1
a dollar, (sl.) a buck
a dollar bill
$5, $10...
five/ten... dollars
a five/ten... dollar bill
$ 3.82
three dollars eighty-two (cents)
TASK 3. Word choice: price, cost, charge. Make up you own sentences with the words mentioned above.
When you are talking about the money you need to buy a particular thing, the usual word is price. E.g.: The price of a piece of land/packet of cigarettes, cauliflower.
Costis like price, but is used less for objects, and more for services or activities. E.g.: The cost of having the house painted/going on holiday. It is also used for general things. E.g.: The cost of living/the cost of food/the cost of production/postage. The cost of something may be high or low. The amount of money you pay for something is what it costs you. E.g.: It cost $1000 to have the house painted. Things may cost a lot.
The person who is selling goods or services to you chargesyou for them. E.g.: How much did he charge you for mending the car? A charge is a sum of money asked, especially for allowing someone to do something or for a service. E.g.: There will be a small charge for admission.
Money is used for buying or selling goods, for measuring value and for storing wealth. Almost every society now has a money economy based on coins and paper notes of one kind or another. However, this has not always been true. In primitive societies a system of barter was used. Barter was a system of direct exchange of goods. Somebody could exchange a sheep, for example, for anything in the market-place mat they considered to be of equal value. Barter, however, was a very unsatisfactory system because people's precise needs seldom coincided. People needed a more practical system of exchange, and various money systems developed based on goods which the members of a society recognized as having value. Cattle, grain, teeth, shells, feathers, skulls, salt, elephant tusks and tobacco have all been used. Precious metals gradually took over because, when made into coins, they were portable, durable, recognizable and divisible into larger and smaller units of value.
A coin is a piece of metal, usually disc-shaped, which bears lettering, designs or numbers showing its value. Until die eighteenth and nineteenth centuries coins were given monetary worm based on die exact amount of metal contained in diem, but most modern coins are based on face value, the value that governments choose to give diem, irrespective of the actual metal content Coins have been made of gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), aluminium (Al), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), plastic, and in China even from pressed tea leaves. Most governments now issue paper money in the form of notes, which are really 'promises to pay'. Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much more convenient in the modem world. Cheques, bankers' cards, and credit cards are being used increasingly and it is possible to imagine a world where 'money' in the form of coins and paper currency will no longer be used. Even today, in the United States, many places - especially filling stations - will not accept cash at night for security reasons.
Exercise 1
Find expressions which mean:
1 A place to buy petrol. 2. A place where goods are bought and sold. 3. The period between 1801 and 1900.
4. The bony structure of me head. 5. Round and flat in shape. 6. An exchange of goods for other goods.
Exercise 2
Find words which mean:
1 Can be divided. 2. Lasts a long time. 3. Can be carried. 4. Can be recognized.
Exercise 3
Put these words in the correct places in the sentences below: