 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
153
She walked over to the hat counter, where Albert, who could still hardly take his admiring eyes off
Paddington, had arranged a huge pile of hats. There were bowler hats, sun hats, trilby hats, berets, and even
a very small top hat. Mrs. Brown eyed them doubtfully. 'It's largely a question of his ears. They stick out
rather.'
'You could cut some holes for them,' said Albert.
The assistant froze him with a glance. 'Cut a hole in a Barkridge's hat!' he exclaimed. 'I've never heard of
such a thing.'
Paddington turned and stared at him. 'I... er...' The assistant's voice trailed off. 'I'll go and fetch my
scissors,' he said, in a queer voice.
'I don't think that will be necessary at all,' said Mrs. Brown, hurriedly. 'It's not as if he had to go to work
in the city, so he doesn't want anything too smart. I think this woollen beret is very nice. The one with the
pom-pom on top. The green will go well with his new coat and it'll stretch so that he can pull it down over
his ears when it gets cold.'
Everyone agreed that Paddington looked very smart, and while Mrs. Brown looked for a plastic
mackintosh, he trotted off to have another look at himself in the mirror. He found the beret was a little
difficult to raise as his ears kept the bottom half firmly in place. But by pulling on the pom-pom he could
make it stretch quite a long way, which was almost as good. It meant, too, that he could be polite without
getting his ears cold.
The assistant wanted to wrap up the duffle coat for him but after a lot of fuss it was agreed that, even
though it was a warm day, he should wear it. Paddington felt very proud of himself and he was anxious to
see if other people noticed.
(Extract from "A Bear from Peru in England" by M. Bond)
Text 3
Harrods
ENTER A DIFFERENT WORLD
Welcome to Harrods — a different world for a million reasons. Harrods is the largest store in Europe with
goods displayed in 60 windows and five and a half hectares of selling space. In one year over 14 million
purchases are made in the 214 departments where you can buy anything from a pin to an elephant - if you
can convince the manager of the Pet Department that you are a suitable elephant owner, that is! It is Harrods'
policy to stock a wide and exciting range of merchandise in every department to give the customer a choice
of goods which is unique in its variety and which no other store can match: Harrods stocks 100 different
whiskies, 57 single malts, 450 different cheeses, 500 types of shirts and 9,000 ties to go with them, 8,000
dresses and 150 different pianos.
Harrods also offers a number of special services to its customers including a bank, an insurance
department, a travel agency, London's last circulating library, a theatre ticket agency and a funeral service.
?40 million worth of goods are exported annually from Harrods and the Export Department can deal with
any customer purchase or order and will pack and send goods to any address in the world. Recently, for
example, six bread rolls were sent to New York, a handkerchief to Los Angeles, a pound of sausages to a
yacht anchored in the Mediterranean, a Persian carpet to Iran and a ?5,000 chess set to Australia. Harrods
has a world-wide reputation for first-class service. It has a staff of 4,000, rising to 6,000 at Christmas time.
Harrods sells 5 million different products, not all of which are actually kept in stock in the store itself. To
handle this enormous range, a new computerized warehouse is being built. It will be the largest warehouse in
Britain and the second largest in Europe and will deal with a wider range of goods than any other
distribution centre in the world. Thanks to its modem technology a customer will be able to order any
product (for example, a dining table or a dishwasher) from any assistant in the store. The assistant will be
able to check its availability immediately on a computer screen, decide with the customer on a suitable
delivery date and time and then pass the order directly to the warehouse through the computer. The time of
delivery will be guaranteed to within one hour.
For many of London's visitors Harrods is an important stop on their sightseeing programme. Henry
Charles Harrod's first shop was opened in 1849, but the building as it stands today was started in 1901 and it
has become one of London's landmarks. It has many items of architectural interest: the plaster ceilings are
original, as is the famous Meat Hall with its Victorian wall tiles, and the light fittings on the ground floor
date back to the 1930s. A morning spent strolling round Harrods is guaranteed to give any shopper an appe-
tite, and to feed its customers Harrods has six restaurants, ranging from the Circle self-service restaurants
offering delicious food at reasonable prices to the famous Harrods Restaurant, where queues form every