THE OLDER, THE BETTER

The typical British person thinks that the older an object is, the better. He or she loves everything that reminds him of Ye Olde England - houses, furniture, pictures, china, etc. Old things have their own charm, uniqueness, their own character. They are also worth more money! No wonder that often an old "character" house costs much more than a new house of the same size. Seems strange to a Russian, doesn't it?

In Britain, where everything that is 30 or more years old is considered "antique", antique shops and markets are very popular. The cheapest places to buy antiques are charity shops. They can be found everywhere. Charity shops are usually run by volunteers in support of different charities, like the British Red Cross or British Heart Foundation. People give their old unwanted possessions to charity shops for free: books, clothes, pictures, handbags, toys, small pieces of furniture. Other people can buy them at a very low price from the charity shop. Often in these shops you can buy something interesting, for example, a funny brass container with a long handle. In the past, when most bedrooms in Britain had no heating, people used to put hot coal in such containers to warm the linen before going to bed

Many antique shops are located in tourist villages or towns. They can be a tiny jewellery or miniature toy shop, owned by some old lady or gentleman. Or it can be a huge enterprise, a real "Snooper's paradise" (the name of a famous antique shop in Brighton). Such places are like a museum, where you can feel the real atmosphere of the past and spend a lot of time looking at all kind of curiosities: old-fashioned costumes and hats, brooches, vases, glasses, silver spoons and forks, mirrors in pretentious frames. Prices in such antique shops vary from comparatively low to rather high.

Outdoor antique markets are also very common in Britain. The simplest of them are the so-called "boot fairs", or actually, flee markets, that are regularly organized by local people in farmers' fields.

At boot fairs and small street antique markets people sometimes sell and buy very strange things like single old buttons and earrings, pieces of old lace, old lamps and sewing machines, etc. It seems that both parties, sellers and customers, enjoy the process much more than a financial result.

But at big street markets like on Portobello Road in London one can buy something really original and quite valuable.

British people like visiting antique fairs. Hunting for old and valuable curiosities is a kind of national sport. Auctions, offering all sorts of inexpensive, expensive and very expensive antiques are also very popular.

For a foreigner, the most surprising are special outdoor sessions, organized by experts in antiques in different, sometimes very distant parts of Britain. These sessions, regularly shown on TV, are very popular. Indeed, it is a great fun to see happy faces of people, who suddenly realized the real and sometimes unexpectedly high market price of some old piece of china that had been stored in a dark corner for years!

Answer the questions:

1. What can you buy in charity shops?

2. Do prices in antique shops are always high?

Choose the right answer to the question:

Where can you find outdoor antique markets?

a) in charity shops

b) on Portobello Road in London c) on farmers' fields.

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