Active vocabulary of the text. Chemist’s shop [kemists ζop] аптека medical institution [medikl institju:ζn] медицинское учреждение

Exercise 8: Before reading the text explain some words: pharmacists, medicine, prescription (brain-storming).

Exercise 9: Read the text:

CHEMIST’S SHOP

A chemist’s shop is a medical institution in which you can have all the prescriptions made up and buy all the necessary things when you are ill. There are three types of chemist’s shops in our country at present: municipal, hospital, private. All of them are licensed. You can also buy some medicines at chemist’s stalls. The chemist’s shop consists of several departments: chemist’s, wholesale, stock-in-trade and prescription department.

Numerous glass showcases of the chemist’s department contain pills, tablets, infusions, extracts, packets of dried herbs and berries grouped according to their medicinal properties. On a small table in the corner of the room there are some special booklets and annotations with useful information about some latest medicines of Russian and foreign make. Besides dispensary pharmacists make up special bulletins about medicinal properties of the herbs available at the department and of the new kinds of mineral water discovered in different parts of our country. There are often different medicines for one and the same disease and patients often ask the chemist for advice, which of the medicines available is more effective. Besides medicines the chemist’s department provides patients with other necessary things such as thermometers, hot-water bottles, cotton wool, mustard plasters and so on. If a patient needs some medicines of special preparation he is recommended to go to the prescription department.

The prescription department provides medicines only by the doctor’s prescriptions. Ready-made medicines such as tablets, drops as well as injection solutions are usually given out immediately at a patient’s request. If a patient needs some ointment, a tincture or powders he can order them and will get the prepared medicines in some hours. Sometimes medicines are prepared in the presence of a patient having a prescription with the word “cito”.

Besides the chemist’s and prescription department the chemist’s shop has an assistant’s room. The room is furnished with benches, there are burners and tubes, flasks and measuring glasses, flasks with distilled water, etc. In this room medicines are prepared by assistants according to the requirements of the State Pharmacopoeia. Every dose of drastic and poisonous substances is accurately measured and medicines are prepared under the guidance of experienced pharmacists. All chemical substances are stored according to the special list. They are given out precisely weighed and registered.

A chemist’s shop is managed by a specialist with higher pharmaceutical education.