Hi, Ardith Hinton! -> Alexander Koryagin
I read your message from 06.12.2020 19:12

 AK>> A situation! I missed that damn thing again!

 AH> You missed the article, then corrected yourself. Not to worry. The
 AH> other day I unintentionally omitted a proposition. Even English
 AH> teachers make misteaks. What matters AFAIC is that you can correct
 AH> your own errors....

Did you mean a preposition?

 AK>> In Russia people can buy stable foreign currencies and store it
 AK>> under mattresses.

 AH> Uh-huh. We can buy some foreign currencies from the banks here, but
 AH> it seems there's risk involved in whatever course of action one
 AH> takes....

I think the inflation in Canada is not so high as in Russia. How many percent
do you have per year?


 AK>> Do the locks in the old vehicles are more sophisticated?

 AH> My car came with two keys... one for the trunk & the glove box, one
 AH> for the doors & the ignition (the former being a lot more
 AH> complicated than the latter). And unlike our rental car it didn't
 AH> have a lever you could pull from inside the car to unlock the
 AH> trunk. Anyone who wanted to break into the trunk would have had to
 AH> work where folks on the sidewalk could easily see them.

Times are changing. A day on two ago I saw in an internet shop a lock for a
bicycle which can be unlocked only via a smart phone application. ;-) It has an
alarm system, too. Looks as a usual bicycle lock. ;)

 AK>> Do they pay now in cash, or people now pay with credit card only?

 AH> COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. Many businesses are now
 AH> reluctant to handle cash... but when customers pay by credit card
 AH> the business must pay an annual fee as well as a commission on each
 AH> purchase. When smaller businesses such as Mom & Dad's Grocery can't
 AH> afford to do that they must still accept cash. If their produce is
 AH> better & cheaper than what I can find at the local supermarket, and
 AH> they offer more variety, I may still choose to buy such things from
 AH> Mom & Dad whenever their shop isn't particularly crowded.

So, people really can start money laundering, in a real sense of this phrase.
;-)

Bye, Ardith Hinton!
Alexander Koryagin

english_tutor 2020

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