Laboratory work (Travelling)Intermediate level

Variant 2Reading

Part 1Read the text and decide if the following statements are true or false.

1 The most frequent complaint is that a holiday is of a higher standard than expected.2 The family from Birkshire expected that someone would be available to look after their young children.3 The first thing they did was to write a letter of complaint to the company.4 If you stay at a gite, you have your meals prepared.5 Mr Wheal suggests that people with complaints should contact ABTA as soon as they return home.

Dear travel agent,please stop the cows staring at me…

For the next two weeks, tour operators will be sorting through the annual deluge of complaints. Ron Wheal, head of customer relations for Britain’s biggest holiday company, which took more than a million abroad this summer says, ‘Holiday makers are complaining about petty, silly little things.’ Such as? ‘The fact that their hotel is next to a road. How do they expect to get to their hotel if it’s not next to a road?’

Perhaps one of the most common complaints is that the holiday fails to live up to the brochure promises. A family from Birkshire with two young children were attracted by a two-week package in a three-star hotel that was described as ‘friendly’ and ‘particularly suitable for families with children’. It offered ‘cots, baby minding, high chairs and early suppers’. When they arrived, the hotel was not up to three-star standard, the staff were rude and the promised facilities for children were practically non-existent.

An initial complaint which had been sent to the holiday company by the family was answered with an ‘ex-gratia’ payment of £30. With the help of the consumer magazine, the family issued a summons claiming £500 – which the holiday company eventually met in full.

One of the big travel successes of recent years has been the ‘gite’ holiday; a gite is self-catering accommodation in France, often on a farm. The director of the Gite de France’s London office recently received a telephone call from one client furious about the cows that passed in front of her gite. Was she complaining about the mess? ‘No, she was angry because the cows used to stop and look in at her as they went past the window.’

Britain’s biggest seller of long-distance holidays says that the majority of its complaints come from people who have chosen the wrong sort of holiday. People who fail to do their research could find themselves in the Caribbean during the hurricane season.

Mr Wheal says that if someone really wants action over a spoilt holiday, they should try and sort it out with a holiday company representative there and then. Those who complain to the tour operator on their return and are unhappy with the response can take their case to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) which will provide conciliation facilities free of charge.

Part 2This article describes how Gatwick Airport in the UK has made travelling easier for business passengers. Decide which of the extracts A-G match the numbered gaps in the text. There is one additional extract which does not belong in any of the gaps.

A But Fast Track has other benefits for the business traveller.

B This system, called Fast Track, enables First and Business Class passengers from all airlines using North and South Terminals to use a special dedicated route through passport control and security checks.C The best ideas in business are quite often the most obvious.D For the busy executive, it is not so much that time means money, rather that he or she usually cuts it fine when getting to the airport. E Many airlines offer attractive incentives such as free limousine and helicopter transfers, advance seat reservations and priority baggage handling.F Even at the busiest times of the day, it now takes business passengers only a minute or two to pass through the barriers to go airside.G Looking at what London Catwick Airport has done, the solution now, in hindsight, seems obvious.

0 = CFor example, business travellers passing through Europe's airports have constantly bemoaned the fact that however much their ticket cost, or however much they were pampered in-flight the real hold-ups always came when passing through passport control and security, or waiting in duty free.

1That last-minute report to finish, or taking just one more phone call, has spelt disaster for many business travellers suddenly finding themselves at passport control behind a plane-load of holidaymakers who are quite happy to take their time - after all they are going on holiday.

2However, it is a simple fact that no other airport appeared to have tackled the problem successfully until London Gatwick became the first airport in the UK or Europe to implement a "red carpet" priority system especially for First and Business Class travellers.

3A pass is given to eligible passengers at check-in.

4The special entry gates to the departure lounges, however, only operate up until 2 p.m. The airport's research has shown that the bulk of business travel flights were before this time, with only a handful afterwards when the regular control points had no queues. However, it is a position that is regularly reviewed by the airport.

5For instance, those who have hurried to the airport without the time to pick up any foreign currency can collect pre-ordered currency from a special Fast Track desk at the airport's bureaux de change. Or if they travel to the airport via the Gatwick Express, they can use the credit-card phone on the train to order the currency on the way from Victoria. Forgotten to buy a present for that important contact you are going to meet on arrival? Instead of queuing up with the leisure travellers at the duty free counters, Fast Track pass-holders can take advantages of their own check-out. Not surprisingly, Fast Track has been a smash hit with London Gatwick passengers (numbers using it have increased from 40, 000 a month when it first started, to 65, 000 a month at present). Perhaps the fact that other European airports are looking at emulating the Fast Track idea shows how big a step forward it is in taking the hassle out of business travel.

Word formation

It would be unfair to give the impression that these holidays are just about walking. According to the brochure, an (1) _______ of ENJOYwalking is often the thing that brings together a group of like-mindedpeople, who share the (2) _______ of good companionship in PLEASE(3) _______ surroundings. ATTRACTThe company believes that its tour leaders are the key to its success.These people are (4) _______ trained and are particularly keen to FULL(5) ______ that each individual traveller makes the most of their trip. SURE

Key word transformationComplete the following sentences using the words in bold. Use two to five words.

1 Without your help, I wouldn’t have found the house.had If you _________________, I wouldn’t have found the house.

2 I wasn’t tall enough to reach the shelf.taller _________________, I would reach the shelf.

3 I don’t know the answer.tell If I knew the answer, ________________.

4 I haven’t got an aspirin, so I can’t give you one.If _________________, I could give you one.

5 I’d love to be able to go with you to the opera.wish _________________with you to the opera.