1.- Descripción de la tarea

 

Read the text and answer the questions.

It was one of those reviews to make any café owner’s heart sink. Titled ‘Over-priced and very rude staff’, Hannah C’s post on TripAdvisor gave Bennett’s Café & Bistro a one out of five score. But owner Mike Fisher was not about to take her criticism lying down. And his passionate response has gone viral, and seen him hailed a hero by others on social media.

Hannah C, from North Yorkshire, posted that she was on a “tight budget” and was not happy to be charged £2 for hot water and a slice of lemon. She said the waiter went on to say that “‘a pot of tea for one’ (which is what I was charged for) is the same price as a lemon”. Hannah completed her criticism with the words, “Dreadful place, would definitely not recommend, and the rude waiter that served me should be sacked.’ Job done, she left it at that. But Hannah had not bargained for Mike’s response. You have to read the whole thing to enjoy the full effect of Mike’s magnificent counterblast:

“I’m sorry that you feel that you were ‘ripped off’ and I’ll try to explain why you weren’t. You entered the cafe and the waiter showed you to your seat, gave you a menu, waited for a time and then took your order. He entered it into the till, collected a cup, saucer and spoon and took them into the kitchen. There, he selected a knife, chopping board, got a lemon from the fridge, cut off a slice and put it in the cup. Then, he returned to the dining room, drew off the necessary hot water and carried the cup to your table. When you were leaving, he printed off your bill, took it to you, processed your credit card payment and cashed off the till. After you left, he cleared away your cup. saucer and spoon, took them into the kitchen, washed and dried them, along with the chopping board and knife and put away the lemon. Then, returning to the dining room he restacked the cup, saucer and spoon, wiped down your table and replaced the menu, awaiting the next customer. That’s at least 2-3 minutes work for the waiter.

The cost of overheads for the business, i.e rent business rates, electricity costs, bank charges, etc works out at £27.50 per hour of trading. I pay my colleagues a decent living wage and after taking into account holiday pay, national insurance and non-productive time prior to opening and after closing, the waiter who served you costs me £12.50 per hour. Therefore, together the cost is £40 per hour or 67p per minute, meaning that the cost of providing you with 2-3 minutes of service was £1.34 – £2.00. Then the government add on VAT at 20% which takes the cost of that cup of fruit infusion to between £1,60 and £2.40 irrespective of whether you had a teabag costing one and a half pence or a slice of lemon costing five pence.

I have to pay my suppliers otherwise the facilities won’t be available to other people who use them in the future. I accept that it makes the price of a cuppa in a city centre cafe look expensive compared to the one you make at home but unfortunately that’s the cruel reality of life. It’s actually the facilities that cost the money, far more so than the ingredients. Perhaps, the rudeness that you perceived in me was triggered by the disrespect that I perceived in you by your presumption that you could use our facilities and be waited on for free. “

Mike told YorkMix that he employs ten staff in the business and works hard to provide great food and service for his customers. But he said, “There’s a small percentage of customers who want something for nothing. I even got three terrible TripAdvisor reviews for being closed!”

His response has now gone viral, and has even been featured on some national newspaper websites. Mike should be buoyed by the support of people on TripAdvisor rushing to his defence.

Adapted from: https://www.yorkmix.com/food-drink/york-cafe-owners-stupendous-response-to-a-diners-complaint-goes-viral/

1. Decide if the following statements are true or false. Justify your answer by copying the relevant phrase from the text. (1.2 points)

a. Hannah C. felt the bar was too expensive.

b. Mike Fisher has become very popular among social media users.

c. Hannah felt that the service had been very poor.

d. It was Mike Fisher who served Hannah.

e. The major cost of a service is the ingredients (water, food, etc.).

f. A cup of tea is just as expensive as a glass of hot lemon in the café.

 

2. Find expressions in the text that mean: (1.2)

a. became widely spread and shared on social media

b. cheated, swindled, exploited (informal)

c. had a limited amount of money to spend

d. small piece, portion (of fruit, bread)

e. flat piece of wood or plastic where vegetables are cut in a kitchen

f. tax added to the price of goods and services

3. You are going to listen to an interview with Michelle Mason, in charge of the social media and marketing for the Noosa Food Festival in Noosa, Australia. Answer the questions.

3.1  (1 point)

a. At the time of the podcast, how many Noosa Food Festivals has Michelle’s company worked on?

b. For how many years has the Noosa food festival been held?

c. How many chefs are invited ?

d. Which aspect of the festival does Michelle mention that makes it very different from other food festivals round the country?

i) it has local and international produce and wine-tasting competitions. 

ii) it has lots of famous people attending.

iii) it gives people good access to food producers and chefs.

e. What is the competition to advertise the festival called?

i) 2015 Noosa best Australian dish competition

ii) Australia’s best home-cooked dish competition

iii) The Noosa Food and Wine festival competition

3.2 (1 point)

f. What 5 social media do they use?

g. When and WHY was the mobile app introduced ?

h. How long does the event last?

i. What advantage does being a member of the Chilli club have?

i) getting access to festival tickets early

ii) receiving a club membership card with special reduced prices

iii)  a free meal at a stand of their choice

Source: podcast http://www.hollyg.com.au/podcast-episodes/episode-2/

 

4. Relative Clauses

Join each pair of sentences to make one, using relative pronouns (who, which, that, where, when) and making any necessary changes. They can be defining or non-defining (remember to add commas where necessary). (1)

e.g.: This is the man. He was looking for you yesterday > This is the man who was looking for you yesterday.

a. I’d like you to introduce to my mother. She is a former teacher.

b. I’m looking for a waiter. He used to work at this hotel.

c. This is the place. They play great music here.

d. We have improved some of the facilities. Only those that were in poor condition.

e. The hotel called on a designer. He is world-famous.

5. Reported speech

Turn the sentences into reported speech. (1.4) points)

a. “We are going to reserve the main ball room here.” He ____________________

b. “I will come and help you, John. “She ___________________

c. “This waiter can help you today, Mr. Brown.” She ___________________

d. “Take this blanket to room 14, Michael” He  ________________________

e. “Excuse me, where is the nearest chemist’s?” The client _____________________

f. “ Are you staying at this hotel, Mrs. Smith?” The receptionist __________________

g. “Don’t come here again,” said the manager to the beggar. The manager ___________

6. Quantifiers, countables and uncountables (0.4)

Complete the gaps with the appropriate quantifier from the box. DO NOT REPEAT ANSWERS.

a little     little     some     any     many     a few     few       much

a. We don’t have _______ biscuits.

b. Can I have ________ sandwiches?

c. Sorry, I won’t be able to see you, I have ______ time today.

d. ________ people know the recipe of the Sachertorter cake and we want to keep it that way.

e. There was ______ rain yesterday but not enough for us to need an umbrella.

f. How _____ apples did you buy and how ______ did it cost?

g. I should be able to find you _______ people to help. Say, 3 or 4?

7. Collocations

a. Choose words from the box to make appropriate collocations (adjective + noun, verb + noun)There are more words than you need (0.8 points)

eg juicy orange

orange membership pan an application table spoon orange approval translation fish

a. simultaneous _____________ b. club _____________ c. dessert _____________ d. raw ­­_____________

e. submit _____________ f. receive ­_____________ g. frying _____________ h. _____________

8. You work in a travel agency and you have received the following letter of complaint. Look at your notes and write an appropriate answer to the client (150-200 words). Remember to to use appropriate greetings and farewell, acknowledge the complaint, apologise /explain as necessary and offer compensation if you consider it appropriate.(2 points)

Dear Sir, I am writing to complain about the holiday to Colombia that I booked with your agency. The total cost was 2,400 Euros for me and my wife and we travelled from 14th to 20th July. In your brochure (attached) , you state that the island of San Pablo “is a paradise resort, full of friendly smiling locals, palm-fringed pristine beaches and colourful customs”. In addition, one of your travel agents , Marta, assured us that July was a very good time to visit. Nothing could be further from the truth. For a start, our room wasn’t ready when we arrived. We had to wait an hour in the bar before we could go up to our room. When we went to the hotel swimming pool, it was out of use. I complained to the hotel manager, Mr.  Barabas, but he said that he had warned your agency about it several weeks ago!  So, we went to the beach. Far from being pristine, the beaches were absolutely filthy, covered with wood and rubbish. According to the manager, this was because of the recent tropical storm. I think that’s just an excuse and the hotel should have cleaned it for the guests. Furthermore, we didn’t find the locals friendly at all. Prices were much higher than we expected (I’m sure they charged us special tourist prices) and when we went out for walks, nobody smiled at us, except for some children who wanted to sell us some jewelry. I bought an “emerald” but when I got home, I found out that it was just plastic. You should have warned us that the people are so dishonest there. And we didn’t enjoy the Coconut Festival, it wasn’t very interesting. As you can see, we did not enjoy our holiday very much because you misrepresented it to us. I demand compensation, a full refund of the cost. Otherwise I will be forced to take further steps, including a negative evaluation on TripAdvisor. Yours faithfully John Smith

 

Your notes:

Storm caused rubbish on beach. Not our fault.

Told the customers when they came to pay that July was hurricane season. Don’t remember any information about the swimming pool from Mr. Barabas. Marta