Listening: SOLUTIONS 1

Here you have the solutions for the first three listenings:

PHONE MESSAGE

Hi Craig. This is Rob here. It's about quarter past one and I'm going out on the bike for the afternoon. I was just wondering if you'd like to meet up this evening for a beer. Errmmm.... and if you've got time and you feel like it, give me a call back on 01 702 592 781. Speak to you later. Take care. Bye!

CHECKING INTO A HOTEL

- Hello. Good evening.

+ Good evening sir, How can I help you?

- Erm.. I have a reservation for a double room for three nights.

+ Ok... and... sorry, your name again? I beg your pardon, sir.

- Yeah... sorry, it's Colin Smith.

+ OK. Yes, I have that. Erm.. if you could just take erm.. a few details.. could you just note down your address on the.. on the.. er.. paper sir.

- Sure. OK.

+ And while you're doing that, could you give me your ID. I just need to know the numbers.

- Of course. Here's my... here's my passport.

+ Thank you. Was that a smoker or a non-smoking room, sir?

- Non-smoking, please.

+ OK. Then.. here's your..erm.. hey card, sir.

- Thank you.

+ Breakfast will be from 6 o´clock in the morning 'till 9 o´clock. And the lifts are just round on the left hand side.. er.. next to the coffee table. And your room is on the 8th floor, sir. If you need anything, give me a call.

- Just one question. Is there... erm.. a good restaurant you'd recommend around here?

+ What kind of food are you looking for, sir?

- Erm.. oo.. anything;...erm Chinese, ..erm..Indian.. anything.

+ There's a Thai restaurant just around the corner, sir.

- A Thai resturant?

+ About 200 metres down the road.

- Right..er.. OK. Erm... Do I have to wear a tie?

+ I think you'll find a tie is provided, sir?

SAY "NO" TO TV

You don't have a television either?

No, for..7, 8 years.

Why did that happen? How did that happen? Did you just decide one day to throw it out the window?

Heh..no, erm.. when I came to Germany, er.. I had had a TV back in the UK.. erm.. and my girlfriend in Germany didn't have a TV and we didn't see any reason to buy one. Erm.. I didn't speak german, so there was nothing that I could've watched and had much from.. erm..and..erm.. she had never had a TV and didn't see the point.

Ours died. We had a TV..erm.. for quite a few years. One day it stopped working. We agreed that we needed to buy another TV..erm.. and argued about the size of the screen. I wanted a big screen to watch the football games, and widescreen TV with the speakers.. the surround sound speakers. And in the end we said okay, we'll.. we'll wait for a few months. And six months passed with no TV. We found that we went to the cinema more often. We.. we spoke to each other.. we listened to music..

The lost art of conversation...

..exactly! And really, our life improved a lot; erm.. socially and as a couple. So, we.. we've been without a TV now fro probably 6 or 7 years.

Fantastic. It's much nicer without a TV, you do actually speak to one another, you maybe play board games in the vening, you go walking or, like you say.. you speak to people, you develop a social life rather than vegetating in front of the screen.

And I don't know if you agree, but I actually think that there's some mild manipulation and brainwashing involved, especially with the advertisements..

Oh, completely, yeah.

...that they throw in, and the type of sitcom programmes.. comedy programmes.

With product placements in everything with encouragement for certain for politicaly parties or.. yeah.

And some of the programmes are mindless, the.. the.. they're just...

Almost all of them!

...you sit there like a vegetable.

Completely mindless, yeah...