Upper-intermediat 5tudenf Book

John "When we are on the river, we are one of the
most frequent users of this part of the river and
people will often fall or jump off Westminster
Bridge, Lambeth Bridge ... or indeed Vauxhall
Bridge and therefore we will be within the vicinity
and will often have to rescue people who have
either fallen off or who have deliberately tried to
commit suicide, so in terms of the river it is a very
serious river with a very fast-flowing tide and we
treat it with the utmost respect.
Interviewer Do you have many difficult customers?
John We do have people who come in a very
unprepared manner, for example a lady in a mink
coat who then gets wet she asks for the mink coat
to be specifically cleaned, which would cost us a
whole day's revenue, the coat was very expensive
and the good news is that she was travelling
abroad back to her homeland and unfortunately
we were unable to get it cleaned within the time
that she asked, and in the circumstances, it didn't
cost us any money. So those sort of people can be
difficult as well as your normal customers who
either don't think they've had the service they
requested or the tour was not up to a standard
that they thought they would like, probably
because they're afraid of water.
6.17 Interviewer VVhat are the most popular
sights?
John The most popular sights that get people really
excited are Parliament Square, where we have the
new Nelson Mandela statue, and that's the first
statue that I'm aware of that has been erected
whilst he is still alive, and that's very exciting.
Additionally we have a number of heroes in our
country and Trafalgar Square with all the
fountains and Nelson and Nelson's Column, really
excite people, and finally we obviously have M16,
which is where our vessels go into the water and it
is also where film The living daylights and The
world is not enough started when the boat came
out of a second floor window and as a 'Duck' we
replicate that in our own style.
Interviewer What are your personal favourite sights
on your tour?
John I personally like the Houses of Parliament,
because I think it is a beautifully designed
building and it's got some very interesting
features. I also favour the statue of Emmeline
Pankhurst because that is quite interesting in so
much as it was only in 1928 that women were
given the vote and yet it seems so many years ago
and then in terms of large sights, obviously things
like Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards are
very interesting as well, because of the history.
Interviewer What do you think is the best and
worst thing about London for a tourist?
John I think the best thing is the fantastic variety
and depth of culture that we have in our capital
city here. We have over 200 different cultures and
nations who live here in the centre of London,
and it makes for a fantastic cosmopolitan city
with so much variety that it is impossible to get
bored. It is a fabulous capital to come to as a
tourist.
In terms of the worst things for tourists in
London, I don't think our capital has yet reached
the standards of service that a lot of other cities
have, where you don't get good quality food at a
reasonable price on time quite often and you have
a lot of delays in terms of travel and congestion
and therefore there are many things that can still
be done to improve the quality of service for a
fantastic capital city.
t 6.19 Interviewer VVhat's your favourite city?
Theresa I would have said Prague actually, but I've
recently been to Stockholm a couple of times and
I loved it. Stockholm is fantastic. It's built on 14
islands, lots of water, which I love, lots of
interesting museums, Stockholm's lovely.
Interviewer Which city would you most like to visit?
Theresa I went to Cape Town earlier on this year
and we were only there for five days and there was
so much that I didn't see that I would love to go
back to Cape Town and see Robben Island and
some of the apartheid museums and learn more
about Nelson Mandela.
Interviewer VVhat's your favourite city?
Anne Probably Delhi, because of the difference in
culture and the monuments that are there and the
people, and looking at the cultural differences of
how we live and how they live. And I just find
everyone so nice and so friendly.
Interviewer VVhich city would you most like to
visit?
Anne I would most like to visit Barcelona because
I've heard the shopping's very good.
Interviewer What's your favourite city?
Agne It would be New York. I like the hustle and
bustle and the 'busyness' and just the overall
feeling of being in that city - it's just really nice, it
just makes you feel really alive all the time, lots
and lots of things to do and it just goes on, it just
doesn't stop.
Interviewer Which city would you most like to
visit?
Agne I'd like to go to Sydney, see what that's like.
Interviewer What's your favourite big city?
Matandra My favourite big city. I risk sounding
partial but it would have to be my home town, it
would have to be Rome. I think it's, you know, a
lot of the reasons are ... no need to explain. I think
it's very happening, more than people think and
it's the right compromise between a laid-back
lifestyle and a, you know, the positive aspects of
living in a metropolis.
Interviewer VVhich city would you most like to
visit?
Matandra Either Casablanca or a place like that. I'm
just fascinated with that part of the world.
Interviewer VVhat's your favourite city?
Harley Em. London. Because it's got all the shops.
So I can come here and go shopping.
Interviewer VVhich city would you most like to
visit?
Harley Any, really, any, I'd like to go to Australia,
an}'V'lhere hot, an}'V'lhere with shops. Anywhere.
7.3
1 When I was a young man, about 17, I was
working in Spain as an electrician for the German
car company, Mercedes. A man from the
engineering company, Bosch, visited Mercedes
and he liked the way that I worked and he offered
me a job in Germany. I suppose it is what you
would call 'an apprenticeship'. I would have learnt
to become an engineer. I really wanted to do it,
but my parents didn't want me to leave home and
go and work in a foreign country. In those days
not many people did that. So in the end I didn't
go. But I really wish that I'd taken that job because
I think it would have opened doors for me and
my professional life would have been more
fulfilling.
2 Three years ago I was going to take part in a
dance competition. I was a bit pale so I decided to
go to a suntan studio the day before the
competition. & I didn't have much time and I
wanted to get a nice tan really quickly, I stayed
under the lamp about 20 minutes. Unfortunately,
that was too long and I got burnt. The top and
skirt I wore the next day for the competition were
really skimpy and so everyone in the audience
could see how red my skin was. I felt really stupid
and really wished I hadn't done it.
3 I really wish I'd been able to know my
grandmother better. She died when I was 12, and
since then I've discovered that she must have been
a fascinating person, and there are so many things
I would love to have been able to talk to her
about. She was Polish but she was in Russia, in St
Petersburg, during the Russian Revolution and
she knew all sorts of interesting people at the
time, painters, writers, people like that. I was only
a child so I never asked her much about her own
life. Now I'm discovering all about her through
reading her old letters and papers, but I wish she
had lived longer so that I could have talked to her
about those times face-to-face.
4 The only thing I really regret is not having had the
courage to chat up a guy who 1 saw at a party last
summer. I really fancied him - he was very goodlooking
- but I just wasn't brave enough to start a
conversation. T wish I'd tried. I'm absolutely
positive we would have got on well. And now it's
too late - he's engaged to another girl!
5 My biggest regret is how I spent my time at
university. I studied English Literature, which was
something I was quite interested in, but it
certainly wasn't the most important thing in my
jjfe. I played a lot of sport, r played in a band, and
listened to a lot of music, but I also spent most of
my time either socializing or asleep. And in terms
of studying, I just did the bare minimum -I read
what I had to, but never anything more. I only
went to the compulsory lectures, never the
optional ones and I left all my essays until the last
minute and kept them as short as I could. OK, I
passed my exams and I got my degree in the end,
but I've always regretted not taking more
advantage of those three years. I wish I'd realized
at the time that this was a unique opportunity to
read lots of novels, to learn about great writers,
and to listen to people who really knew what they
were talking about. Now I'm working and have
small children, I don't have time to read anything.
7.5 When Paul Feldman started his business,
you know, he really thought that at least 95% of the
people would pay for their bagels. This was
presumably because that was the payment rate that
he got in his own office. But in fact this rate wasn't
representative at all. I mean in his office, most
people paid probably just because Feldman worked
there himself, and they knew him personally, and
probably liked him.
So when Feldman sold his bagels in other offices,
he had to accept less. After a while, he considered
that a company was 'honest' if over 90% of the
people paid. Between 80 and 90% was what he
considered to be normal, you know, the average rate.
He didn't like it, but he had to accept it. It was only
if a company habitually paid less than 80% - which
luckily not many did - that he would feel he had to
do something. First he would leave a note, sort of
giving them a warning, and then, if things didn't
improve, he would simply stop selling there.
Interestingly, since he started the business, the boxes
he leaves to collect the cash have hardly ever been
stolen. Obviously in the mind of an office worker, to
steal a bagel isn't a crime - but to steal the money
box is.
So what does the bagel data tell us about the kind
of offices that were not honest, the ones that didn't
pay? Well, first of all, it shows that smaller offices are
more honest than big ones. An office with twenty to
thirty employees generally pays 3 to 5% more than
an office with two to three hundred employees. This
seems to be because in a smaJler community people
are more worried about being dishonest - probably
because they would feel worse if they were caught.
The bagel data also suggests that your mood, how
you feel, affects how honest you are. For example,
the weather is a really important factor. VVhen the
weather is unusually good, more people pay, but if
it's unusually cold or rainy, fewer people pay. And
people are also affected by public holidays, but in
different ways - it depends which public holiday.
Before Christmas and Thanksgiving, people are less
honest, but just before the 4th of July and Labour
Day they are more honest. This seems to be because
holidays like the 4th of July, are just a day off work,
and people always look forward to them. But
Christmas and Thanksgiving are holidays where
people often feel quite stressed or miserable. So their
bad mood makes them less honest.
The other thing Feldman believes affects how
honest people are, is the morale in an office. When
employees like their boss and like their job, then the
office is more honest. He also thinks that the higher
people are promoted, the less honest they are. He