3. Study the following dialogues describing some problems which may happen at any hotel.

A. Man: Excuse me!

Receptionist: Yes, sir?

M.: I need someone in Room 456 right now! The shower is running, and it won't stop! There is water all over the floor!

R.: Don't worry, sir. I'll send the engineer immediately!

B. Receptionist: Front desk. This is John Gray.

Man: This is Room 795. Will you help me? My room is very cold. I can't turn off the air conditioning.

R.: All right I'll deal with it, madam. The problem will be solved in some minutes.

4. Imagine the following situations, make up the similar dialogues.

A. The toilet doesn't work.

B. There are no towels in your room.

C. You want someone to take your bags to the lobby.

D. The TV is out of order.

5. Make these sentences passive.

1. Last year I spent a lot of money on a good hotel.

2. I have just booked a single room.

3. I will leave my car in your hotel car park.

4. This hotel doesn't lend items of clothing.

5. My secretary reserved a place for three nights.

6. Work in pairs. Make up your own dialogues. Reserve a room at a hotel for Mr. Smith.

6. Fill in each gap with one suitable word or word combination given below. Act out the conversation.

card, reserved, key, the best way, sights

Customer: Good morning. I've … a single room for three nights, from today.

Receptionist: What's your name, madam?

C.: L. Smirnova.

R.: Here you are, just fill in this … . This is your … .

C.: Thank you. What time is the restaurant open?

R.: Breakfast time is from 8 till 10; dinner is served from 7 to 10 p.m.

C.: By the way, could you tell me … to get to the centre?

R.: There are lots of bus services around, but the best way is the tube. You can get a daily ticket there.

C.: Have you got a map of the city or leaflets about the …?

R.: There you are. Help yourself from the stand on your left, madam.

C.: Thank you.

Unit 11. Telephoning

In the age of mobile phones everyone thinks they know how to use the phone. Lots of research shows that the biggest impact in spoken-word communication is visual. Some researchers say it's as much as three-quarters of the total. Yet on the phone we don't have any of that. Our voice has to do all the work. If we want people at the other end to form a good impression of us, we need to give more thought to business phone calls than we do when we're just chatting to our friends. Most people find it easier – both physically and psychologically – to talk on the phone when they're standing up. One of the reasons is that they're more likely to use body and arm movements – or at least the arm not holding the phone in the same way they would in face-to-face conversation.

One of the biggest problems in telephone conversations is speed. Native speakers, especially business people, tend to speak very quickly on the telephone. Here are some practical tips to get native speakers of English to slow down!

• Immediately ask the person to speak slowly.

• When taking note of a name or important information, repeat each piece of information as the person speaks. This is an especially effective tool. By repeating each important piece of information or each number or letter as the spell or give you a telephone number you automatically slow the speaker down.

• Do not say you have understood if you have not. Ask the person to repeat until you have understood.

Remember that the other person needs to make himself (herself) understood and it is in his (her) interest to make sure that you have understood. If you ask a person to explain more than twice they will usually slow down.

• If the person does not slow down begin speaking your own language! A sentence or two of another language spoken quickly will remind the person that they are fortunate because they do not need to speak a different language to communicate. Used carefully, this exercise in humbling the other speaker can be very effective. Just be sure to use it with colleagues and not with a boss.