4. Grammar and speaking

- Where ____ you at six o’clock in the evening?

- I ____ at work.

- What ____ you ____?

- I ____ ____ a meeting with the boss.

delayed stuck announcement remembered hotel

Holiday from hell

1. But that was just the beginning! On the plane they told us that the bad weather over the Caribbean was actually a hurricane – Hurricane George – and that we couldn’t fly to San Antonio. We had to go to the capital city instead, and stay in the hotel there for the night. And they told us we were going to a five-star hotel, next to the beach, with a swimming-pool, so we were happy at that point.

2. We decided to have a really good holiday – a ‘dream holiday’ in the Caribbean. We saved money for months and months, and booked this holiday in a place called San Antonio. It cost over a thousand pounds each, but we wanted to do something really special so we booked it for two weeks in May, because all the brochures said it was beautiful there in May.

3. The most horrible part was when the hurricane arrived. That was really frightening. We were sitting in our room, while the windows were banging, the trees were crashing outside, and it was pouring with rain. Then they told us that there were no flights to San Antonio, and we had to stay there for another three days with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

4. So when we finally got to San Antonio, we were five days late. There was no hurricane there! The weather had been perfect all that time!

5. We arrived at the hotel, the Hotel Paradiso it was called, what a joke! They said it was a five-star hotel, but I wouldn’t give it one star! It was just awful. Yes, it was next to the sea, but there wasn’t a beach, just a few rocks, and the sea was so dirty. There were big ships travelling past, and the sea was all polluted and brown. It looked horrible.

6. So we went to look at the swimming-pool, but that was no better. It was a sort of greeny-black colour, and as we looked we saw things that were moving in it. We looked closer and we realized it was full of frogs! There were hundreds of frogs in it!

7. We were flying from Gatwick airport, and the flight was overnight, leaving Gatwick late at night and arriving at San Antonio the next morning. But when we arrived at the airport they told us that because of the bad weather in the Caribbean, the flight was delayed until the next morning. So we had to spend the night at the airport, sleeping on the floor, and we finally got on the plane the next morning twelve hours late.