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Unit 07: Travelling
Nedávno jsme zakončili šestou lekci našeho kurzu dvěma testy, kde jste doplňovali části telefonního rozhovoru. V nové lekci se zaměříme na cestování. Nejprve se však musíme opět o kousek posunout v příběhu, který nás provází od první lekce.
Pokud se s naším kurzem obchodní angličtiny teprve seznamujete, doporučujeme přečíst si úvodní kapitolu BUSINESS ENGLISH – Introduction, kde se o kurzu dozvíte víc. Co vše máme již za sebou, pak zjistíte pohodlně v článku BUSINESS ENGLISH – Course Map.
Nyní již tedy můžeme předat slovo Michaelovi, který vám popíše svou dnešní cestu do Londýna. Jelikož je dnešní text opravdu dlouhý, nabízíme pod ním i jednoduchý mini kvíz, kde zjistíte, zda jste textu porozuměli správně.
STORYLINE
Hello, everyone. The big day has finally arrived. I am going to London! Well, to be honest I am not going to London, because I am already here.
I actually left Prague this morning and arrived at Heathrow a few minutes ago. I'm sure you want to know how it all went so here it is:
I got up at 5, packed my new suitcase and I arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 6 since my flight was scheduled for 8:30 and I live quite far from the airport. I really didn't want to miss the plane. But it's Sunday so the traffic was ok and I got to the airport at about 6:45.
I checked the departures board, my flight was not delayed, and headed towards the check-in desk. I had already booked the flight and printed the plane ticket at home so everything went quite smoothly. The lady at the check-in wasn't very friendly, probably a bad morning. She tried to be nice though because I didn't need much, I didn't even mind which seat I would be assigned to.
I showed her my ID, because you don't need a passport when travelling to the UK, she double checked my name with the system and gave me the boarding pass. My seat was 20C, which is an aisle seat. She asked how many pieces of luggage I had, so I just showed her my suitcase to be put in hold and my briefcase, which was my hand luggage.
I'll be in London for only two days so I don't need much and my checked-in luggage is quite light, far from the 20-kilo limit. She weighed it and put a sticker around its handle and sent it on its way. Then she put a tag on my hand luggage to indicate it is travelling with me.
She also told me what time the boarding would be starting and which gate to go to and that was it. I still had some time left, well, I still had about an hour left, boarding was from 8:00 at gate D11, so I had breakfast in a café. A small espresso to properly wake me up, it was only 7:00 in the morning, a ham and cheese sandwich and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.
At about 7:30 I went through the passport control to the duty free area, because boarding was supposed to start at 8. I browsed through some duty free shops and at about 7:50 I was ready for the security check at the gate.
There was already a queue of people and I waited for about 10 minutes. I had to put my belt, watch and mobile phone into a special tray, together with my laptop. Then I went through the security frame, which didn't beep, luckily for me. Then I sat down and waited for the announcement of the flight.
Well, it took a bit longer than I'd expected because at 8:20 I was still waiting together with all the passengers, but the plane didn't seem to be ready. I didn't even see the plane. The problem was that the flight from London got delayed and that's the reason our flight was delayed too.
At about 8:50 there was an announcement, though, that our plane is ready for boarding and we would be delayed by about 30 minutes. That wasn't so bad in the end.
I boarded the plane, showed my boarding pass to a flight attendant and found my seat. I put my briefcase into the overhead locker and sat down. I was lucky because the middle seat next to me, 20B, was empty. I put on the safety belt and relaxed.
The flight attendants were demonstrating the security procedures first, which I was supposed to follow, but I rarely do, because I am a frequent flyer and know everything by heart. I was absent-mindedly watching the attendants showing us how to put on a mask and where to find the life jacket, but I was thinking about the interview really, starting to be a bit nervous.
We finally took off at 9:05. While airborne I ordered another coffee. I was thinking about having a drink, but thought better of it. I checked my watch. It was 10:25 when I heard the captain announce we would be landing shortly. We touched down at 9:45 London time and I had to reset my watch to GMT.
After landing, we had to remain seated until the plane came to a full stop, as the flight attendant announced, and then we disembarked the aircraft. At the airport I went to the passport control first, showed them my ID and after a few seconds was free to go and collect my suitcase. I followed the ‘baggage claim’ arrows and after a few minutes I found the conveyer belt of our flight. I sat down and waited.
Something beeped and my fellow passengers' suitcases and bags started to roll out of a small opening onto the belt. My suitcase was nowhere to be seen though.
After about 10 minutes almost all the passengers had their suitcases and were heading towards the passport control. I was getting worried. Finally, the last suitcase. Yes, it was mine. My suitcase had never been lost and I was happy that today was no exception.
So here I am, at Heathrow Airport in London. Now I have to get to my hotel and check in. My interview is tomorrow, so I have plenty of time. I'll get back to you from my hotel room. Until then, bye bye.
Tímto dnešní STORYLINE končí. Nyní si můžete otestovat, jestli jste si text přeložili správně:
