Unit 9 Computers
3.While you listen
Recommending a website
You are going to listen to a conversation between two friends who meet in the street.
Are you booking your summer holiday already.then?
Oh.hello.Simon.I didn't see you there.
No.no.It's Karen's birthday in a few weeks' time and I was thinking of taking her away
somewhere for the weekend.
There's not much on offer,though.
Well,have you got access to the Internet?
Yeah,well.we're connected at work.Right.Well.why don't you try that?
You can sometimes get some really good last-minute deals online.
To be honest.I've never really had much luck buying things on the Internet.
The other day,I tried to book some train tickets on Ticketline.com.but it was just so complicated.
It took so long!In the end.I just gave up and did it over the phone.
Yes,I know what you mean.That site's not very user-friendly.
Have you tried any of the cheap airline sites,though?
No.never.Well.If I were you.I'd try some of them.
I've booked lots of flights online and it's always been really easy.
I've never had any problems and it's usually cheaper than going to a travel agent's.
You usually get a discount for online booking.
So.which ones are the best?
Well,it depends where you want to go.You could try British Airways first.
They're sometimes just as cheap as the budget airlines.
Their address is BA.com.And the other one I've used quite a lot is easyjet.com.
but they don't fly to as many places as BA.
Right.that sounds much better than standing here in the pouring rain.Thanks.
Well.if you want ay more help,why don't you e-mail me.
It'sspencersimon@shotmail.com.
thanks,Hey.while we're talking about it,actually,
do you know any good sites for buying CDs?When Karen and I first met.
there was a song called You've been gone too long playing in the bar
and I thought it would be really nice to try to get it for her birthday.
Very romantic!Yeah.well,I do my best.The only problem is I'm not sure
who it's by and I've never seen it in any record shop.
I'm not sure.You could try looking at dustygroove.com.
My brother's always talking about them.Otherwise,If I were you.
I'd go to one of those music chat sites and see if anyone there can help you.
Right OK.
E-mails and website addresses
Listen to these e-mail and website addresses and repeat.
1.bill.macdonald@amac.com
2.www.soccernet.com
3.tigerlilly17_08@wowzer.com
4.pete_smith@shotmail.com
5.reo@sb4-so-net.ne.jop
6.www.intosomethin.com/barracuda
7.lemongrass2272@shotmail.com
8.nsgo7891@shotmail.com
9.www.jazzman/CDs.co.uk
10.dellerh@wmin.ac.uk
General advice
Why don't you try the Internet?
Have you tried any of the cheap airline sites?
You could try British Airways first.
If I were you,I'd try some of them.
5. Speaking
1.A British bank advertised a new credit card on their website.
They offered an interest rate of 0.5%
for six months to customers who changed to their card.
It should have been 10.5%,
but the programmer missed out the number 1
Nobody in the bank noticed the mistake for two weeks.
The mistake cost the bank over&100,000!
2.A customer called the helpline
to say she couldn't get her new computer to switch on.
The technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button.
The woman told him that she pushed and pushed on the foot pedal and nothing happened.
She had put the mouse on the floor.thinking it was the foot pedal!
3.A computer engineer was invited to a friend's party,
but it turned out to be a real disaster!
The friend had just bought a new PC.
but she couldn't get music CDs to play in the CD-ROM drive.
She said she was going to send it back.
The engineer thought he knew what was wrong.
and said it would only take him a couple of minutes to fix it.
He removed the outside case,connected up the sound card.put in a CD and it played.
Everyone at the party cheered!The engineer felt great.
He then forgot to switch it off.
As he was putting the case back on,the meal of the case touched something live.
There was a flash.a smell of burnning,
and he knew he had just ruined the whole thing.It cost him hundreds of pounds.
He lost a friend and his professional reputation!