Make a note of the things that went wrong.
Woman — W., Friend – F. W. I must tell you about this one hotel we stayed in, about three years ago. F. Where? W. Well, it was just a little place in the country. We went for our anniversary — thought it would be relaxing and romantic. We'd seen it advertised in a magazine and it looked really quiet and peaceful. F. And wasn't it? W. Well, not exactly, no! For a start, when we arrived on the Friday evening, there was no one at the desk, so we rang the bell and waited, but nobody came. Then we heard voices in the back room, shouting and getting louder and louder, so we rang the bell again and eventually this little red-faced man popped out and shouted, "Yes? What do you want?" F. Oh. W. Well, we were a bit taken aback, but we explained we had a reservation and he calmed down and we checked in. He told us the room number — 106. F. You' ve got a good memory! W. Well, there's a reason. Anyway, he gave us the key and off we went, only to find that the key didn't fit the door. It, turned our that he'd given us the right key but the wrong room — we should have been in room 107. F. And was the room OK? W. Yes, it was fine — the bathroom was a bit small, but OK. There were no towels, though. I went down to ask for some and he just said, "You want towels? You didn't bring one?" I was furious. Anyway, he apologized and brought us some. F. Sounds awful. W. Well, it doesn't end there! It went from bad to worse. Dinner was a disaster. The service was appalling. The waiter was drunk and could barely stand upright, let alone carry the food. He dropped my soup all over the floor. And the food was vile — tasteless and overcooked. F. Did you complain? W. We were sick of complaining! It was more trouble than it was worth. We just left and walked along the river to the local pub, which was lovely. But then we went back to the hotel to spend the night. F. Oh no! What happened then? W. We got back and went to bed. So far so good. But then after about ten minutes a horrible screaming noise started. We didn't know what it was. It sounded like someone being murdered, but we came to the conclusion it must be to do with the water pipes. Well, whatever it was, it went on all night and we hardly slept at all. By the morning we'd had enough. There was no way we were going to spend another minute there. We got our things together, had breakfast, which was surprisingly good, and asked for the bill. He got all upset and asked why we were leaving, at which point we complained about everything. He got really annoyed and said we'd have to pay for the second night because we'd made a reservation. Well, he eventually backed down after we threatened to write to the local tourist board and the local newspapers, but he still tried to charge us for some newspapers we never had. F. Did you go to another hotel?: W. Oh no, we just gave up and went home. Our weekend was already ruined. But anyway, the final chapter in the horrible saga happened about a month later. I was reading the paper and I came across a story about a murder in a country hotel. Guess which hotel? F. No! W. Yes! There were photos of it plastered all over the paper. The hotel owner had killed his wife after a row and hidden the body in one of the bedrooms. But a guest was given the wrong key by mistake and found the body by chance. F. Oh, no, that's horrible W. And worst of all: guess which room the body was hidden in. F. Oh, not yours. I don't believe it. W. Yes, number 107! NOTES:
VII. Read out the dialogue again and say if these statements are true (T) or false (F): a) The woman had seen an advertisement for the hotel in a shop window. b) The couple went to the hotel to celebrate a birthday. c) The man at the front desk had probably been arguing. d) They were given the key to room 106. e) The woman complained about the size of the bathroom. f) They didn't complain in the restaurant. g) They didn't sleep very well because they heard a screaming noise. h) They quite enjoyed the breakfast. i) They went to another hotel after checking out. j) The murder took place in room 107.
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