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Now turn to section one.
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You will hear a conversation between two men as they plan a trip to New York City.
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First you have some time to look at questions one to five.
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You should answer the questions as you listen, as the recording is not played twice.
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Listen carefully to the conversation and answer questions one to five.
MAX:
Hi John, how are you today?
JOHN:
I'm good, thanks Max.
JOHN:
So, have you come to discuss our trip to New York?
MAX:
That's right, is now good for you.
JOHN:
Oh yes, just let me get a pen and some paper for some notes.
JOHN:
Now, we're going from 24th August to 7th September, aren't we?
MAX:
Almost, it's the 24th to the 6th.
JOHN:
Oh yes, that's right.
JOHN:
I'd better get that correct.
MAX:
So, we're flying out of London, Heathrow, at 5pm on the 24th and we land in New York at around 7.30pm.
JOHN:
Which airport do we fly into? JFK, Newark or LaGuardia?
MAX:
JFK, and then we'll just get a cab to our hotel in town.
JOHN:
Wouldn't it be cheaper to get the subway or the bus into the city?
MAX:
Well yes it would, but we'll be tired and a cab will take us straight to the hotel.
MAX:
I'll do what you want to do though.
JOHN:
It's just that airport taxis are so expensive and the bus will take us into the Grand Central area anyway which is where our shortlisted hotels are.
MAX:
Okay, I'm happy with the bus then.
JOHN:
Now for the hotels.
JOHN:
You didn't make a booking yet, did you?
MAX:
No, I wanted to agree the choice with you first.
JOHN:
What are the choices again then?
MAX:
Well, there's the Grand Hotel.
MAX:
For our time in New York, it will cost us $700 each.
MAX:
That includes taxes and breakfast and a single room each.
MAX:
It's not as convenient a location as the others though.
MAX:
The Garden Hotel is right next to where the bus will come in which is convenient and it's cheaper though that's also because they had no singles left and we've only the possibility of a twin room.
MAX:
It's $600 each with taxes but it doesn't include breakfast.
MAX:
It's the cheapest at $580 each with taxes and breakfast.
MAX:
It's the Central Motel but it's not such a nice place and again they only have twins available.
JOHN:
Well, I think the key factor for me is having my own room.
JOHN:
I'd pay the extra for that.
MAX:
In fact, the money that we will save on the taxi from the airport we can use to help pay for the extra on the hotel.
JOHN:
That's settled then.
JOHN:
And should we bother with breakfast?
JOHN:
I've been told that breakfast specials from the delis in New York are so cheap anyway.
MAX:
We'll book without breakfast and that will save some money as well.
MAX:
It'll be nice to eat in different places too.
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Before the conversation continues, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 6 to 10.
JOHN:
So, now we come to what we want to do in New York.
MAX:
I was talking to James and he said that when he went last year with his wife they had an excellent boat tour around Manhattan Island.
MAX:
It was about three hours long and they got a really good orientation.
MAX:
There's a commentary by someone on the boat and James said it's really interesting and funny.
MAX:
How about that for the first morning?
JOHN:
So, that's the morning.
JOHN:
How about in the afternoon we go into Greenwich Village and walk around the stalls there?
JOHN:
If we feel like some more shopping later, we can go down to Fifth Avenue and check out the really famous stalls like Tiffany's and Bloomingdale's.
MAX:
We could finish the afternoon by going up the Empire State Building.
JOHN:
For dinner, we could go to Little Italy or Chinatown.
JOHN:
I've heard so much about those places.
MAX:
I'm not so keen on Chinese food, but Italian sounds great.
JOHN:
So, that's day one settled.
JOHN:
On day two, I'd like to see the modern art in the Metropolitan Museum.
JOHN:
Would you like to do that?
MAX:
Not really, but why don't you do that and I'll go to the zoo in Central Park.
MAX:
I've always wanted to go there and I know that you don't like zoos.
MAX:
Afterwards, we can meet up and walk through the park a little and have lunch.
JOHN:
After that, would you like to take the ferry out to Staten Island in the afternoon?
MAX:
We could have dinner out there as well and take an evening ferry home.
JOHN:
That just leaves day three, the last day then.
JOHN:
What would you like to do first?
MAX:
Well, we will have been rushing around all the other days.
MAX:
Why don't we just go and have a leisurely breakfast down by the water somewhere?
MAX:
How about down near the UN building on the East River?
MAX:
We can just eat, relax and read a paper or something.
MAX:
You know, just soak up the atmosphere.
JOHN:
That's a good idea.
JOHN:
It will be nice to relax.
JOHN:
And shall we just leave the afternoon free for now and see what happens?
JOHN:
There's bound to be something going on and we can always go to the tourism office and get some recommendations.
MAX:
In the evening though, I did have something I'd like to do.
MAX:
I've checked and the New York Mets have a baseball game that night.
MAX:
I'd love to see a baseball game.
MAX:
Would you like that?
JOHN:
Sure, that sounds fun.
JOHN:
We can just have hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner at the game.
MAX:
And then the next morning, we have to be at Grand Central Station at 9am for our train to Boston.
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That is the end of section one.
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You will now have half a minute to check your answers.
