Exercise 2A, page 1 - English File Studetn's book, pre-intermediate, Oxford

1 READING & LISTENING

a Read the title and the introduction to a story. Which of the four things do you think is the worst to lose when you're on holiday?

b Read the story sent by a reader to an online magazine. What did Stuart lose? Did he find it?

c Read the story again. Then cover it and correct the bold information.

1 Stuart went to the Alps with his family.

Stuart went to the Alps with his friends.

2 One day, they went cycling.

3 It took three hours to get to the top of the mountain.

4 They had a snack at the top of the mountain.

5 The view wasn't very good.

6 Stuart wanted to take another photo, but he couldn't find his camera.

7 He went back up the mountain with one of his friends.

8 They spent an hour looking for the phone.

9 It started to get warmer.

10 He found his phone in his bag.

11 His friends were angry about it.

d 2.1 Listen to a recording sent to the magazine. What did Marta lose? Did she find it?

Marta, from Madrid, Spain

0:32/3:38

e Listen to Marta's story again. Answer the questions.

1 When did it happen?

2 Where did Marta want to go on holiday? Why?

3 Why did she fly to Brussels?

4 What happened at the gate in Brussels airport?

5 How did she feel?

6 What did the policeman say?

7 Where did she fly in the end? What happened there?

f Have you ever lost anything important on holiday? What was it? What happened?

‘Passport, tickets, money, phone’

It's the mantra we always say to ourselves when we go on holiday to make sure we haven't forgotten anything. But what happens when one of those things is suddenly missing? Email us your stories or send us a recording...

‘Last year, I went on holiday to the Alps with a group of friends. One day, we climbed a mountain – well, it wasn't really a climb, but it was a long walk – and it took about two hours to get to the top. When we got there, we had lunch. The view was amazing – we could see the sea in the distance. We took photos and just sat in the sun for a while.

Then we went down again, and when we got back to the car, I wanted to take another photo, but I couldn't find my phone – it wasn't in my bag. I thought 'Oh no! It's probably at the top of the mountain, where we had lunch.' I decided the only thing to do was to go back up the mountain to get it, because I didn't want to leave my phone up there. My friends said 'OK, but you can't go on your own', so in the end we all went up again, which was another two hours.

When we got to the top we spent about half an hour looking for the phone, but we couldn't find it anywhere. Then it started to get colder – it was now late afternoon – so I took my jacket out of my bag, and... my phone was in my jacket pocket!

I felt terrible, and really stupid! My friends were very nice about it, but they never let me forget it!’

Stuart, from Exeter, UK

2.1 Marta's story

This happened two years ago. I'm Spanish, but I was in Ireland at the time because I had a job in Dublin. Some friends of mine who lived in Lyon, in France, invited me to come and stay so I decided to have a short holiday, a long weekend, from Friday to Tuesday. I looked for cheap flights but I couldn't find any direct ones. The only thing I could find was Ryanair from Dublin to Brussels and then Air France from Brussels to Lyon.

Anyway, the flight to Brussels was fine, and when I arrived I went to the gate for my next flight to Lyon, but then when I needed to show my boarding pass and my ID, I couldn't find my ID card. I looked everywhere, in my bag, in my case, but it wasn't there. The people at the gate were very nice and they made some phone calls, but nobody could find it. So they told me to wait in a small room and I sat there for more than an hour, and my flight to Lyon left without me.

It was awful – I cried – I was so stressed and unhappy. In the end, a policeman came and he said that I couldn't go to France because I didn't have any ID – the only place I could go was to Spain to get a new ID card! I waited another five or six hours for the flight to Madrid, feeling very depressed.

So I never had my holiday! I spent the weekend in Madrid getting my new ID card!