Track 13

Track 13.

You will hear a student, Claude, asking for information about the Healthy Eating Society.

First you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.

Hello, is that the Healthy Eating Soc?

Yes, it is, Catherine speaking.

How can I help?

I was given one of your leaflets and am interested in joining.

I know you go out for dinner twice a week, but what else do you do?

Well, we don’t do anything on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays, but every Wednesday is our first restaurant visit of each week.

It’s not always the same place, sometimes we’ll go to The Red Tomato, other times we go to Herbs and Flowers, but it’s always somewhere that serves vegetarian food.

We meet at half past seven on the High Street.

Sounds good.

What about Thursdays?

Well, on Thursdays, we usually go off to my aunt’s house.

She lends us her kitchen and we all prepare a meal together, a big curry, or something.

There’s a limit of twelve people, so you need to put your name down.

We get there for eight o’clock.

She lives in Wednesford, so you’ll need money for the bus fare.

Wednesford?

That’s funny, it’s like, ‘When’s the food?’

No, it’s spelt W-E-D-N-E-S-F-O-R-D.

It’s a village a few miles out of town.

Anyway, Friday is our other restaurant evening, not vegetarian this time.

We usually meet around 6 o’clock in a juice bar, and once everyone has arrived, we’ll head off to a fantastic restaurant in town that serves European food.

We always sit down to eat at 7.00.

And that’s in town, is it?

It’s right in the center, so you get the bus to Central Square, which is where the juice bar is.

It’s right next to the little theater.

The restaurant we go to is round the corner in the covered market.

It’s opposite the cinema.

OK, I think I’ve got that.

And do you do anything over the weekend?

Not a lot.

It gets busy in town on a Saturday night, so the only thing we do is meet at midday for what we call Coffee Club, just in the canteen in the Students Union.

They do good pastries.

Before you hear the rest of the conversation you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.

Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.

Well, it all sounds lots of fun.

How much does it cost to join?

It depends.

If you go to all of the activities every week, believe me, I know, it can cost you around £40 or more.

I originally thought about charging people something like £5 per week as a membership fee, but it takes so much time to collect that it’s not worth it.

So it’s actually free to be a member.

Mm, £40 is a bit above my budget.

Oh, don’t worry.

You don’t have to come to everything, and you don’t have to come every week.

It’s entirely up to you.

How long do you usually take to have dinner?

We’re usually in a restaurant for two hours having dinner, so the whole evening lasts about three hours, if you include the drink in the juice bar beforehand.

And what about the service charge at the end of a meal?

Do people in this country usually give something extra for the waiters?

In general, people often leave a tip of about 12-15% of the total bill.

On the other hand, if the service or the food has been bad, they may leave nothing.

We always try to make sure we give our waiters 10%.

We’d like to give them 15 or 20%, but we’re not very rich.

We’re only students, after all.

So how do I book a place on these trips?

Shall I give you a call?

No, I don’t always answer my phone.

Some of our members send me a text message, which is fine, but I get so many that I might forget yours.

The most reliable way to contact me is to send an email.

Great.

So is there anything else I need to know?

No, I don’t think so.

Oh, there is one more thing.

It’s really important.

What’s that?

Well, a lot of the people have very strong opinions about which is the best restaurant in town, which is the best national dish, which country has the best cooks.

All of those things are fine, but if you want to fit in with the group, try to avoid talking about celebrity chefs.

That’s when the arguments really start!