F2F Class Notes (Raph)[S]

Vocabulary

Apartheid (n): 1- (especially in the past in South Africa) a political system in which people of different races are separated.
E.g.: Nelson Mandela was a key actor in the the long-awaited process of dismantling (= end) the apartheid system in South Africa.

Dismantle (v): 1- to get rid of a system or organization, usually over a period of time. 2- to take a machine apart or to come apart into separate pieces.
E.g.: Over the next three years, we will be gradually dismantling the company and selling off the profitable units.
E.g.: Unions accuse the government of dismantling the National Health Service.
E.g.: She dismantled the washing machine to see what the problem was, but couldn’t put it back together again.
E.g.: The good thing about the bike is that it dismantles if you want to put it in the back of the car.

Speaking exercise

Original:

My Spanish boss ask me to buy a train ticket for him last week. He told me that he wanted to spend a week in Beijing for a business trip and he wanna go there on Monday and back from Friday. I checked the calendar in front of him and I said: “so you wanna go there on the 24 of October and back on 29th?” He said yes, so I brought a copy of his passport to the closest ticket office to get him a ticket. Before I gave this ticket to him I found out that 24th was actually a Sunday, so I ran to the ticket office to asking the lady to change the day of the ticket, but she said “we can only sell tickets here. If you want to change or return you need to go to the railway station.” and I went to the railway station without telling me, because I don’t want him to doubt my ability. Then I gave him the ticket and I thought we were all good, but the day before he leaving he asked me if there was any possibility to change the ticket to Tuesday, because his boss wanted him to go with him, but I realized I couldn’t change the ticket, because following the railway station rules, we can only change once, but I was too afraid to tell my boss the truth, so I figured out a way to fix it by not telling him the truth: I bought a ticket online then I told him I booked it online because I want to make sure we have a ticket, because if we change the ticket at the railway station there might be no ticket left for Tuesday and I will return the old one after I get the new one.

Edited:

My Spanish boss asked me to buy a train ticket for him last week. He told me that he wanted to spend a week in Beijing on a business trip and he wanted to go on Monday and come back on Friday. I checked the calendar in front of him and said: “So you wanna go there on the 24th of September and come back on 29th?” He said yes, so I took a copy of his passport to the closest ticket office to get him the tickets. Before I gave him the tickets, I found out that the 24th was actually a Sunday, so I ran back to the ticket office to ask the lady to change the date. She said: “we can only sell tickets here. If you want to change or return them, you need to go to the railway station.”. I went to the railway station without telling my boss, because I didn’t want him to doubt my abilities. When I got back to the office, I gave him the tickets and thought we were all good, but the day before he was supposed to leave he asked me if there was any possibility to change it to Tuesday, because his boss wanted him to go with him. The problem was that I couldn’t change them, because according to the railway station rules, we can only change the date once. I was too afraid to tell my boss the truth, so I figured out a way to fix it without doing so: I bought a new ticket online and told him I had booked it online because I wanted to make sure we would have a ticket, because if we wanted to change them at the railway station, there might be no ticket left for Tuesday. I will return the old one after I get the new one.

Pronunciation

Apartheid: /əˈpɑːr.teɪt/

Dismantle: /dɪˈsmæn.t̬əl/