Advanced English Test for Tourism and Catering READING SAMPLE MATERIAL

You can spend 60 minutes on the Reading test. Write all the answers on the Answer sheet. Questions 1-4 Choose the most suitable headings for boxes 1-4 in the text from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-v) in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet. There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use one of them. List of headings (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) More surprises Hotels of the past Service with a smile The great escape Recycled office space

Hotel 2050
We may not all be in the hospitality business, but we know what you like. But would your preferences correspond with visions of twenty-first-century future hotels? David Churchill has his own views. A Four young architectural students from Poland may have the right idea about what the hotel of the twenty-first century will look like: a floating giant-sized helium-filled dirigible that drifts above the horizon, offering spectacular views and all the services the traveller of the next century would come to expect. B Sounds far-fetched? Not necessarily, since all the technology is in place at the moment to make it work: indeed, dirigibles are somewhat rather old-fashioned technology for the bright new Millennium. What the young Polish students discovered and which won them a prize in a recent international architectural competition is that imagination is the key when it comes to viewing the future. CLEVER CONCEPTS C They were not alone in coming up with some clever concepts of what the hotel of the future would look like. Young French architects also saw the hotel of the future as being more mobile than we are traditionally used to. They developed a design for a hotel vehicle, which they called a turtle and which can slide on water and fly over land, incorporating advanced technology while bringing its guests closer to nature. Travellers may choose to locate either in the natural setting of a lagoon, or within a volcano, with technology providing the capability to enjoy either, they argued in their award-winning submission.

INSPIRED JELLYFISH D Slightly more practical was the overall winning design in the competition, put forward by a group of Oklahoma-based students. Their premise was that with 70 per cent of the earths surface covered by ocean, it seemed that an underwater hotel offered the best solution. The design inspiration is derived from a jellyfish, whose top portion serves as an instrument for propulsion and buoyancy, and whose lower portion is where the essence of the organism lies, the students suggested. E They saw a future hotel as being a place of refuge from the highly technological and sometimes impersonal world of 50 years time. It would be located in any aquatic location where water temperature is conducive to swimming, and whose depth is adequate to hold the structure. 1. F Not all of the next generation of international architects, however, believe that hotel design of the future will need such radical re-engineering. Emily Fisher from Ball State University in Indiana took a more pessimistic view than most of her contemporaries: she saw the need in the next half-century to design hotels that utilised empty office towers in urban centres, vacated by the new generation of internet-linked home-workers. G Her idea is to use the shell of these empty skyscrapers to provide a self-sufficient hotel: prefabricated room pods hang from the structure by cables, surrounding a large atrium. Pods may be inserted and removed as needed. H The hotel building, she adds, is designed as a bridge between ground and air transportation a gateway to the city streets for those arriving by air and a gateway to the sky for those arriving by land. The judges liked the idea: Its one thing to build brand-new structures all over, while this has a sense of discovering things we already have. The future will offer many opportunities for this kind of revitalisation of urban centres with outdated buildings. HAVENS OF SOLITUDE I Howard Wolff, a partner in international architects Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (they designed the Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Paris outside Paris) who sponsored the competition to celebrate their 50th anniversary, believes that the lessons to be drawn from the young architects were very positive, even though most were slightly pessimistic about the future. J Given that the students were given a free rein to use their imagination to look into the first half of the next century, their ideas mostly lacked the hard edge of practicality. But considering that most hotel design has not changed much in the past 50 years the Ritz in London, for example, has just celebrated its ninetieth birthday looking much the same as it did in Edwardian times how likely is change to come about? And what are the key trends that will shape hotels for the next generation? BUSINESS AS USUAL K Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest trend will be that the basic design of hotels will probably not change that much: hotels will still need to provide the same facilities of accommodation and amenities that they do today. Smart hotels will join the ranks of smart buildings, able to save their owners and operators large sums of money through effective systems management. Behind the scenes, hotel operators will utilise computerised buildings systems and controls to monitor room usage, energy management, staff levels, security and so on. L Smart building materials will also impact on hotel design. Already there are eyeglasses that darken when outside and lighten when entering a building: such smart glass

in architecture will be able to change the transparency and colour of hotels almost on demand. 2. M Many hotel operators are implementing ways to improve the level of service. Business travellers in particular complain most strongly about check-in and check-out delays: hence the move to provide alternatives to the conventional front-desk, with new check-in methods utilising credit cards which enable the guest to go directly to their rooms. Public areas are also becoming smaller, more comfortable and in some cases offering more flexible spaces. N This service-led strategy is known to some futurists as mass customisation the one person/one product approach that is gaining momentum in every customer field. People want the freedom to choose and not the one-size-fits-all, take-it-or-leave-it attitude that has been so prevalent in the past. If travellers want an underseas hotel, then that is what they will get. GLOBAL CONNECTIONS O Video-conferencing and e-mail have not stopped the need for business meetings, just as video rentals have not had the negative impact on cinema attendance many feared. P Hence the need for business meetings, conferences, symposiums, seminars, workshops and exhibitions will continue to expand, placing an increasing demand on hotels to provide facilities that respond to the particular need of each of these activities. 3. Q Hotels will less often be viewed as single-purpose properties: either a business hotel or a leisure resort, with the associated problems of providing the right type of amenities from the same facilities to different groups. There will be a blurring of what defines leisure: the traditional holiday concept of rest and relaxation will remain, but there will be a demand for new leisure activities and entertainment experiences: hotels will have to create such activity centres to woo their customers. More business travellers will seek to combine a business trip with a leisure break, utilising more effective available time. R At the same time, some hotels will capitalise on the growing demand for interactive entertainment and gambling, typified by the giant leisure complexes that characterise modern Las Vegas. The combination of hospitality, leisure and entertainment and gambling is not just limited to the exotic locations of Vegas or Sun city in South Africa, but will become applicable even in city centres and resort locations world-wide. 4. S As with all crystal-ball gazing into the future, the hotels of the next generation may yet surprise us all. Certainly much of the existing hotel planning for the future is centred on the room and improving that immediate environment for the traveller. Marriotts Room that Works, Westins Guest Office, Hyatts Business Plan and Hiltons Smart Desk, featured in earlier issues of Business Life are all concepts that seek to turn a hotel bedroom into an office during the day. T But with out-of-room design, the trend seems towards a more leisure-based approach, seeking to create the familiarity of a home-from-home in the public areas, and to look for more innovative exterior design. Yet there remain many unresolved issues that will determine the shape of hotels to come: many of todays destinations are likely to be overbuilt or seem old hat to tomorrows increasingly sophisticated traveller. How far will travellers go to see something new and unspoiled, and will society allow the environment to

be threatened in this way? Perhaps the idea put forward by New York students of capturing a near-Earth asteroid and building a hotel in space by the middle of the next century doesnt seem so far-fetched after all. If only Cesar Ritz were alive to see it happen.
(Business Life, 1996)

Questions 5-11 Indicate which design/designs the following information refers to. It can refer to more than one designs or to none. Tick the appropriate boxes on your answer sheet. The design of Polish French OklaEmily students students homa Fischer students 5. It serves as an airport, too. 6. An animal gave the idea of the design. 7. It is specially built for business travellers. 8. It can move. 9. The technology of building it is not yet available. 10. It won the first prize. 11. It is an opportunity to leave outside world and get closer to nature. Questions 12-16 Indicate where the hotels are located by ticking the appropriate boxes on your answer sheet. You can tick more than one boxes if appropriate. in air The design of 12. Polish students 13. French students 14. Oklahomabased students 15. Emily Fischer 16. New Yorkbased students in water on waters surface on earths surface in the universe New York students

Questions 17-22 Fill in the summary about the main trends of hotel industry by CHOOSING NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each blank from the text of paragraphs K-L. Write your answers in boxes 17-19 on your answer sheet. It is likely that the principal .................... (17) will be similar to what it is today. However, there will be big changes in .................... (18), which will be computerised more than ever.

The other big change in hotel design will be due to the influence of .................... (19), which will soon be used in architecture as well. Fill in the summary about the look of future hotels by CHOOSING ONE WORD for each blank from the text of paragraphs S-T. Write your answers in boxes 20-22 on your answer sheet. A hotel room will be like a(n) .................... (20), public areas will be like a(n) .................... (21), the outside shape will be .................... (22). Questions 23 - 27 In boxes 23 - 27 on your answer sheet write T if the statement is TRUE according to the text F if the statement is FALSE according to the text NS if the statement is NOT STATED in the text. 23. The Ritz in London is going to be refurbished soon to get a new look. 24. Some hotels have already got windows that darken or lighten according to needs. 25. Business travellers will be able to check-in without having to go to the check-in desk. 26. Mass customisation means the same as one-size-fits-all attitude. 27. Future hotels will fall into three main categories serving either business travellers or holiday-makers or gamblers. Questions 28 - 30 Choose the appropriate letter a) - d) and write it in boxes 28 - 30 on your answer sheet. 28. The Oklahoma-based students hotel can be located in water which a) is warm and deep enough for the guests to swim in. b) is warm enough for the guests to swim in and deep enough for the construction. c) makes it possible for the construction to float. d) never freezes due to mild climate. 29. According to Emily Fischers design, old office buildings will be converted in the following way: a) The old walls will be changed for mobile ones on each floor. b) A cable system will be installed to access city streets easier. c) All the inside walls will be removed. d) All the inside walls and floors will be removed. 30. The appearance of video-conferencing and e-mail will a) not affect the increasing demand for facilities of business meetings and conferences. b) result in increasing demand to install such facilities in hotel rooms. c) result in decreasing demand for facilities of business meetings and conferences. d) result in increasing demand for facilities of business meetings and conferences.

Advanced English Test for Tourism and Catering SAMPLE MATERIAL Reading

Code: Score:

First Marker: Second Marker:

ANSWER SHEET

1. 2. 3. 4. The design of
Polish students French students Oklahoma students Emily Fischer New York students

5. It serves as an airport, too. 6. An animal gave the idea of the design. 7. It is specially built for business travellers. 8. It can move. 9. The technology of building it is not yet available. 10. It won the first prize. 11. It is an opportunity to leave outside world and get closer to nature. in air The design of 12. Polish students 13. French students 14. Oklahomabased students 15. Emily Fischer 16. New Yorkbased students 17. 18. 19. in water on waters surface on earths surface in the universe

20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Advanced English Test for Tourism and Catering Reading

KEY

SAMPLE MATERIAL

1. 2. 3. 4.

v iii iv i The design of

Polish students French students Oklahoma students Emily Fischer New York students

5. It serves as an airport, too. 6. An animal gave the idea of the design. 7. It is specially built for business travellers. 8. It can move. 9. The technology of building it is not yet available. 10. It won the first prize. 11. It is an opportunity to leave outside world and get closer to nature. in air The design of 12. Polish students 13. French students 14. Oklahomabased students 15. Emily Fischer 16. New Yorkbased students 17. design/facilities 18. systems management 19. smart building materials 20. office 21. home 22. innovative 23. NS 24. F

in water

on waters surface

on earths surface

in the universe

25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

T F F b d a