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Unit 7

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UNIT 7

COMMUNICATION
(THE ART OF COMPLAINING)

Everyday Annoyances that Drive Us Completely Mad

Sound familiar?! These are the dreaded words that blast out of automated checkout tills up
and down the country. Annoying? You bet! And it's not the only daily irritant guaranteed to
raise the stress levels of even the most laid-back individual...

And breathe in…

Imagine the scene. It’s a typical day. You wake up full of the joys and decide to invest in a
spot of retail therapy. You drive into the car park, collect a ticket from the machine and
successfully squeeze your car into the smallest (and only remaining) space which happens to
be between two large concrete posts. Annoying? Oh yes. Especially when your car isn’t fitted
with rear parking sensors.

Not the time for a selfie…

You head into town and are quickly confronted by another major irritation. The streets are
crowded with shoppers and the store you require is at the other end of the high street.
Weaving in and out, you’re only four shops away from the one you need when it happens.
The person in front of you stops abruptly. But they’re not going into a shop, oh no. They’ve
decided to take a selfie (and have a chat with their mate) just for the hell of it!

(What’s your response if it happened to you? )

Cheque it out…

You move onto the bank. You need to cash a good old-fashioned cheque. Only, the queue is
huge so you head to the paying-in machine. The one which quite clearly states it accepts
cheques. So why is it, no matter how many times you try to glide the cheque into the machine
it keeps spitting it out at you? It’s the wrong way round. It can’t recognize the handwriting. The
amount’s wrong. You name it, it doesn’t like it and don’t even get us started on trying to feed
actual monetary notes into the machine. No matter which way it goes in, it comes back out twice
as fast. The Queen’s head, it seems, is just never the right way round!
(What’s your response if it happened to you? )
“Unexpected item in bagging area…”

You move on to the supermarket. You’ve only got 5 items, so you head
straight to the self- checkout. The first 3 items scan fine. But number 4
proves much more troublesome. “Unexpected item in bagging area,” the
mechanical voice booms. “Please remove item and wait for assistance.” It’s at
this point that a queue has started to form behind you. Your face begins to
turn an attractive shade of puce and you stand holding your loaf of bread
getting more and more exasperated waiting for an assistant to hold some
mystical key fob against the machine so you can continue.
(What’s your response if it happened to you?
_________________________________)
https://www.lifedeathprizes.com/amazing-stuff/unexpected-item-bagging-
area-2340

A. Match the words below with its definitions


1) Familiar (adj) a. face up to and deal with (a problem or difficult situation).
2) Dread (v) b. suddenly and unexpectedly
3) Squeeze (v) c. firmly press (something soft or yielding), typically with
one's fingers.
4) Confront (v) d. anticipate with great apprehension or fear
5) Abruptly (adv) e. well known from long or close association

B. Which of these descriptions fits you best? Give examples to support your
answer.

 a silent sufferer = very rarely complain


 a calm, collected type = only complain if absolutely have to
 an activist = complain because it’s his/her right
 a whiner = always complain about everything

Example:
 I think I’m an activist. For example, I always complain if someone smokes in
front of me and
the smoke irks me.
 I guess I must be a silent sufferer. I never complain to the people
smoking near me even the smoke really annoys me.

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