Academic English

Listen to the recording plane travel and read along with the conversation. Review the key vocabulary and the sample sentences.

Hello. Passengers of flight 17 bound for Caracas, with stops in Atlanta and Miami. The departure gate has been changed to 30B. Also, there will be a slight departure delay due to inclement weather outside. The ground crew is in the process of deicing the wings in preparation for departure. It also looks like the flight is slightly overbooked, so we are offering complimentary round-trip tickets to a few passengers willing to take a later flight. We should be boarding about a quarter to the hour. Thank you for your patience.

• inclement (adjective): severe 
  – The game was canceled due to inclement weather.
• crew (noun): an organized group of workers 
  The ship’s crew were very helpful during the cruise.
• deice (verb): make or become free of frost or ice, defrost 
  – You need to deice the windshield this morning. It dropped below freezing last night.
• overbook (verb): too many seats, for example, have been reserved in advance
  – Airlines tend to overbook seats on their flights which can be an inconvenience to some passengers.
• complimentary (adjective): free, gratuitous
  This hotel provides a complimentary breakfast for all its guests.
• board (noun): to get on an aircraft, ship, train, bus, etc. 
  – We should board the train at least ten minutes before departure.