A Month with a Robot Cleaner
A review by a writer who tried a robot vacuum cleaner for a month, and a complaint letter from a customer whose robot broke down.
Tap any word to hear it · dotted words have a definition in the glossary
Text 1
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A Month with a Robot Cleaner
1I don't like cleaning, so when my parents bought a robot vacuum cleaner, I was the happiest person in the family. For a month, I watched it work and wrote down what I thought. Here is my review.
2The good news first. The robot cleans the floors while we are at work or at school. We use an app on the phone to choose the time, and when we come home, the floors are clean. When the battery is low, it goes back to its by itself. It is also quieter than our old vacuum cleaner.
3But the robot is not perfect. It often gets under the sofa, and it once ate a phone cable. Before it starts, someone has to pick up socks and toys from the floor. Its bin is small, so we need to empty it every day. And of course, it can't clean the stairs.
4Is it worth the money? For a busy family with no stairs, I think the answer is yes. It saves us about an hour of cleaning every week. However, it doesn't a real cleaning – we still clean the corners and the stairs ourselves.
5My rating: four stars out of five.
Text 2
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A Letter of Complaint
1Dear Customer Service Manager,
2I am writing to about a robot vacuum cleaner, model R-200, that I bought at your shop on 3 March.
3For the first two weeks, the robot worked well. Then it suddenly stopped. Now the battery does not charge at all, even when the robot stays on its all night. I followed all the instructions in the user's guide, but nothing helped.
4I have called your service number three times. The first time, I waited forty minutes and nobody answered. The second and third times, I was told that a would call me back the next day. Nobody has called.
5I paid a lot of money for this product, and I expected it to work for years, not for two weeks. The robot still has a one-year .
6I would like you to the robot with a new one or to give me my money back. I am attaching a copy of the . Please answer me within fourteen days. If I don't hear from you, I will contact a consumer organization for help.
7Yours sincerely,
8Dana Mizrahi
📘 Glossary
- vacuum cleaner - a machine that cleans floors by sucking up dirt
- charger - a device that gives a battery power
- stuck - not able to move
- replace - to give a new one in place of an old one
- complain - to say that you are not happy about something
- technician - a person whose job is to fix machines
- guarantee - a promise from the maker to fix or replace a product
- receipt - a paper that shows you paid for something
Questions
Making inferences · Text 1
1. Why was the writer "the happiest person in the family" (paragraph 1)?Finding details · Text 1
2. Give TWO good things about the robot, according to paragraph 2.Reference words · Text 1
3. What does the word "it" in "it goes back to its charger by itself" (paragraph 2) refer to?Finding details · Text 1
4. What must someone do before the robot starts cleaning?Finding details · Text 1
5. Why does the family need to empty the robot's bin every day?Finding details · Text 1
6. How much time does the robot save the family every week?Fact, opinion and stance · Text 1
7. What is the writer's opinion of the robot?Purpose and structure · Text 2
8. Dana wrote the letter because…Finding details · Text 2
9. What is the problem with the robot now?Finding details · Text 2
10. What happened when Dana called the service number for the first time?Finding details · Text 2
11. Give TWO things Dana asks the shop to do.Making inferences · Text 2
12. Why does Dana mention that the robot "still has a one-year guarantee"?Finding details · Text 2
13. What will Dana do if the shop doesn't answer her?Comparing texts
14. Which sentence is true about BOTH texts?
Answer every question to get a score (0/14)