Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jasonlulu_2000]

From Mr. Ward Hoffman.
Sir, I was halfway through Professor Raj Persaud's article �What's the tipping point"(Financial Times Weekend, April 9-l0) when it occurred to me that what I was reading was not ironic。 If Prof Persaud wants to know why Americans tip in restaurants, he need only ask the first American he meets in London.
Americans tip in restaurants for one reason, and one reason only: we tip to supplement the salary of restaurant workers. Quality of service does not enter into it, beyond the fact that one may tip a bit less for poor service, or a little more for good service.
Not tipping at all in a non-fast-food restaurant is not a choice. In the US, one used to tip about 15 per cent for dining in a family-style restaurant or in an up-market restaurant. Here, in San Francisco Bay area restaurants, we are encouraged to tip 20 per cent or more, to help restaurant workers live in this very expensive area.
After eating at an Italian restaurant in my city, I left a tip of 20 per cent on the non-tax part of our dinner bill. It was expected. There is nothing more complicated than that about Americas tipping in restaurants.
Ward Hoffman,
Palo Altno, CA 94306, US

What can we learn from Hoffrnan's letter?
A. Quality of service determines tipping in the US.
B. Americans don't tip in non fast-food restaurants.
C. Tipping in US upmarket restaurants is unnecessary.
D. How to tip in the United States is not complicated.

From the last sentence, there is nothing more complicated than that about Americas tipping in restaurant.
Could I infer that tipping in America is the most complicated?
But the answer given is D, quite the other around. Am I wrong??

Please help me out.
thanks.

Jason

[2006]

Yes, you are wrong. According to the article, tipping in the U. S. is not complicated.

[jasonlulu_2000]

Could you tell me why?
Isn't your answer contradictory to the last sentence? "There is nothing more complicated than that about Americas tipping in restaurants. "


Help me out in great detail, please. Not just the conclusion.

Thanks

jason

[Mary W. Ng]

[2006]

There is nothing wrong with the sentence, "There is nothing more complicated than that about Americas tipping in restaurants." (except that there should be an apostrophe, "America's")

The sentence does not need to be changed. In fact, if you change it to There is nothing complicated about Americans' tipping in restaurants., it would not be a good test of your reading comprehension; you would be able to pick the answer just from that one sentence.

The article basically says that tipping in America is a simple issue; all the restaurant workers expect it to be done and all Americans do it. It's as simple as that. (= It's nothing more complicated than that.)

If the sentence said, 'There is nothing more complicated than America's tipping in restaurants.', it would mean tipping in America is the most complicated (thing). But it does not say that.

which it does nopt say

[jasonlulu_2000]

to 2006,

thanks for your further explanations.

But I've still got a question. Here is an example:
The weather of New York is better than that of LA. here "that" refers to the weather.
Likewise, could we change the sentence "There is nothing more complicated than that about America's tipping in restaurants." into the following sentence?
There is nothing more complicated than the thing about Americas tipping in restaurants.
Since nothing is more complicated than the thing about America's tipping, it can be the most complicated.
By the way, I can get the idea from the text that tipping is not difficult. But i just got stuck in the last sentence. I also could not make out the difference between the two examples you used. Could you give more examples?

Thanks again for your inconvenience.

Jason

[2006]

I have nothing more to say to you about this. If you don't want to accept my explanation, don't waste any more of your and my time asking me!

[lotus]

Hi jasonlulu_2000,

2006 is correct. "That" refers to everything said above it. The last sentence summarizes everything said previously. That was the purpose of the comprehension excercise - to recognize the critical summarizing sentence. The summarizing sentence is not always at the end. Sometimes, there's no summarizing sentence at all. In such a case, you would have to deduce the main point.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[jasonlulu_2000]

To 2006,

Sorry about my annoying persistence. although I doubt your identity as a native or not. Anyway, calm down please. This is a platform where anyone can speak out his or her query, isn't it? If you cannot get it across, why not leave it to others?

As far as the text is concerned, I can infer from most of the materials that the author thinks tipping is easy. But I just cannot get over the last sentence. Nothing is more difficult than that. Doesn't "that" refer to tipping? Isn't it contradictory to the above content?

I sincerely hope that a patient teacher would give me a hand, if it DOESN"T WASTE YOUR TIME.

thanks a million.

Jason

[2006]

The problem is not your teacher(s). You were told directly or indirectly by three people what the sentence in question means but you still think we are wrong. Maybe the English in that sentence is just too complicated for you.

But you are also careless. Why do you write "Nothing is more (complicated) than that."? THAT IS NOT what the last sentence says!

It says "There is nothing more complicated than that ABOUT..." and this means that it is not complicated. You are ignoring the word "about", which I underlined for you previously.

And "that" doesn't refer directly to tipping; "that" refers to the explanation that he gave about tipping in America.

"about" refers to tipping.

[jasonlulu_2000]

IT SINKS IN FINALLY.

Thank 2006 from the bottom of my heart. Apologize for my being so slow.