Listen to a conversation between two students.

(woman) Hey, Mike, how’s it going?
(man) OK
(woman) Something’s the matter?
(man) Well, sort of, I’m taking this French class.
(woman) OK?
(man) And one of the class requirements is a weekend trip to Canada to Montreal which is in the French-speaking part of Canada. It’s only like five hours from here. So the next weekend the whole class’s going on a bus. We’re supposed to practice French, you know, talk to people and we’re going to a play.
(woman) Sounds like fun.
(man) Yeah, I’d love to go.
(woman) But?
(man) Well, we’ll be crossing an international boarder so in order to go you need a passport. The professor told us a while ago to be sure to get a passport but I completely forgot to apply for one.
(woman) What are you gonna do?
(man) Well, I talked to my professor and she said I could fulfill the requirement a different way if I want. Instead of going on the trip, I could stay here and write a short paper about Montreal.
(woman) In French?
(man) Yeah, I’d have to do a little research and write about three pages. Talk about Montreal, its history or whatever, in French. It wouldn’t be too hard.
(woman) But then you’d miss out on a great trip to Montreal.
(man) I know.
(woman) Well, you know there’s another option. You can probably still get a passport in time if you go directly to US Passport Office and pay extra. Then you could go.
(man) Yeah, actually, I looked into that. I can still get a passport in time, but to get it at the last minute is expensive, like, 150 dollars. And I don’t know if I want to spend that much.
(woman) That is a lot of money.