They asked the restaurant

[judith]

Test No. incompl/inter-56 "High and Low", question 10
They wanted to make sure that their small daughter shared in the meal and so they asked the restaurant to provide a high ..........

(a) place
(b) seat
(c) chair
(d) position

Test No. incompl/inter-56 "High and Low", answer 10

They wanted to make sure that their small daughter shared in the meal and so they asked the restaurant to provide a high chair.

Correct answer: (c) chair

dear Torsten and Alan,

Theywanted (typo) to make sure that their small daughter shared in the meal and so they asked the restaurant to provide a high chair.

What I'm wondering abaout is : "they asked the restaurant " ?, because in German we would ask the waiter for a chair or so on, and not an object.

best wishes

judith

[Torsten]

Hi Judith,

Many thanks for pointing the typo.
As for your second remark - I think a restaurant is an organisation rather than an object and you surely can ask a company or any other organisation to do you a favour.
Let's see what Alan says.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Alan]

Hi Judith,

Just to add something to which Torsten has already written. You are asking how one can ask a restaurant to do something rather than ask a person. As Torsten has already indicated, this is perfectly acceptable. I thought back to my schooldays (which were a long time ago) and I remembered that we did some work on figures of speech. The one I have in mind is called metonymy and it means using one word to represent another, which has happened here: the restaurant really means the manager/the receptionist/a member of staff ... This figure of speech can be clearly seen in this sentence: The kettle is boiling - which really means The water is boiling.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Make or Do?

[judith]

Hi Torsten,

thank you for your response. And to make myself clearer for you Alan, I have another question. In this sentence the family is allready in the restaurant ( as I have understood it ) or they just asking for a reservation and making sure that the restaurant can them provide a high chair?

best wishes

judith

[Alan]

Hi Judith,

You certainly do want to know what went on in that restaurant!! When I wrote the sentence, all these thoughts were not going through my mind but clearly if you want to make sure something is done then you naturally arrange this beforehand.

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Colour Idioms

[judith]

"You certainly do want to know what went on in that restaurant!! "

yes of course Alan...grins* and thank you very much for your explanations.

have a nice day

judith