Пособие по обучению практике устной и письменной речи (начальный этап) на английском языке Под ред. О. В. Серкиной
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2.24. a) Look at this extract from a radio talk show and check your answers.b) Divide the class into two groups. Group A - make up a similar quiz of 5-7 questions about the world; Group B - make up a quiz about Russia and the native city/ village of the majority of the group. Exchange your quizzes and take your time to do them. Then discuss the results in class. Mike: Thank you John, and now it’s back to the studio for the answers to last week’s quiz. Sue? Sue: Thanks, Mike. Hello, yes, and there are a few surprises in the answers this week. So let’s start with the first question, which I think held the biggest surprise for our contestants. According to data collected by the UN, 53% of the world’s population lives in cities, whilst 47% live in rural areas. In the EU the percentage of people living in urban centres rises to staggering 74% and even higher 76% in the USA. It would appear that there is a steady movement towards urban areas and the proportion of city dwellers will continue to rise. Although it may seem a fairly straightforward question to answer, there is still some discussion as to which is the world’s largest capital. This is mainly due to the difficulty in deciding where the world’s largest cities actually end as they all tend to be surrounded by mass of satellite towns which all merge into one large agglomeration. If we take ‘city’ to mean the population which lives within the city limits, the Mexico City, with a population of more than 23,000,000, is the world’ largest capital, closely followed by Seoul at 12,000,000 and Tokyo at 8,000,000. Likewise, it is very difficult to tell which is Europe’s noisiest capital, mainly as there don’t seem to be any standardised noise pollution measurements across the countries of the EU, and very few exhaustive studies have been carried out. However, it is widely recognised that Athens is the European capital which suffers from the worst noise pollution levels. It is not known whether this information is based on popular opinion or on statistical data from Greek authorities, however. Judging from the entries we’ve received, this will come as quite a surprise to some of our listeners. On to the forth question. There is still some debate over this one. The Syrians claim that their capital city, Damascus, is the world’s oldest city, though other Middle Eastern inhabitants would claim that their capitals are just as old. Sources seem to suggest that the Syrians are right and that their capital is indeed the oldest in the world, having been continuously inhabited since 5000 BC. Question five was pretty straightforward. There is no doubt whatsoever about which of the world’s capital cities is the highest. La Paz, in the Bolivian Andes, stands four kilometres above sea level. And finally, the last question, again a fairy straightforward question. The first city to have reached a population of 1,000,000 was Rome which had population of over a million during the heyday of the Roman Empire in 133 BC. London reached the mark in 1810 and New York in 1875. Today there are over 300 cities in the world that boast a population in excess of one million. So, the winners this week are Jane Turbot from Whitstable in Kent, Carol Jackson from St. Andrews … 2.25. a) Read some results of two surveys in which people living in rural and urban areas were asked about how happy they were with where they lived. Comment on them. b) Make up 5 questions that people could have been asked in the survey. Use the questions to do a similar short survey in the class.
2.26. a) Match each sentence (1-8) on the left with an appropriate response (a-h) on the right. Use the words in bold to help you. b) Develop the dialogue with a partner by adding new details to it. 1. I enjoy a rurallifestyle. A. Really? So why are we seeing so much construction inthe countryside around London? 2. There isn’t much pollutionif youlive B. I'm not so sure. All those pesticides outside a town. and chemical fertilisersthat farmers use nowadays can't be good for the environment. 3. There is a lot of productive land inthis C. That's probably because we import area. more food from abroad. 4. In recent years, there has been a lot of D. Mostly wheat, oats and barley. migrationfrom towns to cities. 5. The government has promised to leave E. Really? How much is that in acres? the green belt alone, 6. There has been a huge reduction in the F. I'm not surprised. With such terrible amount of arable landover the last prospects within towns, depopulation twenty years. is inevitable. 7.My uncle's farm covers almost 800 G. Well I can't see much evidence of hectares. cultivation. 8. What are the main crops grown in this H. Really? I always find there’s area? nothing to do in the countryside. F 2.27. a) Read this article and fill in the gaps with the most suitable word or phrase. In some cases, more than one answer may be possible. b) Underline all the adjectives used to describe the city and its facilities. or seven years I lived in Singapore, a (1)_______of almost three million people. Like London, Paris and New York, Singapore is a (2) __________city, with people from different parts of the world living and working together. I enjoyed the (3) ______ lifestyle I led there, and made the most of the superb (4) __________, ranging from the excellent shops to some of the best restaurants in the world. In the evenings and at weekends there were always (5) _______; with such diverse attractions as classical western music, an exhibition of Malay art or a Chinese opera in the street; it was difficult to get bored. Perhaps most impressive, however, was the remarkable transport (6) ________, with excellent roads, a swift and efficient bus service and a state-of-the-art underground system which could whisk (7) _______ from the suburbs straight into the heart of the city (this was particularly important, as the government banned private cars from entering the (8)__________ during the morning and afternoon (9) ________ in order to reduce (10) __________ on the roads and (11) __________ from the exhausts). Of course, living in a city like this has its disadvantages as well. For a start, the (12) ________ can be very high - renting an apartment, for example, is very expensive. And as the city is expanding, there are a lot of (13) _______ where new apartments are continually being built to deal with the (14) ________ which is a direct result of the government encouraging people to have more children. Fortunately, Singapore doesn't suffer from problems that are common in many cities such as (15) _________, which is partly the result of the government imposing very severe penalties on anyone bringing narcotics into the country, so it is safe to walk the streets at night. In fact, the inner-city housing estates there are probably the safest and most orderly in the world. Singapore wouldn't be ideal for everyone, however, especially if you come from the countryside and are used to a (16) _________ lifestyle. The traditional villages that were once common have disappeared as the residents there realised there were no prospects for their future and moved into new government housing in the city. Nowadays, there is very little (17) _________ around the city, which means that Singapore imports almost all of its food. And despite a 'green' approach to city planning, the (18) _______ which has eaten into the countryside has had a detrimental effect on the (19) ________. B |