3
CITYSCAPES
Houses and homes Places in a city Adjectives describing cities 1 Complete the text with these words. Vocabulary in context
Reading
18 Listen and check your answers.
2
A DIFFERENT WAY TO VISIT LONDON
war in the 19 th century by using herbal remedies.
speaking Discuss these questions. 1 Which of these types of home are similar or different in your country? 2 Do you have types of home that do not appear in the text? What are they? 3 What type of home do you live in? Imagine you go to visit an important city for the first time. Which of the places below would you probably be interested in visiting? Which would you probably not be interested in visiting? Why not? speaking art gallery • b ridge • castle • city centre • factory • fountain • housing estate • industrial estate • market • museum • outskirts • palace • park • port • skyscraper • square • statue • suburbs • theatre • town hall 19 Places in a city speaking Look at these words. Divide the words into these three columns: Positive/ Negative/It depends. If it depends, what does it depend on? Use a dictionary if necessary. busy • c harming • clean • crowded • dirty • historic • impressive • lively • modern • noisy • peaceful • popular • quiet • run-down 20 Adjectives describing cities
3
People forgot about her after her death, but now, perhaps thanks partly to her plaque, she has taken her place in history again. (5) So it’s
block of flats • b ungalow • cottage • detached house • flat • houseboat • mansion • semi-detached house • terraced house 17 Houses and homes
(1) If you have, I’m sure you’ve already seen lots of blue plaques on your walks. These plaques celebrate famous people and the historic link they have with the building where you find them. The plaques help you get inside the history of the city, and the fascinating people who have lived there. (2) But the organisation that awards them only gives them to somebody who has been dead for at least 20 years. The person doesn’t need to be from Britain, and they can be famous for any reason. But the building where the blue plaque goes needs to be more or less in the same condition as when the person lived there. (3) However, not all famous people begin their lives in luxury. A good example is Freddie Mercury, the singer in Queen. He arrived in London from Zanzibar (now Tanzania) in 1964 and lived in a modest terraced house on the outskirts of London which had no central heating. He was living in the house when he met guitarist Brian May and they formed a band. A plaque has been there since 2016. (4) But one of the great things about the blue plaques is that they also celebrate the lives of heroes who are less well- known. Take Mary Seacole, for example. She was a Jamaican nurse who helped to save the lives of many soldiers during a
4
no surprise that there are plaques for famous foreigners such as the artist Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh lived in
Culture exchange
e You may expect all these plaques to be on the walls of stunning palaces or huge mansions. f Nearly everybody knows Freddie Mercury. 21 Why have these people got blue plaques? 1 Mary Seacole 2 Van Gogh 3 Luke Howard 4 Jacob Von Hogflume 5 What do the underlined words in the text mean? Guess and then check in your dictionary. Critical thinkers 6 4 London for a year when he was 20 years old. He hadn’t started painting yet, but his visits to see the paintings in the National Gallery probably inspired some of his later works. And it’s clear that London was a city close to his heart. One day he received a painting of Westminster Bridge and told his brother, ‘When I saw this painting, I felt how much I love London.’ (6) They could be for world-famous singers like David Bowie or actors like Charlie Chaplin. Or they may be there to celebrate somebody you’ve never heard of before, like ‘Luke Howard (1772–1864). Namer of clouds’, the first person to use the words cumulus , stratus , cirrus and others to describe cloud shapes. And what about the plaque that has just appeared that says ‘Jacob Von Hogflume, 1864–1909, Inventor of Time Travel, Lived here in 2189’? Don’t worry. The plaque was a joke.
Homes in the UK There are different types of houses in the UK. In big cities, where space is a problem, many people live in a (a) . This is the smallest type of home, where one big, perhaps tall building, a (b) , is divided into many different homes. Perhaps the most common type of home is a (c) . This is where two houses go together and are connected by a common wall. On the other hand, it can be nice to live in a (d) because your house is completely separate, with space on both sides. If you’re really lucky and rich, you can live in style in an enormous (e) , maybe with your very own video games room! Another type of house is the (f ) . This has a house on both sides – each house is part of a line of houses. These are usually smaller and may be older. Some people live in an old, traditional (g) . These are pretty houses in villages or out in the country. Another option is a (h) , a type of house which only has one floor and no stairs. Finally, there are a number of people in the UK who prefer to live in a (i) . These are homes on rivers or canals. The great thing about these is that you can move your home about whenever you like!
Lorem ipsum
5
speaking Look at the photo above. Describe it and say what you think is happening and what the blue circle is.
1
2 Read the article quickly and check your predictions. You are going to do a missing sentences activity. In this type of activity, you need to find the best place to put various sentences taken from a text. How can you check your answers when you finish? Exam tip 3 Complete the text with these sentences. a London has always been a very cosmopolitan city. b The public can nominate a famous person for a plaque. c Have you ever visited London? d So, if you haven’t been to London yet and are planning to go one day, don’t forget to look out for blue plaques.
Use it … don’t lose it!
speaking Use the words in 4 and 5 to prepare a description of the different places in the city or town where you live or where your school is. Then read it out to the rest of the class. Which do you think is the most complete and accurate description? Our school isn’t in the city centre, but it’s quite near the centre. It’s quite peaceful here and it isn’t very noisy. In the city centre we have an impressive square …
6
In your opinion, is it better that blue plaques go to celebrities like Freddie Mercury or to less well-known people like Mary Seacole? What makes you say that? Use ideas in the text and/or other facts, opinions and experiences to justify your opinion. Then share your ideas with a partner.
Reach higher
page 137
Reach higher
page 137
32
Unit 3
Unit 3
33
Made with FlippingBook Publishing Software