Unit 6
Unit 6 The Market
Let’s talk What would you expect to see in a market? What would you hear and smell there? Reading Skim the passage below. What type of writing is it? A Day at the Market
Dawn is breaking and the market is about to open. A few men are at work already, hosing down the stands and sweeping the floors. In the surrounding villages the market vendors are on their way, shuffling down the steep paths with their heavy baskets, and crowding into the waiting vans. It is later now and the town is on the move. The vendors have taken possession of their stands and are setting up their displays. Laughter rings out as they shout greetings and swap stories. The street is filled with throngs of neatly dressed schoolchildren on their way to school. Some of them linger at the entrance to the market, tempted by the array of spicy buns on one of the stands. A baker’s van has pulled up outside, and a crowd of people has gathered round it, lured by the smell of freshly baked bread. Now it is midday and the sun is high in the sky. The narrow alleys of the market are bustling with shoppers. On the fish sellers’ stalls I catch sight of the gleaming scales of snapper caught that morning. A vendor carrying a basket of bitter tasting tamarind cries out to advertise his wares. Brightly coloured tomatoes and peppers and leafy green cabbages are piled up on the vegetable sellers’ stands.
• Before reading the text, students can work in pairs to describe what they see in the picture. Ask What? When? Where? Who? How? questions to help them. • Reading: Explain to students that the writer has described the market at different times of the day as if s/he were actually there or filming it. That is why the description is written mainly in the present tense.
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