Birmingham

After London the second city in Britain is Birmingham. It's in the west Midlands and has a population of just over one million. It's a big industrial centre, producing jewellery, metal and most important of all, cars. British Layland, the biggest car producers in the UK, employ thousands of people in the Birmingham area.

Birmingham grew quickly after the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century because it was in the centre of Britain with good communications and large local supplies of coal and water. In the twentieth century it expanded even more and now it's a major European city with excellent facilities. For example, in the modern city centre there is a huge shopping centre called the Bull Ring. Birmingham is also an important conference centre and is only a short distance from Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. The city's name is often abbreviated to Brum and its inhabitants (who have a very distinctive accent) are called Brummies.

Another important part of Birmingham's identity is its large immigrant population. Birmingham is a multiracial city and it also has a high student population since there are two universities in the area.

Questions:

1. What is produced in Birmingham?

2. When did it develop as a large city?

3. What is the main shopping centre called?

4. Name one special feature of the city.

2. Read the text and answer the questions that follow: edinburgh

The capital of Scotland has a population of 400,000 and is a very historic city with some of the finest architecture in Europe. Its most famous building is the castle, which dominates the rest of the city, In the summer, the famous Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place in the castle, with hundreds of soldiers in traditional Scottish costume and with music pipe bands. Also in the summer there is the Edinburgh Festival. This is Britain's biggest arts festival. The city gets thousands of visitors during the festival period and every theatre, church and school hall is used for dramma, music, film, mime or opera. As well as the official festival there is also an unofficial festival. Here the artists are amateurs and the unofficial or fringe festival is now even bigger and more popular than the official one.

The royal family have a home in Edinburgh – Holyrood House. The area between the castle and Holyrood House is called the Royal Mile. Around this part of the city are several museums and galleries, which may be one of the reasons why Edinburgh is sometimes called the Athens of the North.

(From "Club")

Questions:

1. What is the most famous building in Edinburgh?

2. What is the difference between the official and the unofficial arts festival?

3. What other European city is Edinburgh compared to?

3. Write questions about the text. Retell the text. Try and give an additional piece of information on the problem. Belfast

The original Irish name for the capital of Northern Ireland was Beal Feirste. Modern Belfast is situated at the mouth of the river Logan. It's the second biggest city in Ireland (Dublin is the biggest) and the largest port and shipbuilding centre.

In the 1920s, Ireland was divided into north and south. The south became an independent country and the north remained a part of the United Kingdom. Since then, Belfast has been the focus of a lot of political violence. The Catholics in Northern Ireland want a united Ireland, but the Protestants, a majority in the north, want to remain a part of the UK. The result has been hundreds of bomb attacks and murders in Belfast between rival groups. But behind the news and the TV pictures, life goes on as normal for most Belfasters, even if security checks, British army patrols and slogans painted on walls have become a part of the city's identity.

(From "Club")

4. Read the description of Cork, one of the Ireland's main towns. Write out any words or phrases that might be useful for describing your own or any other town. Write a paragraph about a town of your choice, using the expressions from the text.

CORK

Cork city is the major metropolis of the south; indeed with a population of about 135,000 it is the second largest city in the Republic. The main business and shopping centre of the town lies on the island created by two channels of the river Lee, with most places within walking distance of the centre. (The buses tend to be overcrowded and the one-way traffic system is very complicated.) In the hilly area of the city is the famous Shandon Steeple, the bell-tower of St. Anne's Church, built on the site of a church destroyed when the city was besieged by the Duke of Marlborough*. Back across the river Lee lies the city's cathedral, an imposing 19th century building in the French Gothic style. Cork has two markets. Those who enjoy the atmosphere of a real working market will appreciate their charm. The Crawford Art Gallery is well worth a visit. It regularly mounts adventurous exhibitions by contemporary artists. The fashionable residential districts of Cork city overlook the harbour. There are other residential areas on the outskirts.

5. Read the text. Summarize the main point of each paragraph. For example, the first one may look like this: The writer appears to think that the history of Wales is the story of a small country fighting for its life against a big one.

WALES

The history of Wales, like the history of Scotland, is the story of a small country fighting for its life against a big one. For two thousand years, the people of central and southern Britain have tried to control the small land in the west. In many ways, they have won. But the 2.8 million people of Wales still have a special spirit and life of their own.

Much of Wales, especially in the centre and north, is a wild, beautiful, mountainous country. Fifteen hundreds year ago, the Romans had left Britain, and Saxons were pushing into the country from the east. The Celtic people of Wales, safe in their mountains, fought back. But in the centuries that followed, the kings of England slowly broke the power of Wales. Since 1536, Wales has been governed from England.

Large parts of Wales have empty hills, where only a few people live. But especially in the south, coal mines and factories grew up in the nineteenth century. The cities of Swansea and Cardiff, and the towns along the Rhondda valley, are some of the most important industrial centers of Great Britain.

In both town and country, the people of Wales have always kept their own culture and traditions. The Welsh have not forgotten their independent great-great-grandfathers. The old Welsh language still lives on. About a quarter of the population speak it as well as they speak English. Welsh literature has a long tradition and can claim to be one of the oldest in Europe.

It's quite hard work to stop an old language from dying out, but no one has to work to keep music alive in Wales. The Welsh National Opera is well-known internationally. So are the brass bands, and the male voice choirs of the Rhondda.

Special festivals, known as eisteddfodau, encourage Welsh literature and music. The largest is the annual Royal National Eisteddfod, consisting of competitions in music, singing, prose and poetry entirely in Welsh. Artists from all over the world come to Llangollen for annual International Music Eisteddford.