Living in a city

(Part 1)

A strange and exclusive word is “city”. How can you describe a city? Even for an old inhabitant it is rather difficult. When you arrive in a city you can notice a lot of streets, roads, signs and of course we can’t imagine a modern city without multi-storey buildings, which extend for miles.

In the 20^th century cities grew very quickly. People from the villages moved to towns and cities, they dreamt of having a house or a flat there but also they wished to own a small piece of land with a cottage or a simple country house somewhere out of the city. So what is better: to live in a city or in a village, or how to combine both?

It goes without saying that the cities provide excellent shop facilities and various sport facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, stadiums, etc.. There are a lot of cultural centres such as theatres, exhibitions where people can raise their intellect and cultural level. Besides there are sightseeing facilities due to which the inhabitants and visitors can go around the most remarkable places of interest in a city such as churches, cathedrals, museums and monuments. Moreover, the advantage of living in a big city is in choosing different professions or to get better education or to become a highly-qualified specialist.

But without any doubt, people in big cities suffer from noise, water and air pollution, overpopulation, criminal situation, stresses, because people are always in a hurry, they have to cover too long distances every day and are often trapped in traffic jams. All these factors influence people’s health, they get nervous and irritable.

Exercise 4. Answer the questions to the text:

1. How can you describe a modern city?

2. How many generations of your family live in a city?

3. When did cities grow very quickly? Why?

4. Does your city grow intensively now?

5. Where are better shopping facilities: in a city or in a village?

6. Where can you see more places of interest?

7. Where can you promote your career as a specialist more effectively?

8. What do people in big cities suffer from?

9. Why do they often get nervous and irritable?

Exercise 5. Match definitions a-h to the adjectives 1-8 on the right with the help of a dictionary.

a) rather dirty	1. awe-inspiring
b) full of people who are very busy or lively (especially a place0	2. haphazard
c) not organized, not arranged according to a plan	3. tacky
d) very tall or high in the sky (especially buildings or trees)	4. grubby
e) so loud, big or noticeable that you just can’t ignore it	5. clogged
f) cheap and badly made or vulgar	6. bustling
g) giving a feeling of respect and amazement	7. soaring
h) blocked so that nothing can pass through (especially a place)	8. in-your-face

Exercise 6. Read the text with the help of a dictionary. There are three paragraphs in this text. Say what the purpose of each one is: