Dialogue 7. Taking a Taxi

Dialogue 6. Asking the Way inside a Building

A: Excuse me, how do I get to Room 240?

B: Sure. Go to the end of this corridor and turn left. You'll see a lift.

A: Yes?

B: Take the lift to the second floor and turn right. Room 240 will be on your left.

A: Thanks a lot.

B: Not at all.

Excuse me, where's the main entrance/ reception lobby/ corridor/hallway (AmE)/ Accounting Department/ Personnel Office/ canteen/ lift/elevator (AmE)/ escalator?- Take the lift to the ground/first (AmE) floor, first/second (AmE) floor, second/third (AmE) floor, top floor, basement./ Take the lift up/down.

Go straight down this corridor/hallway (AmE)./ Go through the lobby/ the door here./ Go up/down the stairs./ Go upstairs/downstairs./ It's right at the end of the corridor./ It's on the ground floor/in the basement./ It's round the corner. / It's on the right/left./ It's the second door on the left.

A: Victoria, please. I have to be there by 11:15.

B: 11:15, sir? Oh, we'll make it all right.

A: And would you stop at the Royal Hotel? I have to pick up my suitcase.

B: Righto! You're in good time. It's only five past eleven. That'll be £ 2.80 p, please.

A: Thank you very much. You can keep the change.

I'd like to go to this address. -Sure./ Could you stop/call at the Grand Hotel? Certainly, madam/sir.

a)A: Paddington, please _______9:15 train.

B: 9:15? We'll make it all right.

A: Would ______? _________ (stop at the hotel, pick up things)

B: OK. I'll wait. You're in good time. That'll be £ 3.25 p.

A: Thank you ________.

b) A: Excuse me; does this bus go to London Bridge?

B: No, _________ (change, # 720 bus)

A: Can you tell me where to get off?

B: Yes, ____________ (next stop)

c) A: Sorry, how do I get to Smith Street?

B: Take _______ (the Tube to Smith Square, turn left, take the second on

the right)

A: Great, thanks.

d) A: Excuse me, can you tell me the way to the accounting department?

B: Take ________ (the lift, fourth floor, second door on the right)

A: Thank you.

e) A: _________ (Oxford Circus)

B: You should take the Piccadilly line.

A: _____________?(change)

B: Yes, you'll have to change at Piccadilly Circus on to the Waterloo line.

A: ____________ (which sign)

B: Just follow the sign "Northbound".

Taxi Facts

Why is a taxi called a ‘taxi’?

Taxis and cabs are terms used in Britain to describe vehicles which are legally allowed to look for passengers. It is illegal for other vehicles to display the words ‘taxi’, ‘cab’ or ‘hire’. The word ‘taxicab’, usually shortened to ‘taxi’, comes from a taximeter. This is the instrument which measures the distance travelled, or time taken, and automatically calculates the fare. This device was invented in 1891.

Why is a cab called a ‘cab’?

“Cab” is an abbreviation for ‘cabriolet’, a one-horse two-wheeled carriage. Cabs replaced four-wheeled carriages in the 1840s and 1850s because they were easier to drive in the crowded city streets.

Why is a cab sometimes referred to as a ‘hackney’ cab?

Originally a hackney carriage was a four-wheeled carriage drawn by a hackney, a slow-walking horse – from an old French word haquenée (not to be confused with Hackney – an area of north-east London). A ‘hackney cab’ is now synonymous with ‘taxi’, although London’s last horse-drawn carriage received its licence in 1946.

Does your cab driver have a bale of hay on board?

If not, he is breaking the law. In the days when cabs were horse-drawn, regulations protected the horses so that they would not be hungry. While still technically a law, fortunately for today’s cabbies it is no longer enforced!

Social Distinction Between Urban and Rural Population

The social distinction between city and country population was less in America than in Europe, and in addition, the coun­tryside lacked the radical social separations that were so com­monly associated with the aristocrat-peasant structure of Euro­pean rural life. Thus, when cities began to grow outward in Europe there was a strong class discontinuity between the ruling group in the land invaded by the city — the aristocracy — and the city people taking up residence there — commonly a wor­king-class group. It was frequently the view of a social class stru­cture in European cities that the most desirable places to live were fairly close to the city centre (as in the West End in Lon­don). The less desirable housing areas were shunted toward the edge of the city, in most intimate contact with the country, the­reby creating the sharpest discontinuity in society.

The American pattern differed significantly. It had been a constant practice in American cities for the middle class to move toward the edge of the city, and when public transportation was available, into the near fringe of the country. The American city even a hundred years ago was characterized by suburbs and made widely varying social use of those open housing areas. The result has been a constant outward spread of cities so that the boundary line between urban and rural morphology is seldom very clear.

1. What proportion of the world’s population lives in the cities?

a) over 80% b) about two thirds c) about a third d) about a half

2. Which is the world’s largest capital city?

a) Tokyo b) Seoul c) Mexico City d) New Delhi

3. Which is Europe’s noisiest capital?

a) Athens b) Madrid c) Rome d) Paris

4. Which is the world’s oldest capital city?

a) Baghdad b) Damascus c) Cairo d) Amman

5. Which is the world’s highest capital city?

a) La Paz (Bolivia) b) Lima (Peru) c) Quito (Ecuador) d) Kathmandu (Nepal)

6. Which was the first city to reach a population of 1 million?

a) Mexico City b) New York c) London d) Rome

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 …

	REPORT 1	REPORT 2
People who enjoy living in cities	79%	72%
People who live in a city but would prefer to live in rural areas	35%	43%
People who live in the city but spend as much time as possible outside the city	47%	29%
People who live in rural areas but would prefer to live in a city	62%	36%
Percentage of these who are under 30	84%	-
Percentage of these who are over 50	13%	-

1. I enjoy a rural lifestyle. A. Really? So why are we seeing so

much construction in the countryside around London?

2. There isn’t much pollution if youlive B. I'm not so sure. All those pesticides

outside a town. and chemical fertilisers that farmers

use nowadays can't be good for the environment.

3. There is a lot of productive land in this 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.

migration from 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 land over 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.

For 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) ________.

Belgorod

Belgorod is the capital of Belgorod Province. It is situated in the southern part of Central Russia, on the right bank of the Seversky Donets River. It’s about 695 km by road of Moscow. The population of the city is about 350 thousand. The climate is moderate continental, with the average temperatures in January – 8.5° C, and in July + 20° C. Annual total rainfall in the region is about 450 mm. It’s less than in such cities as Glasgow, Manchester, Milan and Rome but more than in Madrid and Athens.

The name of the city is believed to be associated with chalk cliffs, which are in abundance in the region: in Russian “bel” means “white” and “gorod” – “city”. The precise date of the foundation of the city of Belgorod is still unknown, though scientists are sure that its history goes back as far as antiquity. Some years ago local historians proved that Belgorod had first come into existence in about 993 AD. It was ruined a short time afterwards, and re-built in the 16^th century. One thing is certain and that is that Belgorod was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1237. A well known Russian historian, N.M. Karamsin, said that Belgorod had begun as a fortress stronghold in the 1590s, for protecting Russia’s southern frontier from the Crimean Tatars. So Belgorod played a very important role in the life of the Russian Empire for almost two centuries. Once it became even the center of the “gubernia” (province), where such cities as Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol and Kharkov belonged to. All in all the gubernia comprised 30 towns.

Positioned on the river and at the junction of several roads, Belgorod eventually became the area’s prime economic and cultural center. Throughout the 17-19 centuries it rapidly grew and developed. Lots of stone buildings appeared in its streets – the first schools, monasteries and convents, stone mansions of the rich. At that time Belgorod sold cattle, corn, lard, leather, honey, fruit, wax, and various manufactured goods.

But in 1941-1945 Belgorod as all the Soviet regions suffered greatly from fascist invasion. In July-August 1943 there was one of the most severe battles of the war – the tank battle on the Prochorovskoe Field, which turned out to be the breaking point of the World War II. About 1,200 tanks from the both sides took part in the bloody fight. When it was over, the fertile Russian chernozem ground (=black earth) was soaked with blood and covered all over with dead bodies and warped materiel [mә,tiәri'el]. The Prochorovskaya battle effected in the liberation of Belgorod and Oryol on August 5, 1943. In honour of it Moscow saluted for the first time during the World War II. After that victory, the Soviet Army got “the second breath” and started pushing the enemy out of the country. Since that time each year the day of the 5^th August is celebrated as the Day of the City, the Day of Liberation. There are usually different festive activities on that day, ending with a traditional fireworks display.

Today Belgorod is a busy and beautiful city. Unfortunately there are not many notable buildings, because the city was almost totally destroyed during the war. It has a wide range of industries there: building materials, engineering, telecommunication equipment, machinery, iron-ore extraction, food-processing, textile and other light industries. As for agriculture, the region produces grain and sugar beet, different vegetables and fruit, there’s also dairy farming. Pig production occurs in most areas. Besides Belgorod province is broadly self-sufficient in poultry meat and eggs. And don’t forget that our region is situated on the famous

black earth, which the Germans tried to transport to

Germany during the War.

As for educational centers there’re four main of them: State University, Technological University, Consumer Cooperative University and Agricultural Academy. So Belgorod supports one of the finest scientific research communities in Russia.

Belgorod has many twin cities in different countries: Opole in Poland, Herne in Germany and Wakefield in the UK.

In spite of tough times the Belgorodians believe in the future and hope that their city will survive all the difficulties.

In 2007, Belgorod was awarded a title of the City of Military Glory (equivalent of the Soviet Hero City) in commemoration of the victorious tank battle in 1943.

At present almost the majority of the people in the United States live in a few major urbanized regions, or megapolises, each extending for hundreds of miles and some containing over 50 million people. The growth of these extended urbanized stretches formed by the coalescing of metropolitan areas has been one of the most signi­ficant demographic developments of the second half of the 20^th century.

Megapolis has evolved from a series of ever-enlarging urban forms whose growth correlated with changing economic, techno­logical, and cultural conditions and the rapidly increasing living in urban areas. This unprecedented and uncontrolled increase in the magnitude of the urban areas has created problems of great complexity.

The first major urban surge coincided with the industrial revolution around the middle of the last century. The urban pat­tern that evolved was the industrial city with its smoking fac­tories in and around the central core of the city and with the workers living in crowded conditions within walking distance of the factory. The major industrial cities were usually located along waterways; the cities were small in area but relatively dense in population. As industry grew and internal transporta­tion improved with the introduction of horse-drawn omnibuses, and later cable cars and electric street cars, workers could live farther away from their factories — thus cities increased in both area and population.

A second stage of urban development came with the esta­blishment of railroad commuter service in the latter part of the 19^th century. It now became possible for people to build homes in the rural area outside congested industrial cities and still be able to commute readily to their places of employment in the central city.

The advent of the automobile at first only broadened the urban pattern established by the railroads. But as the automobile- and good high ways became ubiquitous, the surge to the suburbs was greatly increased. Urban sprawl spread in area and increa­sed in complexity.

The result has been the creation of sizable metropolitan areas comprised of the central city and its suburban area. In recent decades in the more urbanized parts of the United States, the tentacles of the rapidly growing suburban fringe of one metro­politan area have often merged with the also rapidly growing suburban fringe of one or more other metropolitan areas resul­ting in an almost solid urban sprawl stretching for many dozens or even hundreds of miles. This phenomenon of inter-metropolitan coalescence is developing at an accelerated rate and has become the most recent and largest type of urban form, the megapolis, and one which is becoming increasingly important economically, socially and politically.

Economic conditions

Urban form

Location

Size

Population density

Transport facilities

a)

problem	effect	cause
traffic jams	traffic is very slow commuters get very stressed	too much traffic especially during rush hours
slums	housing is in bad condition	poverty – people don’t have money to spend on housing
vandalism	pointless destruction of property	poverty, lack of hope
overcrowding	difficult living conditions	too many people living in one place
pollution	deterioration in health	traffic and industrial production
crime	people get constantly stressed	poverty, inequality, etc.

b) People who prefer the countryside to big towns, often say this:

Towns: The countryside:

are noisy is quiet and peaceful

are dirty and polluted is clean

are stressful is calm and relaxing

are crowded (=full of people) has lots of open space

are dangerous is safe

People who prefer big towns to the countryside have a different point of view:

In towns: In the countryside:

there are plenty of things to do there’s nothing to do

it’s exciting it’s boring

there’s a wide range of shops there are only a few shops

there’s a lot of night-life, e.g. bars, there’s no night-life

cinemas, discos

Helen: Well, I don’t really think it’s particularly dangerous. Not any more than any other city. You have to be sensible, take the normal precautions. I mean I wouldn’t walk down the street and stare at somebody and I certainly wouldn’t walk home alone, and I wouldn’t go down unlit alleys at night, and obviously there are certain areas that you just know you wouldn’t go into, but I think on the whole it’s not a particularly dangerous city.

Robert: I think I agree, but, actually there have been a couple of stories in the papers recently about this spate of muggings that’s been going on.

Helen: I’ve read about it. They say things are changing and things are getting worse in the city. I did have a friend, actually, she was on the underground, and her wallet was snatched from her just as the train was coming into the station, and of course they got off straight away and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Robert: Well, I sympathise with her. I mean I’ve seen that happen too, and you’ve just got to watch it in a place like that, or like the street market. You’ve got to be really careful there because there is a big crowd and a lot of pickpockets and they can steal something and run away.

Helen: But I don’t think it’s really dangerous. They’re not violent people, you just have to be sensitive and keep your eyes open.

Robert: Well, I don’t know. They said that a lot of thieves were carrying knives, which means if you resist, then you could get badly hurt, so that really makes you think, doesn’t it?

Helen: I said it wasn’t violent, maybe it is. I heard about a group of tourists the other day who were mugged. By the way what do you do if you see something like that? You don’t really know what’s going on and you don’t really want to get involved in case you get hurt.

Robert: Yes, I think it’s stupid to try and be a hero. I mean you could get very badly hurt and all they want is just money. I mean I know that is a terrible thing to say, but it’s just money. It’s not worth losing your life for.

Helen: I suppose so. Apparently, these guys had knife and they cut one of the women’s handbags from her shoulder. I think she thought they were going to stab her husband, actually.

Robert: Did you hear if anybody was hurt at all?

Helen: No, no one was hurt. Apparently, the

woman had her passport stolen, and her

travellers cheques taken, but the sad thing was

that they had only just arrived and they didn’t

want to leave all their stuff in the hotel. They

thought it was safer to keep it with them.

Robert: Well, that’s the problem with tourists,

though, isn’t it? They are easy targets. They stand out in a crowd, thieves know they’re probably carrying money and documents around and they don’t speak the language, and they’re vulnerable, aren’t they?

Helen: Well...

Robert: I mean it happens to locals as well. There is a friend of mine who was jumped at from behind, you know, and they got her bag and they ran away. She tried to run after them, but the thieves were too quickly obviously.

Helen: Was she hurt at all?

Robert: No, no, but she was really angry.

Helen: Of course.

Robert: She didn’t lose anything really valuable, she didn’t report it to the police in the end actually.

Helen: I think she should have done that. I think it’s quite important when something like that happens because it might be mild at the moment but they could get worse. I think the police need to know if a crime’s happened actually.

Robert: I mean, there should be more police around anyway, shouldn’t there? There should be more police on the streets at night.

Helen: I think you are right.

Robert: You can be on main streets and there’s nobody around, just a police car driving up and down every now and again.

Helen: You would feel better protected, I think.

Robert: And it would put the muggers and the thieves off, wouldn’t it?

1. Do Robert and Helen think they live in a particularly dangerous city?

2. What precautions do they suggest you should take when walking home at night?

3. In what places do they suggest you should take special care with your bag and wallet? Why?

4. There seems to have been an increase in crime in the city recently. What sort of crime?

5. Have Robert and Helen been victims of crime themselves? What about their friends?

6. What exactly happened to the group of tourists mentioned in the dialogue?

7. What do they think the police could do to improve the situation?

8. Do you have any idea of what city might be discussed in the dialogue above?

1. Is your home town/village a dangerous place to live in? Do you need to take precautions when you go out at night? Would you go out alone after ten o’clock? If you were a member of the opposite sex, do you think your answers would be the same?

2. Do you take extra precautions when you travel? Why/Why not? Are cities more dangerous if you’re a tourist? Why/Why not?

3. Which of the following safety measures are used in your town: police patrols at night, close-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in public places, security guards on public transport, street lighting at night? What other measures can be taken to make our cities safer?

a) London

London was built as a city in the same way as Paris or New York. It began life as a Roman fortification Londinium at a place where it was possible to cross the River Thames soon after the Roman invasion in AD 43. A wall was built around the town for defense, but during the long period of peace which followed the Norman Conquest in 1066, people went on to build the city outside the walls. This building continued over the years, especially to the west of the city to link with the originally separate Westminster. In 1665, there was a terrible plague in London, so many people left the city and escaped to the villages in the surrounding countryside. In 1666, the Great Fire of London ended the plague, but it also destroyed much of the city. Although people returned to live in the rebuilt city after the plague and the Great Fire, there were never again so many Londoners living in the city centre. But throughout the 19^th century London (or

rather Greater London, its metropolitan area) was the

largest city in the world in population.

These days not many people live in the city centre,

but London has spread further outwards into the country,

including surrounding villages. Today the metropolis of

Greater London covers some 610 square miles (1,580 sq.

km.), and suburbs of London stretch even beyond this

area. Some people even commute over 100 miles (over

150 km.) every day to work in London, while living far

away from the city in the country or in other towns.

The gradual growth of the city helps to explain the fact that London does not have just one centre, it has a number of centres, each with a distinct character. The

financial and business centre is called the City. Originally, it was a site where merchants and traders worked and lived quite autonomously from the authorities. The “square mile” (the name of the originally walled city of London) is home to the country‘s main financial institutions, the territory of the stereotypical English “city gent”. During the daytime, nearly a million pople work there, but less that 8,000 people actually live there.

Parliament and the Royal Court were located in Westminster, another ‘city’ outside London’s walls. Now Westminster is the government centre.

The West End, a shopping and entertainment centre, is known for its many theatres, cinemas and expensive shops. The East End is known as the poorer residential area of central London, the home of the Cockney (rhyming slang, e.g. ‘money’ in the Cockney is “bees and honey’). The East End markets are famous throughout the world.

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