G uncountable and plural nouns

V word building: prefixes and suffixes Great cities, like cats, reveal
P word stress with prefixes and suffixes themselves at night.

1 READING & SPEAKING

a What do you think a 'megacity' is? Read the
Andrew Marr's Megacities
introduction to the text to check your answer. With BBC I Wednesday 8.00 p.m.
a partner, in two minutes list what you think are By 2050, 70% of the world will live in cities, and
probably the biggest problems for people who live in a by the end of the century three-quarters of
megacity. the entire planet will be urban. There are now
21 cities called 'megacities', i.e. they have more
b Read the article once. In which city are the things you than I0 million inhabitants. In Andrew Marr's
discussed in a a problem: Tokyo, Mexico City, both, BBC series Megacities he travelled to five of
or neither? these cities, including Tokyo and Mexico City.

c Read the article again. Then, in pairs, using your own

words, say why the following are mentioned.
TOKYO
okyo, with a population of 33 million people, is

T
33 million eight million a letter from the train company
by far the largest city in world. It's also the most
driving schools 25 square metres the Hikikomori
technologically advanced, and the city runs like digital
Rent a friend the Hashiriya
clockwork. The automated subway*, for example,
MEXICO CITY is so efficient that it is able to transport almost eight million
taco stands Mariachi bands two-and-a-half hours commuters every day and on the rare occasions that it goes
social imbalance kidnapping Kevlar wrong, nobody believes it. If you are late for work in Tokyo and,
as an excuse, you say that your train was late, you need
d Find words in the article which mean .. .
to provide written proof from the train company. The
TOKYO idea of late trains is almost unthinkable. There is
1 adj operated by machines not people very little crime, violence, or vandalism in Tokyo
and the streets are safe to walk by day or night.
(paragraph 1)
There is also relatively low unemployment
2 adj impossible to imagine (paragraph 1) compared to other big cities in the world.
3 noun the number of people who don't
But such a huge population creates
have a job (paragraph 1) serious problems of space, and as Marr
4 adj with too many people in it (paragraph 2) flew over Tokyo in a helicopter he saw
5 noun a feeling that you don't belong to a football pitches, playgrounds, even driving
community (paragraph 3) schools constructed on top of buildings.
Streets, par ks, and subways are extremely
6 noun the feeling of not having any friends overcrowded. Property prices are so high and
(paragraph 3) space is so short that a family of six people may
live in a tiny flat of only 25 square metres.
MEXICO CITY
7 noun the process of making air (and There are other problems too, of alienation and
water) dirty (paragraph 2) loneliness. The Hikikomori are inhabitants of Tokyo who
cannot cope with 'the mechanical coldness and robotic
8 noun the state of being very rich uniformity' of a megacity and have become recluses, rarely or
9 noun the state of being poor never leaving their homes. There is also a new business that has
10 adjective not having a house grown up in Tokyo which allows friendless people to 'rent a friend'
to accompany them to a wedding or just to sit and chat to them in
e Talk to a partner. a bar after work.
1 If you had to go to work or study in either Mexico City Another strange group of people are the Hoshiriyo, Tokyo's
or Tokyo, which would you choose, and why? street racers who risk their lives driving at ridiculous speeds
2 What do you think are the main advantages ofliving in along the city streets. During the week these men have ordinary
a big city? jobs and they're model citizens. But on Saturday nights they
spend the evening driving though the city as fast as they possibly
3 What's the biggest city you've ever been to? Why did can. It's a deadly game, but it's just one way of escaping the daily
you go there? What did you think of it?

•
pressures of life in the metropolis .
••• * the underground or metro system
 2 VOCABULARY
word building: prefixes and suffixes
j) Prefixes and suffixes
A prefix is something that you add to the beginning of
a word, usually to change its meaning, e.g. pre= before
(pre-war) , or a negative prefix like un- or dis- (unhealthy,
dishonest). A suffix is something you add to the end
of a word, usually to change its grammatical form, e.g.
-ment and -ness are typical noun suffixes (enjoyment,
happiness). However, some suffixes also add meaning to a
word, e.g. -ful =full of (stressful, beautiful).

a Read the information about prefixes and suffixes.

What prefix can you add to city meaning biB? What
suffix can you add to home meaning without? Can you
think of any other examples of words with this suffix?

b > p.163 Vocabulary Bank Word building.

3 PRONUNCIATION & SPEAKING

word stress with prefixes and suffixes
j) Word stress on words with prefixes and suffixes
We don't put main stress on prefixes and suffixes that
are added to nouns and adjectives. However, there is usually
secondary stress on prefixes, e.g. un in unemployment.

a Underline the stressed syllable in these multi-syllable

nouns and adjectives. The secondary stress has already
been underlined.
s a complete contrast to Tokyo, Marr takes us to

A Mexico City, a colourful and vibrant city of about

20 million people where people live their lives in
the street. Marr says that 'in Mexico City, food and
friendship go hand in hand'. The city is full of taco stands and
cafes where people meet and socialize and Mariachi bands stroll
aclcomlmoldaltion anltilsolcial billinglual
en jterltainlment golvern lment homelless
lonellilness mulltilculltu lral neighlbourlhood
olverlcrowlded polverlty unlderldeJvelloped
unlem lploylment vanldallism
through the boulevards and squares playing songs for money. And
on Sundays people of all ages gather to dance in the street. b 5 16 >)) Listen and check. Practise saying the words.
But it's a city with problems of its own, too. It can take two-
c Answer the questions below with a partner.
and-a-half hours for commuters to drive to and from work in
the rush hour through choking traffic fumes, and pollution levels Which city (or region) in your country do you
are high. And, looking down from a helicopter, Marr shows think .. . ?
us the huge social divide. On one hillside we see massive, • is the most multicultural
luxurious houses and on the next hill, slums. It's a city
• offers the best entertainment (for tourists/ for locals)
of great wealth but also extreme poverty, and there
are many homeless people. Because of this social
• has a bilingual or trilingual population
imbalance it can be a dangerous city too, with • is very overcrowded
high levels of crime, especially kidnapping. In • has very serious pollution problems
fact, there are boutiques which sell a rather • has a lot of homeless people
special line in men's clothes: the shirts,
• has some very dangerou s neighbourhoods
sweaters, and jackets look completely normal
but are in fact bulletproof, made of reinforced • has the highest rate of unemployment
Kevlar. • has the worst levels of poverty
But despite the crime, the traffic, and the
• suffers from the worst vandalism and antisocial
pollution Andrew Marr describes Mexico behaviour
City as 'a friendly, liveable place' and the most
enjoyable megacity of all that he visited.

••
 4 LISTENING & SPEAKING

a When you travel to another country or city, do you normally try

to find out about it before you go? Where from? What kind of
information do you look for?

b You are going to listen to an interview with Miles Roddis, a travel

writer for the Lonely Planet guidebook series, talking about his
five favourite cities. Look at the photos, and try to guess which
continent or country they were taken in.

c 5 17 >)) Listen once and find out where they are. What personal
connection does Miles have to each place?

d Listen again and make notes. What does Miles say is special about
each place?

e 18 >)) Now listen to some extracts from the interview. Try to

write in the missing words. What do you think they mean?
1 .. .there's wonderful surfing on Bondi beach and plenty of great
little for sunbathing and swimming.
2 .. .the choice of places to eat is _ _
3 But what gives the city a special during the festival is 'the
Fringe'.
4 And the Museum oflslamic Art has a whole lot of pieces
from Muslim times.
5 Tuscany's two major tourist towns, Florence and Pisa, are
absolutely with tourists all year round ...
6 These walls are amazing - they're completely intact, and you can
_ _ into people's living rooms as you walk past.
7 The Laotians are a lovely, , laid-back people.
8 I remember looking down on it from one of the restaurants along
its banks, and feeling that it was all my troubles.
f Talk in small groups.
1 Which of the five places Miles mentions would you most like to go
to? Why?
2 What other cities would you really like to go to? Why?
3 What are your two favourite cities (not including your own)?
4 Of the cities you've been to, which one(s) have you liked least?
Why?

••
5 GRAMMAR uncountable and plural nouns
a @ the correct form. Tick (v") if you think both are
possible.
I A good guidebook will give you advice/ advices about
what to see.
2 You may have some bad weather/ a bad weather if you go
to London in March.
3 When I was in Rome and Paris, the accommodation was
/ the accommodations were extremely expensive.
4 It's best not to take too much luBBaBe / too many
luBBaBes if you go on a city break.
5 The old town centre is amazing, but the outskirts is / the
outskirts are a bit depressing.
6 I really liked the hotel. The rooms were beautiful, and
the staffwas/ the staff were incredibly friendly
b > p.149 Grammar bank 98. Learn more about
uncountable nouns and plural and collective nouns,
and practise them.

c Play Just a minute in small groups.

Just a minute
RULES
One person starts. He I she has to try to talk for a minute
about the first subject below.
If he or she hesitates for more than five seconds, he I she
loses his I her turn and the next student continues.
The person who is talking when one minute is up gets a
point.

modern furniture
good advice you've been given
what's in the news at the moment
tourist accommodation in your country
the weather you like most
the most beautiful scenery you've seen
the traffic in your town I city

the police in your country

clothes you love wearing
6 WRITING
> p.119 Writing Bank A report. Write a report
for a website about good places for eating out or
entertainment in your city.

••