1 Reading and writing

Reading 1 Read the texts. Check (✓) the correct sentence.

A Only British people live in Thames Town.
B Elsie doesn’t want to live in Monowi any more.
C Neft Dashlari didn’t exist before the 1940s.
There are a lot of strange places to
live on our planet. But there’s nowhere
stranger than the places below!
2 Read the text again and answer the questions.
Which Chinese city is Thames Town near?
Thames Town in It’s near Shanghai.
China is near the
city of Shanghai, and 1 What food can you eat in Thames Town?
everything, from the
buildings to the red 2 What do Thames Town and other replica towns
phone boxes, looks look like?
British. There’s even
a store selling one of Britain’s favorite takeout
3 How many people lived in Monowi when Elsie was
meals: fish and chips! Thames Town is one of
several “replica” towns in China which look very born?
similar to European towns and cities. They’re
popular with tourists, but are also real towns, 4 Why didn’t they stay in Monowi?
and people can live in them. Right now, Thames
Town doesn’t have many inhabitants, but with the 5 Why did oil workers need Neft Dashlari?
country’s growing economy and population, the
future tells a different story.
6 Why is the city slowly disappearing?
Welcome to Monowi, Nebraska
in the U.S., the town with the
population of … one! Elsie Eiler
is the town’s only inhabitant and Writing
has no plans to leave. When Elsie
was born in the 1930s, Monowi 3 Write an e-mail to a friend about a recent visit
had a population of about to one of the places in the text. Think about
150, but when bigger towns the questions below and remember to include
and cities offered better work informal expressions in e-mails, e.g., Hi! How are
opportunities, slowly everybody you doing? Talk to you later. Text me. etc.
left. However, Elsie is happy in Monowi. She runs
the town’s library and is always busy. And when Where is the place you visited?
people visit, she must serve them in the town’s only What did you see there?
restaurant, the Monowi Tavern! What did you do there?
What did you think of the place?
The city of Neft Dashlari
is part of Azerbaijan, but
is situated in the Caspian
Sea. It lies on old boats
and artificial islands with
long roads connecting
the different parts. But
why does the city exist? After the discovery of
oil in the region in the 1940s, oil workers needed
somewhere to live near their place of work, and
the construction of the city began quickly. But
the workers’ families moved there, too, and soon
a school, a park, a bread store, and even a movie
theater appeared. Today, Neft Dashlari is getting
old, and is slowly disappearing into the sea. Visitors
must go there soon before it disappears forever.

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