Pre-intermediate

Collaboration and presentation 53

Effective presentations
Lead-in

1 Write notes on some changes your city has seen in the last 20 years for each of the following
areas.

Transport Education

My city

Entertainment People

2 Work in small groups. Tell your group which changes you have noted. Decide together which
have been the biggest changes.

Input

1 Read the newspaper article below written by a reader for a “My City” page, published in a daily
newspaper. Does the writer like her city?

I’d like to talk about how my city has changed over the last twenty years. I think there have
been three major changes that I see; people, entertainment and education.

Let’s start with the people. My city used to have about a million people, but over the past
twenty years this number has almost doubled. I think this is mainly because it has become
a richer city and many new people have come here for work. That has helped the economy,
and it has also changed the population. Now, my town is more cosmopolitan and has different
people from all over Europe and Asia. It’s very interesting because a lot more festivals are now
celebrated throughout the year and that makes life in my town quite exciting. But more people
means more traffic and more crowded busses and trains. I think most of us like the change.
Lots of new types of shops have been opened and new restaurants set up. I think there are
more young people now too and so our entertainment has also changed.

So let me describe the changes in entertainment. Twenty years ago, most people used to go to
shopping malls. The younger generation used to just walk around window shopping or play in
arcades and the older generation used to sit in cafes talking over a hot cup of tea. When new
people started arriving suddenly new places were opened everywhere. A baklava shop was
opened in the city centre last year by a Turkish family and it is now one of the most popular
places for people to go and sit around with friends. Also, new galleries have been opened in

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Collaboration and presentation 53

various areas of the city to promote art from different parts of the world and three years ago a
new cinema was built to show international movie productions.

Another thing that has changed is education. Because there are people from all over the world
new language schools have been set up. Now teachers are hired to teach not only English, but
languages such as Arabic, Polish, Chinese and many more. They are all quite popular and many
people come from abroad to study on short courses and especially in the summer.

All this makes the city very busy and lively. There may be some problems with traffic and there
is some crime like any big city but I think we live in a very exciting, changing city. I wouldn’t
want to live anywhere else.

2 Read the article again and decide if the sentences below are true (T) or false (F). Correct the false
ones. Check your answers with a partner.
1 The population is two times greater than it used to be.
2 The main reason for the increase is employment.
3 Everybody likes the change.
4 These days most people spend time in shopping malls.
5 There are new places for art and movies.
6 Only locals go the city’s language schools.
7 The writer thinks the city is unsafe and would like to change city.

Language focus

1 Can you complete these sentences from the text?

1 A lot more festivals now throughout the year.
2 Lots of new types of shops .
3 A baklava shop in the city centre last year
4 Three years ago a new cinema to show international movie productions.
5 New language schools up.
6 Now teachers to teach Arabic, Polish and Chinese.
2 What type of verbs are is the sentences in 1? Why do we use this type here?
3 There are three different tenses.
1 What are they?
2 When do we use them?
3 How do we form them?

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 Pre-intermediate
Collaboration and presentation 53

4 Correct the mistakes in these sentences.

1 Last year a new bridge built over the river.
2 Since 2011 many jobs were been lost in our city.
3 Lots of sick children is looked after every year in our hospitals.
4 Streets and parks are clean by workers every week.
5 A lot of businesses have been closed last year.
6 The city are visited by thousands of tourists every year.
7 Last year a new gallery was opened the Prime Minister.
8 Every summer concerts were organised in the park.

Task

1 Work with a partner and choose one of the areas from Lead-in 1. Think about how this area
has changed globally. Take notes and prepare to present your ideas to the rest of the class.
Prepare slides if you prefer.
2 Listen to each other’s presentations and note down the things you agree and disagree with.
3 Discuss which group’s presentation was the most accurate.

Review

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