READING FOCUS

1. Work in pairs and discuss the questions

.1 How well do you know your way around your town or city? I know very well
my town and the city of Valencia, also the towns around it in 30 kilometers.
.2 What do you do to help you navigate in a town or city you don’t know well?
Always I go to a city I do not know I use Google Maps to navigate; I am totally
dependent of this tool.
.3 Have you ever got completely lost? Yes I remember so years ago I was in
Zamora city looking for a hotel in the night and the mobile phone battery ran
out, nobody was in the street.
2. Read the title and the first paragraph of the newspaper article. Will the rest of the
text be about:
A) futuristic cities in movies
B) Aerial photography
C) Our relationship with contemporary cities

Read the rest of the article to see if you were right.

3. Read the article again. For questions 1-6 choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you
think fits best according to the text.
.1 What point is the writer making about aerial views of cities?
C-They are an indicator of how the perceptions of the cities have changed.
.2 What does the writer sugest about GPS?

B-It can stop us noticing what is actually around us.

.3 The writer uses the word ‘hybrid’ in line 47 to suggest that

D-We experience our cities in more than one way.

.4 What does the writer feel about Friedman’s prediction today?

D-It is how he sees European cities

.5 What is the writer’s opinion of George Leonidas Leslie?

A-He was extremely thorough in his approach.

.6 What does ‘them’ in the line 105 refer to?

B- The rules about building designs

4. Work in pairs and discuss the questions

.1 Do you have favourite parts of your town or city? My favourite parts are the
meeting points and the open areas.
.2 What are your most vivid memories of cities you have visited? My most vivid
memories are always linked to travels with my family, to feelings
5. Match the underlined words in the article to meaning 1-8
.1 Visit  frequent
.2 Disinterest  detachment
.3 Accomplished  feat
.4 Playfully  archly
.5 Exploration  reconnaissance
.6 Structure  fabric
.7 Boundaries  parameters
.8 Meet  intersect
6. Write one sentence for each of the words in the Activity 5. Compare your sentences
with a partner.
1. I normally frequent this restaurant.
2. Today I have got up in bad mud; I have a great disinterest in to do anything.
3. What are the main feats of your life?
4. The comedian is very good, he make an archly use of the language.
5. The army sent two men in advance to reconnaissance the enemy territory.
6. What is the fabric of this construction?
7. If we are going to collaborate, we must stay within some parameters.
8. Our lives intersect that rainy afternoon, and since them we always have been
together.