Amsterdam, first city of the modern age

It's the fishing village that grew to become one of the largest ports in Europe: capital of the Netherlands, birthplace of the modern stock market, home to Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh and Anne Frank.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1. What does '60' refer to?
2. Why was the city's location a threat to its residents?
3. What did the residents of Amsterdam pioneer in the centuries that followed after the city's foundation?
4. How many 'cities' within Amsterdam are mentioned?
5. What was the purpose of the piece of wood coming out the top of buildings with a hook on it?
6. What did Rembrandt capture in his paintings?
7. Why are there no curtains in the windows?
8. What can you buy in a coffee shop?
9. What does the Dutch word gedogen mean?

Welcome to Dam Square, the site of a long-ago dam, they put the dam in Amsterdam. It’s the bustling centre of the city. I’m with the Royal Palace right behind me, the perfect starting-off point.
Perhaps the best way to tour this city is by boat, along its 60 miles of canals.
Here it was in the Middle Ages people started coming here and they…
Our guide is Russell Shorto, author of a bestselling history of Amsterdam. From its founding in the late 12th century, this city's location on a river delta that often flooded, posed a challenge for its residents.
And this is the crucial point, they started banding together in small groups in their communities and building dams and dikes and canals in order to control this problem of water, and make it work for them.
Their success in transforming their natural environment led to a re-shaping of their entire approach to life.
They started to realize, you know, we've got something here. We’ve got this… it changed their mentality, and then they built on that.
What the people of Amsterdam built in the centuries that followed were the first businesses of the modern age: shipping, insurance, the first stock exchange, and international trading enterprises, like the Dutch East India Company. As the economy grew, so did the city, with eye-catching details we saw at every turn.
This is the Herengracht, the Gentleman's Canal, one of the great 17th century canals. This is the Golden Age city that we're in. And you had the Medieval City first, and then the City Fathers made this plan where they were going to lay out this ring of canals around it, because the city was expanding so rapidly.
The canals were lined with the townhouses of Amsterdam's thriving merchant class, each adorned with special architectural details, like these stones to show the owner's profession.
If you look over there, those gables, to… the ones… that’s called a spout gable. You see the piece of wood coming out the top with a hook on it, that's a hoist beam. You would bring your goods on the canal up to your door, and then you would hoist them up, and you would store them in your attic.
And it wasn't all business; genius and talent also flourished in the arts during Amsterdam's Golden Age of the 1600s.
Where we are now, the Doelen Hotel, this is Rembrandt area. You see the guys up there with their fluffy era Rembrandt-era hats on.
Rembrandt's paintings of the city's leading citizens, including the famous Nightwatch, fill Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. He captured all his subjects' outward signs of success, but also, author Russel Shorto says, something more.
He seemed able to paint who you were inside. And if you look at those paintings, you see that, you feel that, you feel these people thought about themselves, for the first time, the way we think about ourselves today.
Along with Rembrandt, there was Van Gogh. There’s an entire museum devoted to his works. And one of the city's most visited sites is the Anne Frank House, where young Anne wrote her famous diary during the two years she and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II.
These days, it seems, there is a refreshing openness about life here. And what’s with the young, no curtains in the windows.
You know, some people say that that is, 'Look, we have nothing to hide.' Or 'We're decent, ordinary people here.’, you know.
Nothing to see here!
Exactly, because, you know…
Another thing an American visitor notices, Amsterdam's tolerant attitude toward everything from marijuana use to sex. The nearly 200 coffee shops here don't just sell coffee; you can also legally buy marijuana, and smoke it on the spot. And there's the famous red light district, where prostitutes legally display their wares. Shorto says the city's tolerance is of long standing.
That is a tricky thing to try to understand, and I don't know if any foreigner, any outsider can really get it, but there's a Dutch word, gedogen, which means -this is my definition of it- it means 'technically illegal, but officially tolerated'.
Put everything we’ve been seeing on our cruise together, and you begin to understand Amsterdam's unique draw.
It's the city itself, it's the city of canals and of canal houses, which are built for individuals. It's a monument to the ordinary individual person and ordinary individual families. This is in many ways the birthplace of our modern sense of ourselves as individuals. This was where that started.

KEY:
1 The number of miles that canals stretch around Amsterdam
2 It often flooded 
3 The first businesses of the modern age
4 Two: The Golden Age City and the Medieval City
5 To bring the goods from the boats into the houses
6 Both the outward signs of success and the person's inside
7 The younger generation has nothing to hide
8 Both coffee and marijuana
9 Technically illegal, but officially tolerated

Listening test: The Chrysler Building

In today's listening activity we are going to find out information about one of the most iconic buildings in New York, the Chrysler Building.


Choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence.

source: Speak Up Italy

1. The Chrysler Building
A. was not taller than the Eiffel Tower.
B. was once the tallest building in the world.
C. was taller than the Empire State Building.

2. Frankie J Campione
A. designed the Chrysler Building.
B. has offices in the Chrysler Building.
C. is a futuristic architect.

3. For Frankie J Campione the Chrysler Building
A. inspired the automobile industry in the 1920’s and 30’s.
B. is a symbol of American industrialism.
C. preserves the idea of speed and excitement.

4. The Chrysler Building
A. is much more appreciated today than when it was built.
B. represented the 1930s tendency that buildings looked like the industry they were built for.
C. was well liked when it was built.

5. Charles Weiss
A. is an architect.
B. is still working.
C. lives in the Chrysler Building.

6. Charles Weiss says
A. he’s lived in Japan.
B. people identify New York with the Chrysler Building.
C. the Chrysler Building looks like a ship.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Chrysler Building, a landmark on the New York skyline. At the time of its opening in 1930, it overtook the Eiffel Tower as the world's tallest building, only to be overtaken by a New York rival, the Empire State Building, the following year.
The Chrysler Building, which was designed by maverick architect William Van Alen, was also striking for its futuristic structure. In order to find out how it had withstood the test of time, SPEAK UP went there and met with Frankie J Campione, whose Create Architecture Planning & Design company is based in impressive offices at the top of the tower:
I think after 75 years the building doesn't necessarily preserve the idea of speed and excitement, but it preserves the idea of American industry. The building was designed as the headquarters for Chrysler and throughout the building there are images that are prevalent that show inspiration from the automobile industry from the late 1920s and early 1930s. The building remains that same sort of icon that speaks to American industry: not so much speed and excitement, but American industrialism.
The Chrysler Building was considered ridiculous and discredited when it was first built because it was a folly, it was, by terms we now use, ‘entertainment architecture’. That is something that's new to architecture in the past 20 years. Back in the late 20s and early 30s, buildings did not necessarily resemble the industry that they were built for. However, by today's standards, it was considered very foresightful and ahead of its times.
The top of this skyscraper also houses the splendid offices of Charles Weiss, a 78-year-old dentist who has no plans to retire. We asked him why New Yorkers were so fond of the Chrysler Building:
You look at this tower at night when it's lit up and it's just so different and so beautiful, it's like a rocket shooting into the sky but, as much as New Yorkers like it — and it really is the icon building in New York City— all the years, there's just nothing like it. Overseas, it is New York City. I've been to Japan over 62 times, I've been all over the world teaching, you know, implant dentistry every time I pass a travel bureau, in any country, and they're saying "Go to New York," there's a picture of the Chrysler Building. It's the most famous building around the world: the Chrysler Building means New York to a whole lot of people.

KEY: 
1B 2B 3B 4A 5B 6B

Extensive listening: 4 ways to make a city more walkable

Freedom from cars, freedom from sprawl, freedom to walk your city! City planner Jeff Speck shares his general theory of walkability — four planning principles to transform sprawling cities of six-lane highways and 600-foot blocks into safe, walkable oases full of bike lanes and tree-lined streets.

Jeff Speck is a city planner and architectural designer who, through writing, lectures, and built work, advocates internationally for more walkable cities.

As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he oversaw the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design, a federal program that helps state governors fight suburban sprawl. Prior to joining the Endowment, Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co., a leading practitioner of the New Urbanism, where he led or managed more than forty of the firm's projects.

Speck is the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream as well as The Smart Growth Manual. His latest book, Walkable City, which Christian Science Monitor calls 'timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work', has been the best-selling city-planning title of this decade.

You can read a full transcript here.

Tokyo’s station master

Although the Tokyo Olympics are almost four years off, the stationmaster at the city's landmark train station already seems to be running his own kind of marathon every day.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions.



1 How many trains run through Tokyo station every weekday?
2 What Japanese saying does Takashi Etoh say?
3 What do his employees call him?
4 Why does he bow when he enters or exits the station?
5 Why does he sing Happy Birthday to his employees?
6 What happened to the station in 1980?
7 Which two worlds can be seen on both sides of the station?
8 Why does the station master show people the rubbish he picks up?

It’s home to Japan’s super-sleek shinkansen, or bullet train, and is a stop for nearly two million passengers riding 3,700 trains every weekday. This is Tokyo Station. And at the center of this universe, clad in white, is the station master. Like his trains, Takashi Etoh keeps a tight schedule.
We raced around trying to keep up with him. It’s vital for me to check on things with my own eyes, he said.
Let’s make it nice and tidy, he instructed a cleaner. On the platform he told another worker, Don’t catch cold!
You seem to really love your job.
I do! Etoh agreed. Adding, well, after my wife! But I’ve been with trains longer.
Does your wife ever get jealous?
No, he said. We have a saying in Japan: It’s good to have a husband who’s healthy and absent!
This station, really, is his second family. His employees call him Oyakata, Japanese for parent.
At the start of his day we found Etoh doing calligraphy, painting the character ‘en’, which means connection, his favorite word.
From cradle to grave, we encounter millions of people, he said. The few we share our workplace with are precious. And get this, he bows whenever he enters or exits the station.
It mentally prepares you for customers, Etoh told us, and shows them appreciation.
We watched as he saluted trains, stopped for a quick picture, and monitored the cleaners who turn around these trains in seven-minutes flat. And no, this video is not sped up.
He has almost 500 employees; he says he considers them his kids, and one of the most important parts of each day is about to happen: He serenades each and every employee on their birthday.
It creates a connection, he said. Everyone’s birthday is that person’s most special day.
The station itself, built in 1914, recently celebrated its 100th birthday. It’s lucky to be standing.
In the 1980s it came within a hair’s breath of being demolished.
Azby Brown, an architecture professor and New Orleans native has lived in Tokyo for 30 years.
You would not think this is the same station; it’s sort of schizophrenic.
Brown showed us how one side of the newly-renovated station is modern. The other is more traditional and faces Japan’s Imperial Palace.
It was really a symbol of the Japanese empire. It has this grandiose, classical, kind of dignified appearance. The other side was really like the backside of the city. It was always a little dustier and just more business-like.
You have the super-modern on one side meeting the almost old-fashioned on the other.
Definitely old-fashioned. And yet when this building was built, this was the peak of modernism.
Today, it boasts a labyrinth of shops, its own hotel and bar, even a signature Tokyo Station cocktail.  And it’s remarkably clean, save for some wrappers Etoh snatched up, and a little dust he noticed behind a computer.
We watched you go around and pick up the trash, at one point you went down, you picked up a piece of trash and you showed it to people nearby. Why?
I’m trying to set an example, he told us. Tokyo is the gateway to Japan. For the Olympics, we’ll have visitors from 200 countries. We can’t speak the same language, but we can show a spanking-clean station.
Sipping one of those Tokyo Station cocktails, we toasted to the whole idea of this place [And to connections] making a connection.

Key:
1 3,700
2 It’s good to have a husband who’s healthy and absent.
3 Parent
4 It prepares him for customers and shows them appreciation.
5 To create a connection because everyone’s birthday is that person’s most special day.
6 It was almost demolished.
7 Traditional, old-fashioned Japan vs modern Japan
8 To set an example.

Extensive listening: New town

250 years ago, Edinburgh launched a competition to design a 'New Town' for the Scottish capital. The city desperately needed an upgrade - it was overcrowded, filthy and crumbling.  With Scotland a partner in the new United Kingdom, it needed a capital to be proud of.

At the same time, Edinburgh was seen as the intellectual capital of Europe - with Adam Smith, David Hume and other figures of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' creating an explosion of creative ideas that would change the world.

The winning plan by James Craig was a masterpiece of Georgian city planning that reflected these Enlightenment ideas. This BBC film tells the story of how the plan was made real - becoming the most ambitious building project in Britain, and transforming Edinburgh into the most perfect Georgian city on Earth.

Zaha Hadid -A look back at her work

Dame Zaha Hadid, one of the world's leading architects, died at the age of 65 early this year. She was born in Iraq, but called the UK home for 40 years. She designed some of the world's most innovative buildings, including the Guangzhou Opera House in China, and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 What are some of the adjectives that can be applied to Zaha Hadid's buildings?
2 When and where did Zaha train as an architect? 
3 What ability did Zaha have that made her emerge as an innovative architect?
4 What shapes has Zaha devised?
5 What building did she devise for the 2012 Olympics?
6 What reputation did Zaha have?


Dame Zaha designed buildings that could look as fluid as mercury while  appearing as light as a leaf. Sumptuous parabolic shapes became a trademark of her architecture aesthetic, leading to her being called the Queen of the curve. Her creations were always eye-catching, often jaw-dropping and sometimes controversial.
People forgot what you can do with a modern work. You know, where was an obsession with the star system, a vernacular, post-modern, so the idea of new was almost alien.
Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad and studied maths at university before moving to London in the 70s to train as an architect. She set up her own practise shortly afterwards, then found there were no takers for her avant-garde ideas.
I was a woman, I did strange stuff, I think it all together intertwined but… There definitely has been and still remains… it’s much better now, there’s a definite stigma to… about the woman thing.
It was this cubist-inspired building in Germany that proved to be her big breakthrough. Soon her ability to mix old school craft skills with revolutionary new computer programmes saw her emerge as one of the most exciting and innovative architects of her generation.
I think she has added an enormous amount of language to architecture. She's devised shapes that we never thought we could do and never thought that any architect could do. And that is something, you know. There's a lot of architecture that's sort of variant on the architectures that’s come before but she did shapes that gob-smacked you.
Her visual flamboyance proved popular abroad but less so in the UK, her adoptive home, where she really only made her mark on the public consciousness with her Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.
To be accepted as an architect and I think it’s… I'm not sure it’s fully done, not here, not in this country. I'm still considered to be on the margin, you know, despite all these things. And I don't mind being on the edge, actually. It's a good place to be.
She had a reputation for being short-tempered and difficult, while some of her buildings were criticised for being impractical and overblown. There is no doubt she was uncompromising, a characteristic that allowed her to overcome prejudice and scepticism to design some truly remarkable buildings which received multiple awards.
Dame Zaha Hadid was a trailblazing visionary. She leaves behind an extraordinary body of work to be marvelled at by generations.

Key:
1 eye-catching, often jaw-dropping and sometimes controversial
2 London in the 70's 
3 her ability to mix old school craft skills with revolutionary new computer programmes
4  shapes that we never thought we could do (and never thought that any architect could do)
5 the Aquatics Centre 
6 a reputation for being short-tempered and difficult, and she was uncompromising

Reading test: Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the 'insert the sentence' kind of task. To do so, we are going to read the BBC article Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold.

Read the text and fill in the blanks with the corresponding sentence A-J. There are two sentences you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold

An iconic building shaped (0) … in Newark, Ohio, home to a basket-making company, is to be sold. Nicknamed the "Big Basket," and belonging to the home decor Longaberger Company, the building is looking for a buyer. Employees (1) … the seven-storey basket building are being moved to another location in Ohio.
It opened in 1997 and once housed 500 employees of the company, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Now, the company is facing (2) … . The last employees working in the building are moving out this week.
"The Big Basket is like the St Louis Arch," Jim Klein, a former Longaberger president, told the newspaper.  He wants (3) … on the National Register of Historic Places. "It's a really important part of south-eastern Ohio history."
The building's shape was the company's founder's idea, the Dispatch reports. It cost $30 million (£22.5 million) to build. Dave Longaberger had a very specific idea for the building, the Dispatch reports, and would not settle on a design (4) … to make it look exactly like one of the company's baskets.
A Facebook group titled "Preserving the Longaberger 'Big Basket' as a National Treasure" has 1,683 members. Mr Klein keeps members updated on his mission to have the Big Basket registered on the National Register in the group. "Wish we could all donate enough $ to buy the big basket and turn it into a museum. I realise this isn't feasible at all, but (5) …," one member writes.
Not everyone at Longaberger is sad to be leaving the basket, though. Brenton Baker, director of marketing and communications for the company, told the Ohio Advocate that the office they are moving to is more convenient and they look forward to (6) … .
"It is not a sad thing we are leaving," Mr Baker told the newspaper. "People keep saying they feel sad for the employees. Don't feel sad for us. I cannot wait for next week. For me, next week (7) … . For the people on the outside, it's probably not that way."

A - be located in more modern premises
B - being closer to their colleagues
C - can't come fast enough
D - hard economic times
E - if it was possible
F - like a basket 0 Example
G - to get the building
H - until architects agreed
I - who work inside
J - wishful thinking

KEY:
1I 2D 3G 4H 5J 6B 7C

Talking point: Buildings

This week's talking point is buildings. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

Have you seen these buildings before?
What countries do you think they are in?
What do you think they were built as?
What do you think of each building? You can use some of these adjectives: imposing, nondescript, graceful, innovative, tasteless, dated, out of place, stunning

Triumph Palace

The Crooked House

Torre Velasca

Museo Sumaya

Talk about the most impressive building or monument you have ever seen. You are going to tell your partner about it. Choose from the list below the things you want to talk about.
Which city and which country is it in?
When did you first see it?
What is it called?
Why was it built originally?
What is it used for?
Is it modern or old?
Do you know who designed it?
What do you most like about it?
How does it affect the environment?
Is it a popular tourist attraction?

Interaction
There is a derelict warehouse in your community that was built in the early 20th century. You are a member of the local council and you have to help make a decision about how the warehouse or the land itself could be repurposed. Consider the following factors:
The needs of your community
Demolition and rebuilding
The benefits of a new, iconic building
A high-profile architect
Your community’s architectural heritage
The warehouse’s architectural features

Man Builds a House In a Cave

Watch this video where Angelo Mastropietro explains how he went from being a successful businessman to build his own house in a cave.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below about it.



1 How much has Angelo spent on his cave house so far?
2 How old is he?
3 What condition was he diagnosed with?
4 How old are the sandstone cliffs near the Wyre Forest?
5 Who has done the most demanding work on the cave?
6 How did he excavate the 70 or 80 tons of rubble?
7 Where is the heating in the shower room?
8 How deep is the hole he gets water from?
9 What does Angelo use the house for?
10 How does Angelo feel about his achievement?

My life before I became a caveman was really quite different.
The pressures of modern life mean that most of us have probably dreamt at one time or another of fleeing to the hills. But Angelo Mastropietro has made his hermit dream a reality by spending over £160,000 making a house out of the cave.
I am 38 years old and I’m a caveman. You know, I love a challenge. I mean, I guess coincidentally my surname actually means Master of the Stone. So you know, maybe it’s kind of in my blood.
He did most of the work himself, even more incredible when you consider the only a few years ago, the businessman was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I had a lapse that left me paralysed essentially which was really the catalyst to make a review where I was at, where I was going and obviously my lifestyle. The rock house kinda came along, you know without a shadow of a doubt. I was as passionate about that as I was about setting up my company.
The 250-¬million-¬year-¬old sandstone cliffs near the Wyre Forest are said to have inspired Tolkien when he was writing Lord of the Rings. It was here that Angelo spent £62,000 on this 700-¬year-¬old abandoned cave which he would turn into his very own hobbit hole. With a renovation budget of £100,000, Angelo set about doing most of the physically demanding work himself.
In the end, I had spent somewhere round about 1,000 hours basically breaking rock, cutting rock, burrowing rock. You know, total somewhere around about 70 or 80 tons of rubble that I excavated out of this rock house by hand, and really proof of that is the whole of the terrace outside, is literally 100 square meters of terrace out there. None of that was there when I started. So that is all of the rubble that I have excavated.
The completed rock house’s impressive features are anything but Stone Age. It even has Wi¬Fi.
One of the things that’s kind of impressive about the restoration is really what you don’t see. We’ve put ventilation channels in the floor. One of the things that I was quite passionate about doing was trying to retain the integrity of the rock house by not cutting the many casings into the hard wires. This could originally have been the bedroom. These little nooks either side which I have lit up to give the illusion of kind of light channels kind of casting light down. Coming through into the shower room. So we have got under floor heating in here. One of the biggest kind of engineering feat. This is where I have excavated this kind of shelf and then subsequently I dug down and created this shower.
All of the fresh running water, comes from Angelo’s own borehole which he sank 18 metres into the ground.
This was originally two separate spaces. So the first task was that I’ve excavated this doorway. Start off at the top and literally cut down, repeat the process so that the whole of the area that you are looking to remove was set into stripes, and then remove the sections of rock, and just literally repeat, repeat, repeat. 11 days later, it kind of made my way through.
Although the cave house was originally built as a holiday let, Angelo still harbours the ambition of one day living full time in his unusual property.
When you’re actually here, when you see it in person, you get a feel for the place. Literally had people in tears. You know, I feel incredibly happy, very proud, very honoured. Yeah, it’s been a very inspiring chapter I think.

Extensive listening: Magical houses made of bamboo

A few weeks ago architect and designer Elora Hardy gave the talk Magical Houses made of bamboo at TED. This is the way TED presented her talk:

"You've never seen buildings like this. The stunning bamboo homes built by Elora Hardy and her team in Bali twist, curve and surprise at every turn. They defy convention because the bamboo itself is so enigmatic. No two poles of bamboo are alike, so every home, bridge and bathroom is exquisitely unique. In this beautiful, immersive talk, she shares the potential of bamboo, as both a sustainable resource and a spark for the imagination. "We have had to invent our own rules," she says."

You can read a full transcript here. 

A Tale of Two Bridges

With thousands of bridges in New York State deemed structurally deficient, there are two choices: repair or rebuild. The Tappan Zee Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge are the latest examples.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions about it. The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.



1 What does '100,000' refer to?
2 What does '1,800s' refer to?
3 What did bridges change?
4 How many vehicles on average crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge every day back in 2010?
5 What's the rate of accidents in the Tappan Zee Bridge?
6 What decision has been made with the Tappan Zee Bridge?
7 What added difficulty does repairing the Brooklyn Bridge entail?
8 Once a bridge is built, what three factors do the authorities have to take into consideration?

The biggest threat to the safety of the travelling public today are these bridges.
We got more than 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for Medicare (1).
Should we just keep pouring money into them or maybe we should think about building some new bridges.
Water keeps us alive. The subways all takes us back and forth to work, but the bridges is the outward appearance of what connects us.
In the mid 1800’s travel in New York City was very, very difficult (2). There were these, these quiet little bergs that people never moved from in their whole lifetime. It would have stayed like that, it would have never been very interesting. It never could’ve been New York the way we know it now without these bridges. It changed the whole social perspective. It moved whole groups of people out of slums, which would change their economic life people they could work in one place and live in another (3). The truth is that nowhere only becomes a somewhere when the bridge opens and people run across the bridge.
Behind me is the old Tappan Zee Bridge. It carries a lot more traffic than when it was built back in 1955. At times you can see the river through the cracks and the pavement. I’m not an engineer but I figure that’s not good.
Hey, how’s everybody doing tonight? In 2010 an average of 138,000 vehicles (4) crossed the existing Tappan Zee Bridge every day, but it was only designed to handle up to 100,000 maximum, so it’s well over what they call its design capacity.
'Cause I hear things, I hear things, I don’t like what I hear when I cross that bridge.
No, they’re monitoring that very carefully, very carefully.
Every time I cross I go, please don’t let it be the last time!
The existing Tappan Zee Bridge has no emergency break-down lanes, no shoulders and double the average accident rate of the entire New York state (5) through-way system. And it has had about 750 million dollars in repairs over the last decade or so, and it just got too expensive to maintain it, and the decision was made to replace the bridge (6). This is an enormous project. 3.9 billion dollars. It is the largest single infrastructure contract in the history of New York State.
This will have mass transit capability, emergency break-down lanes, dedicated express bus lanes, even a bike and pedestrian pathway on it.
I think the Tappan Zee Bridge is going to be a sensation when it opens because Cable State Bridge is a very, very beautiful bridge. It’s almost the bridge ‘du jour’ of the century.
The Brooklyn Bridge serves the human soul of New York and the world. It is New York’s icon.
If somebody asked me, would you tear down the Brooklyn Bridge I would tell them they were crazy. It’s New York. It’s who we are. Think about the history of that bridge, it was built for trolleys and horses and buggies. Now are putting 140,000 cars on it.
They identified the approach span, had elements on it that had fracture critical aspects.
The project that we’ve been asked to do is to reconstruct the ramps and approaches to both the Brooklyn and Manhattan side. Replace 600 bridge bearings and take the lead paint off. You can never really shut down the bridge for any length of time, which makes it difficult (7).
They now spent several years upgrading, so that the Brooklyn Bridge will be taken off the category of that is both structurally deficient and fracture critical.
The decision to restore versus build is easier if you can build a new bridge, completely next to the old bridge like they are doing on Tappan Zee, but it is part of our legacy, you see. It just takes maintenance, it takes renovation and it takes work (8), I mean, there’s no other way around it, but it can stand forever.
New York City governmental administrations have represented some of the most enlightened recognisition of the importance of infrastructure.
What we have had is a declining number of dangerous bridges in the New York area as opposed to most parts of the nation.
This is how powerful these bridges are. It is a monument to the human mind. And yet we walk right by them, we drive by them, we ignore them, we abuse them, we take them for granted, but we don’t really stop and look what they really mean to us.

How the Panama Canal was built

BBC News tells us the story of the construction of one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

Self-study activity:
For Básico 2 students, without watching the video (just minimise the window or scroll the screen down, so that you can't see the images), note down all the numbers and figures that are mentioned in the video.

For intermediate students, watch the video and complete the blanks in the transcript below with the missing words.



It has been a hundred years since the first ship sailed through the Panama Canal. In 1881 France began what would become one of the most challenging engineering projects ever (1) ...  . But disease plagued the French (2) ...  and up to a third of workers fell ill. After almost a decade, work (3) ... to a halt.
The canal was sold to the US 15 years later. The French suffered a considerable financial (4) ... . But by the (5) ... of the 20th century, medical knowledge was finally capable of controlling (6) ... of tropical disease.
The American opted for a new elevated lock system which would hoist ships above sea level. Upon (7) ... , the canal had cost a massive $639m, enough to build 85 Titanics. But after 33 years of construction the canal had (8) ... the lives of more than 25,000 thousand people. More than three quarters of these under French control. That’s 500 deaths for every mile of canal, and some believe this (9) ... to be even higher.
It was a colossal (10) ... , a journey from the west coast of America to Europe was cut virtually in half, and from Shanghai to New York by 14%. Two foreign nations were responsible for its construction, but the canal was finally handed over to Panama in 1999. Uniting two oceans for the first time, the canal has played a place in history as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

Key:
1 undertaken 2 workforce 3  ground 4 loss 5 dawn 6 outbreaks 7 completion 8 claimed  9 toll  10 achievement

Madrid Teacher: Spectacular Structures

In our Madrid Teacher series, four teachers discuss architecture and spectacular buildings. For us, the video is a good opportunity to pay attention to some features of spoken English.

First, watch the video through to get the gist of the teachers' conversation.
Now watch the video more carefully and pay attention to the following characteristics of the speech:

• Fillers to gain thinking time: You know; erm; I don’t know
• Use of really to emphasize the adjective and the verb
• Showing agreement: Absolutely, I agree; Yeah I agree; That’s true; True; Right; Exactly!
• Use of just to emphasize the verb
• Use of actually to introduce a piece of surprising information
• Use of 'hedging' before expressing an opinion so as not to sound too dogmatic: I think
• Use of ambiguous language:  kind of like

Now it's over to you. If possible, get together with a friend or relative and discuss modern architectural structures in your city or country. What do you think of them? Do you prefer the old ones to the new ones? Can you think of instances of buildings that have been changed both  for the better and for the worse? Don't forget to use some of the features of spoken English that we have studied in the lesson.

You know what is really interesting, of course everything is interesting to me, is that with different architectural structures, especially when they try to be modern, sometimes it works, and sometimes it just doesn’t.
Often times, they want to replace the old with something brand new, bright and sparkly. But the object that was old has more character, or even is more durable.
Absolutely, I agree.
Yeah I agree that sometimes it looks like the architect is just trying to break convention for the sake of breaking convention but I must say I’ve been really impressed recently with some of the, erm, buildings I’ve visited which are environmentally-sustainable…
That’s true.
… with erm, you know, they’re designed in such a way to save, save energy, save, I don’t know, water in some cases, the, you know solar panels are getting more and more frequent, and, erm, that’s got to be a positive side, erm, you know, taking into account that architecture can actually be not that environmentally-damaging,
That’s true.
But I must say as well that it is sometimes good to go to more modern movie theatres, for example, than going to old ones seeing that the seats might be more comfortable, than the old ones.
That’s true.
True, two hours, long hours!
I think you have to have a happy medium in between the two, you know, you can use the old aspects, and take what you’ve learned [Right.] into more modern buildings as well.
It can really add to the atmosphere. For instance, I recently went to this amazing theatre which used to be a slaughterhouse, a huge, huge slaughterhouse. And they’ve turned it into..., it sounds horrific [Yeah.], and they haven’t changed anything. It’s kind of like the, er Tate obviously which has kept all its industrial settings and somehow, that really lends to the, the atmosphere and the, erm, the, the character of, of the place.
It’s also part of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, right?
Exactly!
Which is always very, very good.
Very good!

Talking point: Buildings

In today's talking point we are dealing with buildings. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below and think about the answers. That way, ideas will flow more smoothly when you get together with your friends and you'll be able to work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

What famous buildings do you know?
Have you ever visited a famous building? Which one? What was it like?
Are there any special buildings where you live? What are they?
Are you interested in architecture? Why/Why not?
Do you think it is more important for a building to look nice or be functional? Why?
What kind of building do you live in? Describe it.
Would you like to live in a skyscraper? Why/Why not?
What do you know about the following famous buildings:
The Alhambra - The Taj Mahal - The Sydney Opera House - The Eiffel Tower

To illustrate the topic, you can watch the New York Times video Living at the top.



Bronx right, so you’re seeing deep into the Bronx…

This is Alexei Barrionuevo, I cover the world of high and real estate for The New York Times.

It took six minutes in the construction elevator to reach the 85th floor of New York’s tallest residential building. Standing in the living room of this four-floor apartment, 850 feet from the ground Central Park lays out like a giant green carpet. For now it’s just bare walls and concrete on the inside, but by early 2014 the owners of apartment 85 will stand in their master bathroom with his/her showers and stare out giant windows at the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building.

Already several of the world’s billionaires have signed up to live here, including some from the United States as well as China, Russia and the United Kingdom.

Rising to just over 1,000 feet at the top, 157 was built with them in mind. The French architect Christian de Portzamparc designed the shimmering outside. The Danish designer Thomas Johanson is doing the apartment finishes.

Even as the global economy struggles to recover, there seems to be no shortage of millionaires and billionaires willing to pay upwards of 95 million dollars for a chance to live here.

157 once seemed a risky prospect in the dark days after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 but now it is set off a tall-building’s arms race.

157 will hold on to the title of tallest residential building in the city for about three years, when another building at 432 Park Avenue it is expected to soar almost 400 feet higher, but will it have views like this?

Inside New York City's Water Towers

Rooftop water towers are the primary source of drinking water for many New Yorkers, yet frequently they are poorly maintained, and present a potential health hazard.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below about it.

The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.



1 How many water tanks on rooftops are there in New York?
2 How many of the tested tanks were positive for coliform bacteria and e-coli?
3 What is the source of e-coli?
4 What can you find in a tank in a deteriorated condition?
5 How often should tanks be revised by law?
6 What does 60% refer to?
7 What is the problem if part of a tank is contaminated?

To check your answers, you can read the transcript below.

Pisa has the Leaning Tower, Paris has the Eiffel Tower and New York has the water tower.
This is Frank Runyeon for The New York Times. There are ten to twenty thousand water tanks on rooftops across New York City. They are the primary source of drinking water for many city-dwellers, and yet the tanks are breeding grounds for bacteria and regulation of them is rarely enforced.

If part of my drinking water came from this, they would certainly change the way I drink water in the city of New York. Nothing to do with the municipal water supply, it’s to do with the tank.
The Times tested 14 tanks in 12 buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Eight of the tank samples were positive for coliform bacteria and five had e-coli. The Health Department, which is responsible for ensuring that building owners inspect and test their tanks for bacteria refused our on-camera interview request, though an official told us that they are satisfied with the inspection requirements as they are right now.
The Doctor Stephen Edberg a leading medical and public health microbiologist who invented Colilert, one of the world’s most widely used tests for bacteria, says there is cause for concern.
E-coli has only one source. It is only there because some animal is defecating in that place, it’s the only way it gets there.
You have a bunch of two-by-fours, that get built up here as framework.
Stephen Silver is a third-generation tank man with American Pipe and Tank.
When the roof on the tank is in deteriorating condition and is open to the atmosphere, you have dust, dirt, pigeons, garbage, we’ve seen people living in roof tanks, you see mice and vermin in the roof tanks, and this is for the most part people’s drinking water that the people in the building don’t even know about.
New York City’s water is gravity fed from reservoirs upstate but this aquaduct system can only deliver water up to six stories so to provide water pressure to the upper floors, water is pumped from the basement to a roof top tank before draining directly into taps.
Water tanks can be exposed to the elements for up to fifty years, so to keep them in working order they need to be maintained.
New York City requires that these tanks are cleaned and disinfected a minimum of once a year, because this is a building’s primary drinking water source, so to prevent algae and bacteria from flourishing which would… under normal conditions you have a tank of water that is baking out in the sunshine all summer long you gonna get things growing in the tank.
We had the chance to drop our camera into a tank on a building above Time Square. We can see a layer of sediment that had built up at the bottom. This is a common site in water tanks around the City. Sediment should be flushed out every year.
It’s so inexpensive to maintain the code by cleaning your water tank and taking a water sample.
Cleaning only costs a few hundred dollars, but the problem is most of New York City’s water tanks aren’t cleaned every year, as required by law. A city survey of one hundred buildings showed that nearly 60% per cent did not comply.
It has been a problem. There has been a less than adequate compliance in my view. But we need buildings to step it up, we need to ensure that they are doing what they are required to do under the law.
The DEP is largely responsible for the city’s water, until it gets to individual buildings, and then it’s up to the landlords to maintain water quality. When tank companies are called to clean a water tank, they drain the tank, scrub the wood inside and add the disinfectant like Clorox bleach to finish the job. It’s also standard practice for them to take a water sample to test for bacteria. We took a sample from this tank just before it was cleaned. We took it to a lab for an independent analysis.
So the fact that the sample is yellow means it’s positive for coliform. And once it’s positive for coliform we put the UV light on it and if it fluoresces it is positive for e-coli.
So what it does mean that it’s positive for bacteria and e-coli?
It means at least from where the sample is collected it’s not fit for human consumption.
The Health Department says that the contamination the New York Times found in samples from the bottom of the water tank would not normally enter the water supply because drinking water exits through a pipe near the middle of the tank. The experts we spoke with disagreed.
In most of the world, water is stored in large vessels and the problem is that if any part of the tank gets contaminated, all of it is contaminated.
So if you have sediment in the bottom of a water tank, then whatever is in the sediment is going to get in the water supply.
Most likely, yeah, no hesitation.
Ok, even if it’s just, you know, at the very bottom of the tank can come up from the middle?
Yes, correct.
But with all these potential contaminants, why don’t we see more people getting sick?
It’s a very hard… to a population as large and dense as New York to ascertain even reasonably large illness outbreaks. You’d literally have to have entire apartment buildings getting sick at the same time. It disappeared, but they are there.
Despite billions of dollars spent to protect New York’s drinking water, the delivery system has a weak spot: the thousands of unmaintained, untested and forgotten water tanks.

Making Buildings for Billionaires in New York City

Ultra-luxurious New York high rises are attracting billionaires from nearby as well as abroad.

Watch this New York Times short video and answer the questions about it. The activity is suitable for Intermediate students.



1 What's the name of the building?
2 How many storeys does it have?
3 What's the difference between this building and other luxurious buildings in New York?
4 How much does a penthouse cost?
5 How many flats have been sold in this building?
6 Who are the buyers for 56 Leonard in Tribeca?
7 What happens whenever the best and most luxurious building is finished?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.

Oh, wow.
That’s what we want, we want the oh wow.
We want the oh wow, right? I mean that must be everybody’s reaction as soon as they get up here.
It is, it is. Yeah.
This is Julie Creswell for The New York Times. One57 looming 90 stories over mid-town Manhattan is the latest hyper-luxury high-rise looking to attract big bids from the global super elite.
We are in kind of dead centre of Central Park, we have a spectacular view. So I think basically this building has everything, you know, views, location, super high quality, hotel services. Lots of other buildings I think have parts of this, but we’ve got it all.
Having it all comes at a cost. One bedrooms will start at three million dollars. A penthouse is listed for 100m.
But you know, there are a lot of billionaires all over the world, including in the United States of America. It turns out there’s a pretty deep market for people that can afford residences like this.
Even as prices are some the city’s hottest developments stretch into the stratosphere, luxury apartments in Manhattan don’t top the charts when it comes to price per square foot. Last year an apartment in Monaco’s Tour Odeon sold for $8,850 per square foot. Another in Frank Gehry’s sleek Hong Kong Opus went for nearly 8,800 per square foot. In West London, the average price for the 86 apartments in One Hyde Park has been more than $9,500 per square foot, with over 70% sold One57’s average price is $6,000 and roughly half are foreign buyers.
Billionaires want big views, too. In this rendering, Harry Macklowe’s 432 Park Avenue will be the highest residential building in the western hemisphere at nearly 1,400 feet, dominating New York’s already impressive skyline. So far it’s averaging nearly $7,000 square foot.
This whole area from here from on in…
But height isn’t enough. You also need high-end amenities.
…you have a huge bathroom like those from there to here. This is a central grand tub which is made of one piece of marble coming Italy.
In Tribeca, a mostly low-rise high price section of Lower Manhattan 56 Leonard Street is slowly rising to 60 storeys.
Basically when you look at other, you know, New York buildings in town, they are kind of monotonic and we just don’t want to do another straight-out high-rise it’s sculpted, it has jagged edges.
So who are the buyers for 56 Leonard?
You know, much to our surprise the buyers are downtown people, Tribeca people. I think international buyers were much more in love with the Midtown buildings, you know. … like over 92% sold. The highest price, which was a record in downtown, was below 56 Street was a 47m penthouse.
But no matter what you build, once it’s done, there’s always another developer around the corner.
What’s the encore for a building like this?
We have another interesting building coming.
Not ready to tell any secrets yet?
Not yet.

How do you make a building disappear

The New York Times's Henry Fountain describes two unconventional demolition methods pioneered by the Japanese.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.



1 Henry travelled to Tokyo to watch the demolition of a 14-storey hotel.
2 Implotion is a very popular type of demolition.
3 Demolitions are difficult in areas where there are a lot of buildings close together.
4 Implosion involves using wrecking balls and/or explosives.
5 Tall buildings were forbidden in Tokyo as a result of the 1932 earthquake.
6 Today's ceilings are similar to those in the 60's.
7 In Tokyo, whenever they get rid of a building the first thing that goes away is the roof.
8 The second demolition method mentioned is like making a building the other way round.
9 The demolition work with this second method starts from the roof.
10  The Singer Building holds a world record.

How do you tear down a skyscraper? Well, as the old punch line has it, very carefully. But on the cover of Science Times this week, science reporter Henry Fountain makes it clear that it’s not just a matter of our being careful. Henry travelled to Tokyo to watch the demolition of a 40-storey hotel and is back to tell us about the science of creative destruction. So, hi, Henry.
Hi.
So how come they couldn’t just, you know, blow it up?
That’s what everybody wonders. Actually that kind of demolition which is usually referred to as implosion is only used in about 2% of the cases, number one. Number two, in a place like Tokyo as in a place like New York where buildings are closely packed, even a very carefully controlled demolition is a dangerous and risky thing, so it’s basically not allowed.
So no high explosives, no wrecking balls.
No wrecking balls either, because you need room to swing them and you never know what’s going to happen. Basically the idea is you have to keep things as controlled as possible. The most controlled way to do it is actually taking it apart bit by bit.
You point out in your story that they weren’t even allowed to build high rises until the 60’s.
Yeah I was sort of offshoot 1923 earthquake, the famous earthquake that nearly destroyed Tokyo for the next 40 years the building heights were limited to about a hundred feet but, you know, the economy took off. It started with the 1964 summer Olympics, actually, Tokyo hosted the Olympics. The economy took off, they started building and in lots and lots of buildings they built some hotels like this one. The ceiling heights nowadays are very sort of tight compared to sort of modern standards.
So what did they do?
So what makes it interesting is, because you know, cities occasionally have to tear down large buildings. In this case in Japan the environmental regulations and the recycling laws are such that they really wanted to keep it under control, so what they do in the case of the hotel is they kept the roof on. Ordinarily the first thing you do is get rid of the roof, and then they built a scaffold sort of hanging off the roof it hangs down about three floors, and the roof and scaffold were supported by these beams, these columns, they destroyed, demolished a couple of floors and then they lowered the whole sort of this cap that they built, the scaffold and roof they lowered it down over the course of about seven or eight hours, and then they started the next two floors. It’s kind of bit by bit taken apart, taking the building apart from the top up down, keeping it all, if you’re ever walked by everyday you wouldn’t really notice anything is going on. Over time you might think, hey that building is like, you know, half the size it used to be but it basically looks pretty normal.
You were in the hotel yourself while this was going on?
Yes.
What was that like?
I would spend most of the time down at the bottom where I talked to the engineers and stuff. Up top it’s a total chaotic scene with heavy equipment, you know, dust and grime and everything, and then it stops and they have these jacks that actually jack the roof down over as I said six or seven hours and then once the roof is back in place they work on the next two floors. The columns themselves are lowered down, so the whole thing is kind of leapfrogging in fact, it’s pretty cool.
It’s almost like a building project in a certain way.
Yeah, in reverse, sort of.
Yeah. You are… also describe a different kind of process and this one it just totally boggles the mind, demolishing a building from the ground up.
…from the ground up, yeah.
How does that work?
That’s also in Tokyo. That’s been done a couple of times and that really is like building in reverse. So what they do is the building they just finished in January was something like 300ft tall it had 40, it’s a steel structure, it had 40 columns. They cut each column about two feet at a time and they support them with these big hydraulic jacks that can support, you know, a thousand tons each, and they do in a sequence so that the building doesn’t kind of you know fall over while they’re doing it. They got it very planned out. Then they lower all the jacks that two feet or so all at the same time. They cut another two feet out of each one, lower it down until they get to do three or four of those before they get to the next floor. They demolish the floor, they repeat the whole thing again. So all the demolition work actually takes place on the ground, which means a couple of things. Number one, it’s generally safer, number two you can use bigger equipment, because you don’t have to raise, lift the equipment to the roof or to the top of the building.
Do we have a lot of obsolete skyspcrapers in the United States?
You know, we don’t have a lot. We actually we may have a few in New York. The people I have talked to seem to think tearing down a building is a big deal so the reality maybe you get half a dozen, maybe a dozen at the most buildings torn down, but still, you know, in New York we had the Deutschbank building torn down a couple of years ago and that was damaged in the World Trade Center attacks. We had the Coliseum, where the Time Warner building is now, but before that the biggest building and still the biggest building ever torn down anywhere was the Singer Building which was torn down in 1968. That was six hundred something feet tall. So, you know, we haven’t torn down very many big buildings so we may be, we may be seeing more of them.
Well, when it happens Henry Fountain will be here to tell us about it.
Yeah, I’ll try to stay out of the way.

Key:
1F 2F 3T 4F 5F 6F 7F 8T 9F 10T

Extensive listening: Antoni Gaudi's glorious vision

Architect Antoni Gaudi's vision for the Sagrada Familia, a church under construction for over 130 years, is depicted in this twelve-minute segment of CBS's 60 Minutes.

Watch the clip and find out the ins and outs of the building, its architect and the reasons why it is taking so long to finish.

You can read a transcript of the video here but you can also activate the CC subtitles on the lower side of the screen.

Battersea Power Station Project

Architect Rafael Vinoly, walks us through his design for the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station and the extended site.

Self-study activity:
Watch the 5-minute video clip through in the first place to get acquainted with the ideas Rafael Vinoly sets out and to absorve some of the visual information.

Watch the video again and answer the questions below.

The video is suitable for intermediate 2 students.



1 How many residential buildings are planned?
2 What does 'three main avenues' refer to?
3 What is the main reference throughout the site?
4 What is the 'prospect'?
5 How will vehicles gain access to the site?
6 How big are the turbine halls?
7 What does 'two thousand' refer to?
8 How big is the office space?
9 What type of energy will the power station produce?

You can check the answers by reading the transcript below.

I’m Rafael Vinoly. I’m the master planner for the new project for the redevelopment of the Battersea Power Station site. The most important object of the site is, of course, the power station, which remains the central focus of the plan. The power station is then framed by two residential buildings and that guides the view towards its heart that is the main public space.
To the south of the station we are creating a hotel and an office block and two residential blocks. The access to this site then from the south is achieved through three main avenues.
The high street links the new tube station with the town square and it is a two-level pedestrian thoroughfare that is activated by retail frontages, cafes, and art galleries creating a very active urban life.
Imagine you’re exiting from the tube below. The upper level is very much linked to the lower level. From here you start seeing the architecture of the buildings that define the space of the high street leading towards the power station in the back, so the power station always remains as a main reference to orient yourself through the site.
The second and perhaps most spectacular point of access is what we call the ‘prospect’. The main purpose of the prospect is to link the lower community to the site to enable people to have a clear view of the power station from Battersea Park Road. It’s activated again by a series of cafes and opportunities for people to enjoy the space itself. It’s lined by trees highlighted by this reflecting pool that drips down into the public space to maximize the presence of the building and the whole experience of walking through the site.
Hotel Lane is a tree-lined boulevard that is the main point of entrance into the site for vehicles and main access to a new building which is a hotel that opens into a larger square which is open to the sunlight from the south.
The part will become a leisure destination for visitors, it will be a resource for the use of residents but also for the public at large.
Pathways through the open park land reflect the historic pattern and the  typical tradition of London public spaces.
All of these public spaces lead you to the experience of reencountering the power station renovated again into a very important attraction.
Both turbine halls are also going to be renovated. Each of them is the size of the Tate Modern Gallery.
Invading the centre of the power station there is a huge conference center with a wonderful two-thousand seater for banquets and events of many kinds linked directly to the access from a series of cascading stairs.
At the top of the building there are six floors of office space punctuated by a series of atriums that bring
natural light to the spaces.
The important story behind this is that the power station returns to its original function. It will become again a power station producing carbon-neutral energy venting water vapor through the original stacks.
This is a very well balanced solution for a site with an enormous set of opportunities and challenges. It will revitalize a view of the power station to create a new destination for London.

The Worlds Most Remote Monasteries

Self-study activity:
Watch this video clip from GeoBeats about remote monasteries and answer the questions about it. The video is suitable for Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students.



1. Where is Sumela Monastery
2. What can you find inside Sumela Monastery?
3. How old is the Tiger's Nest Monastery?
4. Where is the monastery built?
5. What is the cult of Ostrog Monastery?
6. Which colour is part of the edifice?
7. At what height is Thiksey Monastery?
8. What does the number 12 refer to?
9. Why is Thiksey Monastery especially acclaimed?
10. When did Tatev Monastery start?
11 What was built in the 10th century?

You can check the answers by reading the transcript below. Remember that if you don't understand a word in the transcript you can quickly find out the meaning by double-clicking on the word the meaning of which you don't understand.

Hi, this is your host Naomi. I'd like to show you the world's most remote monasteries.
In the Trabzon region of Turkey lies the archaic and secluded Sumela Monastery. It stands on rather unusual grounds, having been built into a rocky cliff. Inside the monastery are several noteworthy places, including a library, a rock church and a spring venerated by the Greek Orthodox religion.
Among the most awe-inspiring treasured sites midst the green of western Bhutan's mountains is the Tiger's Nest Monastery. A cultural symbol of Bhutan, this Buddhist temple has a 1200-year history and a rich sense of art, religion and culture. Today, it continues its illustrious beginnings by still serving as a monastery. The monastery is built in a cave where an ancient guru once meditated.
Built into the sheer, rocky cliff face of Montenegro is the Serb Orthodox Church, Ostrog Monastery. This sacred structure is Montenegro's primary pilgrimage site, and is dedicated to Saint Basil of Ostrog. The immaculate whitewash which covers part of this edifice creates clean lines and stands out against the gray-red rock.
Resting at a height of 3,600 meters, Thiksey Monastery graces Northern India's Indus Valley region. It is an elaborate 12-storey building which sits magnanimously on a hilltop in Ladakh and is also called ''Mini Potala" due to its close resemblance to Potala Palace. It has been especially acclaimed for its intricate and rich collection of Buddhist art.
Set against the stunning backdrop of trenchant mountains is the mystic Tatev Monastery. Bearing a magical ambience of pure divinity, this monastery has blessed Armenian lands since the 9th century.After the region's best school was built here in the 10th century, Tatev Monastery became a focal point for scholars and the arts.