Reading test: Paris canal is officially clean enough to swim in this summer

This week's reading test is taken fron The Independent article Paris canal is officially clean enough to swim in this summer.

Read this text and choose the best sentence (A - J) for each gap. Two of the sentences do not correspond to any of the blanks. 0 is as an example.

A - after test results confirmed the water is clean enough for swimming – 0 Example
B - if it is considered a success
C - pollution has reduced by 25 per cent
D - that means many residents escape the city
E - the much-loved Paris Plages programme gets new water feature
F - the third is reserved for swimmers with a depth of 2 metres
G - to clean up its waterways for years
H - where people were allowed to swim in the Bassin
I - which has been running for 15 years
J - which links the Canal St Martin and the Canal de l'Ourq in the north east of the city


Paris canal is officially clean enough to swim in this summer

This summer Parisians will be able to cool off in the city’s canal (0) … . The city council had already voted in favour of canal swimming last year but the final go ahead hinged on the health tests results. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted the good news on Sunday with a message that read: "We promised! From this summer for Paris Plages, you will be able to swim in the Bassin de La Villette."

But water lovers will not have to negotiate the canal without assistance. Three swimming pools will be built bankside along the Bassin de la Villette, (1) … , at a cost of £1.1 million. Water for the pools will come directly from the canals. The Bassin sits along the south side of the Quai de la Loire in the 19th arrondissement. The temporary pool structures will be 90 metres in length and 16 metres across with varying depths. The smallest of the three pools will be reserved for children at 40cm deep. A pool for loungers will be up to 120cm deep and (2) … . 

The Bassin is one of the locations of the Paris Plages summer beach festival, (3) … . Paris traditionally sees an August exodus due to the combination of uncomfortable heat and tourists. In 2002, then mayor Bertrand Delanoë set up the first beach on the Rive Droite, bringing in sand and deckchairs to provide a haven for overheated city-dwellers. The scheme has been a huge hit and last year there was a popular one-off “open day” event (4) …, preparing the way for the pools.

Paris has been taking proactive steps (5) … . Celia Blauel from the City Council said: “The results show 15 to 20 traces of bacteria per millilitre, while the top limit is 100 per millilitre. We have been taking action for five years and the water is of a high quality.”

The city of lights has also been trying to improve all aspects of life around the river. Last autumn City Hall banned cars and motorbikes from the banks of the Seine, renovated pedestrianised areas and created a 10-hectare park known as the Rives de Seine filled with green spaces and sports pitches. Since traffic was banned (6) … .

The pools are scheduled to open on 15 July and will be accessible until the end of the summer, with the city estimating up to 1,000 visitors a day. They hope to repeat the scheme in 2018 (7) … .

KEY: 
1J 2F 3I 4H 5G 6C 7B

Dangerous overcrowding in London homes

An enforcement team targeting overcrowding, discovered twenty-six bunk beds in a four-bedroom house in Wembley. Those living there were mostly migrants. They say that despite the appalling conditions, it's the only way they can afford to live in the capital.



It’s a four-bedroom house, and a team of enforcement officers have arrived at dawn to look inside. What they find is shocking. There are 26 beds.
How many people live in this room, sir? 1, 2, 3 bunk beds, six sleeping spaces…
Another four more in this tiny room.
You pay £55…
65.
£65 per week each.
It was time for the enforcement team to do some maths. What might the landlord earn from this one property in Wembley?
We think there are up to 26 people living in this property, paying somewhere between £60 and £65 a week so we’re looking at an income on this property of around £1,500 a week, which is around £80,000 a year income.
But there was even more to come. Outside, inspectors found a shack, and inside, two more beds and a woman living here, who wasn’t happy with the conditions.
So you can’t stand the mice and the rats scurrying around midnight.
Dreadful, isn’t it, to think that somebody can be exploited to living in what isn’t even a shed, it’s a lean-to.
So how many people might be living in conditions like this across London? Well, Brent Council has a ready prosecuted 30 landlord in a year, and taking in other councils there have been at least 300 raids in 12 months. This house in Kingsbury has now been boarded up. Inside, inspectors found 17 beds. The men living here, thought to be Romanian, have now moved on. In Harrow, there's another four-bedroomed house, not quite so crowded. Until recently 13 people, mainly from Hungary, had been living here, but they are not happy. One of the tenants has armed himself with a baseball bat.
Because I’m gonna protect ourselves.
The tenants here claim their landlord gave them just two weeks’ notice to get out and when they objected, two strange men turned up outside the property.
Walking up and down, punching in the air.
Just jumping around, preparing to the fight.
Harrow Council has now warned the landlord to respect tenants rights. He’s declined to comment, saying it’s going to court. The tenants say they have no choice but to live in conditions like these.
I think because this is the cheapest where you can find a room.
And back at that Wembley house with 26 beds, Bagarald told us he lives here because his job as a carer for the elderly pays so little.
I’m paid twenty pounds per day.
Meish works as a casual builder and downs sixty to eighty pounds a day but says even living here his life is better than back home in India.
This country is money. Our conditions is money.
The landlord here now faces prosecution, but without alternative very cheap accommodation, many thousands of low-paid workers may continue to live in similar conditions.
Gareth Furby, BBC London News.

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

Welcome to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch is a town name really difficult to pronounce.

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



1. Where is the town?
2. How many people speak Welsh in the town?
3. How many letters does the name have?
4. Why was the name invented in the mid 19th century?
5. What does the name mean?
6. What is the short version of the name?
7. In what area does the town have the longest name in the world?

Any more passengers for Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?
Anybody?
Nope, anybody for Fan-Merc?
Plans-clull Llanfair
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Right.
It's a small town in Northern Wales.
Around 76% of the population here speaks Welsh. It's also the longest town name in Europe with 58 letters. There are literally four Ls next to each other. Right there. What is with this name?
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is not the original name of the village.
You've got to be kidding.
In the 1860s, the name was contrived by the local cobbler, and it was meant to bring in people and tourists.
Alun, help us break this name down.
The name means places within the village.
You've got the Church Mary, in the hollow of the white hazel, near to the rapid whirlpools, at the Church of Tysilio, and the red caves.
Okay, so, let's say you wanna mail a letter. Do you have to write the whole name, Postmaster Jim Evans?
You could. But you'd have to write very small. Or, you could use a shortened version, which is the first 20 letters.
If you play for the local football league, does the name fit on your jersey, team manager Steve Smith?
It does, and it's the longest name of any football team in the world. And it just about fits.
Can you say it after a pint, pub owner Kevin Bryant?
I'm sure I can.
Let's see.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
God, you did it.
But, can you put it in a song?
Wow, apparently you can.
Llanfair, Llanfair, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
It might be the greatest PR stunt of the mid-1800s. I don't know, even of today. After all, we're here.
Here in  Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I think that's pretty good.

Key:
1 In Northern Wales 
2 76%
3 56 
4 to attract people and tourists 
5 places within the village
6 the first 20 letters 
7 football team

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.

The town where people endure -50 C

The industrial Russian city of Norilsk, sitting on the permafrost above the Arctic Circle, is the seventh most polluted city in the world. Rich deposits of nickel, copper and palladium provide mining and smelting industries that create jobs and continue to draw people to the harsh landscape from other regions of Russia.

Elena Chernyshova's stark and beautiful photographs of life in the city are featuring in a new exhibition, "Days of Night - Nights of Day" at the Half King in New York City. She spoke to Dan Damon.

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



1 When were deposits discovered in Norilsk?
2 At what freezing temperatures do people go out?
3 Why did Norilsk attract people in Soviet time?
4 What services are good in the city?
5 What do families sometimes come back to Norilsk after leaving the city?

Very rich deposits were discovered in the beginning of 20th century.  They thought just to create mines to do extractions of minerals and to send them to other regions, but after they decided to build factories and actually to create city.
It’s a city that’s freezing cold for much of year. Do people really go out in - 45 degrees weather?
Yes, we can of course, we can go out, - 45, - 50, we just need to wear quite good clothes to protect ourselves.
What brought people to Norilsk?
In Soviet time, it was very attractive economically, so a lot of people arrived there just to earn money to get a flat after in better regions of Russia, and they suppose to stay for five or ten years, for children like guidance, schools, and medicine are really good in the city.  The salary there is very stable, so they stay there just to have a job. And I know also some families that left Norilsk, they spent one year outside,  and after they just came back, because in some ways, the quality of life was better for them in Norilsk. It’s paradoxical, but it’s like this.

Key:
1 At the beginning of 20th century
2 -45, -50
3 It was attractive economically
4 guidance, schools, and medicine
5 Because the quality of life is better

The West 90’s in New York

The West 90s may not be everyone's ideal of New York, but it's a New Yorker's ideal of New York!

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



1. You can see all sorts of people in the West 90s.
2. You will find products from everywhere in the world in the West 90s.
3. Four parks surround the West 90s.
4. Times Square in 50 minutes.
5. Vehicles, bikers and pedestrians coexist without a problem in the West 90s.
6. Streets and roads are now wider than they used to be.
7. The Upper West Side is really affordable.


The West 90s is quintessential New York.
If you think of Woody Allen's New York, Seinfeld's New York, or Nora Ephron's New York, that's the West 90s.
When you're walking down the street in the West 90s, I think what you're struck by are the people.  Young, old, from every walk of life.
You've got the street life, which is so intense.  But then you've got the sort of tranquility of Riverside Park and of Central Park. It's perfect.

The West 90s is this precious nugget.
What's great about this neighbourhood is that it has brought in different people at different times. What's resulted is a very nice diversity of people.
We have these great mom and pop shops lining Broadway and Columbus and Amsterdam. You'll find Asian markets, Hebrew markets, Polish markets, Hungarian markets, Spanish markets.
There's Gabrielle's, there's Carmine's, there's Gennaro's.
We've really been able to maintain this very local, approachable culture. The biggest retail to move into the 90s is really the mall on Columbus Avenue, while right around the corner you have the Judaica shop. Architecturally, it's absolutely stunning. We have all of this great Beaux-Arts and Art Deco architecture and the great brownstones that line all of our side streets.
And then we're sandwiched between two amazing parks.
The north part of Central Park, I think, is a part of the park that people really don't frequent.
You've got the tennis courts, we've got the reservoir, which I used to run around in my youth.
Riverside Park in the 90s. You can start in the south with the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, and then you go along the north and you get to the Joan of Arc part and then the People's Garden.
Riverside Drive has this wonderful dinosaur park where in the summertime the kids are running in and out of these water fountains that run constantly.
I mean, I couldn't imagine a better place to grow up as a kid.
Getting anywhere from here is very easy. You can be in Times Square in 15 minutes.
You've got the one, two, and three train, and then you can go over and get the B and the C train over on Central Park West.
And we just got select bus service.
But also the bike infrastructure is terrific. I think we have the best bike lane in New York City, which is the Hudson River bike lane.
You can literally ride your bike from the George Washington Bridge all the way down to Battery Park City.
The trade-off of being this hub is that there can be tragic conflicts between the vehicles and the bikers and pedestrians.
When I first came in to office within the first couple of months, there were five pedestrians who were struck and killed right around 96th Street. We really did a complete street redesign.
There's been a lot of narrowing of the streets and left turn signal changes. So my husband, the driver, complains. I think they've made it safer.
The West Side was developed about a generation later than the Upper East Side. And it just happened to align with the period in New York, the City Beautiful Movement. And so you had the grid already established, but then you had Olmsted, Frederick Law Olmsted come in and carve out Riverside Drive out of that grid, departing from the grid and following the contours of the landscape. In my opinion, you have the best residential architecture of New York City is right here in the West 90s.
To me, there's no part of the Upper West Side that's really affordable. When apartments become vacant in this building and then I hear what they're asking, it's just…
It's not the trendiest neighbourhood. It doesn't have the hottest restaurants. It doesn't have such a great night life. And that's what we like about it. The West 90s is not everyone's ideal of New York, but the West 90s represents a New Yorker's ideal of New York.

Key:
1T  2T 3F 4F 5F 6F 7F

China's toxic smog

For much of the past month, a huge swathe of northern China has been shrouded in a thick layer of toxic smog. Pollution has reached such high levels that Beijing's met office this week issued a warning against venturing out into the snow because of fears it's dangerously contaminated. With pollution now thought to be the cause of more than a million premature deaths a year, our correspondent John Sudworth travelled to China's most polluted city.

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



1. How far is it from Beijing is Shijiazhuang?
2. What record has Shijiazhuang held over the past month?
3. How is the smog impacting children's health?
4. What is the Chinese government investing in?
5. What are the two main sources for all of this toxic smog?


Well, welcome to Shijiazhuang, a city a little less than 300 kilometers from Beijing, and one that over the past month has had the rather unenviable honour of being China's most polluted. In fact, by some measures, it is the most polluted city on the planet over that period.
Of course, it is just an extreme example of a problem affecting a huge swathe of northern China at the moment, with a pollution cloud hanging over this country from the Russian border in the far northeast all the way down to the central cities of Chongqing and Chengdu, a sweep of a few thousand kilometers or so.
Of course, underneath the cloud live hundreds of millions of people, and they are currently struggling with the impact of this toxic air on their lives and livelihoods.
It can be completely dark, as if you're walking in the clouds. The smog impacts my children's health. Coughing is the usual symptom.
I heard some people say they are considering leaving Shijiazhuang, moving to the south of China. Have you ever thought of doing the same?
Of course, I want to leave, but I cannot afford to. I live here. The whole city and the whole country is polluted. You have to go abroad.
Over the past 30 days, the average air quality level in this city has registered as hazardous on the official scale. Amid mounting public anger across China, the government is pledging to clean up the air and is investing heavily in renewable technology, but there are good reasons for caution and some scepticism. The two main sources for all of this toxic smog are the heavy reliance on coal, as the dominant form of power generation, and the high and still-growing levels of car ownership. And neither of those things look set to change anytime soon.

Key:
1 300 km 
2 the most polluted city in China
3 coughing is the usual problem 
4 renewable technology
5 coal (as the main form of power generation) and car ownership

Listening test: Blaenavon, the Book Town boom

Listen to a news report on the Welsh city of Blaenavon. Choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence. 0 is an example.

source: Speak Up Italy

0 Example:
Blaenavon
A. is an industrial village.
b. is in a prosperous region.
C. is trying to become rich and successful again.

1 For James Hanna New Orleans (...) than Blaenavon.
A. has better food and weather
B. has more honest people
C. is more violent

2 According to the reporter, Blaenavon
A. has never been known for its cultural life.
B. has tropical weather.
C. is well-known for its sophisticated cuisine.

3 James Hanna’s plan
A. consists of opening 40 bookshops.
B. involves selling second-hand books.
C. met the local council’s objections.

4 According to John Rodger, Blaenavon
A. declined because a lot of supermarkets were opened in the town.
B. had around 6,000 inhabitants in 1985.
C. has lost half of its population.

5 James Hanna's idea of transforming Blaenavon resulted from his
A. fascination for the Welsh landscape.
B. friendship with Richard Booth.
C. love for books.

6 Hay-on-Wye, the famous book town on the Anglo-Welsh border,
A. attracts literary tourists from around Britain.
B. became well-known in the 1970’s.
C. has a literary festival that lasts for 20 days.

7 Blaenavon
A. is a World Heritage Site.
B. is not attractive to tourists these days.
C. still has the most advanced ironworks in the world.

8 About the local population James Hanna says
A. hardly any of them reads books.
B. they are now outnumbered by foreign visitors.
C. they represent about 50% of bookshop customers in the town.

A visitor to the Welsh village of Blaenavon would never guess that it played a leading role in creating modern Britain. Today, the industrial activity that brought prosperity to this remote region has entirely disappeared. However, the community is now attempting to revive its fortunes with an unusual approach. The architect of its plan for regeneration is a bookseller called James Hanna. He has come a long way to revive Blaenavon's fortunes and now faces a series of formidable challenges. One of the least of these is to adapt to a way of life radically different from that of his native New Orleans.
Well, the weather, of course, is much better here and the food is superb! It is a jolt. It is a culture shock. I grew up in the American South and, frankly, I think being here is comparable to the '50s, or maybe `60s, in the rural South. So it's different, it's enjoyable. The people are honest and open and there's not the... in New Orleans, well, we were, for a number... I think two or three different times, we were the murder capital of the States and, you know, there may be a Saturday night fight here, but that's about it.
James Hanna was, of course, being sarcastic about the weather and the food. Relentless rain is the typical forecast for the valleys of South Wales, and their working-class communities are not known for sophisticated cuisine. In fact, the poor reputation of the area's cultural life was one reason why considerable skepticism met James Hanna’s plan for reviving Blaenavon — to open 14 shops selling second-hand books. But even if local residents are not great readers, the local council welcomed James Hanna with open arms. John Rodger, a council project director, explained why.
This community grew over 100 years. It was a kind of Klondike based on the iron and coal industry and these industries declined dramatically. So the population of this community fell from about 12,500 in 1921 to about 6000 in 1995; a town which was economically in decline, socially in decline and physically in decline. When you add to that the changes in distribution, the pressures from out-of-town supermarkets and this sort of thing, we ended up with half of the shops in town boarded up. We were looking for some sort of re-use for these shops, which would be of interest to tourists, and Book Town fits that like a glove.
The challenge facing James Hanna might seen immense, but he has a blueprint to follow. Hay-on-Wye, the famous book town on the Anglo-Welsh border, has already established itself as a Mecca for bibliophiles under the leadership of its unofficial 'king', Richard Booth, a close friend of and major inspiration for James Hanna. Since the '70s Hay-on-Wye has attracted literary tourists from around the world and its flourishing bookstores have stimulated the growth of hotels, restaurants, cafes and a literary festival. Booth's formula is now being applied in over 20 communities around the world. A major boost to Blaenavon's chances of enjoying similar success to Hay-on-Wye is its unique industrial heritage. The local ironworks — once the most advanced in the world — and the nearby Big Pit mining museum are the core of an officially designated World Heritage Site, and they already attract a steady flow of tourists. James Hanna is optimistic that he can induce many of these visitors to buy books. In fact, the village's recently-opened bookshops are already attracting a strikingly cosmopolitan range of customers and some of them even come from the surrounding area.
We had people here from Cyprus, India, South Africa, Italy, Greece, literally around the world. We have 50 per cent what I would call local, meaning within 30 or 40 miles of here, then 50 per cent coming from, literally, every place. It is really interesting, when we opened, because I had heard from some of the locals, "Why are you opening a book town in Blaenavon? Nobody here reads." Well, in fact that couldn't be more untrue. When we did open, we found that (the) valleys were flocking to us like they'd been hungry and we were feeding them. It was absolutely amazing. They came in thanking us for coming here.

KEY: 1C 2A 3B 4C 5B 6B 7A 8C

Moscow on the move

Choosing the right speed for exploring Moscow is vital, as this Euronews report explains.

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



1 What is the other name tube stations are known for in Moscow?
2 Why do people pat the dog's nose at Revolution Square?
3 Which two categories does Aleksis divide travellers into?
4 How far is the bike ride to see the avant-garde architecture?
5 How far off the ground are the passengers sitting on a double-decker bus?
6 How old is Moscow's tram?
7 Why is the river a key element in the city?


Choosing the right speed for exploring Moscow is vital because according to architects, the city is best seen on the move.
The underground is the fastest way to get around but take your time because tube stations here are often like palaces, or art museums. Sometimes people even call them time machines.
Let's take the Mayakovskaya station, for example. Here we see portrayals of the days of Soviet people who will soar into the sky in the future, because life will be wonderful. At Revolution Square station you see the 20 first years of Soviet history. First, you see the heroes of the revolution and then the heroes of the Civil War.
At Revolution Square people also pat this dog's nose for luck.
At first, people thought that patting the dog's nose before an exam would help you pass. This belief just expanded. Today people think it will bring you money and other things.
Aleksis thinks that a scooter is lucky. The founder of the "Arts and Culture Project" enjoys exploring the new pedestrian zones which have recently been constructed in the city centre. Aleksis has his own philosophy for exploring Moscow, and he divides travellers into two groups: the "birds", who just fly around; and the "mandarins", who do not get out of the bus.
They see the iconic buildings but not the details. I try to reach another level when I talk to tourists about the city and its history, paying special attention to those details.
To see the hidden treasures of Moscow's avant-garde architecture, Aleksis and his group have chosen another means of transport, the bicycle. But you have to be in good shape for this excursion, because it's a 30 kilometre bike ride.
Now, everyone can use a bicycle to get around Moscow. The long-awaited public rent-a-bike service has opened. And for now there are several dozen stations, but more will be built soon.
Another novelty is the double-decker sightseeing buses that have finally appeared on Moscow streets. They are not only popular with tourists but also with native Muscovites who enjoy seeing their city from a new perspective.
Three and a half metres might not seem far off the ground but you can see the facades of the so-called Old Moscow. They are unique and even magical.
And then there are the trams which give a flavour of Old Moscow, a city full of charm which inspired writers to describe the trams in their books. Moscow ethnographer Natalia Leonova created a tour on a real tram route that has existed since she was a child.
The tram is the oldest form of transport in Moscow. Just imagine, it's 114 years old. That is why it allows us to go back in time and travel around the distant parts of Moscow, uniting districts which used to be the far-flung outskirts.
But some people say that the best way to see Moscow is from a boat. The Moscow River, like all rivers in capital cities, has played a very large role in the past. And that's why the major historical buildings were constructed on its banks.
The river is a uniting element. It unites not only the city itself, but also the perception of a man who is looking at the city from the river. At the same time, the perception from the very low angles is always better and more interesting. This is why I put the boats in the first place on the list of transport for tourists.
Architects also suggest combining all the different angles to create a unique picture of Moscow that you will remember like a good film.

Key:
1 time machines
2 for luck 
3 the "birds", who just fly around; and the "mandarins", who do not get out of the bus.
4 thirty kilometres 
5 three and half metres
6 one hundred and fourteen years
7 it is a uniting element

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.

Why is New York City cracking down on Airbnb?

Airbnb, the short-term housing rental industry giant, now lists more than 1 million rooms available in 192 countries. The platform's largest market is in New York City, with more than 25,000 listings per night, but it's also where the debate over how to regulate short-term rentals is the most contentious.

In light of a new report by the NY Attorney General that says nearly three-quarters of Airbnb's listings in the city are technically illegal, the city is cracking down.

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



1. Why does Jennifer rent her place?
2. How does this scheme benefit the community and the visitors?
3. What does '25,000' refer to?
4. Why might Jennifer be acting illegally?
5. Why have hotel rates gone down in New York?
6. How much tax does Airbnb pay in New York?
7. Why do residents also complain about Airbnb?
8. What additional problem is mentioned by Senator Liz Krueger and the reporter?
9. Why does Airbnb make the housing situation harder in New York?
10. How does the rental system help the residents who decide to rent out their apartment? 
11. How is this issue dealt with in Santa Monica?


HARI SREENIVASAN: So it’s a two bedroom?
JENNIFER: Yeah, two bedrooms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Three years ago, Jennifer and her husband began listing their two bedroom apartment on what was then an up-and-coming website Airbnb.
JENNIFER: My husband travels a lot for work. We also have family all over the country. And so when we knew we were going away, I would just make the apartment available. We have a space that sleeps six. So people almost always rented it. It just kept going well and we kept having all these good experiences
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb connects hosts who want to share their homes with guests who are looking for a place to stay – short term, typically for a weekend or a vacation. Airbnb lists the property, connects the two parties, and collects a booking fee.
Jennifer – she did not want us to use her last name – charges up to $200 a night to rent her place when she and her family goes away, up to a week every month.
JENNIFER: I think it’s great for the local communities, I can kind of, direct people to my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. I’m able to help people come in here and really experience what the city has to offer, you know.
HARI SREENIVASAN: What sounds like a win-win situation for Jennifer and her guests is not so simple. What Jennifer is doing may be illegal in New York City, where city and state laws restrict short-term rentals.
The short-term home rental industry is booming. Platforms like Homeaway, Flipkey, VRBO are popular. And Airbnb has emerged as the giant in this space, especially in cities. Airbnb now lists over one million rooms available in 192 countries. And New York City, with more than 25,000 listings a night, is the platform’s largest U.S. market.
New York is also where the debate over how to regulate short term home rentals like Airbnb is perhaps most contentious.
According to a report by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last year, nearly three-quarters of Airbnb’s listings between 2010 and 2014 were essentially ‘illegal hotels’– short term rentals that violate state and city laws against renting out an apartment for less than 30 days unless the occupants are also present.
Schneiderman found 94 percent of Airbnb hosts are like Jennifer and her husband. They have only one or possibly two listings.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: Those are rooms that would have gone to the hotel industry and should have gone to the hotel industry given what we’ve invested in the city and our buildings.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Vijay Dandapani chairs the New York City Hotel Association and is President of Apple Core Hotels, which owns five in Midtown Manhattan, including this ‘La Quinta’. He says competition from Airbnb has driven down his hotels’ room rates.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: Rates have not gone back up to pre-financial crisis despite the fact that tourism has gone up. That’s because, let’s say you had 100 rooms, now you’ve suddenly got 140 rooms, 40 of those rooms being not hotels.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Dandapani complains Airbnb and its hosts not only steal business, they also do not follow the same rules and regulations as hotels.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: We have a fire command system, security systems that give you protections from intruders, and so on. The moment you get into converting your house into a hotel, which is de facto what is being done nowadays, none of those protections are there.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Then, there’s the issue of taxes. Airbnb collects a hotel occupancy tax on behalf of hosts in many cities but not New York.
Chip Conley, Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality, says the company is looking at how to do that.
CHIP CONLEY: The annual taxes that we would be paying would be 65 million dollars if the state and city of NY would allow us to be a collector of taxes and a remitter of taxes. Currently they are not allowing us to do that.
HARI SREENIVASAN: City officials counter that allowing collection of taxes legitimizes activity that is largely unlawful.
CHIP CONLEY: So what’s odd to us is that actually New York is actually sort of a laggard here relative to so many other communities across the US who have said, let’s create sensible legislation and let’s make sure we’re actually collecting taxes as well.
HARI SREENIVASAN: New York Airbnb hosts Jordan and Joshua — who also prefer us not to use their last names — say they’d be willing to pay a hotel tax for renting out their two bedroom apartment. They already declare the income: about a $180 a night.
JORDAN: If Airbnb collected the tax right when it was booked; then we wouldn’t have to worry about it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The hotel industry is not the only group fighting Airbnb. So are residents of apartment buildings where neighbors’ apartments are rented out to total strangers. New York State Senator Liz Krueger represents the east side of Manhattan.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: Constituents started coming to me and saying, “There’s something strange going on in my building. The apartments seem to be being rented out on a nightly basis. There are groups of tourists wandering in and out with luggage, with keys to the buildings."
HARI SREENIVASAN: Krueger, who has often been dubbed Airbnb’s Doubter-in-Chief, was the primary sponsor of the 2010 state law that effectively banned short-term apartment rentals in New York City.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: They encourage illegal activity. They don’t have to, but they choose to do so as a business model.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And the short-term rental activity that troubles officials like Krueger and Attorney General Schneiderman most is what they call ‘commercial users’ of Airbnb and similar websites.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: People becoming entrepreneurs and renting one to 100 apartments, claiming that they’re their own homes, and turning them into ongoing illegal hotel arrangements.
HARI SREENIVASAN: In fact, the Attorney General’s report found that while only 6 percent of Airbnb hosts advertise three or more listings, they account for more than a third of Airbnb’s business in New York.
The report also found thousands of Airbnb listings were rented for three months or more of the year.
We found that New York Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal went on what she terms an undercover sting operation this spring to find these commercial users.
ROSENTHAL: Do you live here? You don’t live here, oh ok.
In one of the videos that she released to the press, Rosenthal is seen visiting a host who, she says, was renting seven apartments in a building, none of which he lived in.
HOST: “But in case anybody asks something, you don’t know what’s Airbnb is."
ROSENTHAL: “Oh, OK."
HOST: “That’s why Airbnb always calls you guests.”
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb has taken steps to remove users who have a large number of listings.
CHIP CONLEY: We, like the Attorney General, support the idea of cracking down on illegal hotels and unscrupulous landlords. In spring we took down 2,000 listings, what we were calling bad actors who we just felt shouldn’t be using the site
HARI SREENIVASAN: But State Senator Krueger argues Airbnb is enticing landlords like the one in the undercover video, to convert apartments into short-term rentals, which can be more profitable than renting them to long-term residents. And that, Krueger says, makes it harder for New Yorkers to find affordable housing in a city where the housing market is already tight.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: Airbnb has told me, “If you could just do one or two, it would be okay,” and the answer is no, because if 10,000 people decide to rent out two apartments fulltime, that’s 20,000 units off the market.
HARI SREENIVASAN: So we’re sitting in an illegal hotel room, according to the State Senator.
JENNIFER: Yes, I have a difference of opinion with her, for sure. It’s really hard for me to feel like my home is a hotel. I feel like someone who is welcoming a lot of people who become friends. I think the key is just making sure that it’s people are, it’s something that people are doing with their primary home. Financially, it really helps my family. Rents here have skyrocketed in the 10 years that we’ve been here.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb argues it helps residents stay in their homes by allowing them to earn supplemental income to pay their rent or mortgage.
JOSHUA: It affords me as an artist to be an artist. I use part of this income to survive on.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Joshua also says that the Airbnb system allows them to be very choosy about who they let stay in their home and when.
JOSHUA: It’s up to us as hosts what we want to do. I say we deny 8 out of 10 people that ask us to stay here. And we get a lot of requests, a lot. So that’s how I regulate it. The question that people ask is do we feel safe having people we don’t know in our home and the answer is yes.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Arun Sundararajan is a business professor at New York University. He says cities like New York should partner with companies like Airbnb and residents to forge new ways of regulating the activity on those platforms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Why is the AirBNB model so different than the model for lodging that we’ve had all the rules and regulations around so far?
ARUN SUNDARAJAN: The fundamental innovation is in tapping into underutilized capacity: repurposing what used to be residential real estate and sort of converting it into a new form of mixed-use real estate where for some of the time it is short-term accommodation, and for the rest of the time it’s residential.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Cities across the country are grappling with these questions.
Like New York, Santa Monica banned short-term rental of entire homes when the host is not present and additionally imposes a 14-percent tax when a host rents out a room in his house.
Other cities have recently forged a middle ground.
San Francisco residents are permitted to rent out homes a maximum of 90 days a year.
In Philadelphia, the maximum is 180 days and hosts must pay an eight-and-a-half percent hotel tax to the city.
ARUN SUNDARARAJAN: I think that there’s a growing recognition among cities that this kind of sharing economy activity can be good for a city.
HARI SREENIVASAN: But for now, New York City is cracking down. It has expanded the office tasked with investigating complaints of illegal hotels and is proposing higher fines for violators.

Key:
1. her husband travels a lot for work and they have family all over the country
2. Jennifer directs visitors to specific places (restaurants) in the neighbourhood; visitors are advised on interesting places to drop by
3. the number of Airbnb houses available in New York
4. Jennifer and her family rent their apartment when they are away
5. there are many more rooms available thanks to platforms like Airbnb
6. none
7. total strangers keep coming up to the buildings
8. a small percetage of individuals are renting out hundreds of apartments, which means 1) it is not possible they live in those apartments they rent and 2) they have created an illegal business
9. empty apartments are rented short-term because it is more profitable and so New York residents who would be willing to rent the apartmemts long-term do not have the option to do so
10. they get extra cash that help them pay very high rents
11. Santa Monica banned short-term rental of entire homes when the host is not present and additionally imposes a 14-percent tax when a host rents out a room in his house

Gori, birthplace of Stalin

Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes find themselves travelling to Gori (Georgia), Stalin's birthplace.

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



1 What does Hugh say about the road?
2 What does Hugh want to see in Gori?
3 What is the message in the inscription Jessica reads?
4 What is the surprising thing you can see in the shower?
5 Why is Hugh concerned when he leaves the museums?
6 What did the minister of culture write about the museum?
7 Who wrote the message in the visitors' book Hugh reads out?

I don't want to tempt fate, but this is a remarkably good road.
You've blown it now, Hugh.
They're driving to a small town called Gori whose place in history relies solely on the fact that it's the birthplace of communist dictator Joseph Stalin.
So, Gori, where we're going to, Stalin's birthplace, there's a museum. I'd be interested to see how honest an account or how much of the rest of the world's view of Stalin is included in the museum in his birthplace.
A huge memorial has been built around the house where Stalin was born and several surrounding blocks flattened to make way for the museum dedicated to Gori's favourite son.
So, this is Stalin's house, literally kind of sitting on its own in the middle of nowhere. There's something really exciting about coming somewhere like this. It's such living history, and imagining Stalin as a little boy looking at exactly this, all the notches on the wood. Wonder if there's any initials.
JV was here.
You can go inside.
It's incredible to think of him sort of sitting at that table and kind of... living here.
So, this carriage used to belong to the Tsar and was appropriated by Stalin. There's even a bar for the shower. There was a meeting of the Allied commanders of Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt on a train. I wonder if it was this one. You definitely feel ghosts in here, you do, when you consider what Stalin meant for millions and millions of people.
Hugh searches the museum for some answers. But comes away more concerned about its omissions.
I think my thoughts about this place are solidifying. I feel quite angry now. There's a statement downstairs from the minister of culture, I guess it is, saying that this museum is being left as it was, as part of an objective history of his life and his birthplace. It's not. This is a shrine to Stalin really, I feel, and I don't think I could put it any better than… This is the visitors' book I've been looking at and there's a couple from New York who wrote this:
How can you expect the world to support you in your just struggle against the Russians if you have no courage to judge Stalin and his crimes against humanity?
Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Key:
1 it's remarkably good
2 a museum
3 JV was here
4 a bar  
5 because of its omissions 
6 it is an objective history of Stalin's life and his birthplace
7 a couple from New York

Dinner for Six in a Bite-Size Space

What does a night in one of New York's new micro apartments look like?

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



1 How big is the apartment?
2 How much does the rent cost?
3 How wide is it?
4 How long is it?
5 What does ‘six’ refer to?
6 What does the desk transform into?
7 How do New Yorkers usually get their food when they entertain friends at home?
8 What used to be the legal minimum size for an apartment in New York?

When The Tiny House Movement comes to New York City, you get this: the micro apartment, full living quarters in a modest 300 square feet. That's me, Penelope.  I'm a reporter for the "Times," and I'm about 5' 8" tall. This micro apartment is located in the Carmel Place development in Manhattan, where 32 market rate studios rent for about $2,400 to $3,200 a month. 
If you think you can make the leap, that is, downsize to 300 square feet, consider this. You'd be occupying a space that's about 1/100 the size of Grand Central Terminal's main concourse and about the size of this bathroom in the Elizabeth Taylor suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. At its widest, it measures about half the width of your typical New York commuting platform, and at its longest, about a third of the length of this Metro North car. It's just smaller than the inside of the Metropolitan Museum's Temple of Dendur, which, by the way, has three bedrooms.
But then again, we New Yorkers have evolved to appreciate small spaces.  We dine in them regularly.  I can walk from one end of this apartment to the other in 6 seconds.  But the space, designed by the architecture firm N Architects, is surprisingly functional, with lots of closets and nooks to hide any mess.
The kitchen is outfitted with a refrigerator, electric stove tops, a microwave, and even a dishwasher.  Most of the furniture is multi-purpose and made to conveniently stow away when not in use. Take this desk.  In a couple of minutes, it'll transform into a fully extended dining table.  While the bathroom has a shower stall instead of a bath tub, it manages to feel… well, at least by our studio apartment standards -almost castle-sized.
But there are a compromises like the Murphy bed. If not raised into the wall, you'd find it taking up most of your living space all together. Putting it out of the way every day would get you your daily upper body workout. So it's a space purpose-built for one.
But what if you're the type who likes to entertain? Well, first of all, if you're like many New Yorkers, you'd probably skip cooking and order in. Having six at the dinner table is pushing it, but not if you're close friends.  It'll be cozy, and seating arrangements are tricky, and so is stepping over each other to use the facilities. You've probably seen wide angle shots like this used in apartment advertisements to make things look roomier than they are in real life.
So to put this shot into perspective, that's our video producer in the foreground, and she's standing just about here, close to the farthest end of the apartment opposite where we're hanging out.  New York City waived regulations requiring that apartments be at least 400 square feet so that the Carmel Place development could be built. 
Still, it's yet to be seen whether or not this style of living will catch on.  The apartments are about half the size of an average studio in Manhattan and cost considerably more in rent per square foot.  But it's a new, modern, and legal nook all of your own, without roommates, and perhaps with all the space one person might need as a haven from the city.
This is Penelope Green for the New York Times.

Key:
1 300 square feet
2 between $2,400 and $3,200
3 half the width of a platform
4 a third of a (train) car
5 the time the reporter takes to walk the apartment from one end to the other.
6 a dining table
7 they order it
8 400 square feet

Talking point: Smart cities

This week's talking point is smart cities. 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.

How have people’s lifestyles changed in your country during your lifetime?
How has your city/town changed in your lifetime?
What are the good and bad points of living in your city/town these days?
How do you think your city/town will be like in 50 years’ time?
What do the pictures below show about city life?
How do you feel in situations like this?
What other pictures of city life stress would you add?

What do you understand by the term ‘smart city’?
Do you agree with these ideas to make a city more liveable?

• Cars have to pay to enter the city centre
• A single card is needed for the whole public transport system
• Solar panels provide all the energy the city needs
• There is a large park with lakes in the city centre

Smart cities
Look at this list of ideas for making cities ‘smarter’ or better to live in. Do any of them already exist in the city you live in or one you know?
If so, how useful are they?
If not, would you use the app or facility if it were available?

1 an app giving information about new projects and impending legislation in the city
2 parking apps to show drivers the nearest available parking space and how much it costs
3 apps to let users ‘adopt’ city property, such as litter bins, trees, flower beds, and volunteer to maintain them
4 digital parking payment systems, allowing you to pay for parking by smartphone, without using coins or tickets
5 free wi-fi everywhere in the city, including on trains, buses and the underground
6 screens in public places which display traffic information, weather and local news
7 an app letting residents communicate with the city maintenance services to let the city know where there's a problem - something's broken or out of service
8 an app giving information about all the trains, buses and underground and when they are due, delays, alternative routes
9 solar-powered artificial trees that enable residents to charge their mobiles, laptops and other devices

A look at Fort Greene

In Fort Greene you can find from historic brownstones on leafy streets to the booming Brooklyn Cultural District.

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



1 There are not many green areas in Fort Greene.
2 There is a lot of variety as far as housing is concerned.
3 Fort Greene is a quiet neighbourhood.
4 You can watch concerts and sporting events in the Barclays Stadium.
5 The subway and the railroad are the only means of transport in the district.
6 Wealthier and working class communities used to live all together.
7 Fort Greene had a bad reputation in the 60s and 70s.
8 Spike Lee's film company was called 40 Acres and a Donkey.
9 You can buy a mansion in Fort Greene for less than $8m.
10 Atlantic Yards will produce more than 7,000 units of housing in the next eight years.


It's one of the more culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
The trees, the lushness.
The feeling on the street and the sense of community.
There's such a rich history, whether it goes all the way back to the abolitionist movement to culture, and just in general, to the arts. I mean, it is a really phenomenal neighborhood. And that's what's so unique about Fort Greene.
Living in Fort Greene is kind of magical. It has some of the most beautiful housing stock.
It's one of the older neighborhoods in Brooklyn. You're going to find a lot of brownstones, a lot of short housing.
Fort Greene Park is like this little jewel.
There's peace, there's quiet. You can go in the house, drop your things, walk your dog.
You have the Brooklyn Academy of Music. You have the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts.
You have the Barclays Center which brings in concerts and sports. These are things that people generally thought would just be a Manhattan luxury, and now they're not just a Brooklyn reality, but they're a Brooklyn reality in Fort Greene.
The transportation alternatives vary in Fort Greene. You have 10 to 12 subway lines. You have Long Island Railroad on the peripheral. If you go deeper in, it's challenging.
Growing up in Manhattan the way I did, this is an incredible shock to me that I'm so far away from the subway. But what I am learning is with my son's love of buses, that the buses aren't so bad.
From its earliest developments, Fort Greene had two kinds of communities settling. You had elites building elaborate houses south of the park, and you had working class people settling in the northern part of the neighborhood. For African-Americans, their history in Fort Greene extended from the earliest foundings. The first colored school as it was called, which gradually became part of the public school system attracted black professionals, teachers, and administrators who formed the core of the first black middle class and professional class of Fort Greene.
There were hotels. There were theaters. This was the heart of Brooklyn.
And the whole area fell on bad times as much of the city did in the late 60s and 70s.
In the early 80s one group that began moving in, in somewhat larger numbers was a growing black creative class. One of the most critical artists in this movement was Spike Lee. In 1986 he set up his film company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. The reputation that Ford Greene earned as a place for black artists, attracted a second wave. Fort Greene was a place to be.
The spectrum of people in Fort Greene runs the gamut. Fort Greene is really a microcosm of the larger city. From a housing standpoint, we have the Fort Greene housing projects, and we have mansions that now can trade for upwards of $8 to $10 million dollars.
The real estate market here has become extremely competitive. There's just not enough real estate to go around.
Moving forward in Fort Greene, the Brooklyn cultural district starts with BAM at the center. And the large high-rise rental towers that are being built right now. To the south you have Atlantic Yards. Atlantic Yards is the largest development in all of Brooklyn, that over the next eight years will produce nearly 7,000 units of housing.
There hasn't been planning around schools, hospitals, parks. I mean, in any other part of the country, adding 45,000 people to a neighbourhood would be a new town, right?
One of the things that has always been unique about Fort Greene is the diversity of people and of classes. This is the challenge that I think Fort Greene is experiencing today. The future of Fort Greene depends on the ability of the neighbourhood to sustain working people in the neighborhood.
We all love it here. And you get that feeling whenever you talk to anyone who's been here for five years or fifty years, they're very committed and devoted to this neighborhood. 

Key:
1F 2T 3T 4F (Blarclays Center) 5F (buses also) 6F 7T 8F 9F 10F

Largest urban farm opens in abandoned factory in Netherlands

A Scottish farmer has opened Europe's largest urban farm in an abandoned factory in the Netherlands.

Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and anwer the questions below.



1 When was the Phillips factory built on the site?
2 Where exactly is the urban farm?
3 Apart from being self-sustainable, what is the farm meant to do?
4 What two things are the fish doing?
5 How many people does Mark intend to supply?
6 How expensive is the produce?

It started life as a television and telephone factory built for the electronics company Phillips, back in the nineteen fifties. When they moved out this building was left empty, abandoned, until now.
Look up! There's a sign on the site. The new residents have just moved in. We are now seven storeys above the city. We've escaped from the exhaust fumes and we're inside a lush urban oasis surrounded by sweet-scented tomatoes, silky aubergines and a patchwork of microgreens.
If you can be here and smell and feel and see and taste everything all at once, then you're totally consumed with what you're doing, you're not just shoving a tomato on your face so that you can have your lunch quickly.
The farm is designed to be self-sustainable and produce zero waste. They might not realize it, but these tilapia here are playing a vital role.
The fish are doing two things for us here. They're, they're producing our fertilizer for our plants, which is really important because in the city you don't have cows and pigs and sheep to produce the nutrients so we do that with the fish. And the other thing that it does is it creates a source of protein in the city as well.
Mark's ambition is to supply a thousand families a week. His initial challenge will be to convince those customers to swap their comparatively cheap supermarket produce.
I think it's a little bit more expensive therefore it really has to differentiate itself from what we now already find in the supermarket so it should be ultra fresh, ultra tasty, and the other thing is it is a high-tech nature, therefore some consumers will like this but others will probably prefer the traditional agriculture out in the field with their light from the sun and water from the rain.
This enthusiastic chef was the first to buy into the concept. If this pioneering project is a success, the team are hoping to inspire people in places like Glasgow, Manchester, in Cardiff to cultivate their own urban farm lands in the sky.
Anna Holligan BBC News in The Hague.

Key:
1 in the 1950s
2 on the seventh floor 
3 produce zero waste
4 producing fertilizers and creating proteins
5 one thousand families
6 more than if you buy at a supermarket

Listening test: My Prague

Listen to Canadian-born art gallerist Camille Hunt talking about the way Prague has changed in the last few years. Choose the option A, B or C which best completes the sentences below.


1 Camille Hunt has been living in Letná
a) for almost 10 years.
b) for over 15 years.
c) since 2013.

2 One of the reasons why she loves Letná, an area of Prague, is because
a) she doesn’t need to use any transport to go to the city centre.
b) the highway is nearby.
c) the transport system is good.

3 Camille finds the Letná district surprising because
a) it is very convenient.
b) many foreigners visit the area.
c) there are lots of shops and restaurants.

4 Over the years Letná has changed in that
a) many more shops and restaurants have been opened.
b) the parks are better looked after these days.
c) the streets have many more trees now.

5 When comparing Letná with other areas of Prague Camille says Letná has
a) better pubs.
b) better views.
c) more friendly residents.

6 About her work at the gallery Camille says
a) she has more time to do things at home now.
b) she is happy about the change a couple of years ago.
c) she no longer travels to work.

7 About the changing customs in Prague it is said that
a) her gallery opens now seven days a week.
b) people work shorter weeks, so that their weekend is longer.
c) weekends are becoming livelier and livelier.

For nearly a decade Camille Hunt has been co-running Hunt Kastner, a private Prague gallery that represents leading local artists such as Eva Koťátková and Dominik Lang. In 2013 the gallery moved to Žižkov from the Letná district, which the Canadian-born Hunt has long called home. Our tour of “her Prague” begins with a drink on the terrace of the Letná Chateau, which is adjacent to a beer garden with stunning views of the city.
I have lived in Letná for 15-plus years. I love this part of the city because of the parks, mainly. And it’s a very quick, nice walk into town through the park, so that’s lovely. You don’t have to cross any highways. And it’s nice being high up.
How you would you characterise the neighbourhood?
I wouldn’t say it’s any different… Well, maybe there’s less… it’s a little bit less ex-paty than maybe Vinohrady , which is the area that people seem to favour more, because it has maybe more restaurants and more shops, and is also a very lovely part of town. And Dejvice is also very nice and maybe more foreigner-friendly, just because it has more access to more shops and restaurants and amenities. Letná is actually surprising, because we always say, when are the good restaurants going to open? Because it is such a lovely part, and so close to town, and so many people come here on the weekends. There are some good places [to eat], but they’re few and far between.
How would you say Letná has changed over your living here?
Not terribly much. Of course, there are better shops and restaurants again, going back to that. And the park is maybe better maintained. The lovely part about Letná are the parks. But because we have so many trees and greenery in the parks they don’t put many trees on the actual streets, which I keep on thinking they will do eventually but... So that’s the difference with Vinohrady – it’s got nice leafy trees everywhere, which makes the streets really beautiful.
I don’t know if you find this, but Prague is relatively small and I still find myself hanging out with people who live near me. It’s not London or somewhere. There’s no particular reason that I wouldn’t come over to Letná to go out – but I just don’t do it.
Well, actually we have a sort of running joke with our friends. We have a lot of friends who do live in Vinohrady and there’s a sort of battle between Letná and Vinohrady. We always say that it’s much better here. At least the beer garden, Riegrovy Sady. And I stand by that. Because of the views. But it’s true… I don’t know, maybe as we get older we’re less inclined to travel, even short distances, I don’t know. I mean, I’m always in Vinohrady and Žižkov, because the gallery moved there almost two years. The gallery was in Letná, around the corner from where I live, so I probably got out less, you know. I quite like that it’s not close by and I do have to actually travel to get to work and it’s a nice way of clearing your head. Also after work I go and do more things before I get home. If you live around the corner from where you work it’s kind of hard to think of going away and then coming back. So I prefer this arrangement – anyways for now.
You were telling me earlier that you think Prague is starting to become livelier at weekends than it used to be.
Yes, it definitely is. We always used to have openings at the gallery during the week, usually on Thursday, or even Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. But we never thought of doing it on Friday because everybody would tell us that nobody would show up. And we also thought that. But in the last or so we started doing them on Fridays and there’s no difference. I think young people don’t necessarily, you know, take off on Friday immediately for the cottage, because there’s so much more going on in Prague nowadays.

KEY:
1B 2A 3A 4B 5B 6B 7C

Riding New York City’s Desire Line

Desire lines, says architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, are marked by economic development and evolving travel patterns. He plots today’s desire line along the waterfronts of Brooklyn and Queens.

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



1 Neighborhoods along Brooklyn and Queens have a good transport system.
2 Michael Kimmelman advocates for more cars on the roads.
3 Brooklyn Bridge Park has the power to attract young entrepreneurs.
4 The bike is a popular means of transport in some areas of New York.
5 Cars and trams can share the same road.
6  Residents of Greenpoint tend to use the train as their main means of transport.
7 Houses and business premises could be built in Astoria.
8 A swimming pool in Astoria Park was built after the Berlin Olympics.

Healthy cities welcome change. Today, neighborhoods along the waterfronts of Brooklyn and Queens are among the ones undergoing the biggest changes in New York but they’re badly served by mass transit.
I’m Michael Kimmelman from the New York Times and this is my proposal to bring back the streetcar - mostly along the route first laid out nearly a decade ago by urban planner Alex Scarman.
The route begins in Red Hook. The streetcar would start at Ikea, which runs a ferry to Lower Manhattan. Small businesses in Red Hook now cut off from customers by a lack of transit would suddenly become more accessible.
Traveling north along Columbia Street and then Furman Street we pass Brooklyn Bridge Park. Here there are more ferries into Manhattan and a link to subways in Brooklyn Heights and in Dumbo. The area is also a potential magnet for startups, tech companies, small businesses and artisan prized older buildings with open floor spaces and lots of character.
Today a city that attracts young entrepreneurs who favor these old mixed neighborhoods and industrial buildings and whose employees like to ride bikes, take public transit and live near work is thinking ahead - so is a city that doesn’t leave behind its poor citizens in neighborhoods that have long had meager access to public transport.
Go east on Flushing Avenue and then north on Kent Avenue into Williamsburg: Kent is ripe for transit which would run beside one of the city’s most popular bike lanes.
A modern streetcar with tracks buried only a few inches into the asphalt shares the road and flows with existing traffic. It’s a permanent commitment which generates economic development and becomes its own attraction.
Further north and past McCaren park, Greenpoint has been colonized by millenniums but it’s under served by the G-Train. The route here dead-ends in Newtown Creek but a dedicated bridge with bike lane and pedestrian pass would restore the old subway bridge that was torn down years ago, providing easy access for residents and workers in Greenpoint to reach the subway at Vernon Boulevard.
Property values are skyrocketing in Long Island City. It’s got PS1 and the Silvercup studios and a slew of bars and funny little shops and the feeling of a neighborhood on the make.
From there, we head north on Vernon Boulevard. Across the river on Roosevelt Island, a new Cornell tech campus is being built linked to Queens and Manhattan by the F-Train. This entire route could become, who knows, a new Silicon Alley.
We hang a right at 41st Avenue, just south of the Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park – long marooned city gems. Then a left on 21st Street into Astoria: a strip full of parking lots and low-rise industrial buildings ready for new housing and other development. The end of the route is where the Triborough Bridge meets Astoria Park. There’s lots of new development already and a glorious public pool from the 1930’s where American swimmers practiced for the Berlin Olympics.
A streetcar could link not just underserved parts of the city, long neglected by mass transit; it would also trace a new desire line that is emerging in New York, linking waterfront areas rich in history but also crucial to the city’s future. 

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