The document provides information about three capital cities: Dublin, Ireland; Canberra, Australia; and Wellington, New Zealand. It notes key facts about the history, location, and culture of each city. Dublin is famous for its writers and pubs. Canberra was chosen as the capital after debate between other cities. Wellington is windy and experiences small earthquakes due to its location on a fault line.

1. A great place
2.1 Can you compare?
Unit2
1 Compare the pictures using some of 4 Unscramble these descriptions.
the words below. a fast / tennis / as / isn’t / squash / as / .
Tennis isn’t as fast as squash.
cheap crowded exciting exotic
b football / think / is / swimming / I /
expensive old quiet tasty varied
better / than / .
3 4
1 2
c as / Bali / isn’t / exotic / as / Barcelona / .
d high / Himalayas / the / as / aren’t /
a b as / Pyrenees / the / .
e tasty / home / isn’t / as / school / food /
7 8 as / the / food / at / .
5 6
f the / longer / than / the / Thames /
Amazon / is / .
c d
a One is more exciting than two. 5 Make two comparisons.
b a Switzerland / France (big)
c France is bigger than Switzerland.
d Switzerland isn’t as big as France.
b school / home (exciting)
2 Match the pictures in Activity 1 to
these sentences.
c French food / British food (varied)
a London isn’t as quiet as Dulston. Dulston
isn’t as exciting as London. a
b Fast food isn’t as tasty as an omelette and
d cities / villages (crowded)
salad, and it isn’t as healthy.
c A car isn’t as quiet as a bike, and it isn’t as
cheap.
e Bangkok / London (exotic)
d This beach isn’t as exotic as that one, and it
isn’t as exciting.
3 Circle the correct option to complete the text.
How’s everything going in sunny Sao Paulo? As you know, I’m studying for an English exam in Brighton.
What a city! The school’s OK — it’s a lot (a) smaller / small than our language school,
and it’s (b) friendly / friendlier too. Brighton is an amazing place; everything’s totally different.
It’s (c) bigger / biggest than Sao Paulo and (d) more modern / moderner and quite crowded in the summer.
The food is (e) more / most varied than ours, and it’s a lot (f) exciting / more exciting.
The shops are (g) cheaper / cheap than back home, but they close (h) earlier / early.
E-mail me soon, and I’ll tell you more about my adventures in exciting Brighton!
© Richmond Publishing, 2004 PHOTOCOPIABLE 7

2. A great place
2.2 Vocabulary
Unit2
1 Complete the text with these words. 3 Match the word groups and headings.
a float festival parades 1 postcards
b tasty fish delicious 2 music
c beaches tourists location 3 rivers
d contemporary lively rhythm 4 food
e Wales Italy Argentina 5 carnival
f Seine Thames Nile 6 countries
4 Find five adjectives from the unit.
S M A E I P C J I A I Q
beaches helicopter icebergs penguins P Y B R N I S X A I H W
polar bears rainforests snow spectacular
O M Q U T J U L T O P E
Last year we went on holiday to the South P N C H E A P T C C A R
Pole. What an amazing place! I have never U O R M N F L E B N L T
seen so much (a) snow in all my life:
L U G V S H Y C E S C Y
everything was whiter than white. It was so
bright that we had to wear sunglasses all day. A O B R E L I V E L Y F
We flew to our camp in a (b) . R T Y P I C A L T T E R
It was my first time and it was really exciting. B R E A T H T A K I N G
The (c) were (d)
and we could see lots of (e)
swimming; they really do look like waiters in 5 Match the underlined words with their
their black and white suits. We didn’t see any synonyms.
(f) , because they live in the
North Pole. Next year we’re going to Brazil to contemporary is hollow nightlife
visit the (g) and sunbathe on well-priced youthful
the tropical (h) . I hope it’s
a Visiting clubs and discos at night in London
warmer than the South Pole!
is really exciting, but very expensive too.
nightlife
2 Match the words and definitions. b The food here is delicious and it is not too
expensive.
a castle 1
b whirlpool
c This tree has got nothing inside. It must
c coast
have been eaten by insects.
d cliffs
e gallery
d Carnival has got a really young atmosphere,
f float
although you can find all ages there.
1 a place where kings and queens live
e The exhibition on at the museum is of
2 a lorry that carries people in a parade
paintings by modern artists.
3 the area of seashore around a country
4 steep rocky edge on the coast
5 water that circles very fast
6 a place where paintings are shown
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3. A great place
2.3 Can you write a quiz?
Unit2
1 Complete these sentences making 4 Complete the conversation with these
these adjectives superlative. adjectives in the correct form.
TEACHER: OK, Maria, what’s the
friendly big good (a) largest (large) continent?
MARIA: Well, I’m not sure, but I think the
(b) (big) continent is Asia.
T: That’s correct. Now, James, which is the
(c) (long) river in the world?
JAMES: I think it’s the Mississippi.
T: No! It’s not (d) (long)
the Nile! OK, try this question. What’s the
(e) (high) mountain in the world?
a Rover is the biggest dog of all.
J: Let me see. I think the (f) (tall)
b Peter is the boy. mountain in the world is K2 in China and
Nepal.
M:No! It’s Mount Everest! And K2 is in
Pakistan and China!
T: Maria you’re the (g) (clever)
student today!
c Love me forever is the -selling 5 Complete these sentences with – or
DVD. the.
a I love all types of — music.
b people in Australia love barbeques.
2 Circle the correct option. c We stayed next to the river Thames
last year.
a The richest / most rich cyclist in the world is
d Do you want to go to university?
Lance Armstrong.
e My sister hates dogs.
b Last year we went to a / the most exotic
f My feet are biggest in my family!
island in the Caribbean.
g Why don’t we have lunch together?
c My parents like talking to a / the local people
when they are on holiday.
d The park has a / the highest hill in the village.
e We’ve got the best / better football team in
6 Answer these questions so they are
true for where you live.
the country.
a Who is the richest person in your area?
Mr Finch is the richest person in my town.
3 Complete the table below. b What is the most successful local business?
a b c Where is the most popular place for young
adjective comparative superlative people to go?
large larger the largest
popular d What is the longest road in your area?
friendly
successful e Which is the largest restaurant in your
high area?
rich
© Richmond Publishing, 2004 PHOTOCOPIABLE 9

4. A great place
2.4 Reading and writing
Unit2
1 Match the places to the texts.
Great Barrier Reef Victoria Falls Mt Everest Grand Canyon
Many people know about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but many other people believe
that the Wonders of the Natural World are more impressive. Which ones do you know about?
a Mt Everest is in the b The of
Himalayas, in Nepal, where the Colorado River in northern
the native people call the Arizona is the largest gorge
highest mountain on earth, in the world — it is 464 kms
Chomolungma — ‘Goddess long, up to twenty-nine kms
Mother of the World’. The across, and around one and a
name we usually call it comes half kms deep. It is nearly two
from the English explorer who first discovered billion years old. At both ends, you can stand on
how high it really was: 8,848 metres. The first the rocks and see fossilized sponges, corals, snails,
people who climbed it were Sherpa Tensing and and shellfish that lived 240 million years ago.
Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953.
c The are on d The , an
the Zambezi River, bordering underwater wonder, is more
Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is than two thousand kms long
probably best to see the — you can see it from the
highest waterfalls in Africa Moon! Near Australia,
from an aeroplane or thousands of species of plants
helicopter. 546 million cubic and animals live there. There
metres of water per minute fall over the two km are rainforests and mountains on the northern
wide fall into a deep gorge over one hundred islands, and the southern islands are mainly of
metres below. The African name is ‘The Smoke coral. You can do many activities, including scuba
that Thunders’. diving, snorkelling, and bird-watching.
2 Find words in the texts that mean the 3 Write about another Wonder of the
same as ... World: it could be a modern or an
a a person who travels a lot and looks for ancient building, something in nature,
things explorer or perhaps an invention.
b families of animals
c a very big valley
d a loud noise during a storm
e turned into stone over many years
f originally from a place
g a kind of swimming, looking under the
water
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5. A great place
2.5 Culture
Unit2
Capital cities
1 Read the notes below. Can you guess the different countries?
a Located between the Indian b Located in northern c One of the Pacific Rim
and Pacific Oceans. Europe, the Republic countries. It is made up of
Europeans went there about occupies about 85% of two islands, the North and
200 years ago. Languages: the island. The rest of the South Islands. There are
English, Vietnamese, Greek, island, in the north, is part more sheep than humans
Arabic, Italian and Aboriginal of the UK. Languages: here. Languages: English
languages. English and Gaelic. and Maori.
Did you guess the answers? Check in the texts below.
Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the east of the country, next to the Irish Sea and on
the river Liffey. Dublin has grown fast in recent years and has become more prosperous. It is an attractive,
lively city. It is famous for its many writers, among them James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. It is also famous for
its pubs. One of them, the Hole in the Wall, is the longest in Europe!
Canberra is the capital of Australia. The Australian people chose it in 1908 after a lot of problems. It had
to compete with lots of other cities, including Melbourne and Sydney. The first Europeans arrived in the
area in 1820, but the Aborigines were probably living there at least 21,000 years before that. Canberra is
a very well-planned city with interesting monuments. It has one of the biggest war museums in the world.
Wellington, at the southern end of North Island, is the capital of New Zealand. It is one of the windiest
cities in the world. Its harbour, Port Nicholson, has got very deep water and a lot of big ships stop there.
It is also a good place to practise a variety of watersports. The Wellington region lies on a fault line and
often experiences small earthquakes.
2 True (T) or false (F)? Correct the false sentences.
a Dublin has become poorer in recent years. d The Aborigines had lived in Canberra for a
F - It has become more prosperous. few hundred years.
b Only two famous writers have come from
Dublin. e The weather in Wellington is nice and calm.
c Some people did not want Canberra to be
the capital of Australia. f Sometimes the ground moves in Wellington.
3 Answer in your notebooks: which of the three cities would you like to visit? Why?
Think about the capital of your country. How would you describe it to a foreigner?
© Richmond Publishing, 2004 PHOTOCOPIABLE 11