How to Make an Attractive City

Part I - 0.47 min. - https://youtu.be/k_lzcmae1kk

ü Pre-listening

 

You are going to watch a video produced by The School of Life, a global organisation dedicated to developing emotional intelligence. We've grown good at making many things in the modern world - but strangely the art of making attractive cities has been lost. The School of Life, in this video, provides some key principles for how to make attractive cities once again. Before you listen answer the following questions with a partner:

 

· Do you think there are more attractive or ugly cities? Why?

· Which cities are more appealing: the ancient ones or the modern ones? Prove your point.

ü Listening for gist and speaking

 

Now watch the first part of the video and check your predictions. Do you agree with the authors of the video?

 

ü Language Focus I

 

There are several words to describe beautiful cities used in the video: ‘nice’, ‘pretty’, ‘attractive’, ‘appealing’ and ‘beautiful’. These words have different meanings, look them up in an English-English dictionary and fill in the gaps in the following sentences.

 

1. We had a __________ meal with a bottle of champagne.

2. I had a __________ good idea what she was going to do.

3. What separates Brazil from the rest of the world is their attitude to the __________ game.

4. She didn't know whether it was the __________ smile that had transformed his face or his flattering words.

5. The women, with tears and __________ gestures, crowded around the officer, begging him to spare their sons and husbands; the men stood silent, with bloodless faces and dumb imploring eyes.

6. In society, he was part of high society, and rubbed elbows with the __________ people of the world.

7. She met Mr and Mrs Ricciardi, who were very __________ to her.

8. Hopefully more people will use the route for exercise and it can also be marketed as an __________ attraction from a tourist point of view.

9. There is a __________ distinction between self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

10. You must have paid for your coat a __________ penny.

11. Smoking is still __________ to many young people who see it as glamorous.

12. Those are __________ academic arguments, but what about the immediate future?

13. When the war started, they thought they were sitting __________, because they had all that extra grain.

14. I have had to re-examine this simplistic philosophy now I’ve relocated to southern California, where the cult of the body __________ is pursued with religious fervour.

15. Things are at a __________ pass when a referee can no longer be trusted.

16. She gave him a soft __________ look that would have melted solid ice.

17. If two atoms start to move apart, the __________ forces will draw them back toward each other.

18. It’s awfully __________ of you to come all this way to see me.

19. His new government looks __________ much like the old one.

 

Part II - 3.49 min. - https://youtu.be/4jp-tnxgdWw

ü Pre-listening and speaking

 

Work in a group of three. Try to guess which six principles that determine how a city gets to be pretty or ugly will be mentioned in the next part of the video:

· brain-storm different ideas in your group and then agree upon a final list;

· present your list to the other groups explaining what this or that principle means and why you have chosen it.

 

ü Listening for main ideas and speaking

 

Now watch the second part in which the principles are revealed. Are they the same as the principles you and other groups have chosen?

ü Listening for detail

 

Watch the second part again and mark these statements TRUE (T), FALSE (F) or DOESN’T SAY (DS)

 

1. Being bleak, relentless and harsh organized complexity makes cities tedious.

2. First and foremost, we crave privacy in a city.

3. Middle class used to live huddled together and as soon as they became reach they wanted to move out and to have their own plots.

4. Through the later decades of 20th century, more and more people tucked themselves away in a private realm which made cities really efficient.

5. People are drawn to the sense of mystery and enclosure that warrens of alleyways offer.

6. The ideal height for any city block is six stories high; above that people start to feel small, insignificant, and trivial.

7. Architecture in an attractive city reflects the distinctive character of its climate, history and social traditions.

8. There are no modern cities with strong characters connected to the use of distinctive local materials and forms.

 

ü Language Focus II

Give the opposites of the following words and make up sentences with them based on the second part of the video.

symmetry

balance

order

regularity

orientation

 

rigid

alien

relentless

bleak

harsh

compact

wasteful

trivial

Part III - 2.48 min. - https://youtu.be/ePtp0sjfUew

ü Pre-listening

Why do you think people fail to build beautiful cities? The author claims that there are two obstacles. Try to predict what they are.

 

ü Listening for main ideas

Now watch the last part of the video, check your predictions and comment on the following statements

 

1. It’s a very understandable qualm (intellectual confusion around beauty), but it's horribly useful to greedy property developers.

2. We've faced and have lost the battle between the public good and commercial opportunism.

3. When governments give up on beauty, we become collectively despondent.

4. The architecture is every bit the equal of the designs of nature.

5. We hope to awaken you to your power as citizens to help legislate for beautiful cities in the future.

 

ü Listening for detail

 

Watch the third part again and fill in the gaps with names of cities or dates

 

1. _____________ and _____________ are supposed to be ugly by many people unwilling to go on holiday there.

2. Judging by tourist statistics _____________, _____________, _____________ and _____________ appeal to many people.

3. _____________ only got off the ground because the government established clear rules to keep developers in check?

4. The last beautiful city was put up in _____________.

5. When _____________ was built, no-one regretted the lagoons that had been swallowed up.

 

ü Listening for opinion

 

Explain the meaning of the proverb: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Do you agree with the proverb?

Watch an extract from the video (00:51-1:08) again and say whether the author of the video agrees with the proverb or not and why?

ü Speaking

 

Work in groups of three again. Choose a city and decide on measures to improve it based on the video you have just watched. Present your action plan to the other groups.

 

ü Language Focus III

 

Choose the correct meaning of the phrasal verbs underlined in the sentences below

 

1. It’s such a relief to these people to learn that there is no such thing as beauty; it means they can get away with murder.

A. to succeed in avoiding punishment for something;

B. to do something successfully although it is not the best way of doing it;

C. to be punished for something;

D. to come or bring to a resolution in the mind as a result of consideration.

2. Let’s not just say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that's just a gift to the next wealthy idiot who wants to put u p a horrible tower.

A. to stay temporarily in accommodation other than one's own home;

B. to show skill or determination in a contest, competition, fight;

C. to increase prices, taxes, duties, etc;

D. to build, to construct, to erect.

3. We’ve given up believing in democracy.

A. to stop being friendly, end relationships;

B. to stop doing something that has been a habit;

C. to stop doing something;

D. to cease making an effort; admit defeat.

4. When governments give up on beauty, people start to hate all building. We become collectively despondent.

A. deliberately cease to think of something;

B. to lose faith in or stop believing in something or someone;

C. inadvertently neglect to do or mention something;

D. not pay proper attention to, to disregard something.

5. When Venice was built, no one regretted the lagoons that had been swallowed up.

A. to take control of something much smaller, like a company or state;

B. to consume or take a lot of time, money, etc;

C. to build something again after it has been damaged or destroyed;

D. to destroy, make disappear.

 

Full video - 14.20 min. - https://youtu.be/Hy4QjmKzF1c

ü Listening for detail

 

At home watch the full video and say what cities are mentioned to illustrate each of the principles and why.

Active Vocabulary List

Reading 1

to style oneself as	in the first place
to brand oneself with city status	admittedly
blather	to do something with abandon
a fledgling city	have aspirations to do something
high / low density	to garner something
a remote settlement	it is smth at work
an office hub	to envision
to win city status	a moniker
opaque	unequivocally
elevation to city status	the exercise of power
to raise a profile	to drop a requirement
a housing estate	rule of thumb
to label a place	to anoint
a place of assembly	to win the laurels
parochial	to gain traction
public space	to echo (e.g. smb’s ambition / concern / hope)
distinction	a success story
to get the gig temporal	official designation to big smth up
honorific mantle	to constitute a discerning definition

Reading 2

a signature brand for something	counterproductive
to lure smb (e.g. new residents)	proper
city branding	to diminish
to be in the lead	to vanish
to accelerate the need for smth	to let loose
to capitalize on smth	essence
to devise smth	when it comes to …
a top-dog city	in conjunction with
to reshape something into something	to gain ground
to be brand-new	market-savvy (fashion-savvy)
the sense of well-being to exude smth	to rev up (e.g. budgets) exuberance
authenticity	to show someone the ropes
to gentrify old quarters	coveted designations
a moment in the sun	to put somebody in the spotlight of
to flesh out an image	to be a political liability
to divert	to pursue smth (e.g. policy)
brink of smth	discord between smb over something
city dweller	frenzied
to be underfunded	overlap
to hold no stake in smth low-key local character	predictably family-friendly (user-friendly, eco-friendly)