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1 SPEAKING Work in pairs. Say what health problems living in a city might cause.2 Match questions (1-6) with paragraphs (A-C). You can match each paragraph with more than one question.Which paragraph talks about.... 1 future plans? 2 something coming back to life? 3 people dying? 4 an attempt to stop something from happening again? 5 charging people so that everyone's lives would be improved? 6 something that has received awards? 3 🔊2.27 Listen to a radio programme about London's sewers and answer the questions.1 What dangers did the reporter expect to meet in the sewers? 2 What causes the biggest problems for the maintenance teams? 4 🔊2.27 Listen again and answer the questions.1 How many kilometres of sewers are there? 2 What caused the pollution in the River Thames? 3 What made the politicians feel nauseous? 4 What does 90% of the liquid in the sewers consist of? 5 What are less common in the sewers than many people expect? 6 Where does a lot of the fat come from? 5 PROJECT Work in groups. Discuss which three projects you would choose to make your home town cleaner, healthier and more attractive. Give reasons for your choices.• Create more parks, green spaces, etc. in the city. • Build more leisure facilities such as sports centres, swimming pools, theatres, etc. • Provide more youth activities such as after-school clubs. • Promote transport initiatives such as bicycle lanes, bicycles for rent, etc. • Restore old buildings, etc. in the city. • Build more health centres and hospitals.
| MAKING LONDON HEALTHIER 🔊2.26 As the capital of the nation where the Industrial Revolution began, London has suffered badly from the effects of pollution. Recent efforts to make the city cleaner, however, are turning it into one of the world's least polluted major cities. A A RIVER FILLED WITH LIFE For years, the River Thames was a health hazard because of pollution, and in 1957 it was declared biologically dead. Half a century later, the Thames has won international prizes for rivers that have been restored. There are now hundreds of different types of animal and bird feeding on its banks, over 125 different species of fish swimming beneath its surface, and even seals and dolphins have swum up the river from the coast to visit the centre of the city. B THE GREAT SMOG Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Londoners had become used to suffering from coughs and chest infections caused by smog, which is a combination of smoke and fog. However, when the smog of December 1952 caused four thousand deaths in one week, the government finally realised that something had to be done. A series of clean-air' laws were passed to avoid a repeat of the tragedy, and since then the quality of London's air has improved greatly, although there is still plenty of work to do. C PAYING TO DRIVE At the beginning of the new millennium, because of the number of vehicles, traffic in London was moving at the same speed that it had moved at a hundred years before, when people travelled in horse-drawn carriages: just 16 km/h. To improve journey times and the quality of London's air, a daily charge of £5 was introduced in 2003 for all vehicles being driven in the city. Not only did the number of cars on the roads immediately drop by 15%, but also the number of people cycling increased by 49%, so people benefitted from cleaner air and more exercise. In the last decade, the number of vehicles in central London has fallen by a further 30% and plans to reduce the number of parking spaces for cars will probably cause it to drop again. |
