4.5.3. Paraphrase the parts of the sentences in italics.

1. The bathroom is directly connected to the bedroom.

2. Most of the villages in the north of the country are almost rural slums.

3. Over half of the inhabitants of the city live in slum conditions.

4. The jail has enough space for over 300 prisoners.

5. Many people have been forced to live in an area on the edge of a city in small, badly-built houses near the factories where they work.

6. It's an issue we’ll have to deal with at some point, no matter how unpleasant it is.

7. The council's provision for the elderly is not enough.

8. The new economic freedom has created hundreds of new small businesses.

9. We don't have sufficient resources to maintain our campaign for long.

10. The busy shopper appreciates and will pay more for finding everything in one big store.

11. These measures are designed to stop the rise of violent crime in the country.

12. Mrs. Singh is very popular at the moment.

13. Spain changed from countryside into town much of its natural coastline during the tourist boom of the 60s and 70s.

14. That summer there was a drought and the countryside was brown and dried out.

15. Roads and towns are described as being ___ if there is too much traffic and movement is made difficult.

16. How do you think your chances are of being offered the job?

17. Large-scale ___ occurred with the industrial revolution, as families moved from the country into the cities to find work in factories.

18. The extra sales in the US will cause to increase this year's profits to $78 million.

19. The local residents demanded to be given a new and better place to live in.

4.5.4. Insert prepositions where necessary.

1. to be _____ 10 minutes' walking distance

2. to put a premium _____ industry

3. to ride _____ the crest _____ the wave

4. to stand _____ 1,900 million

5. to raise doubts ____ the suitability for the post

6. to put _____ high-rise buildings

7. to replace slums _____ tower blocks

8. to grow _____ rates

9. urban population is expected to top _____ 3,000 million

4.6. Comprehension check. Decide whether the following statements are true or false.

1. The number of people living in cities has more than doubled in the last thirty years.

2. Over 3,000 million people will be living in cities in the year 2000.

3. The majority of the large cities will be in First World countries.

4. For the hopeful migrants, conditions in the cities are worse than in the countryside.

5. Approximately a third of them will not get a permanent job.

6. Experts are divided over what the best solution is.

7. Some people say that death and revolution is a possible solution.

8. Tokyo no longer suffers from smog.

9. Often there is no point in improving the conditions in slums.

10. The Russians have succeeded in controlling urban growth.

4.7. Topic sentences. Most paragraphs have a key sentence (or part of a sentence) that summarizes the essential meaning of the whole paragraph. This is called the topic sentence. It is usually the first sentence of the paragraph, but not always.

Work in groups of three. Do you think that the following are the topic sentences for the first six paragraphs? If not, which is the topic sentence?

par. 1 Over the next two decades, they - and many others - are expected almost to double in size . . .

par. 2 Just 30 years ago some 700 million people lived in cities.

par. 3 The flood of 'urbanites' is engulfing not the richest countries, but the poorest.

par. 4 But equally powerful are the streams of hopeful migrants from the countryside.

par. 5 There have never been cities of 30 million people . ..

par. 6 So it will be virtually impossible to find permanent employment . . . for the new city dwellers ...

Underline what you think are the topic sentences for paragraphs 7 to 12.