How do I know if a place is a city or a town or a village?

In British English we can distinguish between a city, a town, a village or a hamlet using a historical perspective.

Thousands of years ago with the beginnings of simple agriculture our distant ancestors started to settle in an area and build houses. These places were usually in areas with good access to agricultural land and with good water. Some grew faster than others, they became more important in their region and started to offer other services to the people from the region.

With time kings and queens (or their lords, dukes and earls) started to give permission (Royal Charter) for certain settlements to hold a market where people in the area could take their vegetables, fruit, animals etc to sell. These became market towns.

The church also wanted to spread its influence over the whole country. They allowed some towns to build a cathedral to serve a much larger area (diocese). These became the cities.

Nowadays the “official” definitions are:

A CITY has a cathedral or a university or both

A TOWN has a market

A VILLAGE doesn’t have a cathedral or a market but it will have a church

A HAMLET is very small with only a handful of houses and usually doesn’t have any shops or other services.

Logically there are only a few cities, more towns and even more villages. Cities are usually very big, towns are smaller and villages even smaller. There are some exceptions.

Please keep in mind that when we speak of the place where we were born we say my home town.

3.5Fill in the correct adjectives (a, b or c):

1 The most ….. parts of Tyumen are in the centre of the city.

a) hectic b) busting c) picturesque

2 Tyumen is very ….. at night because so many young people live there.

a) crowded b) elegant c) lively

3 Tyumen is one of the Region’s most ….. towns.

a) historic b) magnificent c) deserted

4 The city centre is quite ….. at weekends.

a) clean b) shabby c) hectic

5 The streets of the town are ….., particularly in the rush-hour.

a) spacious b) animated c) deserted

3.6Say what are the best and the worst things about living in the city. Use the following word-combinations:

plenty of things to do / dirty and polluted air / many different shops / smoke and petrol fumes / lots of cinemas and theatres / to be crowded (full of people) / variety of sport centres / to be noisy / bus service and taxi rank / to be dangerous / health centres and chemists / to be stressful / traffic jam in the rush-hour

3.7 Make a list of advantages and disadvantages of living in Tyumen. Give two columns. Use the following adjectives:

historic, noisy, crowded, fashionable, pleasant, enormous, elegant, picturesque, modern, crooked, expensive, cheap, striking, shabby, dangerous, attractive, enchanting, smart, memorable, broad, clean, narrow, ugly, terrible, terrific, busy, colourful, colourless, unforgettable, spectacular, old, famous, successful, industrial, dirty, bad, beautiful, small, contemporary, charming, excellent.

Model: Advantages: Disadvantages:

full of history busy streets

3.8Say what features and facilities Tyumen has and hasn’t got.

Model: It has got a cathedral, but it has not got the Opera House.

3.9Complete the idea of a dialogue in a suitable way. Fill in the gaps with the following words and word-combinations:

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1183