Moving to cities – exercise

A short, adapted extract from the Economist 3/5/07

This exercise has two purposes. It checks your ability to write down words and phrases correctly. Its other aim is to allow you to concentrate on their pronunciation and intonation. The vocabulary you hear here is commonly used in discussions of socio-economics, when people are trying to define what the challenges are and how to remedy them. There are also quite a few details about numbers and statistics which people often get wrong!

Can you complete the text, filling in the gaps? You will be writing about 140 words in total.

The ¹ ……………………. make it ² ……………………. that have ³ ……………………. urban history. It ⁴ ……………………. consists of poor people migrating ⁵ ……………………. and then producing babies ⁶ ……………………. . It is thus ⁷ ……………………. of poor and middle-income countries; the rich world has put most of its urbanisation behind it.

In poor countries, though, ⁸ ……………………. . The United Nations ⁹ urban population ¹⁰ ………………………………………….. will rise …………………….to nearly ¹¹ ……………………. , when …………………….three ¹² ……………………. people will live in cities. The ¹³ ……………………. will be most ¹⁴ ……………………. in the ¹⁵ ……………………. and Africa. They are ¹⁶ ……………………. . Already ¹⁷ ……………………. the urban population of ¹⁸ ……………………. and Uganda, ¹⁹ ……………………. countries, live in slums.

Within ten years the world will have nearly 500 cities ²⁰ ……………………. people. ²¹ ……………………. will be absorbed in a ²² ……………………. people. But some will live in a ²³ ……………………. , defined as home to 10m or more inhabitants. In 1950 only New York and Tokyo could claim to be as big, but ²⁴ ……………….. , says the UN, nine cities — Delhi, Dhaka, ²⁵ …………… ²⁶ ………….. ²⁷ …………….. ²⁸ ………………. , New York, São Paulo and Tokyo — will have ²⁹ ……………………. . Greater Tokyo already has 35m, ³⁰ ……………………………

Answers and notes