BBC Learning English
Video Words in the News
25 September 2013
Lahore Walled City
Transcript:
The historic Walled City in Lahore, Pakistan, is a maze of narrow streets, busy
bazaars and unplanned tenements.
But now the area is receiving a makeover.
Underground, sewage pipes and electricity cables are being laid; while at street
level, wooden doors and terracotta tiles are making a comeback.
The authorities hope all this will make the area more attractive to tourists.
Vocabulary:
maze
an place in which you can easily get lost because there are many similar streets or
paths
tenements
large buildings divided into apartments, usually in a poor area of the city
a makeover
a set of changes intended to make a person or place more attractive
sewage pipes
tubes through which waste water and human waste is carried away from houses and
buildings
terracotta
hard, baked clay; often red/brown in colour
Watch the video online: Lahore Walled City http://bbc.in/1anNnCW
Video Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Exercise:
Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from
news reports.
Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence
correctly.
maze / tenements / makeover / sewage pipes / terracotta
1. The cholera epidemic began in Haiti in 2010 near a camp for UN soldiers,
where there were leaking ________. Some human waste was also dumped
near a river outside the camp.
2. The entrance to Hillfield Gardens in London Road has had a ________ as
part of a Gloucester City Council scheme to renovate structures in local
parks.
3. Dhakki is a ________ of narrow streets and alleyways, winding up and
around a hill that flanks Peshawar's oldest and most famous street, Qissa
Khwani - the street of the storytellers.
4. It is difficult to visualise, but until the nineteenth century much of the site
now occupied by Parliament Square was a labyrinth of medieval alleys and
lanes crammed with shops, slums, taverns and _________ that harboured
Westminster's notorious thieves and vagabonds.
5. Thomas Hardy even referred to Reading as "Aldbrickham", the old brick
town, in his novel Jude the Obscure.
Most of the town's Georgian and Victorian buildings are built of locally-
produced brick, tile and ________.
Video Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Answers:
1. The cholera epidemic began in Haiti in 2010 near a camp for UN soldiers, where
there were leaking sewage pipes. Some human waste was also dumped near a
river outside the camp.
Source: Haiti cholera victims threaten to sue the UN
http://bbc.in/1bD3ZKG
2. The entrance to Hillfield Gardens in London Road has had a makeover as part of
a Gloucester City Council scheme to renovate structures in local parks.
Source: Hillfield Gardens gates in Gloucester restored
http://bbc.in/1fxCNgj
3. Dhakki is a maze of narrow streets and alleyways, winding up and around a hill
that flanks Peshawar's oldest and most famous street, Qissa Khwani - the street
of the storytellers.
Source: Bollywood's Shah Rukh Khan, Dilip Kumar and the Peshawar club
http://bbc.in/1akzDsk
4. It is difficult to visualise, but until the nineteenth century much of the site now
occupied by Parliament Square was a labyrinth of medieval alleys and lanes
crammed with shops, slums, taverns and tenements that harboured
Westminster's notorious thieves and vagabonds.
Source: The hidden history of Westminster
http://bbc.in/15oPKBP
5. Thomas Hardy even referred to Reading as "Aldbrickham", the old brick town, in
his novel Jude the Obscure.
Most of the town's Georgian and Victorian buildings are built of locally-produced
brick, tile and terracotta.
Source: Reading's chalk mines leave legacy for home owners
http://bbc.in/18S9V1c
Video Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
Page 3 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com