1. Brainstorming: find keywords or key phrases about LIEGE, A City with a Difference
  2. What do you know about CARDIFF? Would you like to visit it? Why?
  3. Read the following texts about Cardiff and answer the questions:

q  Where are they taken from? (encyclopaedia, tourist guide, history book, publicity from the Welsh Development Agency, …)

q  Which description is more factual? How would you describe the style of the other text?

q  In the first text, what is the purpose of each paragraph?

q  In the second text, underline with a solid line ______what is fact, and with a broken line ------what is opinion.

TEXT 1

Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales, and it is also the country’s main economic, industrial and cultural centre. It is situated on the southeast coast of Wales and three rivers, the Taff, the Ely and the Rhymney flow through it into the Bristol channel. A large area of parkland lies near the centre of Cardiff, and many of the city’s major commercial buildings are found around Cathays park. The civic centre is also situated here, and this includes the law courts, the national museum of Wales and the university college. Nearby there are many fashionable shops and modern hotels and Cardiff castle, which was built in 1090. Factories in Cardiff produce parts for cars, chemicals, electronic equipment, engineering products, processed food and tobacco. Modern rail and road communications link Cardiff with the rest of Great Britain, and an airport lies outside the edge of the city. In about AD 75, Roman soldiers built a fort on the site of what is now Cardiff, the name itself means fort on the Taff. Normans settled the area around 1050, building the castle, and a walled town grew up around the castle. By the early 1800’s it was still a small town. Then, when Wales became a major centre of coal mining and iron and steel production, Cardiff served as the shipping centre for theses products and grew rapidly. By 1890 it had become known as the cola metropolis of the world, but the industry declined after the first world war. Since the mid-1940’s c ardiff has grown steadily as tha administrative and commercial centre of wales. Its current population is approximately 300,000.

TEXT 2

CAERDYDD

Wales has a reputation for giving its guests a warm welcome. It has all the advantages of a capital city together with the friendly atmosphere that is rarely found elsewhere. Cardiff is a city of contrast. The castle, with 1900 years of history , stands alongside a modern shopping centre and one of the world’s great civic centre. Hundreds of acres of beautiful parkland reach into the very heart of the city. Castles abound in and around Cardiff, a reminder that for centuries this was turbulent frontier land. Mountains and beaches are only a short drive from this community with all the facilities you could want, good shopping, excellent restaurants, live theatre, art galleries, night-clubs, great sporting occasions. It combines the bright lights of the big city with the warmth and personality of a small town, making it an ideal place to live and work in. You’ll find it an exciting place to visit.

  1. What are the similarities between LIEGE and CARDIFF.
  2. Task: write two descriptions of LIEGE. The first should be factual and/or historical. The second should try to sell the town, as a tourist attraction.