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Building Fluency: Would you move to The Line?

Updated: Jan 11, 2023

These materials below will help you to prepare for fluency building lessons on the topic: Would you move to The Line?


How to use the materials:

Firstly, look at the topic questions - we will start the lesson by answering these. Then look at the materials that I have chosen to help you to start building your vocabulary and ideas around the topic and to answer the questions. Each material has been given an approximate difficulty level to understand which will suit you best.


The main focus of individual lessons is to use the materials as the basis of natural conversation about the topic to give you the opportunity to really develop your speaking skills, identify missing vocabulary, correct grammatical and pronunciation errors and actively teach you skills that will bring your English forwards.


When using the materials, write down any new vocabulary that you think you would need to talk about the topic - Any new vocabulary can be learnt most effectively using Anki flashcards. If you find a lot of new vocabulary, set a limit to how much you want to learn and only learn what you think is most relevant for yourself. Also, make a note of any questions that you have about the language or grammar used in the materials to discuss together.


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Would you move to The Line?


While Elon Musk is talking about developing a self sustaining society on Mars, Saudi Arabia is busy constructing a 170km long city in the desert which they claim will have no cars, streets or carbon emissions. Its called The Line, and is the topic of these fluency building materials...



Questions

  1. What is The Line, and how is it different from conventional cities?

  2. How realistic do you think this project is? how difficult would it be to build?

  3. How significant is the project for the future of sustainability in city planning?


The Materials:

Lets start with the advertising video for the project. Normally the comments section on YouTube should be avoided, but one person cleverly commented "They've really crossed the Line with this idea" which gives us an idea how English speakers make use of idiomatic language. Anyway, the video sets out the main vision for the project...


This lengthy, but worth reading article on Dezeen.com which seems to have no title aside from the words "All those complicit in Neom's design and construction are already destroyers of worlds" gives a detailed overview of the many different elements involved with this project, not least the environmental perspective and the issue of the displacement of people living on this land.


This video below offers brilliant overview of the project and what it might tell us about the future of cities. Warning though, it's very detailed and technical, but even if you're not necessarily interested in some of the more complex elements of the video, it's well worth watching for some of the controversies surrounding the project;


Over to you

Okay, if you have thought about the questions, looked at the materials and thought about your ideas on the topic, then you are ready to talk about it!


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