day 28city and country

city and country

Explain why more young people are leaving big cities for their home towns; retell a survey report with its numbers; read a reflection on a home-town river with -化 and 因……而…….

words to say

• 乡村 xiāngcūn · village, countryside
• 故乡 gùxiāng · home town, native place
• 都市 dūshì · metropolis, big city
• 发达 fādá · developed, well-developed
• 节奏 jiézòu · rhythm, pace
• 房价 fángjià · housing prices
• 人口 rénkǒu · population
• 繁荣 fánróng · prosperous, booming
• 城镇 chéngzhèn · towns, cities and towns
• 落后 luòhòu · backward; to fall behind

sentences

• 他的故乡是南方的一个小城镇。 · His home town is a small town in the south.
• 大都市的生活节奏太快了。 · The pace of life in a big city is too fast.
• 这些年，乡村发展得越来越好。 · In recent years the countryside has been developing better and better.
• 很多人因房价太高而离开了北京。 · Many people have left Beijing because house prices are too high.
• 随着城市化，农村人口越来越少。 · With urbanisation, the rural population keeps shrinking.

say it after the voice

• 随着城市化的发展，越来越多的农村年轻人离开故乡，来到大都市工作。 · As urbanisation goes on, more and more young people from the countryside leave home to work in big cities.
• 大城市的房价太高，很多年轻人工作了十年，还是买不起自己的房子。 · House prices in big cities are so high that many young people have worked ten years and still can’t afford a home of their own.
• 这些年，很多小城镇发展得很快，生活节奏比大城市慢，空气也更好。 · In recent years many small towns have grown fast; life there is slower than in big cities, and the air is better too.
• 有人因为想离父母近一点儿，放弃了大城市的高工资，回到了自己出生的小城。 · Some people give up big-city salaries because they want to be closer to their parents, and go back to the small town where they were born.

questions to answer

• 你怎么看大城市的生活节奏？ · What do you think of the pace of life in big cities?
• 年轻人该不该先在大城市工作几年？ · Should young people work in a big city for a few years first?
• 你更想住在城市还是乡村？ · Would you rather live in the city or the countryside?

a passage to retell

• A recent survey asked a thousand young people working in big cities where they would like to live in future. It found that nearly half said they would be willing to move to a smaller city if the pay were about the same. There were two main reasons: house prices in big cities are too high, and they spend too long travelling every day. Still, a third of them preferred big cities, because there are more opportunities there.

a passage to read aloud

我的故乡在一条小河边。小时候，河水很清，夏天我们在河里游泳，傍晚大人们坐在河边聊天；冬天河上有冰，我们就在冰上跑来跑去。那时候，镇上还不发达，没有高楼，也没有什么大商店，在别人看来，这里是一个落后的地方。可是对我来说，那条河就是整个世界。

后来，我去大都市读书、工作，习惯了快节奏的生活，很少回家。前几年回去，我大吃一惊：小镇变得现代化了，河边修了公园，河水也因有人管理而变清了。街上开了咖啡店，年轻人也一个一个地回来了。我站在河边，忽然明白，变化的不只是故乡，还有我自己。