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Views #455 | Low Intermediate 4

English Village

Ruth talks about her village in England.
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My name's Ruth and I'm from a small village in England. I live quite near Nottingham and I've lived there for most of my life actually. Nottingham is quite famous for Sherwood forest, where Robin hood was supposed to live and as a child I spent some of my time in Sherwood Forest playing.

I live in a village and it's actually a mining village with about 1,000 or 1,500 inhabitants. There's really not very much to do there. There's a shop and a post office, a school and my mom teaches at the school.

I did actually live in Edinburgh for one year and that was quite different from life in my village because there was so much more to do and there were so many more people and there was so much more traffic, but I think actually I prefer living in a village because, well, if you want to go out to the shops, if you want to go to the cinema, you can go to the nearest town, or to the nearest city, but you can always escape city life and you can always go back to where it's quiet and more peaceful and where everybody knows each other, but if you live in the city you can't really escape it, and I don't really like the noise of the city so I think I will probably live in a village for the rest of my life.

Learn vocabulary from the lesson!

village

My name's Ruth and I'm from a small village in England.

A 'village' is an established community that is smaller than a town.  Notice the following:

  1. Our volunteer group got sent to a small village for a month.
  2. There are a lot of small villages in the mountains around the city.

for most of my life

I've lived there for most of my life actually.

When you do something for 'most of your life,' it means that you have done it most of the time you've been alive. Notice the following:

  1. He has been blind for most of his life, but he still remembers what the world looked like.
  2. I lived in this house for most of my life, until I left for university.

inhabitants

I live in a village that's actually a mining village with about 1,000 or 1,500 inhabitants.

'Inhabitants' are the people who live in a particular place.  Notice the following:

  1. How many inhabitants are there in your hometown?
  2. The number of inhabitants in this city has doubled in the last 20 years.

escape city life

I prefer living in a village, because you can always escape city life and go back to where it's peaceful.

When you 'escape' from something, you move to a place where it no longer affects you.  When you 'escape city life,' you are escaping the negative parts of living in a city, like noise, pollution, crowds, etc. Notice the following:

  1. I would never want to live in a small town, but sometimes it's nice to escape city life.
  2. We have a cabin in the country to escape city life.

noise of the city or for the rest of my life

I don't really like the noise of the city, so I think I will probably live in a village for the rest of my life.

The 'noise of the city' are the loud sounds that exist in the city.  This might be people, traffic, construction, etc.  The 'rest of you life' is the rest of the time that you are alive.  Notice the following:

  1. After a while you don't even hear the noise of the city.
  2. I can't think about living in this house for the rest of my life.

Vocabulary Quiz

village • most • inhabitants
escape • noise • rest
  1. I think there are 10 living in that small apartment.
  2. When he left to travel, he never knew he would be traveling for the of his life.
  3. There are a lot of festivals in my around this time of year.
  4. I'm so used to the of the city that when I leave, I feel like I can't hear.
  5. She has worked for that company for of her life.
  6. You need to take a vacation and city life.
Answer the following questions about the interview.

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