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Rachel
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Matt
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Glasgow Around and About
Rachel talks a little about lodging and transportation in her hometown city.
Matt: If I were traveling to Scotland would it be very expensive for me to spend time in Glasgow?
Rachel: I'd say there some of the hotels that are quite expensive, but you can usually find a nice bed-and-breakfast which would cost you maybe thirty pounds, English pounds. Scottish pounds even.
Matt: Right, right, right.
Rachel: A night, and that would have breakfast included.
Matt: Yeah, that sounds good. And what about like transportation?
Rachel: Glasgow's one of the few cities out of London that has an underground and it only has one line, so it's called the clockwork orange cause it just goes around in a big circle. But it's quite cheap to use. And the good think about Glasgow actually is it's walkable. You can walk around the city quite easily without having to take transportation.
Matt: Yeah, that's good. And is that named after the movie?
Rachel: Yeah, I think so.
Matt: OK, alright.
Rachel: I think that was a sort of reference to it. Yeah. And it is orange. The line, the picture of the line is orange, so. And the buses in Glasgow are orange.
Matt: Okay, it's a theme.
Rachel: Yes. I don't know why. Different cities in Britain have different colored buses, like Edinburgh's buses are maroon and London's buses are red.
Matt: Yeah, everyone chooses a color.
Rachel: Yeah.
Matt: Does it match the flag or the region or local area?
Rachel: I don't know why Glasgow's orange and Edinburgh's maroon but that's the way it is.
quite expensive
The hotels are quite expensive.
Here, quite = very. “The hotels are very expensive” has the same meaning as “The hotels are quite expensive”. Notice the following examples of how the adverb "quite" can be used:
- That watch is quite nice, but very expensive.
- That car is very nice, but quite expensive.
bed-and-breakfast
You can find a nice bed-and-breakfast.
Bed-and-breakfast describes a small hotel or traditional inn that offers guests a free breakfast and a place to sleep. Notice the examples of "bed-and-breakfast:
- I prefer a small bed-and-breakfast in the country to a five star hotel in the city.
- Charles and Suzanne spent their holiday at a lovely bed-and-breakfast in France.
would cost you (should cost you)
It would cost you maybe thirty pounds.
In this mixer, “it would or should cost you” means that if you buy something, someone with experience can tell you about how much you will spend. Here are two samples:
- If you travel before summer, hotels in Europe should cost you much less.
- A fast food hamburger would cost you about the same anywhere in Europe.
walkable
It is walkable.
As Rachel says, “walkable” means you can walk around the city quite easily without having to take buses, taxis or trains. “Walkable” can also mean a city that’s fun and interesting to walk around. Notice the following uses of "walkable":
- Tokyo is a beautiful big city, but it’s not very walkable, and public transportation is quite expensive.
- The distance from our hotel to the underground is walkable, and there are interesting shops along the way.
the way it is
That's the way it is.
We use the phrase “that’s the way it is” to give information about something that’s not so good but true. Here are two sample sentences using “that’s the way it is”:
- There is no easy way to learn English. That’s the way it is
- Of all the stores in town, that is the only one that accepts credit cards. That’s the way it is.
Vocabulary Quiz
walkable • the way it is
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