I live in a big city. I live in a small flat in the centre of the city.

I love living here because everything is near my house. There are so many restaurants, bars, supermaket and grocery stores to eat at and to buy food from. I love trying different food, so this is great for me. Also, the transport is excellent in the city. We have buses, taxis, trains and underground trains. There are many bus stops, bus stations and train stations, so you don’t have to walk a long way.

The buses and trains aren’t usually very busy, so they aren’t noisy, and it’s quite relaxing to take them. I hate it when it is noisy on public transport because it makes it very stressfull. I normally listen to music when I’m on the bus or train, or I read a book.

Because I live in the city centre, I don’t have a car. I hate driving, so this is excellent for me. When I need go to somewhere far, like travelling to the airport or visiting my friends and family, my mom usually takes me. If not, I take a taxi.

The problem is that taxis is very expensive, so I prefer to go with someone in their car.

There are a lot of fun things to do when you live in a city, like going to cinema, going shopping at shopping centres, or walking around the market. I like to do these activities with my friends.

Something bad about living in the city is that if you want to do a fun activity, it is normally very expensive. Cities are usually a lot more expensive than towns or villages. The rent that you pay to live in your house is expensive, the food is generally more expensive, and you spend a lot more money because you cn’t go for a walk in the countryside and other free activities that you can do in a village. For example, a ticket to go watch a film at the cinema costs $1, some popcorn and a drink costs $6, and if you go to have dinner after the cinema that normally costs around $15, so it’s a lot of money. I only do fun activities like this at the weekend, not from Monday to Friday because if not, i would spend around $20 or $30 every time I go out.

There are a lot of flats or apartments in my area. There is also a police station a school, a hospital, and a university. But my favourite places to go are the bookshop and the library. When I am at the library, I can read books for two or 3 hours, and it is free. If I like the book, I can buy it at the bookshop. I often think that I want to move to the countryside to have more parks, see the flowers and trees, and to be more relaxed, but I love living in the city. I don’t want to live in a small village with one small shop and no shopping centres, bars, or cinemas. I think that it’s boring if you are young and you want to try out new activities.

One free activity that I like to do in my city is to visit museums. I love to visit history and animal museums. I think that they are very interesting. I love learning about insects and animals and also about countries and their history.

There are many museums in my city, and they are normally free all over England. I know that in other countries you have to pay to get into a museums, but in England, almost all of them are free if they are public museums. Normally, they have a cafe, and it’s nice to have a coffee and a piece of cake or a sandwich after spending a couple of hours at the Museum.

I often go and sit on a beach in a park to read. It’s a relaxing activity, and I love being outside. I normally do this when the weather is nice, the sky blue, and it isn’t windy.

My flat doesn’t have a garden, so it’s nice to be outside, especially at the weekends when I have more time.

Going to a flea market or a secondhand market is another thing that enjoy doing in my city. Flea market are markets where peope sell old things which we call antiques or secondhand items like furniture, clothes, books, or CDs. It’s fascinating to lookat all the things that people are selling. Sometimes the items a bit rubbish, but other times there are great things for sale, and they are always very cheap. In England, there is a TV program about old objects, which are antiques, that people have found at flea markets or they have found at their parents or grandparents houses. They go on the TV program to sell the items, and sometimes they bought the object like a watch or a dish or a bracelet for one or 2, and then they sold it for $500.

You obviously need to know what you are looking for, like what is expensive, but some people find really expensive things at flea markets and sell them for higher price. I don’t do this, but I like going for a walk with my friends around the flea market beacause it can be quite fun.

I prefer to go to markets, not shops beacause I don’t like buying new items. I live in a city, and I like visiting shopping centres, but I usually go to a restaurants or to a cafe when I am there. I don’t usually go shopping and buy a lot of clothes or things that I don’t need.

Vocabulary

• grocery /ˈɡrəʊsəri/ (noun): a shop that sells food and other things used in the home. In American English ‘grocery’ is often used to mean ‘supermarket’.

• rent (noun): an amount of money that you regularly (thường xuyên) pay so that you can a house, room, etc.

Example

I earn just about enough to pay the rent.

How much rent do you pay for this place ?

• popcorn /ˈpɒpkɔːn/ (noun): a type of food made from grains (hạt) of maize (bắp) that are heated (đun nóng) until they explode (nổ tung), forming (tạo thành) light white balls that are then covered with salt or sugar.

• insect /ˈɪnsekt/ (noun): any small creature (sinh vật) with six legs and a body divided (chia ra ) into three parts. Insects usually also have wings (cánh). Ants, bees and files are all insects.

Example

Most birds spend most of the day eating insects.

insects species

• a couple of hours: một vài giờ

• flea market /ˈfliː mɑːkɪt/ (noun): an outdoor market that sells second-hand (= old or used) goods at low prices.

• antiques: đồ cổ ( or second-hand)

• furniture /ˈfɜːnɪtʃə(r)/ (noun) (nội thất): objects that can be moved, such as tables, chair and beds, that are put into a house or an office to make it suitable (thích hợp) or living or working in

Example

garden/office furniture

• fascinating /ˈfæsɪneɪtɪŋ/ (adjective): extremely (vô cùng) interesting and attractive (hấp dẫn)

Example

a fascinating story

a fascinating subject/artile/account

• rubbish /ˈrʌbɪʃ/ (noun): things that you throw away because you no longer want or need them

a rubbish bag/bin : 1 túi rác, thùng rác

a rubbish dump/heap/tip: 1 bãi rác, đống rác, đống rác

the streets were littered (tràn ngập) with rubbish.

• obviously /ˈɒbviəsli/ (verb): used when giving information that you expect (trông chờ) other people to know already or agree with.

Example

Obviously, we don’t want to spend too much money.

Diet and exercise (ăn kiêng và tập thể dục) are obviously important.