Discover New York City — its boroughs, food and culture — while practising relative clauses and the present & past perfect progressive.
Read the text carefully, then answer the questions below.
Max, a 14-year-old from Hamburg, visited New York City with his family during the autumn holidays. It was the trip he had been dreaming about for years.
“New York is made up of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Most tourists only visit Manhattan, but we wanted to see more. On our first day, we took the subway to Brooklyn, which has amazing street art and small coffee shops everywhere.”
“The food in New York is incredible. You can find dishes from almost every country in the world. In Chinatown, which is in Lower Manhattan, we ate dumplings that cost only two dollars. In Little Italy, just a few streets away, my dad ordered a huge pizza slice — New York pizza is famous because the crust is thin and you fold it in half to eat it.”
“Queens is the most diverse borough. Our guide, who grew up there, told us that people speak over 100 languages in Queens alone. We visited Jackson Heights, where you can try Indian, Colombian and Bangladeshi food all on the same street.”
“One evening, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. The view of the Manhattan skyline, which was glowing orange and pink, was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. My sister, who had been taking photos all week, said it was her favourite moment too.”
“On our last day, we visited the Statue of Liberty. The statue, which was a gift from France in 1886, is a symbol of freedom for millions of people. I had been reading about its history before the trip, so I already knew a lot, but seeing it in person was completely different.”
1 How many boroughs does New York City have?
2 What did Max and his family do on their first day?
3 What is special about New York pizza?
4 Why is Queens described as the most diverse borough?
5 Where did Max see the Manhattan skyline at sunset?
6 Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to America?
Choose the correct relative pronoun. Remember: defining clauses say which one (no commas, that is OK); non-defining clauses add extra info (commas, never that).
1 New York is a city never sleeps.
2 The guide, grew up in Queens, knew every corner of the city.
3 Central Park, is in the middle of Manhattan, is visited by millions of people every year.
4 Chinatown is the neighbourhood you can find the best dumplings in the city.
5 The student host family lived in Brooklyn had a very short way to school.
6 The Brooklyn Bridge, was opened in 1883, connects Manhattan and Brooklyn.
7 The pizza we ate in Little Italy was the best I have ever had.
8 Times Square, thousands of tourists take photos every day, is full of bright lights and huge screens.
Choose the correct tense form. Use the present perfect progressive (have/has been + -ing) for actions still continuing now, and the past perfect progressive (had been + -ing) for actions that continued up to a point in the past.
1 Max and his family the trip for months before they finally flew to New York.
2 “We for three hours, so we stopped at a café for a rest.”
3 It all morning — look, the streets are still wet!
4 By the time they reached the top of the Empire State Building, Max’s sister about her tired legs for twenty minutes.
5 “I English for five years now, and this trip is really helping me practise!”
6 When the waiter brought the food, they for almost an hour.
7 Max’s parents money for two years — they are still putting some aside for next summer’s holiday.
8 Before they moved to a hotel in Manhattan, the family with friends in Brooklyn for four nights.
Write a paragraph (60–100 words) describing what you would do on a trip to New York. Use information from the reading text and your own ideas.
Think about: Which borough would you most like to visit? What food would you try? What sights would you see? Try to include at least one relative clause and one perfect progressive form, for example:
“I would love to visit Chinatown, which is famous for its dumplings.” / “I have been dreaming about seeing the Statue of Liberty for years.”
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