London is always changing! London is perhaps the most exciting city in Europe, and one of the most interesting cities.     It has its monuments which everyone knows. Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and recently the enormous "Millennium Wheel". Soon it will have another very distinctive monument, right in the middle of the "City".     In November 2001, builders started work on the new "Swiss Re" building. When it is finished, it will be like no other building in London... perhaps no other building in the world!     Londoners already call it "the Glass Gherkin".     The huge building will be 180 metres tall when it is finished. It will have 40 stories, and will be the world headquarters for Swiss Re, a big Swiss insurance company.     This new building is a building for the twenty-first century. It will not need a lot of expensive air-conditioning: air will circulate naturally through the building by natural convection. It will not need a lot of heating either: with a glass shell on the outside, it will be largely heated by the sun.     It will not cause a lot more traffic problems in the middle of London either. People who work in the building will have to use public transport, as there will only be car parking for disabled people.     At the top of the building there will be a big private restaurant, with wonderful views in all directions! However at the base of the building there will be a public area, with shops and restaurants.     Lord Foster, the building's architect, says: "This is a radical building, technically, architecturally, socially and spatially. It is unlike any office building so far conceived."

Computer-generated image of the new building, as it will be when it is finished

WORDS  area: zone, place - conceived: designed, imagined - convection: the vertical movement of warm air - disabled people: people who have a physical handicap - distinctive: different and remarkable - gherkin: cucumber, a long thin vegetable - headquarters: principal building, head office - insurance: financial protection against risks - radical: revolutionary, very different - shell: cladding, covering - so far: until now, in the past - spatially: the manner in which space is used - stories: floors, levels - unlike: different from - view: panorama.

Text ©linguapress.com .   Picture  © Norman Foster & Partners
Teachers: print out these exercises for your students. 

Vocabulary check:

Find two words in the text that mean big: 
   1.__________   2. ____________

Find the opposite of "like": __________

Find a word that means "which costs a lot of money": ______________

Find the expression that means "cars, trains, buses and taxis": __________________

Find the word that means "a person who designs new buildings": ___________

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The Swiss Re building will be the tallest building in London.

The public will not be allowed to enter this building.

There are traffic problems in London.

The building will have car parking spaces for all the people who work in it.

Replace the verbs in the correct form in these extracts:

When it is (finish) __________, it will be like no other building in London.

Londoners already (call) ________ it "the Glass Gherkin".

It will be largely (heat)___________ by the sun.

People who (work) _________ in the building will have (use) ________ public transport

At the base of the building there (be) __________ a public area.

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