A: which countries have you been to?
B: I’ve been to most of the countries in Europe, several countries in asia-china, korea, and Thailand-and to the united states and Canada.
A; I thought you had been to Australia too.
B: no, but I’m planning on visiting Australia and new Zealand soon. I’ve heard that they are beautiful countries. Which is the most beautiful country you’ve been to?
A; I think I ‘d say norway. It has many picturesque¹ fjords, waterfalls, and mountains.
B: isn’t it really cold there?
A; well, the north of Norway is almost always cold, but further south it can be fairly warm in summer. It’s a wet country, so there’s snow almost everywhere in winter.
B; I’ve been to other Scandinavian countries, but not to Norway. Perhaps I should go and do some winter sports there.

Intermediate²
A: ok. Let’s look at our short presentation on china. What do we need to include?
B; we need to talk about the size of the country and its population.
A: ok. China is about the same size as Canada and the united states and it has a population of about 1.3 bullion³, making it the latest country in the world by population.
B; it says here that most of the people are han Chinese, but there are 55 minorities that make up almost 10% of the population.
A: we need to say something about the geography and climate of china. Is there any way to divide the country into sections?
B: we could divide into five parts. There’s the northeast, which is mild in summer and very cold in winter. Then there is the northwest, which is largely⁴ desert. Tilbet is famous for its mountainous climate. The rest of the country can be roughly⁵ divided into two parts. One is temperate-mild in winter and warm in summer. Then, in the south it is hot most of the year.
A: that sounds very general.
B: it is, buy remember that we only have a few minutes to make our presentation. We can select cities from each part and give data for each one.
A: one from each part? Lhasa, urumqi, harbin, shanghai, and hongkong. The capital city is Beijing, right?
B; yes. The other large cities are chengdu, dalian, wuhan, tianjin, shenyang, chongqing. Hongkong and Guangzhou.
A; we should take a large map and highlight⁶ those cities. What is each of them famous for?

Words
China united sates Russia Canada Australia united kingdom
New Zealand japan Thailand Mongolia Vietnam north/south korea
India france germany Pakistan economy climate coast mountain developing river city capital city minority gdp average income birth/death rate industry agriculture service industry developed developing