READY MADE ENGLISH: Cities, their stories and what comes out of them

1. The topic of cities can easily lend itself to conditionals (1st and 2nd) thanks to the Hello Lamp Post project:

Here are some of the questions that were asked and some of the answers to them:

If you listen carefully, what's the quietest thing you can hear?
Via parking meter #2995: "Fingers clenched to moving parasols"
Via lamp post #21: "The wine sloshing in my back pack"
Via lamp post #3: "I'm blasting drum and bass through my headphones, nothing is quiet..."
Can you smell something?
Via lamp post #103: "Fresh broad beans - I'm podding some now and can't resist popping one or two from each pod in my mouth raw. Yum."
Via bench #6bs: "Ice cream and dry kebab fat"
Via lamp post #1: "The fresh scent of the rain and the earth - the scent of the outdoors!"
I can't turn. Can you tell me what's behind me?
Via parking meter #2717: "Bristol Library. A most beautiful library and one of my favourites."
Via station #bri1: "A man in a yellow Jamaican shirt with a pot plant in a plastic bag. But he's more 'in you' than 'behind you'."
Via green box #6: "You are in front of Colston Hall, you must enjoy listening in on the concerts"
If I was yours for the day, what would you write on me? (Asked by a billboard) Via billboard #cabt: "Everything will be ok"
Via billboard #cabt: " "I love you!" so that everyone who went past would think it was for them XD. "
Via billboard #cabt: "I think I'd write 'be excellent to each other'."
What would be your super power? (And why?)
Via parking meter #2721: "To be able to grow money out of my belly button"
Via crane #29: "The ability to float above water - because we could make some side cash"
Via Biggles #2688: "Super beak that can tap tap tap on the top of people’s heads... Why: pick peoples brains"

As you can see some of these questions are perfect to practice the 1st and 2nd conditionals.

To add to this list and develop the activity further, I often use quotes, that students have to finish with their own ideas... there is a lot of laughing on the way (provided you happen to be teaching a class which has got a good sense of humour, of course)

“If men could get pregnant, ………………………………………..”
Florynce Kennedy

“If everyone on earth just stopped breathing for an hour, …………………………………………………………………………………..”
Jerry Adler

“If there were no bad people, ……………………………………………….”

Charles Dickens

“If I had no sense of humour, ……………………………………………...”

Muhatma Ghandi

“If women didn’t exist, …………………………………………………...”
Aristotle Onassis

“If God lived on earth, ……………………………………………………..”
Jewish proverb

“If life was fair, ………………………………………………………………...”
Johhny Carson

2. Cities can also be a good introduction to the topic of comparative and superlative adjectives:

There is an excellent video which compares Paris and NY, made by Vahram Muratyan

Here is his blog (that landed him a book deal with Penguin, by the by)