Take a tour

Multiple-choice exercise.

  
ELT Concourse: learners' index
Choose the correct answer for each question.
You have 15 minutes.
London is the most populous city in Europe and dominates Britain so it is the sensible place to start our short tour. All major government offices and the majority of large companies have their headquarters here. It is the seat of government and the centre of Britain\'s cultural life. All the national newspapers, television and radio networks are established in London and it is where you will find the majority of the great museums and art galleries. It is also the centre of commerce and the hub of the nation\'s transport system. The traditional commercial centre of this great city is The City of London, a surprisingly small, central area with a population of over a million in the daytime but fewer than 8000 in the evenings and weekends. The West End of London is known mostly for its theatres, shops and clubs, the East End for its traditional Cockney culture (but increasingly now a major centre of the financial services and the Press). London is nearly seven times larger than the country\'s next largest urban centre and approximately 20% of the population of Britain lives in the Greater London Area.
Surrounding the outer suburbs of London is an area known as \u2018Commuterland\'. This part of Southern England is characterised by expensive housing and dense populations. Millions of the inhabitants travel to Central London to work and the towns and villages are virtually deserted during the working day, only coming to life at weekends and in the evenings. Increasingly, however, many companies are abandoning the high-rental offices and industrial premises in London and re-locating to this part of the country which saves travelling time and money for their employees.
Further out from the capital, Southern England has a more rural character. Apart from the coast, which is well developed, the landscape is surprisingly empty of major development. To the east, in Kent and parts of Sussex, there are farms growing fruit and vegetables. Further south, between the great urban centre and the coast, sheep farming dominates and there are large tracts of open land used for both commercial farming and recreation. The South Downs, an area of open upland, is the largest and most typical of these mixed-economy areas.
The southern coast is characterised by resort towns, many of which are popular with Londoners at the weekends because they are less than two hours away and also as areas to which to retire.
To the west of London, fruit vegetable and sheep farming give way to cereals and cattle. The West Country is well known as an agricultural and tourist area but there are also large ports such as Bristol, which once dominated the Atlantic trade with North and South America.
The coastline is dominated by rugged cliffs and small bays and in the interior there are large open tracts of countryside which are among the most popular tourist destinations in Britain.
The area to the north-east of London is also mostly open country but without large ports such as Bristol (although increasing trade with Europe has made this area more important to the import-export industry). Again, this is a popular tourist destination but, unlike the south and west, the area is characterised by flat country and thousands of waterways, making it very popular with boating enthusiasts. The main crops in this area are wheat, barley and other cereal crops.
South, west and north-east of London, then, the countryside is characteristically rural but to the north-west of London lies the traditional industrial heartland of Britain. Only one hundred miles from London is Britain\'s second city, Birmingham. The area around Birmingham, and especially further north, developed as the \u2018Workshop of the World\' during the Industrial Revolution. Although industrial decline has seen much industry close, this is still Britain\'s most important centre of manufacturing industry. Apart from heavy industries, such as mining, steel and engineering, there are centres producing pottery, textiles and clothing.
Yet further north from this area of industrial activity lies the region of Northern England. Running up its centre are the Pennine Mountains, popular with holiday makers and walkers as well as a being a famous wool-producing centre, and to each side of these highlands lie great industrial cities such as Leeds and Sheffield to the east and Liverpool to the west.
Away from these areas the land is sparsely populated and much of the North West of England is taken up with England\'s largest National Park, the Lake District which was home to the Romantic poets of the 19th Century as well as being the favoured holiday destination for many of the inhabitants of the cities and towns.
The area is not entirely industrial, however, and there are large areas of countryside as well as attractive towns such as Stratford, with its Shakespearean connections, Nottingham, which has successfully capitalized on connections with Robin Hood and, of course, Oxford with its great university, libraries and museums. As a result, the area is increasingly important to the tourist industry and continues to attract visitors from all over the world.