Bris Angeles

I live in Bris Angeles. Have you ever heard of Bris Angeles? Have you heard of Brisbane? Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, which is one of the states of Australia. It is the northeastern state.

Brisbane is a big city and it has expanded to swallow other surrounding cities like Logan, Beenleigh and Redcliffe.

Thirty years ago Brisbane was a sleepy place. People called it a big country town rather than a city because it was so quiet. The buildings were old classical colonial buildings. The houses were made of wood. The roads were not too crowded and the hi-rise was limited to the inner city.

In the last three decades, Brisbane has grown and grown and grown and grown. Queensland is in the north and the weather is warm so many people move up to the Brisbane area (also called: “south-east Queensland”) to enjoy the warmer weather. Now Brisbane stretches almost to the Sunshine Coast (Caloundra) in the north and the Gold Coast in the south. To the west it has almost reached Toowoomba. The city is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It is for that reason that I call it Bris Angeles.

Taken from: www.englishconversation.org

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Cordoba

When people think of the cultural and intellectual centre of Europe, they often think of Paris. But, in the Middle Ages, the greatest city of Europe was in fact in Cordoba, which was an Arab city in Spain.

In fact, most Arab scholars considered Europe to be a dirty and unimportant place. They thought Cordoba was a much more cultured city.

At around the tenth century, Paris had a population of about 40,000, whereas about half a million people lived in Cordoba.

A typical library in European cities would contain a few hundred books, but the libraries of Cordoba contained over 400,000 works.

Cordoba was a very tolerant city, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews all lived together. It also, had some of the greatest architecture in Europe. Cordoba was famous for its mosques and public baths.