Prime Time 4, Coursebook

Facts worth remembering Reading: What to know about New Zealand a) Read the info texts below and match the titles from the green box. 4t83tu Info The Maori are the indigenous/ native people of the islands of Polynesia, for example New Zealand. i 1. The two main islands New Zealand isn’t just a collection of lots of islands in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. In fact, there’re a lot of islands and there’re two, big main islands, the North and South Island, are separated by the “Cook Strait”. Connecting the North and the South Island, the strait is a narrow area of sea which links the two areas of New Zealand. 2. Coming out of the ocean by volcanic power, the two main islands were created about 23 million years ago. There aren’t a lot of prairies and deserts, but there are lots of volcanoes in New Zealand and some of them are still active today. Besides those volcanoes, there’re also a lot of mountains with lots of snow. The South Island is home to the highest moun­ tain peak in New Zealand. Its name is “Mount Cook” and it rises to 3,754 meters. 3. In the past, a lot of New Zealanders, or “Kiwis” as they are also called informally, worked as farmers and lived in the countryside. Now, though, most New Zealanders live in cities, such as Wellington and Auckland. Around 86% of the population lives in cities. 4. They arrived by canoe from islands in Poly­ nesia near Tahiti around 1000 AD. In fact, the Maori culture is very much respected by New Zealanders, and a lot of the land once taken away by the British in the 18 th and 19 th century was returned to the Maori people in the late 20 th century. Lots of British settlers came to New Zealand, which was called “Aotearoa – the Land of the Long White Cloud” by the Maori. Are there a lot of Maori people? Yes – around 800,000. 5. Having a great distance to other countries, New Zealand has got a lot of unusual animals that can’t be seen anywhere else in the world. Nearly all the land animals are birds, and lots of these species have lost the ability to fly. However, other animals were introduced to the islands by the Maori people and the Europeans, and the flightless birds had no chance to fight against them. The number of birds went down a lot, as they couldn’t escape their enemies. For example, there are not a lot of wild kiwis left – only 75,000 remain. wild kiwi Mount Cook 2 Maori culture • Mountains and volcanoes • Wildlife and nature • The two main islands • The people b) Go back to the text in 2a. Look for “a lot of” and “lots of” and underline them. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 80 10 Unit New Zealand eighty Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv