3 18 Regional identities Language in use: Go Midwest, young writer a) Read the text about the American Midwest. Some words are missing. Choose the correct word (A–L) for each gap (1–9). There are two extra words that you should not use. Write your answers in the boxes provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. For many people, New York is the publishing … 0 of the country, and a lot of people who write do live in Brooklyn. I can totally … 1 up everything you’ve heard about thriving independent bookstores, nightly literary … 2 and writers crowding the coffee shops. Yet, New York City isn’t the only place to be if you’re a writer. A closer look at the literary map of the 50 states … 3 that some of the most exciting things going on in American literature are taking place in the middle of the country. The Midwest is a region that offers a terrain nearly as … 4 as its cultures. There’s BBQ in Kansas City, and you eat your weight in cheese curds in Milwaukee; Nebraska has corn, Michigan has cars; people from St Paul sound like they could be from Canada; you might mistake people from Indiana for southerners because of their … 5 . The Midwest is the place where industry lives and dies, politics are life, and people have a thousand stories to tell like they’re coming down a swiftly-moving conveyer belt. It’s also getting pretty hard to deny, as … 6 rents continue to rise in places like Brooklyn, that the Midwest, with its free houses for writers in Detroit, great university towns and neighbourhoods like Ann Arbor, Hyde Park and Iowa City, might really be ready to … 7 over as the place for writers to call home. The middle of the country still receives its share of pitying glares from the publishing world. No matter how much … 8 is made, there will always be people who think the middle of the country is just a place you fly over. How can you think so little of the Midwest when you take into consideration everything that is coming out of places like Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa? Writers like Kyle Minor, Roxane Gay and Adam Levin, literary journals like PANK, the presses like Graywolf, Two Dollar Radio and Curbside Splendor – all of these things make it hard to … 9 that the Midwest has become a region of serious literary importance. Combine all that with the fact that the cities are actually livable, and it might not be long until you start seeing trend pieces declaring the Midwest the new American literary hot spot. (Jason Diamond, Flavorwire; adapted and abridged) A accents E diverse I make 0 F 4 8 B astronomical F epicentre J progress 1 5 9 C back G events K reveals 2 6 D deny H ground L take 3 7 b) Look at the words and definitions below and find a synonym for each of them in the text above. Word Opposite Word Opposite 1. prosperous, growing thriving 5. quickly, rapidly 2. autonomous 6. feeling sorry 3. landscape 7. gaze, look 4. to confuse/mix up sb. 8. popular place 6 ✔ Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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