I am one of those unfortunate people who spends their first few weeks in a new city getting lost. On the plus side this means I am always discovering interesting new places; on the down side it means I always have to leave extra early before heading to my destination. I found these interesting tips on how to find your way in a city using the landmarks around you. I'm not sure how useful they will be to me but it's always good to learn something new!
Read through the text and fill the gaps with the vocabulary below, I've given you the meaning of the words to help you. Good luck and have safe journeys!
Lesson by Caroline
Hub - a centre of activity or interest.
Direction - the course you take to get to your destination.
Orientate - to work out where you are.
Navigate - to find your way to a destination.
Mosque - A religious centre for people of the Muslim faith.
Crowd - a large group of people.
Emerge - to come out from somewhere.
Compasses - a small circular instrument that shows which direction you are facing.
Many people now rely on their smartphones, sat-navs or other GPS devices to find their way around. But when these fail us, and there's no-one to ask for directions, there's a more natural way to _1_, says Tristan Gooley.
Natural navigation may be just what you need. This involves working out which way to go without using maps, _2_ or any other instruments. It relies on awareness and deduction, so does depend on retaining some awareness of direction throughout each journey.
From earliest times, religious buildings and sacred sites have been laid out to give clues as to _3_.
Christian churches are normally aligned west-east, with the main altar at the eastern end to face the sunrise. Gravestones, too, are aligned west-east.
To find direction from a _4_, you need to go inside and look for the niche in one wall, which indicates the direction for prayer. This niche, known as al-Qibla, will be the direction of Mecca, wherever you are in the world.
Pacific navigators learned to follow the birds in their search of land. They quickly realised that while an individual bird can behave eccentrically, a pair - or even better a flock - will follow a pattern.
The same is true of human beings. There is no point following an individual, you could end up anywhere. But following a _5_ in the late afternoon will take you towards a station or other transport _6_ In the mornings, walk against the flow to find these stations.
At lunchtime in sunny weather, crowds move from office blocks towards the open spaces of parks and rivers.
One of the best ways not to lose your sense of direction is to hold onto it. My favourite way of doing this in a city is to _7_ myself - using some of the clues above - and then note the direction the clouds are moving.
The wind pushing the clouds will remain fairly constant, providing there's no dramatic change in the weather.
This technique really earns its keep on underground journeys, especially to a new part of town. Simply look up before you head underground, and remember the direction of the clouds. When you _8_ in a strange part of the city, look up again and you'll be able to work out which way is which from the clouds overhead.
Fill the gaps with the correct missing words:
