The Price of Vice

reading

How expensive is your city for beer, cigarettes, cinema tickets, hotels, etc.? Which do you think
is the most expensive city in the world for these types of things?

B Read the first part of the article and check your ideas.

The Telegraph

April 2015

The price of vice: where to buy the cheapest pint of beer

Australia is the worlds most
expensive country to have fun
in, according to a new report
from Deutsche Bank that
examined the cost of various
items - from a pint of beer to
an iPhone 6 - but the cost of
individual items varies widely

from country to country. Heres

where to get the best value for
your money. The charts show
the five most and five least
expensive places to buy each
item. Where London is not in
either category, the price has
been included for comparative

purposes.

b Are you surprised that Australia is so expensive? How much is a pint of beer or an iPhone 6
where you live?

VTry to match the words from the article on the left to the correct definitions on the right.
workout

1 pricier
___ exercise session
2 set one back
___ increases
3 afford
___ more expensive
4 rank ___ cost
5 workout
___ have enough money (to buy something)
6 rises
___ appear in an ordered sequence

B Discuss these questions and then read the first part of the article to check your ideas. All prices
are in US dollars.

1 How much is a pint of beer in London?

2 Which of these places has the most expensive pint of beer: Wellington, New York City,
Singapore, Paris?
3 Kuala Lumpur is the cheapest city in the world to stay in a five
star hotel. How much do you think it costs?
4 Which city has the most expensive hotel rooms in the world?
5 How much does a 2-litre bottle of Coca-Cola cost in Australia?
6 Which is the cheapest city to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola in?
7 How much do a pair of Levi 501s cost in London?
8 Do you think Levis are expensive in Toronto and Boston?
A pint of beer
There are actually four places in

the world with pricier beer than

Londons $6.30 for a pint.
1/4

Just ahead of the UK capital

is Wellington followed by New

The Price of Vice

even afford to travel to Sydney.

Nick Kamen, costs just under

$95 in London. In India, Levi
A 2-litre bottle of Coca-Cola
501s can be bought for as
At $2.76, a large bottle of Coke little as $34, but the cost is
in London is the third priciest more than three times that in
in the world. Only Sydney and Shanghai. Toronto and Boston
A five star hotel room
Zurich beat London on this are also among the cheapest
Kuala Lumpur is the cheapest front, with the average cost of place to get a pair of the iconic
city in the world to stay in a a large bottle of the drink in the trousers, while Paris, Singapore,
five star hotel. At just $77.50 Australian capital costing $3.36. Auckland and Frankfurt are
per night, a Queen or King sized A bottle of Cola in London is costlier than London.
room in the Malaysian capital more than twice as expensive
costs half as much as the second as two litres of Coke in Mumbai,
cheapest option, Wellington the worlds cheapest city for
in New Zealand, where a five Coke lovers.
star room will set a traveller
back $157.30. London has the A pair of Levi 501s
second priciest luxury hotels, at If you love fashion, India is
$608.20 a night.
the place. A pair of the classic
Those prepared to spend jeans, pictured here in the 1985
$880.40 on a nights sleep could launderette advert featuring

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The price of a pair of Levi 501 jeans

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The price of a pint of beer

York City and Singapore. The

worst is Paris, where a pint
costs $7.60. However, if you
find yourself in South Africa,
you can get a pint for under $2.

reading

b How much do these items cost in your country? Have you visited any of the places mentioned?
If so, did these things seem expensive?

2/4

The Price of Vice

reading

BDiscuss the following statements and decide which are true. Then read the final part of the
article to check your ideas.

Canada is the cheapest place in the world to buy an iPhone 6.

An iPhone 6 costs $1,254 in Brazil.
Only Tokyo and Zurich are more expensive than London for cinema tickets.
Cinema tickets in Mumbai and Jakarta are half the price of those in London.
The cheapest place in the world for gym membership is Berlin.
The average price in Zurich for gym membership is $122.30 a month.
Marlboro cigarettes are more expensive in London than Australia.
In Brazil, a pack of Marlboros costs $10.
Only Tokyo and Zurich are
pricier cities for film lovers.
Melbourne and New York
prices rank just below Londons,
but are several dollars less
expensive. Good news for
Bollywood fans, though: seeing
a movie in Mumbai or Jakarta
costs less than a quarter of
Londons price.

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The price of a cinema ticket

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The price of an iPhone

ite

A pack of cigarettes
Travellers who like a cigarette
or two would do well to
avoid Australia, where a pack
of Marlboros costs $16.92
in Sydney and $18.45 in
Melbourne. New Zealands
Auckland and Wellington are
similarly pricey. Cigarettes in
Jakarta, Moscow and Manila
cost just $1.35 - around a tenth
of the price of Londons $13.35.
Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo
are also incredibly cheap at just
over $2 a packet.

A monthly gym membership

Exercise addicts can get the
cheapest workout in South
Africa, with both Cape Town
and Johannesburg making the
bottom three. The Indian cities
of Bangalore and New Delhi,

A cinema ticket
At $17.06 each, London is the
third most expensive city in the
world to go to the cinema.

Un

along with Berlin, complete

the cheapest five cities for
gyms. The cost of a monthly
gym membership costs around
$83 in London, but rises above
the $100 in New York City and
Moscow. The average price in
Zurich is a massive $122.30 a
month.

M
el

An iPhone 6
Waiting for your next trip to
the United States to buy your
newest Apple product could be
a good move, as the US is the
cheapest country in the world
to buy an iPhone 6 ($650).
Canada isnt far behind,
where an iPhone costs just
$13.50 more than in the US.
The smartphone costs around
$800 in the UK, and a staggering
$1,254 in Brazil. Thats almost
twice as much as the newest
iPhones price in its home
country. Shopping in Russia
will set you back $932.40 per
iPhone 6, and Indonesia, China
and India complete the priciest
five.

The Price of Vice

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b How do the prices of these things compare to prices in your country? Why do you think that

an iPhone costs twice as much in Brazil as America? How much has the cost of a cinema
ticket changed in your country in the last five years? Moscow is the second most expensive
for gym membership, but second cheapest for Marlboro cigarettes how do you explain this?

VUse the words from the pre-reading task in the correct form to complete these sentences:
1 I like to go for a _______________ after work. I find the exercise relaxes me.
2 Our products are a little _____________ than other companies, but the quality is better.
3 As sales have been good we can _______________ a new photocopier.
4 My company _______________ number one for customer service in my country.
5 The cost of electricity usually _______________ every year.
6 My new car _______________ me _______________ over 10,000.

E Look at these extracts from the article:

April 2015

The Telegraph

A bottle of Cola in London is more than twice as expensive as two litres of Coke in Mumbai ...
Thats almost twice as much as the newest iPhones price in its home country.

1 You use as + as to compare people or things that are similar in some way. You use: as + adjective/
adverb + as + a noun or clause.
Add an adjective or adverb to complete this example: London is as ______________ as Paris.
2 You can make a negative comparison using: not as + adjective/adverb + as.
Add an adjective or adverb to complete this example: New York is not as ____________ as Milan.
3 You can use almost, just, nearly, quite, half/quarter, etc., more than twice/three times, etc. in
front of as + as.
Add one of the words above and an adjective or adverb to complete this example:
Apple is _________________ as ____________________ as Samsung.
4 In a negative comparison, you can use not nearly or not quite before as + as.
Add one of these phrases and an adjective or adverb to complete this example:
Microsoft is ______________ as ____________________ as Apple.

V Write sentences about the information in the charts.

e.g. Beijing is twice as expensive as New Delhi for five star hotel rooms.

4/4

The Price of Vice

Teachers notes 1

student pages 4

week of 27.04.15
reading
low-intermediate+ (A2+)

VTry to match the words from the article on the left to the correct definitions on the right.
1 pricier
5 exercise session
2 set one back
6 increases
3 afford 1 more expensive
4 rank 2 cost
5 workout
3 have enough money (to buy something)
6 rises 4 appear in an ordered sequence

B Discuss the following statements and decide which are true. Then read the final part of the
article to check your ideas.

Canada is the cheapest place to buy an iPhone 6.

An iPhone 6 costs $1,254 in Brazil.
Only Tokyo and Zurich are more expensive than London for cinema tickets.
Cinema tickets in Mumbai and Jakarta are half the price of those in London.
The cheapest place in the world for gym membership is Berlin.
The average price in Zurich for gym membership is $122.30 a month.
Marlboro cigarettes are more expensive in London than Australia.
In Brazil, a pack of Marlboros costs $10.

VUse the words from the pre-reading task in the correct form to complete these sentences:
1 workout
2 pricier
3 afford
4 ranks
5 rises
6 set / back