c1 · strategic-thinking

C1 Strategic-Thinking Part 4: Strategic Thinking

Lesson 54 of 10 in this unit.

📖 Reading Passage

Native audio

Cities can run five degrees hotter than surrounding fields: asphalt stores the day’s heat and releases it all night. The fix is a patchwork. Paris paints roofs silver to reflect sunlight; Medellín strings green corridors of trees along concrete channels, cooling nearby streets by three degrees. Permeable pavements let rain sink instead of flood, while ponds and fountains chill the air through evaporation. Critics warn greening raises rents, pushing out the residents heat policy should protect. Planners answer with rules tying new parks to affordable housing. Cooling a city, they argue, is less an engineering project than a social contract written in shade. Heat is also distributed unevenly. Within a single city, temperatures can differ by seven degrees between a leafy avenue and a bare industrial yard, and the hottest districts are usually the poorest, with less tree cover and more traffic. Public health records mirror the geography: during heatwaves, emergency admissions rise fastest in those neighbourhoods. Remedies that treat shading as infrastructure rather than decoration reach them first, which is why some cities map heat block by block before deciding where to plant. Night-time temperatures matter most, because bodies need recovery; a district that stays warm after dark produces worse outcomes than one that merely peaks high at noon. Measuring the problem is the first step toward cooling it fairly.

📘 Vocabulary

20 words from this lesson

barber: A person whose profession is cutting the hair and beards of usually male customers.; “They discussed barber during the lesson.”
bash: To strike heavily; to beat.; “They discussed bash during the lesson.”
battalion: An army unit having two or more companies, etc. and a headquarters. Traditionally forming part of a regiment.; “They discussed battalion during the lesson.”
bidding: That which one is bidden to do; a command.; “They discussed bidding during the lesson.”
boycott: To abstain, either as an individual or a group, from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some organization as an expression of protest.; “They discussed boycott during the lesson.”
carpenter: A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.; “They discussed carpenter during the lesson.”
coding: The process of encoding or decoding.; “They discussed coding during the lesson.”
competitor: A person or organization against whom one is competing.; “They discussed competitor during the lesson.”
cuisine: A characteristic manner or style of preparing food, often associated with a place of origin.; “They discussed cuisine during the lesson.”
detained: Delayed or held back; kept from proceeding.; “They discussed detained during the lesson.”
dioxide: Any oxide containing two oxygen atoms in each molecule.; “They discussed dioxide during the lesson.”
doom: Destiny, especially terrible.; “They discussed doom during the lesson.”
dubbed: Having had the original soundtrack replaced with a synchronized translation.; “They discussed dubbed during the lesson.”
ea: A river or watercourse.; “It is easy for him to carry the stone.”
eclipse: An alignment of astronomical objects whereby one object comes between the observer (or notional observer) and another object, thus obscuring the latter.; “They discussed eclipse during the lesson.”
eighteen: The cardinal number occurring after seventeen and before nineteen, represented in Roman numerals as XVIII and in Arabic numerals as 18.; “They discussed eighteen during the lesson.”
enjoyment: The condition of enjoying anything.; “They discussed enjoyment during the lesson.”
exhaust: To draw or let out wholly; to drain completely.; “They discussed exhaust during the lesson.”
expired: that is no longer valid; “They discussed expired during the lesson.”
flee: To run away; to escape.; “They discussed flee during the lesson.”

📐 Grammar Notes

This lesson practices clear paragraph structure: one main idea per paragraph, stated first, supported with two concrete details, and closed with a linking sentence. Prefer active verbs and precise nouns. Connect ideas with however for contrast, furthermore for addition, and therefore for consequence. Keep sentences under twenty-five words so each claim stays traceable to its evidence. Practice by labeling each sentence in the reading: underline the main verb, circle the time marker, and check that every they and it points to a named noun. Rewrite any three sentences in your own words while keeping tense and meaning intact. Theme: strategic thinking. Reading: Cooling the Hot City.

Practice Exercises

Work through each exercise to complete this lesson.

That boy displayed no f___r.

What does 'barber' mean?

What does 'bash' mean?

What does 'battalion' mean?

What does 'bidding' mean?

What does 'boycott' mean?

What does 'carpenter' mean?

What does 'coding' mean?

Write a sentence using 'barber'.

Summarize the passage in two sentences.

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