Great European Cities
PARIS
Paris is the capital and largest city of France, situated on River Seine. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and is visited by more than eight million tourists every year. The most popular place for tourists is the Eiffel Tower, the famous symbol of Paris. One of the world’s largest art galleries, the Louvre, is also located in Paris. The city is also located in Paris. The city is also famous for its restaurants, cafes and theatres. About two-thirds of France’s artists and writers live in Paris.
BARCELONA
Barcelona is the second largest city of Spain and is situated on the northeast coast, about five hundred kilometres east of the Spanish capital, Madrid. One of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks is the Church of Sagrada Familia, which was designed by an architect called Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi worked on the project from 1882 until his death in 1926. The church hasn’t been finished yet!
FLORENCE
Florence is an Italian city which became famous because of the Renaissance, a great artistic movement which began in the 1300s and lasted for three hundred ears. During the Renaissance, some of the greatest painters of all time lived and worked in Florence. Many of Florence’s most beautiful paintings and sculptures were produced by great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Florence is visited each year by about a million tourists who come to see the art galleries, churches and museums. The Uffizi Palace is the most famous art gallery
in the city.
ATHENS
Athens, the capital of Greece, is known as the birthplace of western civilization. Two thousand four hundred years ago, it was the world’s most powerful city. Buildings such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis Hill were built during this period. Greece’s best writers lived in ancient Athens. Their work has influenced other writers ever since.
The Human Development Report
In the year 2000, 147 world leaders agreed to work together to reduce poverty by 2015 or earlier. From this agreement came the Human Development Report.
One of the most important sections of this report is the Human Development Index. This examines the achievements of 175 countries. The Index measures a country’s achievements in three ways: life expectancy (how long people usually live), education and income. The index has some surprises. Norway is at the top of the list, while the US is at number 7. The other top five countries are: Iceland(2), Sweden(3), Australia(4), the Netherlands(5). The UK is in the thirteenth position, while China is in the middle of the list. The bottom ten countries are all African countries, with Sierra Leone(in West Africa) at the bottom of the list.
The report describes eight Development Goals. The most important goals are to:
Reduce poverty and hunger;
Make sure that all children have education up to the age of 11;
Fight AIDS and other diseases;
Improve the environment of poor people, e.g. make sure they have safe drinking water;
Encourage developed countries to give more help to other countries.
The 2003 Human Development Report gives examples of successful development. For example, in nine years, China increased life expectancy by 13 years. In the last ten years in China, 150 million people moved out of poverty. However, the challenges are still great. Every day 799 million people in developing countries are hungry. Over half of these are in South Asia or Africa. Although more than 80% of children in developing countries go to primary school, about 115 million children are not being educated. More than 1 billion people in developing countries do not drink safe water. However, in other regions of the world, e.g. Eastern Europe, water is now mostly safe to drink.
