📙 Part 2: Describe a public facility that has been renovated and improved

You should say: what the facility is, when it was renovated and improved, what has been renovated and improved, and explain how you feel about it.

This episode's vocabulary

To upgrade (verb) - to improve the quality or usefulness of something, or change it for something newer or of a better standard.

Riverside (noun) - the land along the edges of a river.

To sell someone/yourself/something short (idiom) - to not consider someone or something to be as valuable or good as he, she, or it deserves.

Indoor (adj.) - happening, used, or existing inside a building.

To demolish (verb) - to completely destroy a building, especially in order to use the land for something else.

Open up something (phrasal verb) - to make something available.

Simultaneously (adverb) - in a way that is simultaneous (= happening or being done at exactly the same time).

Seamless (adverb) - happening without any sudden changes, interruption, or difficulty.

Transfer (noun) - the movement of something or someone from one place, position, etc. to another.

Flume (noun) - a narrow channel made for carrying water, for example to factories that produce electricity.

Accessible (adj.) - able to be reached or easily obtained.

Fanfare (noun) - great attention to and interest in something.

To reopen (verb) - if a place or business, etc. reopens or is reopened, it begins to operate, or it becomes open for people to use, after being closed for a period of time.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, it's funny, actually, because we just had a new swimming pool facility built in the center of my hometown. It's an upgraded version of the old one that we had down by the riverside. So this is like a new building, but with the same name and operated by the same company. The place itself is called Olympia, probably after the place where all the great Gods lived. And like I said, it's a swimming pool, although, I think that's not telling the whole story and selling it a bit short. It was designed as a sort of indoor water park, and the new building has kept this idea in mind, despite the big move to a new location. This happened about, oh, wow, in the last year or so, I'd say. They demolished the old building and opened up the new one simultaneously. So that was a pretty seamless transfer, or at least it seems like that, I don't know much about it. It's got the same facilities as before, slides, pools, flumes, etc, but they're all more modern, and so they should be safer, at least in theory. The big change is definitely the location to make it more accessible to people closer to town. They also have a bigger car park with increased access for the disabled and elderly, which is nice to see. It's closer to a large shopping centre we have as well, so you can sort of make a day out of going there if you want to, although I haven't actually been yet. It's funny, because despite all the fanfare around the changes, like I say, I've never been there yet, and actually, recently, it's been closed to the public for repairs. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to go there at some point this year. It's a good thing they made this change, actually, otherwise, I'd have had nothing to talk about. In our town, the sort of leading design philosophy is that we build new things rather than replace or repair and upgrade old ones.

M: Would you like to go there one day?

R: I hope so when it reopens.

Discussion

M: Hey, Rory, thank you so much! So dear listener, you should choose a public facility. What does it mean? Well, it means, a kind of a museum, a cafe, a restaurant, a swimming pool, a gym, a library. What else? A park. Okay? An art gallery, a shopping center. Choose one thing that is easy for you to talk about, and this facility has been renovated and improved. Here you can lie. You can, for example, talk about a new shopping centre, like a brand new shopping center, and say that, oh, okay, it was old, but then they renovated it. What do we mean by it has been renovated, Rory?

R: Just the interior has been upgraded and improved, or, in this case, replaced entirely.

M: Yeah. For example, Rory talked about a new swimming pool so it was old, then they repaired it, they improved it, they renovated it, and it will soon open up. A new one. So here you can say that we just had a new swimming pool built in the centre of my hometown, but you're talking about, like, something which is new. So this is like a new thing. It's not like, this swimming pool was old, and then they improved it.

R: Oh, well, they have improved it. They've just moved it to a different location. It's almost exactly the same. It's just been moved.

M: Oh, okay. So they moved the old swimming pool to the centre of the town and they improved it?

R: Yeah.

M: Well, they built a new swimming pool, obviously.

R: Well, it's a new location, but it's the same company and everything.

M: Yeah, dear listener, so even if you speak about something new that was built, it's okay, but you can say that, okay, so they improved the old building. Okay? You can lie. It's an upgraded version of the old one. So it has been upgraded. Please use present perfect. Right? It has been upgraded. It has been improved. Or it's an upgraded version of the old swimming pool. It's a new building with the same name, with the same company. You can say that they named it after somebody. So they named it Olympia. Olympia? Like, we know that it's about the Greek gods. So they named it after the place in Greece, for example.

R: Well, maybe, probably.

M: It was designed as a gym or as an indoor water park. They added a new building. They demolished the old building. Demolished means destroyed. They knocked it down. So they demolished the old building, or they demolished something and they built something new. And they opened up the new one simultaneously.

R: At the same time.

M: Yeah, so they destroyed the old swimming pool, and then they opened up a new swimming pool. It has the same facilities. So, for example, a museum, a shopping centre, a swimming pool, they all have facilities, like a swimming pool, has slides, pools, different, maybe saunas. But they are all more modern now. So you are talking about something which has been improved, so you can use comparative structures. It's now more modern than before. It's all new. It has better facilities, more facilities, and it's safer. At least in theory. So it's safe. The big change is the location. The big change is something. Or like the big change is that they added a new cafe to make it more accessible. So here the big change is the location to make it more accessible to people because they moved the swimming pool to the centre of the town. It's situated closer to a large shopping centre, or it's closer to the centre of the town.

R: So lots of comparative ones here.

M: And then you said that the fanfare around the changes. What did you mean?

R: Oh, the fanfare? The fanfare around something is just all of the media that's given to something, all of the discussion that happens if it's a big event and a big focus. So there's fanfare around a new swimming pool opening, there might be fanfare around a famous event happening or a festival in an area.

M: And here you said like, despite all the fanfare around the changes, I've never been yet. So kind of like people were excited about the changes, yeah?

R: Um, yes, well, at least I think they were.

M: You can say I've never been there, or I haven't been there yet, or I went there last week. It's been closed to the public for repairs because we are talking about a swimming pool. They started repairing it, so they closed it down. And you can say, it's been, it has been closed to the public, to people for repairs, for this renovation. So it has been renovated, it has been improved. It has been closed to the public for repairs. And then in the future, you can say, hopefully, I'll get the chance to go there at some point. So, hopefully, I'll go there at some point. It's great that they made this change. So to make a change. So they've made nice changes, and I'd love to go there. And also you can say that they have replaced an old swimming pool with a modern gym, for example. So they have replaced something. How did you organize your answer, Rory?

R: Just according to how it's laid out in the task, although, something to pay attention to is just what we used to describe the place because not every town is going to have a swimming pool in it, or an upgraded swimming pool. So here we could say it's an upgraded version of the old one. So this is a good way to refer to anything. This is a new building. It's called, and then what it's called, or what it's named after, and it's designed as, and when we talk about when it happened, this happened in the last year or so. So it's not a brand new change, it's a recent change. And then some specific words about the facilities. This will be important to know. You'll have to research that yourself because there are so many kinds of facilities, but I talked about the slides, the pools and the flumes. But of course, words we can use to describe these are things like modern, safe accessible and closer to a town. Talking about the location, something can have a car park, and we can talk about the access to that. We can also talk about the facilities around it too. So even though I spoke about something very specific to where I live. You could use all of these same things to talk about the specific thing where you live, but you should find one

M: Sweet! Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode about public facilities in general. Bye!

R: Bye!

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