Sightseeing: Big and Old Vocabulary
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On vacation, we like to visit things that are very big or very old. Many people will visit the biggest church in Germany, or the oldest castle in France. Making something big almost guarantees there will be tourists there.
But the problem is that things start to get so big that the word ‘big’ doesn’t seem big enough anymore. Or things get so old that the word ‘old’ isn’t old enough. Today, we’re going to learn some vocabulary for when you want to emphasize—or, make very clear—that something is very big or very old.
And, because each of these words has a slightly different meaning when you talk about people, I’ll include that meaning, too.
“The Empire State Building is a huge skyscraper in New York City. . .”
If you have ever stood in front of the Empire State Building, you know how incredible it is to look up and see the building stretching up into the sky. It’s big. It’s very big. It’s huge. ‘Huge‘ describes something that is very big. The Eiffel Tower is huge and the Great Wall of China is huge, too. If you call a person huge, though, it normally means that he is fat.
“The pyramids in Egypt are massive graves built for the Pharaohs. . .”
Do you remember Physics class? Can you remember the idea that everything has ‘mass.’ That’s where the word ‘massive‘ comes from: something with a lot of mass, or matter. For example, the Eiffel Tower is huge, but it’s not massive, because it’s mostly empty space! The Alps, though, are massive: they’re made of billions and billions of tons of rock. A massive building is seldom very high, instead, it’s often wide or long. . . and made of stone or bricks. A massive person is a person with a lot of muscles: a body-builder. Or, a massive person can be a very fat person.
“Sparta was a city in ancient Greece. . .”
The word ancient means ‘very old.’ In fact, it means that something is so old, it probably came from a different civilization. In Greece and Rome you can find ancient ruins and the pyramids in Egypt are ancient, too. When you use ancient for people, though, it’s normally an insult! To say “my English teacher is an ancient American . . .” means that your English teacher is old and probably not up-to-date.
“There is a museum with artifacts from prehistoric civilizations. . .”
The only reason we have history is because we can write. If we couldn’t write things down, how would they be recorded as history? We can only guess at what things were like before people started keeping written records. Anything that comes from this time ‘before history’ is prehistoric. There are prehistoric civilizations, prehistoric art, and there are even prehistoric cities. When you say a person is prehistoric, it’s normally an insult! It’s like calling him a dinosaur!
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April 4th, 2009 at 20:20
Hey Toby…
You know the vocabulary today is defining the place where I live. Maybe you don’t have any info about Bergama but.It has 25 “the first and the most” in the world. For example It has 3 theatre first time in the world, and one of them was the most steep in the world.
By the way Bergama is cheaper than Paris. And people speak English if they know. In paris people don’t speak even if they know…
April 8th, 2009 at 15:52
Hello, Ali!
I don’t know what you mean with “It has 3 theatre first ime. . .” and “most steep” theaters.
You’re doing a good job of selling me on Bergama. What do tourists do in Bergama? And how long should I plan to stay?
-Toby