The master-planned cultural enclave of Saadiyat Island, located about 10km north of the city centre, is currently a beehive of construction as a flurry of luxury hotels are built and multimillion-dollar outposts of international museums rise up alongside the Sheikh Zayed National Museum.
| i) | What is a bee? | |
| ii) | Do bees work and live alone? | |
| iii) | Where do bees live? | |
| iv) | Do bees have a reputation for being lazy or working hard? | |
| v) | This section mentions construction and a 'flurry' of hotels - do you think this means a lot of hotels or only a few? |
Abu Dhabi is home to the most expensive hotel ever built - the 11 billion dirham, 394-room Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2005 at the south end of the Corniche with its own marina and helipad. Even if you are not staying there, visit to enjoy a lavish high tea at Le Cafe or to gawk at the marble, crystal, gold and silver.
| i) | What is the name of the most expensive hotel ever built? | |
| ii) | Did it cost: a) 11 billion dollars, b) 11 billion pounds, c) 11 billion dirham? | |
| iii) | So what is the currency of the United Arab Emirates? | |
| iv) | Are marble, crystal, gold and silver cheap materials? | |
| v) | If you saw something made out of these materials, how would you feel? | |
| vi) | And if you looked at them, what would your facial expression look like? |
The upscale dining scene in Abu Dhabi revolves around the huge international hotels, each of which offers multiple vast restaurants that specialise in cuisine from all corners of the globe. For local Emirati dishes there are only a few places, of which the most popular is the small but friendly Mezlai restaurant, located in the cavernous Emirates Palace Hotel.
| i) | How big are the hotels in Abu Dhabi? | |
| ii) | How big are the restaurants? | |
| iii) | By contrast, how big is the Mezlai restaurant? | |
| iv) | Do you think the Emirates Palace Hotel is big or small? | |
| v) | Can you think of the root of the word 'cavernous'? |
Sometimes it seems as though every resident and visitor has come out of the nearby hotels and residential towers to take in the magnificent sunset, to relax and cycle on the well-planned bike paths, splash in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf (know locally as the Arabian Gulf) and enjoy the lush gardens.
| i) | Are the sunsets impressive or not? | |
| ii) | Is the cycling portrayed positively or not? | |
| iii) | Do you think it would be pleasant to swim in the Persian Gulf? | |
| iv) | So what do you think about the gardens? Full of beautiful, healthy, green vegetation or empty and sandy like a desert? |
When travelling in the UAE, it is difficult to miss the richly fragrant aroma of oud, an expensive resin harvested from the agarwood tree that is burned as incense or worn as perfume or cologne.
| i) | Why do people wear perfume? | |
| ii) | When incense is burned, what happens? | |
| iii) | So do you think a 'fragrant aroma' is a pleasant smell or a disgusting one? |