New York: City of Opportunity

A Big Apple Reader for Intermediate and Advanced Students of ESOL

Third edition, 2024

"A rich source of information about the city, combined with a set of carefully-designed lessons. The wonderful photographs enhance this unique travel guide and ESL reader."

-Judith L. Aissen, Professor of Linguistics; University of California, Santa Cruz.

Now in its third edition, New York: City of Opportunity offers 45 reading selections about New York City: its history and culture, local customs, getting around, where to go, what to see and what to do.

Most of the topics are common knowledge to people who have grown up in New York City, but are new and interesting to visitors and immigrants.

This book was written mostly for intermediate and advanced students of ESOL, but it can also be useful to ABE-HSE and EL-Civics students. It provides vocabulary practice, comprehension exercises, grammar points and follow-up discussion suggestions.

Written by an ESOL teacher who is also a native New Yorker, City of Opportunity is part cultural reader, part guidebook and part vocabulary and conversation textbook. Along with its companion volume, New York: City of Dreams (written for beginner students), it is the first ESOL reader about the Big Apple.

Part I. City of Opportunity
1. Welcome to New York!
2. New York’s First People
3. Old New York: 1524-1898
4. Manhattan
5. Brooklyn
6. Queens
7. The Bronx
8. Staten Island
9. Some New York City Neighborhoods
10. Why We Call New York “The Big Apple”

Part II. Getting Around
11 .The New York City Subway System
12. Riding the Subway
13. Riding the Bus
14. How to Find a Manhattan Address

Part III. Things about NYC
15. New York City Says “Hi” to You!
16. How to Be a Real New Yorker
17. NYC Idioms and Slang
18. Tipping
19. No Smoking
20. Finding a Public Restroom in Manhattan
21. How to Find a Good Restaurant
22. A Good Cup of Coffee
23. Thrift Stores
24. Where Does NYC’s Water Come From?
25. Safety First
26. Emergency 911 and Non-Emergency 311
27. Public Libraries in NYC
28. Things About NYC that Will Surprise You

Part IV. Where to Go, What to See, What to Do
29. Times Square: Crossroads of the World
30. Broadway Shows and More!
31. Central Park
32. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
33. A Walk Down Fifth Avenue
34. A Walk Along 42nd Street
35. The High Line
36. The National Museum of the American Indian
37. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum
38. Four Quiet Places in Manhattan
39. A Visit to Roosevelt Island
40. The Staten Island Ferry
41. The Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
42. The Brooklyn Museum
43. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden
44. Minor League Baseball
45. Study English in New York City

Talking Together
Links
Answer Key