Film director Peter Jackson made the three Lord of the Rings lms (from JRR Tolkien’s books) in New Zealand. It was an enormous project which took eighteen months to lm. Jackson had a fantastic team to design and build the towns from Tolkien’s descriptions, but when lming nished they didn’t keep them. The only one they kept was Hobbiton, so we went to see that. It was a village for very small people, with houses inside a hill. Another place in the book was Minas Tirith, an ancient city on a hill with a castle at the top. It had streets on seven levels, with walls to protect the city. The model for this fantasy city was a real place: Mont Saint-Michel, a tiny rocky island on the coast of north-west France. Mont Saint-Michel rst had a church in the 8th century, then houses for shermen and farmers. Now there are also shops, restaurants, hotels and four museums. The streets are tiny and there are 900 steps up to St Michael’s church at the top Reading An information text1 Look at the photos and the title. What can you see? Do you think these are real places or from a fi lm?2 Read the text. Check your ideas in Exercise 1.3 Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)? Correct the false sentences.1 The fi lm team created new towns for the fi lms. T2 It isn’t possible to visit any towns from the fi lm The Lord of the Rings.3 Minas Tirith and Mont Saint-Michel both have a church at the top.4 Mont Saint-Michel has lots of places for tourists.Explore extreme adjectives4 Look at the text. Find words which mean:1 very big enormous3 very good2 very small4 very oldExplore 4 5 Complete the sentences with the words in Exercise 4.1 There is an ancient castle in my town.2 The new skate park is . We love it!3 The new sports stadium is . It can hold 80, 000 people.4 The houses in the old town are . In the new town, they’re much bigger. Vocabulary bank • page 121Your turn6 Work with a partner. Ask and answer the questions.1 What historic places are there for tourists to visit in your country?2 How old are they?3 How often do you go there?