Conflict in the contemporary city

A high-quality C1 reading task based on an authentic article from El País (English edition) that explores conflict in contemporary cities, focusing on gentrification, segregation, touristification, housing insecurity and urban inequality. Through a gapped-text task, students must follow complex arguments about how modern cities have shifted from spaces of coexistence to commodified environments driven by profit rather than citizens’ needs.

This worksheet is ideal for helping students develop advanced reading skills, including tracking cohesion across paragraphs, identifying logical progression, and understanding abstract, critical discourse related to social and urban issues. It exposes learners to C1-level vocabulary and concepts commonly found in opinion journalism and academic texts, while training them to interpret writers’ stance, references to thinkers (Bauman, Lefebvre, Jacobs), and nuanced contrasts between exclusionary and “happy city” models.

At a glance, teachers can see that this task:

• Builds exam-focused reading skills (text cohesion, reference, discourse markers).

• Introduces relevant contemporary topics (urban conflict, housing, inequality, sustainability).

• Reinforces C1 lexical range (e.g. commodification, segregation, urban ecosystems, global city).

• Encourages critical thinking about society and citizenship.

• Prepares students effectively for Cambridge C1 Reading and Use of English tasks involving long, complex texts.

This makes it an excellent choice for advanced learners who need real-world content, intellectual challenge, and authentic language exposure at C1 level.