Collocation Challenge: 19/2/15 – Top 10 places and cities to visit in England (Part 2)

This collocation builds on the challenge from 18/2/15 (Part 1) and continues to explore collocations and text features of the text from The Daily Telegraph: Top 10: best places and cities to visit in England.

Part 1 of this post looked at the section on Yorkshire, today’s post focuses on the part of the text about Bath.

1. Adjective + noun collocations in the section about Bath

Revisit the text and look at the section dedicated to Bath. Find nouns that collocate with the following adjectives:

fascinating
easily accessible
a major
affordable
significant

2. Useful phrases for writing about places 2

The text about Bath includes the following phrases…

Bath is a strong contender for England’s most beautiful small city.

…shopping is also a major draw.

Bath’s Achilles heel used to be a surprising dearth of good, affordable places to eat. But that is no longer the case.

The phrase a strong contender for + superlative is a nice way to suggest that something would be close to winning a (imaginary) competition for something without being as strong and direct as just using the superlative (compare: Bath is England’s most beautiful city). It is more tentative and speculative.
If something is a major draw, it attracts people to a place.
An Achilles heel is a weakness.
a dearth of + noun = a lack / scarcity (“there is/are not enough”)

Complete the sentences below with your own ideas:

If there was a competition for best restaurant in my town, (…name of restaurant…) …would be a strong contender.
(activity / tourist attraction in your town) is a major draw (for tourists).
If we could get (name of band / singer) to play at our festival they/she/he would be a major draw. (Help us sell lots of tickets / attract a large audience)
There’s a dearth of (…something your town doesn’t have enough of…) …in my hometown.
There used to be a dearth of … in my hometown. But that is no longer the case.
My town’s Achilles heel used to be a death of … . But that is no longer the case.