Undergo = go through;
Undergo training/ reconstruction/ changes/ transformation/ restoration/ surgery/ treatment/ interrogation.
The city has undergone (has gone through) huge changes in recent years - not entirely for the better.
Pour money = invest;
The government will have poured (invested) 3 billion into the transport system by the end of this parliament.
It is a good idea to pour money into equity markets or real estate.
Demolish = knock down;
The slums were demolished (knocked down) to make way for a golf course and the inhabitants were re-housed nearby.
One by one the old buildings in the city have been demolished and replaced with modern tower blocks.
Initiate = set out;
Initiate programme/business/process/reforms/investigation;
The previous mayor initiated (set out) an ambitious plan to develop the city center, but it's run into financial difficulties and the new mayor has cancelled the project.
Impose = brought in;
In order to ease congestion, the government imposed restrictions on car use.
Do you think the government should impose a restriction on citizens’ car ownership?
be neglected = run-down
The whole area has been neglected (has become run-down) and the council has managed to secure EU funding to halt the decline.
Flourishing = doing very well; developing rapidly and successfully
The city has managed to attract a lot of inward investment and businesses are springing and flourishing (doing very well).
Soar = go up, rise
Crime had soared (gone up a lot) in the 1980s and the mayor's zero-tolerance policy was credited with reversing the trended.
Reading
The city of New Orleans is now almost as well known for its hurricane as for its colorful carnival.
In 2005, Hurricane Katarina, as it came to be known, devastated the city, leaving large areas underwater and rendering many buildings so severely damaged that they had to be demolished. The task of initiating plans for recovery seemed immense.
However, the disaster presented the city with a unique opportunity for improving areas which had long been in decline. Several run-down, neglected buildings were replaced by new schools that soon proved highly successful, the number of pupils soaring within the first two years from opening.
Furthermore, the nature of disaster meant that large parts of the city had to undergo major reconstruction. As a result, the local buildings industry has flourished in recent years, becoming the area`s main source of employment. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs have poured funds into researching new methods of flood prevention, and this in turn has helped to regenerate local business.
New Orleans may still have a way to go toward full recovery, but at this year`s carnival it will definitely have something to celebrate again.
Exercise (form of the verbs)
- It was the third time the city had been destroyed by an earthquake.
- For the last two years, the city council has been developing the center.
- He has been a town planner ever since 2010.
- The city may have recovered from the recession, but it is still facing problems with crime.
- At the time I met them, they have been travelling from city to city for many years, never making a permanent home.
- The improved transport network is thought to have encouraged an influx of new entrepreneurs to the area.
- Having been done up as part of the council`s clean up the city` campaign, the area is now more popular with affluent families.
- The new motorway will be completed by this time next month.