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Read the text and answer the questions. Write a maximum of five words for each answer. An example is done for you.
Even Ulan Bator has Irish pubs
Over the past two decades Irish pubs have proliferated around the planet. Now there are warnings their growth is being halted. How did the Gaelic-themed drinking establishment take over the world?
Stroll through the centre of almost any international city where the sale of alcohol is permitted and sooner or later you’ll find one. There will be horseshoes on the walls, the Pogues on the jukebox and road signs pointing you towards Dublin and Donegal. Above the front door, the name could be O’Rourke’s or Donnelly’s or the Temple Bar. The windows are likely to be stained glass and the Guinness is invariably chilled. Outdoors might be Lagos or Lima but, in the heads of the clientele, this is Connemara in 1953 and each of them is Brendan Behan.
To aficionados the Irish theme bar is the imagining of a cosier, simpler era, or at least a guaranteed place on foreign soil that serves pints and shows the rugby. To critics it is a cliche, a byword for tweeness, ersatz authenticity and mass-manufactured faux-heritage. Either way, it has undoubtedly proved a hugely popular template, not to mention a reliably successful business model.
Since the early 1990s its signifiers – the retro Guinness Is Good For You posters, the sepia-tinted photographs of Joyce and Wilde, the exhortations to enjoy the "craic" – have found their way into an estimated 7,000 establishments around the planet. Hence the existence of O’Reilly’s in Bangkok, Thailand; O’Malley’s in Shanghai, China; Finnegan’s in Baku, Azerbaijan; and the somewhat less conventionally-titled Grand Khaan Irish Pub in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Now there are warnings that the archetype’s progress is being arrested. In New York, reports warn that the city’s Irish-American bars are closing down in increasing numbers. Rising rents and changing tastes – a move to craft beer over mass-produced stout – have been blamed for the decline. In Ireland itself, some 959 pubs shut between 2007 and 2012. In less saturated markets, the picture is quite different. This year new Irish bars have popped up in Atlanta, Dubai and Vancouver. In places where Guinness is popular, particularly Nigeria, they are unlikely to fall out of favour.
"It’s an issue of supply and demand – Irish pubs are doing well in places like Toronto where they are seen as upmarket places to go," says Chris Wisson, drinks industry analyst with Mintel. In the UK, however, "you don’t see them as much as you used to – a lot of pub drinkers are looking for something a bit less identikit, something that is tailored to their local area, which is why craft beer is doing so well".
source: www.bbc.co.uk
Example: When did Irish pubs become popular around the world?
answer: about two decades/20 years ago
1. What are two of the typical items of decoration found in Irish pubs?
2. What is Guinness like in Irish pubs?
3. Why do fans like Irish pubs?
4. What exotic places can boast of having an Irish pub?
5. What has happened to New York’s Irish pubs?
6. What are the reasons for the decline?
7. Where else are Irish pubs falling out of favour?
8. How has taste changed in New York and the UK?
9. Why are Irish pubs still popular in Nigeria?
answers:
1. any two of: horseshoes, road signs to Dublin, retro Guinness posters, photos of Joyce/Wilde
2. always chilled
3. any two of: nostalgia, serves pints, shows rugby
4. any three of: Baku, Shanghai, Ulan Bator, Bangkok, Dubai
5. pubs are closing down
6. rising rents, change in taste
7. in Ireland and the UK
8. more people prefer craft beer
9. because Guinness is popular
