Toronto's Market

Hello and welcome to the seventh article in the series ‘Postcards from Toronto'. These articles are written to help you learn about life in Toronto and teach you some useful expressions for spoken and written English.

Toronto has many great stores if you are buying clothes, electronics or souvenirs for family or friends back home. The Eaton Centre, for example, is a place in downtown Toronto where you can buy almost anything you want or need. However, if you have to buy good quality food, Toronto can seem a less (1) ____________ place to live. This article will (2) ____________ a couple of Toronto areas where you can buy such food.

The first place that I recommend is the "St Lawrence Market". This market is located on Front Street near Jarvis. The best way to get there is to take the subway to either King or Union station and then walk east for about ten minutes. If you go to King station you will need to walk a couple of (3) ____________ south also. The market is actually two markets: the south market and the north market. The south market is open (4) ____________ day except Sundays and Mondays. The north market is open only on Saturdays.

Many Torontonians visit the St Lawrence market to buy cheap, good quality fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, fish and other (5) ____________. The north market also has a farmer's market on Saturday mornings where the prices are even cheaper and the food even (6) ____________. Although if you do not arrive early at the farmer's market, you may find that most of the food has already been sold. If you want to buy some maple syrup as a souvenir, one of the best and cheapest places to get (7) ____________ Canadian syrup is one of the stalls outside the north market.

After visiting the market, you can have a coffee or meal at one of the many cafes or restaurants in the neighbourhood, or visit the Rainbow Cinema at Market Square. This cinema is one of the cheapest in Toronto. The price for evening movies is just $7.50 per ticket, or just $4.25 for a matinee film (before 5pm).

Another great (8) ____________ to visit is "Kensington Market", which is located in downtown Toronto between College and Dundas Streets to the north and south, and Bathhurst and Spadina to the west and east. You can easily get there by taking the streetcar along either College or Dundas to Spadina. (9) ____________, you could take the Spadina streetcar to Chinatown and then walk. Kensington Market is a more varied place to go shopping than St Lawrence Market because you can buy clothes, books and so on, as well as delicious food.

So, next time you need to go food shopping, why not visit the St Lawrence Market or Kensington Market instead of your local supermarket? The prices will (10) ____________ be cheaper, the food will probably be fresher and more delicious, and the experience will certainly be more interesting.

Vocabulary Challenge
Choose the most natural word from each pair of words to complete the article.

(1) inviting / useful
(2) talk / introduce
(3) blocks / roads
(4) all / every
(5) objects / goods
(6) more refreshing / fresher
(7) authentic / true
(8) area / neighbour
(9) Alternatively / Therefore
(10) probably / maybe