Japan is made up of over 3,000 islands which stretch along the Pacific coast of Asia. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku. Japan’s (1) closest neighbours are Korea, Russia and China. Japan has many high mountains and (2) __________ valleys and much of its soil is rocky. This means that there is a limited (3)__________ of good farmland. Where farmland does (4)__________ , tea, rice and fruit are grown. Because of the lack of (5)__________ Japan’s cities are mostly crowded onto the flat (6)__________ around the coast. Japan is the (7)__________ fishing nation around the world and shellfish and seafood are also cultivated in the (8) __________ bays along the coast. Because of all the mountains, rivers in Japan are short and fast-flowing and so cannot be used to (9)__________ goods. However, there is an excellent (10)__________ of ports and harbours which are used for this purpose.

1	a) bordering	b) nearby	c) closest
2	a) low	b) deep	c) short
3	a) amount	b) number	c) total
4	a) stay	b) exist	c) live
5	a) area	b) region	c) space
6	a) ground	b) earth	c) land
7	a) leading	b) important	c) original
8	a) thin	b) shallow	c) slim
9	a) transport	b) contain	c) travel
10	a) organisation	b) network	c) company

ANSWERS

1C 2B 3A 4B 5C 6C 7A 8B 9A 10B