首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The earth is witnessing an urban revolution,as people worldwide crowd into towns and cities. In 1800 only five per cent of the w
The earth is witnessing an urban revolution,as people worldwide crowd into towns and cities. In 1800 only five per cent of the w
admin
2012-06-18
66
问题
The earth is witnessing an urban revolution,as people worldwide crowd into towns and cities. In 1800 only five per cent of the world’s population were urban dwellers; now the proportion has risen to more than forth-five percent,and by the year 2010 more people will live in towns and cities than in the countryside. Humanity will,for the first time,have become a predominantly urban species.
Though the world is getting more crowded by the day,absolute numbers of population are less important than where people concentrate and whether these areas can cope with them. Even densities,however, tell us nothing about the quality of the infrastructure-roads,housing and job creation,for example-or the availability of crucial services.
The main question,then,is not how many people there are in a given area,but how well their needs can be met. Density figures have to be set beside measurements of wealth and employment,the quality of housing and the availability of education,medical care,clean water,sanitation and other vital services. The urban revolution is taking place mainly in the Third World, where it is hardest to accommodate.
Between 1950 and 1985 the number of city dwellers grew more than twice as fast in the Third World as in industrialized countries. During this period,the urban population of the developed world increased from 477 million to 838 million.less than double; but it quadrupled in developing countries,from 286 million to 1.14 billion. Africa’s urban population is racing along at five percent a year on average,doubling city numbers every fourteen years. By the turn of the century,three in every four Latin Americans will live in urban areas,as will two in every five Asians and one in every three Africans. Developing countries will have to increase their urban facilities by two thirds by then,if they are to maintain even their present inadequate levels of services and housing.
In 1940 only one out of every hundred of the world’s people lived in a really big city,one with a population of over a million. By 1980 this proportion had already risen to one in ten. Two of the world’s biggest cities,Mexico and Sao Paulo,are already bursting at the seams—and their populations am doubling in less than twenty years.
About a third of the people of the Third World’s cities now live in desperately overcrowded alums and squatter settlements. Many are unemployed,uneducated,undernourished and chronically sick. Tens of millions of new people arrive every year,flocking in from the countryside in what is the greatest mass migration in history.
Pushed out of the countryside by rural poverty and drawn to the cities in the hope of a better life,they find no houses waiting for them, no water supplies, no sewerage, no schools. They throw up makeshift hovels,built of whatever they can find:sticks,fronds,cardboard,tar-paper,straw,petrol tins and,if they are lucky,corrugated iron. They have to take the land none else wants; land that is too wet,too dry,too steep or too polluted for normal habitation.
Yet all over the world the inhabitants of these apparently hopeless slums show extraordinary enterprise in improving their lives. While many settlements remain stuck in apathy,many others are gradually improved through the vigour and co-operation of their people,who turn flimsy shacks into solid buildings, build school,lay out streets and put in electricity and water supplies.
Governments can help by giving the squatters the right to the land that they have usually occupied illegally,giving them the incentive to improve their homes and neighborhoods. The most important way to ameliorate the effects of the Third World’s exploding cities,however,is to slow down the migration. This involves correcting the bias most governments show towards cities towns and against the countryside. With few sources of hard currency,though,many governments in developing countries continue to concentrate their limited development efforts in cities and towns,rather than rural areas,where many of the most destitute live. As a result,food production falls as the countryside slides ever deeper into depression.
Since the process of urbanization concentrates people,the demand for basic necessities,like food, energy,drinking water and shelter,is also increased,which can exact a heavy toll on the surrounding countryside. High-quality agricultural land is shrinking in many regions,taken out of production because of over-use and mismanagement. Creeping urbanization could aggravate this situation,further constricting e-conomic development.
The most effective way of tackling poverty,and of stemming urbanization to reverse national priorities in many countries,concentrating more resources in rural areas where most poor people still live. This would boost food production and. help to build national economies more securely.
Ultimately,though,the choice of priorities comes down to a question of power. The people of the countryside are powerless beside those of the towns; the destitute of the countryside many starve in their scattered millions,whereas the poor concentrated in urban slums pose a constant threat of disorder. In all but a few developing countries the bias towards the cities will therefore continue,as will the migrations that are swelling their numbers beyond control.
The purpose of the passage is_____.
选项
A、to warn about the dangers of revolutions in towns
B、to ware abort the possibility of a population explosion
C、to suggest governments should change their priorities
D、to suggest governments invest in more housing in cities
答案
C
解析
题目问:文章的写作目的是什么?通过文章内容可知,城市人口激增,并带来一系列问题,因此,作者来建议政府转移重点,优先发展广大而贫穷的农村。所以,答案是C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/1MnO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
IfSustainablecompetitiveadvantagedependsonworkforceskills,Americanfirmshaveaproblem.Humanmanagementisnottradit
Allthepeopleinthestadiumcheeredupwhentheysawhundredsofcolorfulballoons______slowlyintothesky.
Despitetheirmanydifferencesoftemperamentandofliteraryperspective,Emerson,Thoreau,Hawthorne,Melville,andWhitmansh
BeninMayerAlcottbasedtheprincipalcharactersofherbookLittleWomenonhersistersandherself.
Thosewho______theweatherasaconventionalopeningseemtobeignorantofthereasonwhyhumanbeingswishtotalk.
Everythingintoday’sworldisgoingfasterandfaster,andtelevisioncommercialsarenoexception.Atthestartofthetelevis
DoctorGodminsaysthat(nomatter)(howforceful)arguments(against)smokingthereare,manypeople(persist)insmoking.
Thegovernmentslatednewelectionsinthespring,largelyasaresultofthepublicclamor.
Woodyarrivedatamost______moment;Iwasjustgettingintothebath.
Leavingforworkinplentyoftimetocatchthetrainwill_____worryaboutbeinglate.
随机试题
幼儿吮吸手指,多因生活环境单调,或缺少_______,以吮吸手指自慰。
男性病人,72岁,突发剧烈压榨样胸痛、呕吐伴窒息感2小时入院。查心率110次/分,血压85/60mmHg,心电图示V1~V4导联ST段呈弓背向上抬高,律不齐。本病例最可能的诊断为()
在施工段的划分中,下列中哪项要求是不正确?
根据《中华人民共和国海关法》的相关规定,具有履行海关事务担保能力的法人、其他组织或者公民可以提供担保的方式有()
金融市场的()是指金融市场具有资金蓄水池的作用。
某企业为增值税一般纳税人,适用的增值税税率为16%。2018年6月建造厂房领用材料实际成本20000元,计税价格为24000元,该项业务应计入在建工程成本的金额为()元。
有中国“陶都”之称的城市是()。
Thepastyearortwohastestedtheideathatallpublicityisgoodpublicity,atleastwhenitcomestobusiness.Undeservedbo
假设函数中不包括global保留字,对于改变参数值的方法,以下选项中错误的是
LifeExpectancyintheLastHundredYearsAhundredyearsago,lifeexpectancyindevelopedcountrieswasabout47;intheea
最新回复
(
0
)