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  3. Nobody really knows how big Lagos is. What’s indisputable is that it’s growing very quickly. Between now and 2050, the urban pop

Nobody really knows how big Lagos is. What’s indisputable is that it’s growing very quickly. Between now and 2050, the urban pop

admin2021-01-06  14
问题     Nobody really knows how big Lagos is. What’s indisputable is that it’s growing very quickly. Between now and 2050, the urban population of Africa could triple. Yet cities in sub-Saharan Africa are not getting richer the way cities in the rest of the world have. Most urban Africans live in slums (贫民窟); migrants are often not much better off than they were in the countryside. Why?
    The immediate problem is poverty. Most of Africa is urbanising at a lower level of income than other regions of the world did. That means there’s little money around for investment that would make cities liveable and more productive. Without upgrades and new capacity, bridges, roads and power systems are unable to cope with expanding populations. With the exception of South Africa, the only light rail metro system in sub-Saharan Africa is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Traffic jam leads to expense and unpredictability, things that keep investors away.
    In other parts of the world, increasing agricultural productivity and industrialisation went together. More productive farmers meant there was a surplus that could feed cities; in turn, that created a pool of labour for factories. But African cities are different. They are too often built around consuming natural resources. Government is concentrated in capitals, so is the money. Most urban Africans work for a small minority of the rich, who tend to be involved in either cronyish (有裙带关系的) businesses or politics. Since African agriculture is still broadly unproductive, food is imported, consuming a portion of revenue.
    So what can be done? Though African countries are poor, not all African cities are. In Lagos, foreign oil workers can pay as much as $ 65,000 per year in rent for a modest apartment in a safe part of town. If that income were better taxed, it might provide the revenue for better infrastructure. If city leaders were more accountable to their residents, they might favour projects designed to help them more. Yet even as new roads are built, new people arrive. When a city’s population grows by 5% a year, it is difficult to keep up.
Why is sub-Saharan Africa unappealing to investors?
选项 A、It lacks adequate transport facilities.
B、The living expenses there are too high.
C、It is on the whole too densely populated.
D、The local governments are corrupted.
答案A
解析 推理判断题。定位句提到，交通拥挤引起的成本上升以及不确定性等都让投资者望而却步，且第二段第五句指出，除了南非之外，撒哈拉沙漠以南地区只有埃塞俄比亚的亚迪斯亚贝巴有地铁轻轨系统。由此可见，撒哈拉沙漠以南地区的城市的基础设施并不健全，无法跟上人口扩张所带来的需求的增加，换言之，交通拥挤是该地区发展的短板，打消了投资者的投资念头，故答案为A)。
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