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  3. Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical

Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical

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问题     Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the pre-modern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250 000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550 000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800 000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in lust thirty years-- lots that could have housed five to six million people.
    Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
What is the function of mass transportation?
选项 A、It stimulated the development of real estate.
B、It causes the conflict between large cities and small cities.
C、It leads to well-planned urban sprawl.
D、It encourages the stability of urban life.
答案A
解析 文章第一段的第一句就解释了美国公交的功能，“Mass transporation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways．It catalyzed physical expansion，it sorted out people and land uses，and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life.”意思就是美国的公交基本改变了美国社会和经济结构，在以下三个方面体现：它促进了人类活动的延伸；改变了人和土地的使用方式，并且加速了城市内在的不稳定。从这个方面看，只有A加速了房地产的发展是符合题目意思的，而B加速了大，小城市之间的矛盾。C引起城市有序的扩充和D鼓励稳定的城市生活都是不符合文章的意思的，因此都不能选。
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