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  3. Over the past 50 years, expansive, low density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States an

Over the past 50 years, expansive, low density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States an

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问题     Over the past 50 years, expansive, low density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States and Canada, creating a phenomenon known as suburhan sprawl.
    Andres Duany, Elizabeth Flater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, a group of prominent town planners belonging to a movement called New Urbanism, contend that suburban sprawl contributes to the decline of civic life and civility. For reasons involving the flow of automobile traffic, they note, zoning laws usually dictate that suburban homes, stores, businesses, and schools be built in separate areas, and this separation robs people of communal space where they can interact and get to know one another. It is as difficult to imagine the concept of community without a town square or local pub, these town planners contend, as it is to imagine the concept of family independent of the house.
    Suburban housing subdivisions, Duany and his colleagues add, usually contain homes identical not only in appearance but also in price, resulting in a de facto economic segregation of residential neighborhoods. Children growing up in these neighborhoods, whatever their economic circumstances, are certain to be ill prepared for life in a diverse society. Moreover, because the widely separated suburban homes and businesses are connected only by "collector roads," residents areforccd to drive, often in heavy traffic, in order to perform many daily tasks. Time that would in a town center involve social interaction within a physical public realm is now spent inside the automobile, where people cease to be community members andinstead become motorists, competing for road space, often acting antisocially. Pedestrians rarely act in this manner toward each other.
    Duany and his colleagues advocate development based on early-twentieth century urban neighborhoods that mix housing of different prices and offer residents a "gratifying public realm" that includes narrow, tree-lined streets,parks, corner grocery stores, cafes, small-neighborhood schools, all within walking distance. This, they believe, would give people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles an opportunity to interact and thus develop mutual respect.
    Opponents of New Urbanism claim that migrationto sprawling suburbs is an expression of people’s legitimate desire to secure the enjoyment and personal mobility provided by the automobile and thelifestyle that it makes possible. However, the New Urbanists do not question people’s right to their own values; instead, they suggest that we should take a more critical view of these values and of the sprawl-conducive zoning and subdivision policies that reflect them. New Urbanists are fundamentally concerned with the long-term social costs of the now-prevailing attitude that individual mobility, consumption, and wealth should be valued absolutely, regardless of their impact on community life.
According to the passage, the New Urbanists cite which one of the following as a harmful result of the need for people to travel extensively every day by automobile?
选项 A、It imposes an extra financial burden on the residents of sprawling suburbs.
B、It increases the amount of time people spend in situations in which antisocial behavior occurs.
C、It produces significant amounts of air pollution and thus tends to harm the quality of people’s lives.
D、It decreases the amount of time that parents spend in enjoyable interactions with their children.
答案B
解析 本题考查考生对第三段后丰段关于新城市主义者们对于郊区的人们不得不大量驾车出行以解决日常事务这一现象的论述的理解。第三段最后提到在这种情况下，人们不再是社区成员，成了争抢马路空间的汽车司机，常常表现的妨害公共利益(acting antisocially)，B项正确，只是换了一种说法而已。ACD选项均是出题者对于郊区扩展现象中人们大量驾车出行所造成结果的合理推断，具有很强的迷惑性，但是文中均没有提到，因此错误。
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