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
Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Orange County, you enter and leave Cerritos three times
Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Orange County, you enter and leave Cerritos three times
admin
2015-10-21
25
问题
Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Orange County, you enter and leave Cerritos three times. Although the city is confusingly shaped, it is easy to tell where it begins. Overhead power cables abruptly disappear and run underground. The grass, watered by innumerable sprinklers, is a brighter shade of green. Indeed, a blind man could tell where the boundary lies. Crossing into Artesia there is a bump, followed by a series of clumsily patched potholes; a few hundred yards later you re-enter Cerritos and the road is smooth again.
Cerritos cannot boast a glorious history, old money or natural beauty. Fifty years ago it was a flat area of farmland known as Dairy Valley. These days,"it’s a terribly unremarkable place on the way to Disneyland," says Tom Irish, a property developer. Yet this small suburban city of some 55,000 people has become remarkable thanks to superb management and geographical good fortune. It reveals much about why America’s suburbs are so appealing, and how they are changing.
Like an increasing number of suburbs, Cerritos is both a bedroom community and an economic engine. It began to prosper in the early 1970s when it encouraged car dealers to cluster near the motorway that clips its western edge. Fully 27 outfits now trade there, making it the largest such centre in a car-obsessed state. Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a" town center", otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far more jobs than working residents. Last year the city collected $483 in sales taxes per person—more than the glitzy city of Santa Monica. And it has leased, not sold, its land, so a future stream of money is guaranteed.
What goes on inside the offices seems less important to locals than what they look like. The city has municipal codes to rival those of notoriously staid Irvine, a planned city in Orange County: don’t even think about installing a rotating, blinking or oscillating sign. Sculptures adorn car dealers’ forecourts. Cerritos’s busy library is covered with titanium; its Wal-Mart is clad in granite. It has an opulent performing arts centre that will host some 140 impeccably populist acts this year.
Building work is underway on the local jail, known for good reason as the"sheriff’s hotel". Although Cerritos has a contract with Los Angeles’s county sheriff for its policing, it pays for the building and the officers. They have some of the easiest jobs in California. So far this year 53 serious assaults have been recorded, a bit less than one per cop. The city is so peaceful, says Daryl Evans, the police captain, that gang members from nearby cities occasionally meet there to play basketball, knowing they will not be attacked by rivals.
Of course, many American cities have built parks, performing-arts centres and fancy libraries while struggling financially. The key to Cerritos’s success may be the timing of its investments. Cities such as Cleveland and Baltimore poured money into museums and other grand projects in the vain hope that they would lure businesses and young, creative folk. Cerritos began by building pipelines and roads, then moved on to business parks, policing and schools(including California’s best high school). Only when it was rolling in money did it break out the titanium.
Local officials attribute the city’s success to fiscal discipline and the ability to follow a long-term plan. That, in turn, is the result of its political culture. Cerritos has a tradition of powerful, long-serving city managers, to whom local politicians frequently defer. As Laura Lee, the mayor, explains,"There are many things we, as elected officials, do not understand. "Voters, it seems, like this arrangement greatly. In a 2002 poll, an astonishing 96% of residents said they were satisfied with the provision of public services.
Such single-mindedness is particularly striking given the city’s diversity. In 1980 whites comprised more than half of the population. These days Asians do. Striving immigrants are cause and consequence of the city’s excellent schools: in Cerritos High School, pupils who speak inadequate English score better in mathematics tests than those who speak English fluently. Yet the newcomers have not formed ghettos. The last census showed that whites and Asians were more intermixed in Cerritos than in all but 16 other American cities. Whites were even more mixed-up with blacks and Hispanics.
These days Cerritos faces strong competition. Its car mall has inspired imitators; as a result, the value of sales has flattened while the number of vehicles sold seems to be falling. As the city ages, public services will come under increasing strain. Drastic decline is unlikely, but the city may be overtaken—though it is almost certain that the places doing the overtaking will be bland, car-oriented and suburban.
Which of the following does NOT serve as an example to show local people’s concern of Cerritos’s landscape?
选项
A、Grass watered by innumerable sprinklers.
B、The library covered with titanium.
C、The Wal-Mart clad in granite.
D、The local jail known as the "sheriff’s hotel".
答案
D
解析
细节题。第五段首句提到“Building work is underway on the local jail,known…as the‘sheriff’shotel’”,正在修建的当地监狱被称为“县警的旅馆”,结合下文可知,这一事例是用来说明喜瑞都市负责县警的开销以及警员工作的悠闲的,故答案为[D]。第一段第四句提到“The grass,watered byinnumerable sprinklers”,用“innumerable”强调喷水设备之多,说明喜瑞都人对市容的重视,故排除[A];第四段首句提到“What goes on inside the offiees seems less important to locals than what they looklike”,当地人认为办公楼的外表比楼内发生的事情更为重要,图书馆覆盖着钛,沃尔玛包着花岗岩,都说明喜瑞都人很注重市容的美观,故排除[B]和[C]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/cTKO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Whichofthefollowingworksbestrepresentsthenationalspiritofthe18th-centuryEngland?
Supposeyouaredrivingoffahighwaywiththreelanesgoinginyourdirectionandyoucomeuponatellplazawith.sixtollboo
In17thcentury,______isthegreatestdiaristinEngland.
TheJourneyofSelfImprovementI.PhasesofthejourneyofselfimprovementA.Thefirstphase:relyingon【B1】______,speakers
HowtoPresentaSeminarPaperUniversitystudentsoftenattendmanyseminarsforvarioussubjects,thereforeitisusefulf
Agingisnowoneofthebiggestchallengesoursocietyisfacing.Expertsinvariousfieldsputforwardtheirproposalstosolve
DrivingalongSouthStreet,wheretheLosAngelessprawlmeetssprawlingOrangeCounty,youenterandleaveCerritosthreetimes
OnaLosAngelesstreetcornerin2000,Iwasthe"insideman"inaclassiccongamecalledthepigeondrop.AmagiciannamedDa
Industrialbuyersareresponsibleforsupplyingthegoodsandservicesthatanorganizationrequiredforitsoperations.
随机试题
为被保险人提供全面的医疗费用,其费用范围包括医疗、住院和手术等的一切费用的险种是( )。
若商业银行核心资本离监管当局的要求相差较远,可以采取()的方式来提高资本充足率。
某企业拟采用融资租赁方式于2015年1月1日从租赁公司租入一台设备,设备款为50000元,租期为5年,到期后设备归企业所有。双方商定,如果采取后付等额租金方式付款,则租费率为16%;如果采取先付等额租金方式付款,则租费率为14%。假设市场利率为10%。
因纳税人、扣缴义务人计算等失误,未缴或者少缴税款的,税务机关在3年内可以追征税款、滞纳金;有特殊情况的,可()。
阿亮痴迷网络无法自拔,李老师找阿亮谈心,聊互联网和比尔·盖茨,并肯定他上网学习电脑技术的积极性,借此了解了阿亮的内心世界,在此基础上采取了一系列措施,转变了阿亮。李老师的做法最能体现的德育原则是()
注意事项1.本题本由给定资料与作答要求两部分构成。考试时限为150分钟。其中,阅读给定资料参考时限为40分钟,作答参考时限为110分钟。满分100分。2.请在题本、答题卡指定位置上用黑色字迹的钢笔或签字笔填写自己的姓名和准考证号,并用2B铅笔在准考证号
A、 B、 C、 D、 B本题为空间重构题。正方形阴影面与“X”面不是相邻面,是相对面,不能同时出现,排除A、D两项;C选项错误,有长方形阴影的面中,长方形应该在整个面的左侧,排除。本题选B。
国家垄断资本主义是垄断资本主义的新发展,它对资本主义经济的发展产生的积极的作用包括()
EverypeoplehasitsownspecialwordsandexpressionsliketheAmericanexpression"onthewagon".Itmeansapersonwhonolon
A、SheprobablyworkstogetherwithJiminabusinesscompany.B、Sheprobablyworksinanairport.C、Sheprobablyisanoperator
最新回复
(
0
)