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
As the world’ s urban population gets bigger, cities are struggling to provide the basic services that their residents need. One
As the world’ s urban population gets bigger, cities are struggling to provide the basic services that their residents need. One
admin
2012-05-29
37
问题
As the world’ s urban population gets bigger, cities are struggling to provide the basic services that their residents need. One of the most pressing problems is public transport. Now let’s look at the crisis facing the city of London.
In no time in history has there been such a mass migration of people from countryside to city as is happening now. By the year 2030, it’ s estimated that more than two thirds of the world’ s population will be living in cities, twice as many as today. This means that the problems faced by cities today—overcrowding, poor housing, unemployment, poverty, and lack of food and water will be twice as bad in the this century, unless we find solutions soon.
Another crucial issue facing cities today is how to provide good transport links to service the commercial, cultural and leisure needs of their inhabitants. Today, many of the world’ s major cities are already struggling to cope with out-of-date transport infrastructures. How they will cope with the additional demands placed on them has not yet been addressed.
London is a good example of the problems facing many major urban centres. It was the world’ s first megacity and the first with a population of a million people. Its expansion was made possible by the invention of the steam engine, which, among other things, powered the world’ s first underground railway.
Today, London has one of the world’ s most extensive transport, systems. But, because it was the first city to build a railway network, much of the infrastructure—the trains and buses, the tracks and tunnels—is now hopelessly out-of-date, and needs urgent modernization.
London ’ s future success depends very much on transport. The city lies at the heart of Britain’ s road and rail networks and problems in London can rapidly affect other areas of the country. On an average morning, over ground trains bring passengers to stations on the outskirts of the city , and they then continue their journeys by underground, bus or taxi.
Over a million people travel into central London every day from outside the city. They, and the people who live in London, want a public transport system that is frequent, safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly. What they often get, however, falls far short of that ideal.
Commuters complain about delays, unreliability, cost and pollution, while businesses worry about the problems their staff have getting to work on time. Companies also face high costs for delivering goods and services in a city where congestion means that cars today travel at the same speed as horse-drawn carriages did in the last century.
Yet car ownership continues to grow. The proportion of London households that own a car grew from just over 10 per cent in the early 1950s to over 60 per cent today. 20 per cent of house-holds now own two or more cars.
As the city has become increasingly congested and polluted, there has been a growing realization that action is needed. However, precisely what should be done is hotly debated. Some people have called for cleaner fuels and strict controls on exhaust emissions. Others say more effort must be put into persuading people not to use their cars, perhaps by charging people to drive into London. There does seem to be agreement on one thing, though—that until London’ s public transport system is improved, people will continue to use their cars.
This raises the all important questions of where the money is going to come from. Until about 10 years ago, most public transport in Britain was owned and paid for by the government. But in the last decade, most train and bus networks have been privatized.
The government says that the private sector should take most, but not all, of the responsibility for public transport. In London, the underground railway system known as the "Tube" is likely to be where this policy is first put into practice. The government admits that it cannot afford to modernize the Tube system alone. Instead, it wants to form a partnership with private companies, so that they provide some of the money.
Which city is the first in the world to have a million people?
选项
答案
London
解析
文中第四段开头,London is a good example of...the first with a population of a million people,即伦敦是第一个人口超过一百万的城市。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hmyK777K
本试题收录于:
A类竞赛(研究生)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
A类竞赛(研究生)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
AsoaringdropoutrateiscausingtheUnitedStatestolosegroundeducationallytorivalsandistrappingmillionsofyoungAme
Modernsocietyexcelsincynicism.Academicsandpseudo-academiesdelightindeconstructingeventhemostcherishedofchildhood
Modernsocietyexcelsincynicism.Academicsandpseudo-academiesdelightindeconstructingeventhemostcherishedofchildhood
WhatmaybeasimilarexpressioninChinese?Don’twashyourdirtylineninpublic.
HallwardLibrarysupportsthelearning,teachingandresearchneedsoftheFacultyofArtsandtheFacultyofSocialSciences.T
Alice’sAdventuresinWonderland(oftenshortenedtoAliceinWonderland)isgenerallythoughtofasoneofthegreatestbooksf
世界上的每个城市都有出租车把游客带到有趣的地方。【T1】伦敦是世界上唯一一个游客们乘坐出租车就会有很有趣的经历的城市。(定语从句)部分是因为那在其他国家所没有的特殊的黑色的出租车。这也是因为司机们自身。【T2】英国人因礼貌待人、含蓄保守(reserr
ThewomanwantedtoknowwhyRobertwasapplyingforayearoffduringhisuniversitylife.
Whatisthecompany’s2021planaccordingtothenews?
Themostcrucialway,however,ofimprovingthelabourcoststructureatSAH(SydneyAirportHotel)wastofindbetter,morepr
随机试题
()属于Ⅱ类爆炸危险物质。
李某原在甲公司就职,适用不定时工作制。2012年1月,因甲公司被乙公司兼并,李某成为乙公司职工,继续适用不定时工作制。2012年12月,由于李某在年度绩效考核中得分最低,乙公司根据公司绩效考核制度中“末位淘汰”的规定,决定终止与李某的劳动关系。李某于201
企业现金管理的目标是()。
保本基金提供的保证类型一般不包括( )。
由银行签发的,承诺自己在见票时无条件支付确定的金额给收款人或者持票人的票据是()。
根据《中华人民共和国票据法》的规定,下列选项中,属于因时效而致使票据权利消灭的情形有()。
根据支付结算法律制度的规定,下列银行结算账户中,可以办理现金支取的有()。
有甲、乙、丙、丁四个小组进行拔河比赛,比赛结果是:()①当甲、乙两组联合为一方,丙组和丁组为一方时,双方势均力敌;②当甲组与丙组对调后,甲、丁两组联合战胜了乙、丙两组;③甲、丙两组联合却被乙组单独一方战胜。下列关于甲、乙、丙
已知3阶矩阵A=的一个特征值λ1=2对应的特征向量为α1=(1,2,2)T.求(3E—A)100.
在数据库系统中,考虑数据库实现的数据模型是
最新回复
(
0
)