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
2013-02-03
57
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 Today, many of the world’s major cities are already struggling to cope with out-of-date transport infrastructures.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to build a railway network, much of the infrastructure--the trains and buses, the tracks and tunnels--is now hopelessly out-of-date, and needs urgent modernization.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 clay 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 clone 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/lUyK777K
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
Likepeople,eachcountryhasuniquecharacteristics.Manycountriesareknownbytheproductstheyproduce.Theseproductsare
Whichofthefollowingstatementsbestdescribetheconditionofthepassengers?
ThestudentislookingfortheEconomichistoryoffice.
Muchofthediscussionofenvironmentalproblemsinthepopularpressleavesthereaderwiththeimpressionthatmattershavebe
—Whoareyourmaincompetitors?—Itdependsontheregion.TherearealotoflocalproducersinEuropeandwecannotcompetewi
A、Shereportedtheproblemtoherboss.B、ShenegotiatedwithTimforasolution.C、Shekeptarecordofhercontribution.D、She
Ican’tstandhim.Healwaystalksasthoughhe_________everything.
Americansenjoymanyactivities.Whentheyareathometheyenjoyreading,watchingtelevision,creatingartobjects,playingcom
Whenthetelevisionisgood,nothing—notthetheater,notthemagazines,ornewspapers—nothingisbetter.Butwhentelevisionis
WhydidDavedecideonafull-timecareerasadivinginstructor?
随机试题
________,到黄昏、点点滴滴。
(2004年第28题)下列因子中,不参与原核生物翻译过程的是
我国公民著作权的保护期为()。
当顶棚或墙面表面局部采用多孔或泡沫状塑料时,面积不得超过该房间顶棚或墙面积的()。
关于套期会计,下列说法中正确的有()。
药物:手术:治疗
为确定某种心理疗法对焦虑障碍的长程效应,一位研究者选取了一个n=10的样本,治疗前以标准化工具测试了其焦虑水平。在治疗结束时、治疗结束后1个月、治疗结束后6个月分别以同样工具测试了其焦虑水平。研究者用ANOVA来分析数据,得到处理内平方和为500,误差均方
东汉许慎的__________把9353个汉字归为540部。(北京师范大学2015)
阅读以下叙述,回答问题【说明】某系统集成商B负责某大学城A的3个校园网的建设,是某弱电总承包商的分包商。田某是系统集成商B的高级项目经理,对三个校园网的建设负总责。关某、夏某和宋某是系统集成商B的项目经理,各负责其中的一个校园网建设项目。
设平衡的二叉排序树(AVL树)的结点个数为n,则其平均检索长度为()。
最新回复
(
0
)