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
考研
The city, Rousseau once suggested, is "the abyss of the human species. "And while that judgment represents a fairly 18th century
The city, Rousseau once suggested, is "the abyss of the human species. "And while that judgment represents a fairly 18th century
admin
2014-06-25
33
问题
The city, Rousseau once suggested, is "the
abyss
of the human species. "And while that judgment represents a fairly 18th century view of the unpleasant industrial life, present examples don’t necessarily dispute it. Many metropolitan areas have developed into dense grids of humanity surrounded by soulless office parks and a few nice, leafy streets.
Yet this, according to Edward Glaeser, can be a good thing. Triumph of the City, the Harvard University economics professor’s deeply researched manifesto on the importance of urban life to, among other things, business and innovation, suggests the most important investment in any city is human capital—or, more simply, population. His book convincingly argues that concentrated populations can have "magical consequences. " A steady infusion of human capital helped transform New York City from a manufacturing hub into the world’s financial capital.
Millions of Americans embrace the suburbs because they offer affordable housing, better schools, and decent-sized backyards. However, Glaeser also believes the growth of suburbia typifies a nearsighted view of conservation. All that air-conditioning and driving comes at a cost. The environmentalists who’ve worked for laws that make it impossible to build in temperate regions have insidiously pushed the sprawl to some growing southern district -along the way facilitating a carbon emissions nightmare.
However, Glaeser isn’t out to attack the suburban life; instead, he’s hoping to increase the number of options. He points out that many cities to a large extent are fast becoming provinces for the truly wealthy. Middle-class strivers have to take the commuter train home. Glaeser’s solution is simple: Where land is scarce, density becomes vital. Cities that cannot build out must build up. Freed from restrictive regulations, Glaeser notes Houston has built up and out to become the fourth-largest city in the U. S. Owing mainly to affordable housing and the availability of jobs, an average family in high-density Houston is much better off than a comparable one in Queens or Staten Island.
In Glaeser’s appraisal, cities must also aim for a sweet spot that combines good public schools and non-prohibitive zoning policies. From Bangalore to Vancouver, educational institutions and the freedom to build help produce the kind of successful hubs that attract human capital. Human capital makes reinvention possible but complicated. Detroit, Glaeser argues, suffered from too much specialization: Huge integrated car companies crowded out other ideas that could have fostered valuable results long before disaster struck the Big Three.
The author’s prescription for Detroit, is to "shrink to greatness" by searching for fresh advantages. Glaeser believes cities are about people, not places or buildings. Does it make economic sense to resurrect Detroit when the cost of building a house is greater than the reward from selling it? It could have been cheaper, he notes, to hand every household in New Orleans $200,000 after Hurricane Katrina rather than pump vast quantities of public money into rebuilding a city of diminishing economic significance.
Glaeser may be right. As the latest U. S. Census figures prove, the city’s capital is disappearing in droves.
It is indicated in Paragraph 5 that human capital______.
选项
A、invites constant conflicts with small companies
B、can produce negative effect in city reinvention
C、often suffer from over-specialization
D、can help huge companies avert disasters
答案
B
解析
第五段先指出城市化需要吸引人力资本。第三句笔锋一转指出其人力资本虽使城市化成为可能,却同时也使其颇具“复杂性”。随后用“底特律城过度专业化导致受到重创”的例子说明人力资本使用不当会导致负面效应,故[B]选项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/qUK4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
InPlato’sUtopia,herearethreeclasses:thecommonpeople,thesoldiers,andtheguardianschosenbythelegislator.Themain
Onecandredgeupancientinstancesof"so"asasentencestarter.Inhis14th-centurypoem"TroilusandCriseyde,"Chaucerlaun
HowdoyougettoCarnegieHall?Practice.Inagroundbreakingpaperpublishedin1993,cognitivepsychologistAndersEricssona
[A]Dosomethingimpressive[B]Trustyourself[C]Changeonething[D]Stoptorefresh[E]Achieveabalanceddiet[F]Honoryo
ReadthefollowingChinesetextandwriteanabstractofitin80-100Englishwords.YoushouldwriteyourabstractneatlyonA
Yourfriend,WangYing,isapplyingforajobtoteachChineseasaforeignlanguagetoAmericannationals,Hehasaskedyouto
Therehasbeenadiscussionrecentlyontheissueoftraditioninanewspaper.Writeanessayofabout200wordstothenewspape
Youaregoingtoreadalistofheadingsandatextaboutparentingandresponsibility.Choosethemostsuitableheadingforeac
Inthepastyear,alothaschangedinthefieldofhumanspaceflight.(46)InJanuary,PresidentGeorgeBushbrushedasidethef
Thegreatchariotofsociety,whichforsolonghadrundownthegentleslopeoftradition,nowfounditselfpoweredbyaninter
随机试题
不属于维生素依赖性的凝血因子是
频谱多普勒技术检测主动脉血流时,下列哪项做法无意义
绛舌的主病为
女,50岁,体重60kg,因反复呕吐5天入院,血清钠130mmol/L。入院当天应补充的钠量是()
提出著名的“治泻九法”的医家是
某住宅小区居民生活用水量为600m3/d,公共建筑用水量350m3/d,绿化用水量56m3/d,水景、娱乐设施和公用设施用水量共160m3/d,道路、广场用水量34m3/d,未预见用水量及管网漏失水量以10%计,消防用水量为20L/s。则该小区的最高日用水
某施工单位承接了一段长30km的沥青混凝土路面施工,其中基层采用厂拌二灰稳定碎石,施工前选择了相应的施工机械并经计算确定了机械台数,施工工艺如下图所示。其中部分路段采用两幅施工,纵缝采用斜缝连接;同日施工的两个工作段接缝处,要求前一段拌和整修后,留5~
某清单项目计划工程量为300m3,预算单价为600元,已完工程量为350m3,实际单价为650元。采用赢得值法分析该项目成本正确的是()。
开展党史学习教育要突出重点,党中央印发的《关于在全党开展党史学习教育的通知》对这次学习教育工作提出了明确要求,总的来说是要做到()。①学史忆往②学史明理③学史增信④学史自省⑤学史崇德⑥学史力行
动机与工作效率之间的关系遵循耶克斯一多德森定律,也就是说()。
最新回复
(
0
)