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
(1) The urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and continues to grow. I
(1) The urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and continues to grow. I
admin
2018-06-01
56
问题
(1) The urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and continues to grow. It is estimated that by 2017, even in less developed countries, a majority of people will be living in urban areas. Africa now has a larger urban population than North America and has 25 of the world’s fastest growing large cities. Half of the world’s urban population now lives in Asia, which also has half of the world’s largest cities and fastest growing large cities. Every year the world’s urban population swells by about 75m people. That extraordinary growth—equivalent to adding eight Londons—is a wonderful thing. Cities throw people together, encouraging the exchange of ideas. The people who move there tend to grow richer, freer and more tolerant. What is rather less wonderful is the way in which many of the world’s fastest-growing cities are expanding.
(2) The trouble is not, as is often claimed, that cities in poor and middle-income countries are spreading like oil slicks. Most of them need to expand. Western cities can often accommodate their growing populations by squeezing more people in. But many poor cities are incredibly dense already: Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is nine times as tightly packed as Paris, if you include their suburbs. And no Western city has ever added inhabitants as quickly as the poor and emerging-world champions are doing. African and Asian metropolises are bound to sprawl even if sensible pro-density reforms are passed, such as scrapping height restrictions on buildings.
(3) The real problem is that these metropolises are spreading in the wrong way. Frequently, small housing developments or even individual houses are plunked down wherever a builder can cut a deal with a farmer. In the huge, jumbled districts that result, far too little space is set aside for roads. Manhattan is 36% road (overall, almost half of that capitalist temple is public space). In some unplanned African suburbs as little as 5% of the land is road. Even middle-class districts often lack sewers and mains water. As for amenities like public parks, forget it. Suburbs can eventually be retrofitted with roads and sewers. But that will be horrifically complicated and expensive—too much so for poor countries. It would be vastly cheaper and better to do sprawl properly from the start.
(4) Urban and national officials should begin by admitting two things: their cities are going to become very much larger; and this growth will be too quick to be controlled by comprehensive urban plans. Officials in poor countries often spend many years drawing up detailed plans; by the time they are finished, the city has changed so much that their designs cannot possibly be implemented.
(5) It is wiser to keep things simple. At a minimum, work out where the main thoroughfares and parks will go as the city expands. Again, New York is a good model. In 1811, when the city was still confined to the southern tip of Manhattan, it planned for a sevenfold expansion and laid out a street grid. Acquiring rights of way for future roads and amenities can be both costly and politically difficult (though not nearly as much as waiting until it is too late). Almost all fast-growing cities are in countries where landholdings are small, and small farmers do not take kindly to being booted off their land. But a few countries have developed a promising technique known as land readjustment. Instead of evicting farmers in the path of a new road, officials offer to reorganize a whole district. Everybody loses some land, and the biggest winners—those closest to the new road—compensate those who fare less well. Japanese cities used this technique when they were growing quickly. Today the Indian state of Gujarat makes it work.
(6) Increasingly, the world’s fastest-growing cities will be African. And those are especially hard to corral. Many African countries persist with some form of collective land ownership, which is anathema to professional developers: why buy land that you cannot formally own? Until farmers are given full rights to their lands, including the ability to transfer legal title, cities are likely to grow in a messy way. Good planning and secure property rights make for a better kind of sprawl.
The people who move to cities tend to grow to all the following achievements EXCEPT to be ______.
选项
A、richer
B、freer
C、more tolerant
D、more civilized
答案
D
解析
原文第一段倒数第二句表明人口向城市流动旨在获取城市所提供的更大的自由性、包容性和丰富的物资,此题为反选题,因此可以同时排除A项、B项和C项,只有D项未被提及,因此选D项。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/x5xK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Theyshouldmakedecisions_____whetherthestudentsneedmorehelp.
IwasaddressingasmallgatheringinasuburbanVirginialivingroom—awomen’sgroupthathadinvitedmentojointhem.Through
Youmightthinkthatborrowingamatchuponthestreetisasimplething.Butanymanwhohasevertrieditwillassureyouthat
Whatisthemainideaofthepassage?
Theincreaseinglobaltrademeansthatinternationalcompaniescannotaffordtomakecostlyadvertisingmistakesiftheywantt
Iusedtowatchherfrommykitchenwindow,sheseemedsosmallasshemuscledherwaythroughthecrowdofboysontheplaygrou
HowtoConductResearchOnline1.Definingyoutopic【T1】______thetopicdownbutnottoomuch【T1】______leavingroomto【
A、Cynthiahastheexperiencesofworkingasawaitress.B、Cynthiahasworkedinherpresenthotelforthreeyears.C、Cynthiais
"Wanted"postersaren’tseenmuchthesedaysoutsideofWesternfilms.ButCanadiangovernmentofficialsarecrowingovertheir
A、Infrontofawashingmachine.B、Infrontofarefrigerator.C、Infrontofafaxmachine.D、Infrontofacomputer.C本题考查地点。由句
随机试题
下列选项中,既能利尿通淋、又能止痒的药物有()(2005年第127题)
患者女,43岁。反复头晕病史3年,疑椎动脉型颈椎病,既往有碘过敏史。若要直观整体显示颈部血管应选择的检查为
相关系数r>0时,散点图中散点的分布形态为
下列关于招标投标的说法中,正确的是( )。
A安装公司承包了某六层商业中心的空调工程,工程内容为空调工程的施工图深化设计、设备材料采购和安装施工。合同规定热泵机组采用国外品牌,工程结算采用工程量清单综合单价计价,工期3个月。合同订立后,A公司编制了空调工程的施工组织设计,热泵机组采用汽车吊吊装,该吊
基坑开挖时,基坑深度大于( )m时,坑壁坡度适当放缓,或加做平台。
事业单位年终结账后,下列会计科目应转入事业单位结余,期末无余额的有()。
镁和铝分别与等浓度、等体积的过量稀硫酸反应,产生气体的体积(V)与时间(t)关系如图。反应中镁和铝的()。
能够从上述资料中推出的是:
RuthBenedict’shighlypopularbookPatternsofCulturestressedtheroleofcultureinpersonalityformation.
最新回复
(
0
)