The passage below consists of five paragraphs marked A, B, C, D and E.
For questions 1-10,
read the passage and do the task that follows. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered spaces provided.
The Modern City
Jacob Moore spoke with five city dwellers to find out what they think are the problems with
modern cities.
A. Iain Bracewell
It goes without saying that modern cities are somewhat problematic, simply because we don’t
have the capacity for all the people who already live here, let alone the millions who see cities as
a potential destination. Therefore, in my mind, it’s vital that we become a bit more imaginative
about how we utilise city space. We’re going to be somewhat reliant on technology to help us
with this, by, for example, developing materials that we can use to build higher, slimmer and
underground. This might seem less than ideal for the average city dweller, especially the notion
having to spend a proportion of time below ground, but it might be the only practical solution to
what the data suggest if we want to avoid cities growing at an uncontrolled rate across our
countryside. And time is of the essence; we can’t put this kind of research and development off it
while the population growth remains uncontained.
B. Raphael Arco
Cities are often seen in a bad light, but I think this is undeserved because they offer so much to
so many. The fact is that cities are synonymous with opportunity, for employment, culture, you
name it! That’s not to say they are utopias without any room for improvement, but I think we can
solve a great majority of the issues affecting cities by addressing their infrastructure. People
often cite their bugbears as being issues of convenience such as streets that aren’t walkable or
road networks that are too dense, or even lack of space for increased public transport. Devote
serious attention on improving these elements and cities will become far more liveable places
with, in turn, generally all-round happier residents! This might consist of tweaks or alternatively,
in certain contexts,
starting from scratch to fundamentally redesign systems, but the benefits outweigh the sacrifices
as they’d offer valuable solutions to how modern city life affects the natural environment and
how well people gel together as a community.
C. Jenna Crawford
We need to face up to the fact that most cities aren’t the glorious places that they are painted to
be, and that, for the majority of the inhabitants, the streets aren’t paved with gold. There is a big
difference between the haves and have-nots, and while city life is a consumer paradise for the
former, members of the latter category are completely locked out of the benefits cities bring and
often lack fundamental services such as clean water or sanitation. Why this is still allowed in the
modern world I’ll never know, yet the powers that be seem disinclined to do anything but sweep
the issue under the carpet. Property rental prices are also excessive, and this just gets to the point
where you’ve got huge families living cramped in just two rooms, or people receiving full-time
salaries with little to no chance of getting on the housing ladder. I understand that people think
there are valuable opportunities to be had in cities, but, let’s face it, there are still plenty of
people for whom opportunity has passed by.
D. Caroline Birkenstein
Our cities right now are in dire straits. We’ve got an affordable housing and ecological crisis in
nearly every city on Earth, and it’s crucial that we concentrate our efforts on these matters if we
want our cities to continue to thrive. We can accomplish this by creating and promoting more
sharing and communal practices, like coworking spaces or apartment buildings with common
spaces for eating, socialising and exercising, and these, of course, shouldn’t be extravagantly
priced. It might not seem obvious, but it’s initiatives like these that help people form
communities, and this community atmosphere encourages people to care more about their
surroundings. Cities are also a massive drain on resources, and we need to identify strategies to
counter this and close the loop when it comes to this. With this in mind, we should ask ourselves
how one excess can be used to give power to something else. This kind of sustainability could be
the key to making our cities much healthier places for individuals, the community and the
surroundings we live in.
E. Doug de Souza
Cities today have one major problem that we need to curb, and that is urban sprawl. At the
moment, cities are like these huge sprawls, just spreading and spreading, and the further out you
go, the bigger plot each homeowner has and the more spacious all the services are. This really
has a negative effect on so many elements of our lives. Firstly, it makes us more isolated; we’re
behind fences, and this is where feelings of difference and fear can stem from. We need
integration to help people consider themselves a part of something, but, furthermore, sprawl
increases the urban footprint significantly, and people start becoming dependent on their cars,
simply because it’s not convenient to go anywhere on foot – rather, driving becomes the
preferred option. I mean, I don’t think it takes a scientist to see the environmental problems that
can arise from that.
In which sections are the following mentioned?
1. Cities need to focus on how they can reduce one-time consumption. ______
2. A fix that will take a varying amount of effort. ______
3. Cities have a common reputation that overlooks their positive aspects. ______
4. An acknowledgement that the solution may be disagreeable to some. ______
5. Our cities are designed in a way that makes us feel detached from others. ______
6. How people can become more integrated in cities. ______
7. Some people are ignoring problems that we should be tackling. ______
8. Cities have been left to grow virtually unchecked. ______
9. Future enhancements will be determined by fundamental elements of construction. ______
10. The reputation of cities and the reality of cities are different. ______
