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  3. (1) Hawker centres, the outdoor food courts where locals gather for cheap ev

(1) Hawker centres, the outdoor food courts where locals gather for cheap ev

游客2023-10-21  12
问题     (1) Hawker centres, the outdoor food courts where locals gather for cheap evening meals, are the heart of most Singapore neighbourhoods. There is one close to my house, where families sit chatting on brightly coloured benches as dusk falls, ordering from dozens of stalls serving fresh local favourites, from chicken rice to Hokkien prawn noodles (福建虾面). The nightly scene provides a pleasing community vision in all respects bar one—the centre is ringed with ominous-looking concrete residential tower blocks.
    (2) The ubiquity (无处不在) of high-rise living in this small island nation came to mind in the aftermath of London’s Grenfell Tower tragedy last month. Beyond the immediate horror, the Grenfell blaze reinforced worries about tenement living, and led to calls that new blocks in the UK be scrapped. The idea of the residential tower as an emblem of social failure is deeply rooted, not just in Britain, but across the west; "an environment built, not for man, but for man’s absence", as J.G. Ballard put it, in his 1975 dystopian (反乌托邦的) novel High-Rise.
    (3) Yet Singapore, now mentioned from time to time as a possible post-Brexit (英国脱欧后) template for the UK, provides a hearteningly different vision, in which tower blocks are not just normal, but popular, too. Indeed, viewed from Europe or North America, the story of public housing in Singapore can seem almost miraculous.
    (4) The state Housing & Development Board was set up in the 1960s first to clear slums. It then turned into an all-purpose house-builder and landlord. Tall towers solved another problem. Singapore is the world’s densest country, if you do not count the tiny enclave of Monaco. To cram 6m into an area half the size of Greater London, it helps to build up.
    (5) Today, roughly four in five Singaporeans live in public housing, almost all of them in high-rise blocks that often have their concrete flanks (侧面) painted in cheerful blues or yellows. These estates mostly managed to avoid the problems of crime and social isolation that dog Parisian banlieues (郊区) or the projects of American inner cities. Although built by the state, it helps that almost all are owner-occupied, part of a vision for a "home-owning society" pushed by national patriarch Lee Kuan Yew.
    (6) The apartments themselves are cheap and reasonably spacious. Older buildings are regularly refurbished (翻新). Most have hawker centres nearby, like the one close to my house, along with play parks and sports halls. Some recent blocks have fancier additions, such as "sky gardens" and rooftop running tracks. (They also all have bomb shelters with reinforced blast doors, but that is a different story.)
    (7) Perhaps the most significant difference is that housing is mixed by income and ethnicity (种族划分), with the state ensuring that each neighbourhood reflects the population as a whole. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the country’s brainy deputy prime minister, is fond of saying that while Singapore still has some poor families, its mixing policy means it no longer has any poor neighbourhoods. It is a remarkable claim, and one that is probably only a very slight exaggeration.
    (8) The Harvard economist Edward Glaeser describes Singapore as a "close to ideal" form of urban development, mostly because it has made tall buildings work. As a greater proportion of the world’s population moves to cities, and metropolises like London cram ever more people into old city centres, building high quality tower blocks is an obvious part of the answer.
    (9) Singapore’s model is not perfect, of course. Locals here are, by their own estimation, world-class complainers. HDB residents often grumble about things like broken lifts, while purchasers cannot find flats to buy in their favoured part of town. There were safety worries after Grenfell too, although Singapore has an enviable fire-prevention record. Either way, the wealthy mostly choose to live in fancier condominiums (公寓楼) built by private developers, with gyms and swimming pools.
    (10) Yet while there are plenty of quibbles, almost no one mentions the anxieties you would hear in the west—that tower blocks are inhospitable, alien monoliths, unsuited to decent human living. As Britain ponders its own urban prospects after Grenfell, it might reflect that a future built tall in concrete need not be so grim after all. (本文选自 Financial Times) [br] Which of the following statements about the hawker centre near the author’s house can be inferred from the first paragraph?
选项 A、It stays open all day instead of only at night.
B、Many Singaporeans had dinner with their families there.
C、People can enjoy different specialties at various prices there.
D、It is surrounded by fancier condominiums.
答案 B
解析 推断题。原文第一段前两句提到，新加坡小贩中心是当地人聚集起来享用廉价晚餐的露天美食广场，其中有一个离作者家很近，黄昏降临时，许多家庭坐在色彩鲜艳的长凳上聊天，从数十个摊位点菜。由此可知，许多新加坡人和家人一起在作者家附近的那个小贩中心吃晚饭，故答案为B。由第一句中的evening meals和第二句中的as dusk falls可知，小贩中心是在晚上营业，而不是全天营业，A与原文表述不符，故排除；第二句指出，在小贩中心，人们可以享用许多种当地人最爱的美食，从鸡肉饭到福建虾面都有，但第一句强调了这里的晚餐很廉价，而不是有各种价位，C与原文表述不符，故排除；最后一句提到小贩中心被看起来阴沉沉的混凝土住宅塔楼包围着，而不是被更高档的公寓包围，D与原文不符，故排除。
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