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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  11
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] Singaporeans might complain about the following issues EXCEPT________.
选项 A、the elevator breakdown
B、failure to buy an apartment in his preferred district
C、the danger of living in public housing
D、tower blocks that are unfit for people to live in
答案 D
解析 细节题。原文第十段第一句提到，尽管有诸多不满，但几乎没有一个新加坡人提到那些你会在西方世界听到的焦虑——塔楼不适宜居住，是陌生的庞然大物，与体面的人类生活不相配。由此可知，新加坡人不会抱怨塔楼不适宜居住，D与原文表述相反，故D为正确答案。第九段第二句提到，据当地人自己的估计，他们是世界上最爱抱怨的人群，紧接着第三句指出公共住房的居民经常抱怨像电梯故障这些事，而购房者无法在其喜欢的区域找到可买的公寓，由此可知，新加坡人可能会抱怨电梯出了故障以及未能在其喜欢的区域买到公寓，A和B与原文表述相符，故排除；第九段第四句提到，尽管新加坡有着令人羡慕的防火工作业绩，但在格伦费尔大楼火灾之后还是有人担心安全，由此可知，新加坡人可能会抱怨住在公共住房的危险，C与原文表述相符，故排除。
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