首页
登录
职称英语
Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Ora
Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Ora
游客
2023-12-07
30
管理
问题
Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Orange County, you enter and leave Cerritos three times. Although the city is confusingly shaped, it is easy to tell where it begins. Overhead power cables abruptly disappear and run underground. The grass, watered by innumerable sprinklers, is a brighter shade of green. Indeed, a blind man could tell where the boundary lies. Crossing into Artesia there is a bump, followed by a series of clumsily patched potholes; a few hundred yards later you re-enter Cerritos and the road is smooth again.
Cerritos cannot boast a glorious history, old money or natural beauty. Fifty years ago it was a flat area of farmland known as Dairy Valley. These days, "it’s a terribly unremarkable place on the way to Disneyland," says Tom Irish, a property developer. Yet this small suburban city of some 55,000 people has become remarkable thanks to superb management and geographical good fortune. It reveals much about why America’s suburbs are so appealing, and how they are changing.
Like an increasing number of suburbs, Cerritos is both a bedroom community and an economic engine. It began to prosper in the early 1970s when it encouraged car dealers to cluster near the motorway that clips its western edge. Fully 27 outfits now trade there, making it the largest such centre in a car-obsessed state. Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a "town center", otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far more jobs than working residents. Last year the city collected $483 in sales taxes per person — more than the glitzy city of Santa Monica. And it has leased, not sold, its land, so a future stream of money is guaranteed.
What goes on inside the offices seems less important to locals than what they look like. The city has municipal codes to rival those of notoriously staid Irvine, a planned city in Orange County: don’t even think about installing a rotating, blinking or oscillating sign. Sculptures adorn car dealers’ forecourts. Cerritos’s busy library is covered with titanium; its Wal-Mart is clad in granite. It has an opulent performing arts centre that will host some 140 impeccably populist acts this year.
Building work is underway on the local jail, known for good reason as the "sheriff’s hotel". Although Cerritos has a contract with Los Angeles’s county sheriff for its policing, it pays for the building and the officers. They have some of the easiest jobs in California. So far this year 53 serious assaults have been recorded, a bit less than one per cop. The city is so peaceful, says Daryl Evans, the police captain, that gang members from nearby cities occasionally meet there to play basketball, knowing they will not be attacked by rivals.
Of course, many American cities have built parks, performing-arts centres and fancy libraries while struggling financially. The key to Cerritos’s success may be the timing of its investments. Cities such as Cleveland and Baltimore poured money into museums and other grand projects in the vain hope that they would lure businesses and young, creative folk. Cerritos began by building pipelines and roads, then moved on to business parks, policing and schools (including California’s best high school). Only when it was rolling in money did it break out the titanium.
Local officials attribute the city’s success to fiscal discipline and the ability to follow a long-term plan. That, in turn, is the result of its political culture. Cerritos has a tradition of powerful, long-serving city managers, to whom local politicians frequently defer. As Laura Lee, the mayor, explains, "There are many things we, as elected officials, do not understand." Voters, it seems, like this arrangement greatly. In a 2002 poll, an astonishing 96% of residents said they were satisfied with the provision of public services.
Such single-mindedness is particularly striking given the city’s diversity. In 1980 whites comprised more than half of the population. These days Asians do. Striving immigrants are cause and consequence of the city’s excellent schools: in Cerritos High School, pupils who speak inadequate English score better in mathematics tests than those who speak English fluently. Yet the newcomers have not formed ghettos. The last census showed that whites and Asians were more intermixed in Cerritos than in all but 16 other American cities. Whites were even more mixed-up with blacks and Hispanics.
These days Cerritos faces strong competition. Its car mall has inspired imitators; as a result, the value of sales has flattened while the number of vehicles sold seems to be falling. As the city ages, public services will come under increasing strain. Drastic decline is unlikely, but the city may be overtaken — though it is almost certain that the places doing the overtaking will be bland, car-oriented and suburban. [br] According to the passage, what impression can we get on Cerritos?
选项
A、Its geographic boundaries are of remarkably regular shape.
B、It is a thriving commercial center rather than a residential site.
C、It boasts a lifestyle that is rich in art and recreation.
D、It is one of the most staidly planned cities in the region.
答案
C
解析
推理判断题。由第四段尾句“It has an opulent performing arts centre that will host some 140 impeccablypopulist acts this year”可知Cerrito的文化生活十分丰富,故答案选[C]。 Driving along South Street…you enter andleave Cerritos three times和the city is confusingly shaped可见Cetrito地理边界极不规则,故排除[A]。由第三段首句可知Cerrito既是商业中心,又是居住区,排除[B]。第四段第二句说“The city has municipal codes to rival those ofnotoriously staid Irvine”,可见Cerrito的市政规划与Irvine恰恰相反,可以推断Cerrito的市政规划很出色,故排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3252791.html
相关试题推荐
______isreputedastheautomobilecapitaloftheworld.A、LondonB、LosAngelesC
WhichofthefollowingnewspapersbelongstotheUnitedStates?A、TheWallStreet
Supposeyouaredrivingoffahighwaywiththreelanesgoinginyourdirectio
Supposeyouaredrivingoffahighwaywiththreelanesgoinginyourdirectio
Supposeyouaredrivingoffahighwaywiththreelanesgoinginyourdirectio
[originaltext]KennyEnjoysDrivingaTaxiInterviewer:W
[originaltext]KennyEnjoysDrivingaTaxiInterviewer:W
[originaltext]KennyEnjoysDrivingaTaxiInterviewer:W
[originaltext]KennyEnjoysDrivingaTaxiInterviewer:W
LosAngelescabinet-makerEdwardStewartmaybeamodernDr.Frankenstein.In
随机试题
【S1】[br]【S4】most→more本题辨析形容词比较级与最高级的误用。表示“或多或少”这个含义时,or前后的形容词都用比较级,即:moreorl
下列关于事实型信息检索、数据型信息检索和文献型信息检索的说法,错误的是( )。
在集装箱运输中,集装箱的来源包括实际承运人的箱子、无船承运人的箱子、( )、集
在抢险救灾等维护国家利益,公共利益的活动中,受到伤害的,应视同工伤。()
下列描述正确的有A.血清是测定葡萄糖的较好样品 B.生化检验葡萄糖利用免疫法测
资产评估专业人员撰写出资产评估正式报告后,下列说法错误的有( )。A.应当由一
人在每一瞬间,将心理活动选择了某些对象而忽略了另一些对象。这一特点指的是注意的(
在企业财务管理目标理论中,以利润最大化为财务管理目标的缺陷,体现在()。A
关于悬臂拼装说法错误的是( )A.节段的脱模时间应符合设计规定;设计未规定时,应
具有规格尺寸大、花色品种较多、铺设整体效果好、色泽均匀、视觉效果好,表面耐磨性高
最新回复
(
0
)