首页
登录
职称英语
As the world’ s urban population gets bigger, cities are struggling to provi
As the world’ s urban population gets bigger, cities are struggling to provi
游客
2024-08-08
3
管理
问题
As the world’ s urban population gets bigger, cities are struggling to provide the basic services that their residents need. One of the most pressing problems is public transport. Now let’s look at the crisis facing the city of London.
In no time in history has there been such a mass migration of people from countryside to city as is happening now. By the year 2030, it’ s estimated that more than two thirds of the world’ s population will be living in cities, twice as many as today. This means that the problems faced by cities today—overcrowding, poor housing, unemployment, poverty, and lack of food and water will be twice as bad in the this century, unless we find solutions soon.
Another crucial issue facing cities today is how to provide good transport links to service the commercial, cultural and leisure needs of their inhabitants. Today, many of the world’ s major cities are already struggling to cope with out-of-date transport infrastructures. How they will cope with the additional demands placed on them has not yet been addressed.
London is a good example of the problems facing many major urban centres. It was the world’ s first megacity and the first with a population of a million people. Its expansion was made possible by the invention of the steam engine, which, among other things, powered the world’ s first underground railway.
Today, London has one of the world’ s most extensive transport, systems. But, because it was the first city to build a railway network, much of the infrastructure—the trains and buses, the tracks and tunnels—is now hopelessly out-of-date, and needs urgent modernization.
London ’ s future success depends very much on transport. The city lies at the heart of Britain’ s road and rail networks and problems in London can rapidly affect other areas of the country. On an average morning, over ground trains bring passengers to stations on the outskirts of the city , and they then continue their journeys by underground, bus or taxi.
Over a million people travel into central London every day from outside the city. They, and the people who live in London, want a public transport system that is frequent, safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly. What they often get, however, falls far short of that ideal.
Commuters complain about delays, unreliability, cost and pollution, while businesses worry about the problems their staff have getting to work on time. Companies also face high costs for delivering goods and services in a city where congestion means that cars today travel at the same speed as horse-drawn carriages did in the last century.
Yet car ownership continues to grow. The proportion of London households that own a car grew from just over 10 per cent in the early 1950s to over 60 per cent today. 20 per cent of house-holds now own two or more cars.
As the city has become increasingly congested and polluted, there has been a growing realization that action is needed. However, precisely what should be done is hotly debated. Some people have called for cleaner fuels and strict controls on exhaust emissions. Others say more effort must be put into persuading people not to use their cars, perhaps by charging people to drive into London. There does seem to be agreement on one thing, though—that until London’ s public transport system is improved, people will continue to use their cars.
This raises the all important questions of where the money is going to come from. Until about 10 years ago, most public transport in Britain was owned and paid for by the government. But in the last decade, most train and bus networks have been privatized.
The government says that the private sector should take most, but not all, of the responsibility for public transport. In London, the underground railway system known as the "Tube" is likely to be where this policy is first put into practice. The government admits that it cannot afford to modernize the Tube system alone. Instead, it wants to form a partnership with private companies, so that they provide some of the money. [br] Which city is the first in the world to have a million people?
选项
答案
London
解析
文中第四段开头,London is a good example of...the first with a population of a million people,即伦敦是第一个人口超过一百万的城市。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3710667.html
相关试题推荐
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200yea
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200yea
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200yea
随机试题
[originaltext]Ireadinthenewspapertheotherdaythatwetellbetweentw
Whichgroupofwordsbelongstothecloseclass?A、Adjectives.B、Adverbs.C、Prepo
采用3S法进行数据的取舍,当测量值与平均值之差大于2S时,则该测量值应保留,但需
A.血小板减少,形态正常 B.血小板减少,体积变小 C.血小板基本正常 D
患者,女,35岁,已婚。月经后期,40~50天一行,量少、色暗、时有血块,小腹较
藿香、佩兰均可治疗的病症有( )。A.暑湿证 B.湿温初起 C.热痹 D
下列对著作权许可使用的描述正确的是()。A.许可使用不改变著作权的归属 B
双清口服液除能清热解毒外,又能A.宣肺止咳 B.和解退热 C.疏透表邪 D
2019年甲企业拥有5辆载客汽车,3辆整备质量4吨的货车,7辆整备质量5吨的挂车
雷电流是指()时流经被击物体的电流。 (A)被击物体的集中阻抗为零(B)主放电
最新回复
(
0
)