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  3. Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical

Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical

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问题     Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the pre-modern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250 000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550 000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800 000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in lust thirty years-- lots that could have housed five to six million people.
    Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
Why are Boston and Chicago mentioned?
选项 A、To demonstrate the development of big cities.
B、To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation
C、To show mass transportation changed many cities.
D、To contrast their rate of growth and development.
答案B
解析 在文章的第一段的最后一句中我们看到“Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting，real estate，developers added 800 000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years—lots that could have housed five to six million people”讲为了利用芝加哥的公交，房产商大力发展房地产。在第一段的第三句和第四句讲波士顿时，作者说到“In 1850， for example，the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; By the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles． Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work，shopping，and entertainment”他讲述了由于公交的存在，导致波士顿的发展速度比以前快得多，因此波士顿和芝加哥都被作为例子来论证有公交和没公交前后发生的变化，因此选B。
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