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  3. Over the past 50 years, expansive, low density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States an

Over the past 50 years, expansive, low density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States an

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问题     Over the past 50 years, expansive, low density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States and Canada, creating a phenomenon known as suburhan sprawl.
    Andres Duany, Elizabeth Flater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, a group of prominent town planners belonging to a movement called New Urbanism, contend that suburban sprawl contributes to the decline of civic life and civility. For reasons involving the flow of automobile traffic, they note, zoning laws usually dictate that suburban homes, stores, businesses, and schools be built in separate areas, and this separation robs people of communal space where they can interact and get to know one another. It is as difficult to imagine the concept of community without a town square or local pub, these town planners contend, as it is to imagine the concept of family independent of the house.
    Suburban housing subdivisions, Duany and his colleagues add, usually contain homes identical not only in appearance but also in price, resulting in a de facto economic segregation of residential neighborhoods. Children growing up in these neighborhoods, whatever their economic circumstances, are certain to be ill prepared for life in a diverse society. Moreover, because the widely separated suburban homes and businesses are connected only by "collector roads," residents areforccd to drive, often in heavy traffic, in order to perform many daily tasks. Time that would in a town center involve social interaction within a physical public realm is now spent inside the automobile, where people cease to be community members andinstead become motorists, competing for road space, often acting antisocially. Pedestrians rarely act in this manner toward each other.
    Duany and his colleagues advocate development based on early-twentieth century urban neighborhoods that mix housing of different prices and offer residents a "gratifying public realm" that includes narrow, tree-lined streets,parks, corner grocery stores, cafes, small-neighborhood schools, all within walking distance. This, they believe, would give people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles an opportunity to interact and thus develop mutual respect.
    Opponents of New Urbanism claim that migrationto sprawling suburbs is an expression of people’s legitimate desire to secure the enjoyment and personal mobility provided by the automobile and thelifestyle that it makes possible. However, the New Urbanists do not question people’s right to their own values; instead, they suggest that we should take a more critical view of these values and of the sprawl-conducive zoning and subdivision policies that reflect them. New Urbanists are fundamentally concerned with the long-term social costs of the now-prevailing attitude that individual mobility, consumption, and wealth should be valued absolutely, regardless of their impact on community life.
Based on the text, which of the following best defines the word "sprawl"(Line 2, Paragraph 1)?
选项 A、spread out
B、decline
C、renew
D、threaten
答案A
解析 “Sprawl”一词是本文的核心词汇，本题既考查考生对生词意思的理解，又考查考生对文章大意的理解。文章中多处出现“Sprawl”一词，而第一段则是对这个词语意思也是对本文所论述对象的解释说明。“expansive”(扩张的)，“low—density”(低密度社区)，通过这两个词考试应该能够猜出“sprawl”是扩展、发散的意思，更准确的说．应该是以一种不规则的杂乱随意的方式拓展。文章后面更是对这种“Suburban sprawl”现象给出具体说明，比如提到社区的房子、商业、学校等建筑都彼此相隔很远，人们需要驾车出行等等．都是对城市向郊区扩展现象的具体说明。因此A是正确选项，BCD毫无根据，丝毫不接近本意。
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