2010年大学英语四六级考试精读荟萃100篇(18)4600字

2010年大学英语四六级考试精读荟萃100篇(18)4600字 为了提高广大考生阅读理解能力，毕业整理了以下阅读资料，供考生复习。 Passage Eight(The Development of Cities) 思想汇报 /sixianghuibao/ 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 premodern 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 just thirty years lots that could have housed five to six million people. 简历大全 /html/jianli/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. 作文 /zuowen/ 1. With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned? 毕业A Types of mass transportation. 作文 /zuowen/B Instability of urban life. 总结大全 /html/zongjie/C How supply and demand determine land use. 思想汇报 /sixianghuibao/D The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.2. Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago? 简历大全 /html/jianli/A To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.B To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation. 毕业论文C To show mass transportation changed many cities. 毕业 D To contrast their rate of growth. 作文 /zuowen/ 3. According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion? 开题报告 /html/lunwenzhidao/kaitibaogao/ A It was expensive. 毕业论文 B It happened too slowly.C It was unplanned. 毕业论文 D It created a demand for public transportation. 总结大全 /html/zongjie/4. The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city, 总结大全 /html/zongjie/A that is large. 毕业论文B that is used as a model for land development. 毕业论文 C where the development of land exceeded population growth.D with an excellent mass transportation system. 开题报告 /html/lunwenzhidao/kaitibaogao/Vocabulary 简历大全 /html/jianli/1. revise 改变 简历大全 /html/jianli/2. fabric 结构 简历大全 /html/jianli/ 3. catalyze 催化，加速 毕业论文4. sort out 把分门别类，拣选 毕业论文5. omnibus 公共汽车/马车 作文 /zuowen/6. trolley (美)有轨电车，(英)无轨电车 毕业7. periphery 周围，边缘 总结大全 /html/zongjie/ 8. sprawl 建筑物无计划延伸，蔓延，四面八方散开 毕业 9. lot 小片土地 10. underscore 强调，在下面划横线11. transit lines 运输线路 作文 /zuowen/12. subdivision (出售的)小块土地，再划分小区 总结大全 /html/zongjie/