概括:内容选自老托福听力,是练习托福听力的绝佳材料。


木有hints,加了个油~
Today we'll examine the role that private transportation, namely the automobile - plays in city planning. A number of sociologists blame the automobile for the decline of the downtown areas of major cities. In the 1950s and 1960s the automobile made it possible to work in the city and yet live in the suburbs many miles away. Shopping patterns changed - instead of patronizing downtown stores, people in the suburbs went to large shopping malls outside the city and closer to home. Merchants in the city failed; and their stores closed. Downtown shopping areas became deserted. In recent years there's been a rebirth of the downtown area as many suburbanites have moved back to the city. They've done this, of course, to avoid highways clogged with commuters from the suburbs. I've chosen this particular city planning problem - our dependence on private transportation - to discuss in groups. I'm hoping you all will come up with some innovative solutions. Oh, and don't approach the problem from a purely sociological perspective; try to take into account environmental and economic issues as well.
今天我们将考察私人交通工具即汽车在城市规划中所发挥的作用。 一些社会学家将重要城市市中心地区的衰落归咎于汽车。在19世纪五六十年代,汽车使得在城市工作而在数公里外的郊区生活成为可能。购物方式随之发生改变,郊区的人们可以去城外的离家近的大的购物广场购物。城市里的商人衰落了,商店关闭了。市中心的购物中心被抛弃了。 最近,随着郊区居住的人们陆续返回城市居住,市中心区域又焕发了生机。当然,他们这么做是要避免郊区往返的人们堵塞公路。 我已经选择对这个特殊的城市规划问题,即我们对私人交通工具的依赖这个问题进行分组讨论。我希望你们能提出一些富有创见的解决方案 ,不要试图从纯社会学的角度来解决这个问题 ,也尝试着从环境和经济方面考虑这个问题。 ——译文来自: 崔丙强