Urban life has always involved a balancing of opportunities and rewards against dangers and stress; its motivating force is, in the broadest sense, money. Opportunities to make money mean competition and competition is stressful; it is often most intense in the larges cities, where opportunities are greatest. The presence of huge numbers of people inevitably involves more conflict, more traveling, the overloading of public services and exposure to those deviants and criminals who are drawn to the rich pickings of great cities. Crime has always flourished in the relative anonymity of urban life, but today’s ease of movement makes its control more difficult than ever; there is much evidence that is extent has a direct relationship to the size of communities. City dwellers may become trapped in their homes by the fear of crime around them.
As a defense against these developments, city dwellers tend to use various strategies to try and reduce the pressures upon themselves; contacts with other people are generally made brief and impersonal; doors are kept locked; telephone numbers may be ex-directory; journeys outside the home are usually hurried, rather than a source of pleasure. There are other strategies, too, which are positively harmful to the individuals, for example, reducing awareness through drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, all these defensive forms of behavior are harmful to society in general; they cause widespread loneliness and destroy the community’s concern for its members. Lack of informal social contact and indifference to the misfortunes of others, if they are not personally known to oneself, are amongst the major causes of urban crime.
Inner areas of cities tend to be abandoned by the more successful and left to those who have done badly in the competitive struggle or who belong to minority groups; these people are then geographically trapped because so much economic activity has migrated to the suburbs and beyond.
Present day architecture and planning have enormously worsened the human problems of urban life. Old established neighborhoods have been ruthlessly swept away, by both public and private organizations, usually to be replaced by huge, ugly, impersonal structures. People have been forced to leave their familiar homes, usually to be re-housed in tower blocks which are drab, inconvenient, and fail to provide any setting for human interaction or support. This destruction of established social structures is the worst possible approach to the difficulties of living in a town or city. Instead, every effort should be made to conserve the human scale of the environment, and to retain familiar landmarks.
56. According to the author, living in a city causes stress because there are so many people who are _________________.
A. in need of help
B. naturally aggressive
C, likely to commit crime
D. anxious to succeed
57. The author thinks that crime is increasing in cities because _______________.
A. criminals are difficult to trace in larges populations
B. people do not communicated with their neighbors
C. people feel anonymous there
D. the trappings of success are attractive to criminals
58. According to the article, what is the worst problem facing people living in cities?
A. Crime
B. Finding somewhere to live
C. Social isolation
D. Drugs and alcoholism
59. The majority of people who live in inner cities do so because they ____________.
A. dislike having to travel far to work
B. don’t like the idea of living in the suburbs
C. have been forced by circumstances to do so
D. have turned against society
60. Architectural changes have affected city life by ___________.
A. giving the individual a say in planning
B. dispersing long-established communities
C. forcing people to live on top of each other
D. making people move to the suburbs
参考答案： 56 D 57 A 58 C 59 C 60 B
