When did you last visit a shopping mall? In many places, the answer would be “last weekend.” Some people go even more often. Why? For one thing, malls offer goods and services that people need all in one place: food, clothing, things for their houses, entertainment, even medical services. So, are malls one of the highlights of modern civilization? Environmental activists would say No! They would go even further and say that consumer behavior is causing a huge environmental disaster. They cause consumers of ignorance of the side effect of their shopping—urban sprawl (扩大) .
Social scientists agree that patterns of development have changed the landscape a great deal in the last half century. Before 1950, most people lived in towns or cities and either walked to work or took public transportation. Only very wealthy people had automobiles. Farmers lived in rural areas or isolated villages and came into town only when they needed things they couldn’t produce themselves. If you gazed at the landscape you would see towns surrounded by countryside. Then a massive change occurred.
Automobiles became affordable and people were quick to adopt them. Now ambitious workers could live in the suburbs, the areas just outside cities, which started to grow rapidly. As long as there was lots of cheap land in the suburbs, no one paid much attention to the usage of that land. Malls, fast food restaurants, cinemas, and car dealerships spread out in large, flat buildings. These one–storey buildings and their parking lot took up a great deal space. Well– meaning farmers thought they were better off selling their land than growing crops. In ignorance, no one realized that once the land was built up in urban sprawl, the good farming land would be ruined forever. There was no way to preserve it.
Only in recent years have people e to mourn the old way of life as they have developed insight into the problems. Now people realize that urban sprawl has e with serious environmental problems. The negative aspects of sprawl include air and water pollution, loss of agricultural land, traffic jams, and the death of businesses in the old town centers. Many scholars think the time has e to analyze the problems better so we can develop appropriate policies to control further sprawl. Some think the best way to do is to educate citizens about their priceless environment.
【小题1】What is mainly discussed in the passage?A．Weekend FunB．Urban SprawlC．New AutomobilesD．Isolated Villages【小题2】What does the underlined word “They” refer to in the first paragraph?A．ScientistsB．Activists.C．Farmers.D．Malls【小题3】Who do environmental activists blame for environmental problems?A．Endangered animals.B．Shopping mall owners.C．Unthinking shoppers.D．Ambitious farmers.【小题4】What do scholars think should be done about urban sprawl?A．Understand the situations better.B．Follow customary policies.C．Start school in shopping malls.D．Charge polluters a lot of money.【小题5】What is the scholars’ attitude toward urban sprawl?A．Respectful.B．Negative.C．Positive.D．Doubtful.B
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(答案→)B
解析：越来越多的购物商场给人们带来的便利，但是也造成了都市扩大的问题，随之而来的是环境的破坏，空气的污染。权威人士认为要通过分析问题让市民引起重视，制定相关的政策解决问题。
【小题1】主旨大意题。第一段“They cause consumers of ignorance of the side effect of their shopping—urban sprawl. ”，第三段“In ignorance, no one realized that once the land was built up in urban sprawl”以及第四段“Now people realize that urban sprawl has e with serious environmental problems. ”中都提到“urban sprawl”，故B项正确；A、 C、D三项虽然在文中出现了，但都是细节，不是主题。They cause consumers
【小题2】词义猜测题。根据第一段“For one thing, malls offer goods and services that people need all in one place: food, clothing, things for their houses, entertainment, even medical services. So, are malls one of the highlights of modern civilization? ”可知They指的是“购物中心”，选D
【小题3】推理判断题。根据第一段“They would go even further and say that consumers? behavior is causing a huge environmental disaster. ”可知，行动主义者认为消费者盲目、不计后果的消费造成了这一后果，故C 项正确。
【小题4】推理判断题。根据最后一段“Many scholars think the time has e to analyze the problems better so we can develop appropriate policies to control further sprawl. Some think the best way to do is to educate citizens about their priceless environment. ”可知，权威人士认为只有更好地分析问题让市民引起重视，才能够制定相关的政策解决问题，故A项正确。A
【小题5】推理判断题。根据最后一段最后两句“Many scholars think. . . their priceless environment”可知他们是不赞同城市扩张的。选B