二、长篇阅读部分

2019年12月四级第二套长篇阅读解析

新东方福州学校黄凡玲

A South Korean city designed for the future takes on a life of its own

A）Getting around a city is one thing — and then there's the matter of getting from one city to another. One vision of the perfect city of the future: a place that offers easy access to air travel.

In 2011, a University of North Carolina business professor named John Kasarda published a book called Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next. Kasarda says future cities should be built intentionally around or near airports. The idea, as he has put it, is to offer businesses "rapid, long-distance connectivity on a massive scale."

B）"The 18th century really was a waterborne（水运的）century, the 19th century a rail century, the 20th century a highway, car, truck century — and the 21st century will increasingly be an aviation century, as the globe becomes increasingly connected by air," Kasarda says. Songdo, a city built from scratch in South Korea, is one of Kasarda's prime examples. It has existed for just a few years." From the get-go, it was designed on the basis of connectivity and competitiveness," says Kasada. "The government built the bridge directly from the airport to the Songdo International Business District. And the surface infrastructure was built in tandem with the new airport."

C）Songdo is a stone's throw from South Korea's Incheon Airport, its main international hub（枢纽）. But it takes a lot more than a nearby airport to be a city of the future. Just building a place as an "international business district" doesn't mean it will become one. Park Yeon Soo conceived（构想）this city of the future back in 1986. He considers Songdo his baby. "I am a visionary," he says. Thirty years after he imagined the city, Park's baby is close to 70 percent built, with 36,000 people living in the business district and 90,000 residents in greater Songdo. It's about an hour outside Seoul, built on reclaimed tidal flats along the Yellow Sea. There's a Coast Guard building and a tall trade tower, as well as a park, golf course and university.

D）Chances are you've actually seen this place. Songdo appears in the most famous music video ever to come out of South Korea." Gangnam Style" refers to the fashionable Gangnam district in Seoul. But some of the video was filmed in Songdo."I don't know if you remember, there was a scene in a subway station. That was not Gangnam. That was actually Songdo," says Jung Won Son, a professor of urban development at London's Bartlett School of Planning. "Part of the reason to shoot there is that it's new and nice."

E）The city was supposed to be a hub for global companies, with employees from all over the world. But that's not how it has turned out. Songdo's reputation is as a futuristic ghost town. But the reality is more complicated. A bridge with big, light-blue loops leads into the business district. In the center of the main road, there's a long line of flags of the world. On the corner, there's a Starbucks and a 7-Eleven — all of the international brands that you see all over the world nowadays.

F）The city is not empty. There are mothers pushing strollers, old women with walkers — even in the middle of the day, when it's 90 degrees out. Byun Young-Jin chairs the Songdo real estate association and started selling property here when the first phase of the city opened in 2005. He says demand has boomed in the past couple of years. Most of his clients are Korean. In fact, the developer says, 99 percent of the homes here are sold to Koreans. Young families move here because the schools are great. And that's the problem: Songdo has become a popular Korean city — more popular as a residential area than a business one. It's not yet the futuristic international business hub that planners imagined." It's a great place to live. And it's becoming a great place to work," says Scott Summers, the vice president of Gale International, the developer of the city. The floor-to-ceiling windows of his company's offices overlook Songdo Central Park, with a canal full of kayaks and paddle boats. Shimmering（闪烁的）glass towers line the canal’s edge.

G）"What's happened is, because we focused on creating that quality of life first, which enabled the residents to live here, what has probably missed the mark is for companies to locate here," he says. "There needs to be strong economic incentives." The city is still unfinished, and it feels a bit like a theme park. It doesn't feel all that futuristic. There's a high-tech underground trash disposal system. Buildings are environmentally friendly. Everybody's television set is connected to a system that streams personalized language or exercise classes.

H）But Star Trek this is not. And to some of the residents, Songdo feels hollow." I'm, like, in prison for weekdays. That's what we call it in the workplace," says a woman in her 20s. She doesn't want to use her name for fear of being fired from her job. She goes back to Seoul every weekend. "I say I'm prison-breaking on Friday nights." But she has to make the prison break in her own car. There's no high-speed train connecting Songdo to Seoul, just over 20 miles away.

I）The man who first imagined Songdo feels frustrated, too. Park says he built South Korea a luxury vehicle, "like Mercedes or BMW. It's a good car now. But we're waiting for a good driver to accelerate." But there are lots of other good cars out there, too. The world is dotted with futuristic, high-tech cities trying to attract the biggest international companies.

J）Songdo's backers contend that it's still early, and business space is filling up — about 70 percent of finished offices are now occupied. Brent Ryan, who teaches urban design at MIT, says Songdo proves a universal principle. "There have been a lot of utopian（乌托邦的）cities in history. And the reason we don't know about a lot of them is that a lot of them have vanished entirely." In other words, when it comes to cities — or anything else — it is hard to predict the future.

36. Songdo’s popularity lies more in its quality of life than its business attraction.

37. The man who conceives Songdo feels disappointed because it has fallen short of his expectations.

38. A scene in a popular South Korean music video was shot in Songdo.

39. Songdo still lacks the financial stimulus for businesses to set up shop there.

40. Airplanes will increasingly become the chief means of transportation, according to a professor.

41. Songdo has ended up different from the city it was supposed to be.

42. Some of the people who work in Songdo complain about boredom in the workplace.

43. A business professor says that a future city should have easy access to international transportation.

44. According to an urban design professor, it is difficult for city designers to foresee what happen in the future.

45. Park Yeon So. Who envisioned Songdo, feels a parental connection with the city.

【答案】FIDGB EHAJC

【解析】

36. F，由题干中的Songdo’s popularity, quality of life和business attraction可定位到文章的F段。其中Songdo为原词重现，popular是popularity的同义替换，residential area是quality of life的同义替换，a business one是business attraction的同义替换。

37. I，由题干中的the man, conceive, disappointed,short of expectations可定位到文章的I段。其中the man为原词重现，imagine是conceive的同义替换，frustrated是disappointed的同义替换，But there are lots of other good cars out there, too是short of expectation的同义替换，表示实际情况事与愿违。

38. D，由题干中的a scene, South Korean music video, shot等词可定位到文章的D段。其中this place是ascene的同义替换，music video和South Korea为原词重现，filmed是shot的的同义替换。

39. G，由题干中的Songdo, the financial stimulus等词可定位到文章的G段。其中的the city指的是Songdo，economic incentives是the financial stimulus的同义替换。

40. B，由题干中的Airplanes, the chief means of transportation, professor等词可定位到文章的B段。其中的Kasarda（由A段可知，Kasarda是一位教授）指的是professor，aviation century是chief means of transportation的同义替换，by air是airplanes的同义替换。

41. E，由题干中的Songdo, different, was supposed to be等词可定位到文章的E段。其中thecity与Songdo是同义替换，was supposed to be是原词重现，not how it has turned out是different的同义替换。

42. H，由题干中的some of the people, Songdo, boredom, workplace等词可定位到H段。其中some of the resident是some of the people的同义替换，Songdo为原词重现，hollow是boredom的同义替换，workplace为原词重现。

43. A，由题干中的a business professor, a future city,easy access等词可定位到文章的A段。其中，business professor为原词重现，the perfect city of the future是a future city的原词重现，easy access是原词重现。

44. J，由题干中的an urban design professor, difficult, foresee, in the future等词可定位到文章的J段。其中，who teaches urban design at MIT是an urban design professor的同义替换，hard是difficult的同义替换，predict为foresee的原词重现，the future为原词重现。

45. C，由题干中的Park Yeon Soo, envision, Songdo, a parental connection等词可定位到文章的C段。其中，ParkYeon Soo为原词重现，conceived是envision的同义替换，thecity是Songdo的同义替换，He considers Songdo his baby是a parental connection的同义替换。

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