二、长篇阅读部分：

　　2019 年 12 月四级第一套长篇阅读解析

　　新东方 石家庄学校 冯晓垞

　　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.Aieplanes 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.Acording 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 conmection with the city.

　　【答案】

　　36.F 37. I 38. D 39. G 40.B

　　41.E 42. H 43. A 44. J 45.C 40题和43题答案错误

　　【解析】

　　36.由题干中的popularity可定位至可定位至F选项(popular Korean city) —并且题干中的 its quality of life thanbusiness attraction与选项中的more popular as a residential area than a business one.均表示受欢迎并非因为商业原因。

　　37.由题干中的The man可定位至I选项，并且题干中的 who first imagined Songdo feels frustrated(沮丧的)与选项中的disappointed为同义词替换。

　　38.由题干中的music video可定位至D选项，并且题干中的shot和选项中的filmed 是明显的同意替换。

　　39.题干中的 lacks the financial stimulus for businesses(缺乏对于商业的经济刺激)与选项中There needs to be strong economic incentives.(需要更强烈的经济激励)属于同意表达。

　　40.题干意思是飞机越来越成为主要交通手段，B段第三行becomes increasingly connected by air

　　41.选项中的The city was supposed to be a hub ... But that's not how it has turned out. (城市本应该是...但是事实并非如此)与题干中的 ended up different from the city it was supposed to be.(最终跟它预想的不同)构成同意替换。

　　42.由workplace可定位至H段，并且题干中complain about boredom与选项中的in prison for weekdays(在工作日犹如在监狱中)均表达工作无聊的意思。

　　43. 题干意思是商业教授说城市未来国际交通便利，定位倒数第二行未来城市应该从国际化角度考虑建在机场附近 build internationally around or near airports，A段正确。

　　44.由urban design professor, 可直接定位至J选项。并且题干中的difficult、 to foresee what happen in the future.与选项中 hard 、to predict the future.分别构成同意替换。

　　45.由专有名词Park Yeon So.、envision Songdo可定位C选项，选项中parental connection(父母连接)与baby(孩子)构成同义词替换。