However urban life strikes you, cities worldwide have been growing ever more rapidly. Some of this growth has happened in the developed world, but the most dramatic increase has been in the Third World. Almost all the world’s population growth over the next 30 years will take place in the cities of developing countries.
By the year 2030, for the first time in history, 60 percent of the world’s people will be living in cities.
This is actually good news in some ways. “Cities are the fundamental building blocks of prosperity(繁荣),” says Marc Weiss, chairman of the Prague Institute for Global Urban Development, “both for the nation and for families.” Industrial and commercial activities in urban areas account for between 50 and 80 percent of the GDP(国内生产总值) in most countries of the world. “There’s the crazy idea that the way to deal with a city’s problems is to keep people out of them.” Weiss continued. “But the problems of the rural life are even more serious than those of the city.” For better or worse, urban-watchers are clear on one point: The quality of life for most people in the future will be determined by the quality of cities. Those cities will be bigger than ever. And yet, population numbers by themselves don’t determine a city’s prospects; after all, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Hamburg, Germany, have the same population. Nor is explosive growth necessarily the determining factor. “City problems,” one authority points out, “mostly have to do with weak, ineffective, and usually unrepresentative city governments.”
小题1:According to the passage, in the year of 2030 _______.
A．there will be many cities having a population of more than 10 million.
B．rural area will be extinct (灭绝).
C．most people will live in cities.
D．the third world will keep up with the developed world.小题2:In the author’s opinion, _________.
A．better city, better life
B．both urban and rural areas will have a large population
C．the larger the population is, the faster a city develops
D．both urban and rural areas have larger GDP小题3:The last paragraph implies that ____________.
A．Public services are ineffective.
B．Cities are increasing too fast.
C．Population is not linked with development.
D．Government should be responsible for the problems in the cities.