2010年12月GMAT阅读新题最终版-Natural Science Division(4)

2.3. Astronomy & Environmental Science
  2.3.1 城市扩张 CITY SPRWAL
  第一段:以前对于城市扩张的研究都是依据推测,最近发明一种方法,可以通过卫星图片检测。
  第二段:为了取得footing,讲了三种因素对城市扩张的影响。他们是CLIMATE,HILLS,undergroundWATER。这三种都是有影响的。他们首先发现climate是一个原因,in mild climate, people tend to spread out. 还发现hill和mountain也是原因,hill是引起人们在hilly地方建造的成本,而mountain则是barrier,帮助compact city(有道题目说hill和mountain起direct 作用,我觉得是错的);还有地下水也有帮助,easy access to groundwater may help. (有题)
  第三段:讲了道路系统对城市没有evidence证明影响。虽然以前一直认为有。
  第四段:讲了城市行政划分(大都市区的城市municipalities数量,也就是法律约束区别)对城市扩张没有影响。虽然以前一直认为有。但是解释说可能是由于人们倾向于住在城市边缘正好外面的地方,这样可以不受城市里严格法律的约束;
  第五段:总结,然后他们发现有些common complaints是正确的:scattered导致城市基础建设成本增加。作者同意这个,提到获得更多补助的城市的发展更加scattered,然后提到说由于城市的建设需要纳税人的钱,所以纳税人更倾向于不需要那么多基础设施建设的发展模式。小组的目标就是帮人们建立概念
  Q1 说第二段和第三四段的关系,我选的是二是讲有什么影响了,三是纠正一些以前觉得有影响但实际上没有的。
  【这里开始是怀疑被删减的部分,根据GG,第一段只提了新研究和卫星】
  A View Of Urban Sprawl From Outer Space Recent urban development in Los Angeles is less scattered than recent development in Boston. Miami is America's most compact big city and Pittsburgh is most sprawling. Changing the number or size of municipal governments in a metro area has no impact on whether or not urban development is scattered, but controlling access to groundwater does.
  【控制地下水has impact on是否城市发展呈分散化】
  These are among the startling findings from a University of Toronto-based team of researchers who used satellite data and aerial photography to create a grid of 8.7 billion data cells tracking the evolution of land use in the continental United States.
  Matthew Turner and Diego Puga of the University of Toronto, Marcy Burchfield of the Neptis Foundation, a Toronto-based organization focused on urban and regional research, and Henry Overman of the London School of Economics present their findings in the May issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics, in a paper entitled Causes of Sprawl: A Portrait(标本,模型) from Space. Heavily illustrated with Geographic Information System images, the paper challenges conventional wisdom about urban sprawl and presents a vivid and detailed picture of land consumption in America's cities.

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