TF阅读真题第940篇Transportation and Urban Development in Los Angeles-托您的福

Transportation and Urban Development in Los Angeles

题目：

In the early twentieth century, the key urban problem in the United States was congestion. Streetcars (public vehicles running on rails)and pedestrians jammed narrow downtown streets and intersections. Many city leaders advocated housing decentralization as the solution, building “streetcar suburbs” along streetcar lines that linked downtown to suburban areas. Ironically, this worsened the problem by producing an increased dependence on the central business district among the suburban residents, who frequently used streetcars to get downtown for work, shopping, and entertainment. Between 1890 and 1920,while the nation’s urban population more than doubled, streetcar ridership rose from a billion rides per year to roughly 15.5 billion. The flood of automobiles that began in the 1910s dramatically worsened congestion. However, it also made it easier for automobile owners to live in decentralized locations, and “car suburbs” appeared in areas beyond the streetcar system.

The low-density development of the new rail-free suburbs had important implications for the daily mobility requirements of their residents. Because the average car suburb’s building lot during this period was roughly five thousand square feet, as compared to three thousand square feet for streetcar suburbs, car suburbs had much lower population densities. This translated into less support for local institutions and retail establishments, which in turn meant longer distances for residents to travel to access everyday goods and services-many of which lay outside their own suburb. Long distances and the lack of public transportation meant that most (if not all) travel occurred by car.

Although these trends played out across the country, they are most easily seen in Los Angeles, California, where numerous car-oriented innovations originated. Between the 1880s and the 1910s, Los Angeles had cemented its distinctive form as a widely spread-out city of detached single-family residences-not in response to the automobile, as is widely but mistakenly believed, but because of close ties between real estate development and the city’s vast streetcar system, which at its peak operated 1,164 miles of track across the Greater Los Angeles area. Like other big cities, Los Angeles’ streetcar lines converged downtown in a compact, pedestrian-oriented retail district featuring both large department stores and a wide range of smaller specialty shops. Also like other big cities, during the 1910s a flood of automobiles began to push downtown traffic congestion in Los Angeles to the breaking point-prompting a series of changes that began Los Angeles’ transformation into the famously car- dependent city that it is today.

Downtown retailers experimented with a variety of responses to the city’s mounting problems. Some, especially large department stores, tried to resolve parking shortages by contracting with nearby private parking lots to provide parking for their customers. Others took the more radical approach of changing their location. Some new department stores, for example, opened along major streetcar routes on the edge of downtown in the direction of affluent settlement, while some smaller specialty retailers fled the core’s high rents by forming a new shopping district on Flower Street, just beyond downtown’s edge. Many more small retailers ventured significantly farther afield, clustering at streetcar stops in established outlying neighborhoods. Most commonly these formed small aggregations of two to ten businesses in basic storefront buildings, but some major arteries (routes) boasted multiblock, linear developments with as many as one hundred stores. Between 1918 and 1922， for example, the number of stores in the “Wonder Street” section of Western Avenue (once the western boundary of the city) jumped from seven to around eighty, drawing customers by foot, streetcar, and automobile from as much as a three-mile radius.

Buoyed by these experiments and inspired by growing numbers of car owners, by the mid-1920s, Los Angeles retailers began opening in outlying locations not served by streetcars. By the end of the decade, a corridor of small stores stretched some twenty-three blocks westward from downtown Los Angeles along Wilshire Boulevard, a major automotive approach into the city. Lacking a streetcar line, this new retail district relied on motorist-consumers, who were attracted to its location on a broad artery with fast-moving traffic and ample roadside parking. Larger retailers, too, relocated outside of downtown. The most notable example was Bullock’s, a high-end downtown department store, which opened a large branch store on Wilshire in 1928-two and a half miles west of downtown. Its orientation toward cars was unmistakable, both in its location and its unusually large, on-site parking lot.

The word “advocated” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Vocabulary Questions词汇题

Abelieved In

Bpromoted

Cdiscussed

Dexpected

The author points out that “streetcar ridership rose from a billion rides per year to roughly 15.5 billion” in order to

Rhetorical Purpose Questions修辞目的题

Aillustrate the success of streetcar suburbs as a means of reducing urban congestion

Bsuggest a reason that automobile ownership became necessary

Cexplain why city leaders chose to support a policy of decentralization

Dsupport the statement that streetcar suburbs worsened the problem of downtown congestion

Select the TWO answer choices that state differences mentioned in paragraph 1 between “car suburbs” and “streetcar suburbs.” To receive credit, you must select TWO answer choices

Rhetorical Purpose Questions修辞目的题

Select 2 answers

ACar suburbs had more traffic congestion problems than streetcar suburbs did

BCar suburbs were located farther away from downtown than streetcar suburbs were

CThere were no streetcar lines connecting car suburbs to the central business district.

DCar suburbs became less popular after streetcar suburbs were created

According to paragraph 2, people in car suburbs had to travel longer distances to access everyday goods and services than people in streetcar suburbs for which of the following reasons?

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

ATheir populations supported fewer local and retail establishments than the populations of streetcar suburbs.

BThere was less land available on which to build retail establishments in car suburbs than in streetcar suburbs.

CThe shopping areas located closer to their homes did not have space to provide parking.

DThey had to drive to streetcar lines first before taking streetcars to shopping areas.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

Sentence Simplification Questions句子简化题

ALos Angeles’ distinctive form as a widely spread-out city with detached single-family residences made the development of a vast streetcar system essential.

BThe automobile was responsible for the success of the Los Angeles real estate industry and the development of widely spread-out detached single-family residences

CBetween the 1880s and 1910s, Los Angeles’ streetcar system was so vast that it was possible to live in detached single-family Residences far from the city center and not need an automobile

DIt was because of close ties between its real estate industry and streetcar system, not because of the automobile, that Los Angeles developed into a widely spread-out city of detached single-family residences.

According to paragraph 4, downtown retailers did all of the following as a response to Los Angeles’ traffic congestion problems EXCEPT

Negative Factual Information Questions否定事实信息题

Arent private parking areas near their stores for their customers to use

Bmove their stores to less congested areas on the edge of downtown

Creplace numerous small specialty stores with large department stores

Dmove outside the downtown area to established streetcar suburb locations

Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 4 about the stores in the “Wonder Street” section of Western Avenue?

Inference Questions推理题

AThey were successful because they were easy for customers to get to in a number of different ways

BThey were larger retail stores than those on Flower Street

CThey reached their peak in popularity before 1920

DThey were the only shopping area in a 3-mile radius.

The word “ample” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Vocabulary Questions词汇题

ANearby

BConvenient

CAbundant

Dnew

Buoyed by these experiments and inspired by growing numbers of car owners, by the mid-1920s, Los Angeles retailers began opening in outlying locations not served by streetcars. [■]By the end of the decade, a corridor of small stores stretched some twenty-three blocks westward from downtown Los Angeles along Wilshire Boulevard, a major automotive approach into the city. [■]Lacking a streetcar line, this new retail district relied on motorist-consumers, who were attracted to its location on a broad artery with fast-moving traffic and ample roadside parking. [■]Larger retailers, too, relocated outside of downtown. The most notable example was Bullock’s, a high-end downtown department store, which opened a large branch store on Wilshire in 1928-two and a half miles west of downtown. [■]Its orientation toward cars was unmistakable, both in its location and its unusually large, on-site parking lot.

Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage

Initially, retailers purchased small lots and constructed structures to suit their needs.Insert Text Questions句子插入题

Where would the sentence best fit？Click on a square sentence to the passage.

The main urban problem in the United States in the early twentieth century was congestion, with Los Angeles, California, reflecting national trends.

Prose Summary Questions概要小结题

Select 3 answers

AStreetcar and automobile ridership to central downtown areas grew enormously, along with urban congestion.

BThe automobile made it easier for residents who lived in suburbs to access everyday goods and services than for those living along streetcar routes.

CAs more and more people became automobile owners, Los Angeles and other cities replaced old streetcar lines with large downtown parking lots.

DDowntown retailers responded to congestion by providing more parking areas for their customers or by moving farther from the city center along streetcar routes.

ESmall specialty shops and retail businesses often joined together to form large department stores, reducing the need for parking spaces

FAs car ownership grew, retailers began opening stores at locations that could only be reached by car.

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