1 . With over 4.1 billion people, or around 55 percent of the world’s population, living in urban areas, cities and towns worldwide are getting increasingly jammed. In addition to spending hours stuck in traffic, residents are also exposed to high air pollution levels caused by   transportation emissions(排放). Now, Saudi Arabia hopes to overturn urban living with “The   Line”—a futuristic city designed around nature, without cars, roads and crowded places!       

The totally different city, announced on January 10, 2021, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince(王储)Mohammed bin Salman(MBS).Located in Neom, a 10, 000-square-mile high-tech planned development on the Red Sea coast. The Line will be the base of MBS’s Saudi Vision 2030. The strategic plan aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy into other fields, like                    tourism, and create exciting job opportunities for its citizens.

The 105-mile-long city, expected to cost between $100 billion and $200 billion, will be built along a straight line and comprise several self-sustaining communities. To ensure all services are within a short, five-minute walk, each community will feature a three-layer infrastructure(基础设施)．

There will be no cars or roads on the top “pedestrian layer”, so residents can freely walk and bike in the surrounding green spaces. The second “service layer”, will include all essential daily services, such as schools, medical clinics, leisure facilities, and grocery stores. The third “spine layer” will house ultra-high-speed transportation and autonomous vehicles transporting residents across communities in less than 20 minutes. The entire city will be powered with renewable clean energy sources such as solar and wind, and possibly even hydrogen．

If all goes according to the plan, construction of this groundbreaking, complex infrastructure project will start before the end of 2021. In addition to providing up to a million residents with a clean and stress-free living environment, the Line is expected to create 380, 000 new jobs, promote economic diversification, and contribute a shocking $48 billion to Saudi Arabia’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP)by 2030. More importantly, MBS believes it will provide governments worldwide a blueprint for how people and planet can co-exist in harmony.

1. Where can you purchase a bike if living in The Line?

A．Pedestrian layer.	B．Service layer.
C．Spine layer.	D．The green spaces.

2. Which of the following can best describe the project of The Line?

A．Widely-accepted.	B．Ill-considered.
C．Risk-taking.	D．Mind-blowing.

3. What does MBS think is the most important effect of The Line?

A．To facilitate Saudi economic diversification.

B．To offer a model for nature-man integration.

C．To boost the government’s finances.

D．To create more job opportunities.

4. What might be the best title of the text?

A．Saudi Vision for Environmental Protection

B．The Construction of The Line Is Underway

C．MBS：An Influential Leader of Saudi Arabia

D．MBS’ Vision of a Futuristic Zero Carbon City

2 . According to a report by the United Nations，54 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas and it predicts that by 2050，this figure will have increased to around 70 percent.But as more and more people migrate from the countryside to the city to get better opportunities，they can end up with nowhere to live.

This is true in places such as Rio de Janeiro，where migrants can’t rent or buy a home，and they end up building their own communities and houses on unoccupied land.These are called shanty towns—poor communities where the houses are built out of cheap materials—and often don’t have any electricity or water supply.

These are，of course，not the megacities(大城市)of the future we want to see. Some serious urban planning is needed to make our cities of the future good，safe and modern places to live in. This involves improving the infrastructure(基础设施)，the housing conditions and also the opportunities for education and employment.

Something urban planners are looking at now is the creation of “smart cities”. According to John Rossant，founder and chairman of the non-profit organization New Cities Foundation ，technology is the way forward.He thinks that it’s generally accepted that“cloud computing, ubiquitous internet，robust 5G networks,etc，will transform our cities.” He says technology is really “a game changer” in urbanisation. It would collect large amounts of data about how a city is performing and may improve how a city functions.

This may sound like a utopian(乌托邦似的)view. For now，some big cities around the world are trying out more low—tech schemes to try and make them desirable places to live and work in. Building shared—ownership housing and improving public transport are some ways. And encouraging cycling and building bike lanes can keep the population healthy and cut down on smog. What would make your city a better place to live in?

1. What’s the text mainly about?

A．The city of the future.	B．The increase of the population.
C．Urban construction.	D．The function of smart cities.

2. Why does the author mention Rio de Janeiro in Paragraph 2?

A．To show the growth of the world population.

B．To show the problems in urbanization.

C．To show poor living conditions of the city.

D．To show financial trouble of the city.

3. What plays an important role in the creation of smart cities?

A．Technology.	B．Urban planning.
C．The infrastructure of the city.	D．Opportunities for education.

4. What can we know from the last paragraph?

A．High-tech plans can be easily realized.

B．Public transport is well developed in cities.

C．Shared-ownership houses make no sense.

D．Ways of low-tech are available at present.