Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
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 is 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 outset, it was designed on the basis of connectivity and competitiveness,” says Kasarda. “The government built the bridge directly from the airport to the Songdo International Business District. And the surface infrastructure was built at the same time as 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. Park sees himself as a visionary. 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 former 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 comer, 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 baby carriages, 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, 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 small boats and people fishing. Shimmering (闪烁的)glass towers line the canal’s edge.
[G] “What’s happened is that our focus on creating that quality of life first has enabled the residents to live here,” Summers says. But there needs to be strong economic incentives for companies to locate here. 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 this is not Star Trek. 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] Park Y eon Soo, the man who first imagined Songdo, feels frustrated, too. He 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 they 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 conceived 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. Airplanes 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. According to an urban design professor, it is difficult for city designers to foresee what will happen in the future.
45. Park Y eon Soo, who envisioned Songdo, feels a parental connection with the city.
答案解析：
36. 根据“And that’s the problem: Songdo has become a popular Korean city more popular as a residential area than a business one.”(这就是问题所在：松岛已成为韩国一个受欢迎的城市，作为住宅区比作为商业区更受欢迎)，可知松岛的受欢迎之处更多在于其生活质量而非商业吸引力，所以选F。
37. 根据“Park Yeon Soo, the man who first imagined Songdo, feels frustrated, too. He 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.’”(最先构想松岛的朴延洙也感到沮丧。他说他给韩国造了一辆豪华车，“就像奔驰或宝马。现在它是辆好车。但我们还在等一个好司机来加速”)，可知构想松岛的人感到失望，因为它没有达到他的期望，所以选I。
38. 根据“Chances are you’ve actually seen this place. Songdo appears in the most famous music video ever to come out of South Korea.”(你很可能见过这个地方。松岛出现在韩国有史以来最著名的音乐录影带中)，可知韩国一首流行音乐录影带中的一个场景是在松岛拍摄的，所以选D。
39. 根据“But there needs to be strong economic incentives for companies to locate here.”(但需要强有力的经济激励措施来吸引公司落户这里)，可知松岛仍然缺乏企业入驻的经济刺激，所以选G。
40. 根据“the 21st century will increasingly be an aviation century, as the globe becomes increasingly connected by air”(随着全球通过航空日益紧密地连接起来，21世纪将越来越成为一个航空世纪)，可知一位教授表示，飞机将日益成为主要的交通工具，所以选B。
41. 根据“It’s not yet the futuristic international business hub that planners imagined.”(它还不是规划者想象中的未来国际商业中心)，可知松岛最终与它原本应该成为的城市不同，所以选E。
42. 根据“I’m, like, in prison for weekdays. That’s what we call it in the workplace”(我工作日就像在监狱里一样。我们工作场合都这么叫)，可知一些在松岛工作的人抱怨工作场所无聊，所以选H。
43. 根据“One vision of the perfect city of the future is a place that offers easy access to air travel.”(对未来完美城市的一种设想是，一个能方便搭乘飞机出行的地方)，可知一位商业教授表示，未来的城市应该方便国际交通，所以选A。
44. 根据“In other words, when it comes to cities—or anything else—it is hard to predict the future.”(换句话说，当谈到城市——或其他任何事情时——很难预测未来)，可知一位城市设计教授表示，城市设计师很难预见未来会发生什么，所以选J。
45. 根据“He considers Songdo his baby.”(他认为松岛是他的孩子)，可知构想出松岛的朴延洙对这座城市有类似父母的情感联系，所以选C。
