现象

Relocate to cities 搬去城市

A growing population 不断增长的人口

Population expansion/explosion 人口扩张/爆炸

Population is mobile 人口流动大

valuable services / essential services 基础设施

city dweller(s) 城市居民

成因

declining agricultural population 务农人口减少

developmental imbalance between cities and the countryside 发展不平衡

the income gap between urban and rural residents 收入差距

in search of job/employment opportunities 找工作

cities offer higher standard of living 高水平生活

a lack of well-developed infrastructure基础设施不完善

be allowed lower access to education = be likely to be poorly educated 教育

medical resources concentrated in cities 医疗

electricity and fuel supply能源

影响

优点

transfer excessing agricultural labors

more job opportunities, higher income 就业机会多，收入高

better living conditions and infrastructures (medical care, traffic, education, entertainment)交通、教育、医疗、娱乐等基础设施完善

prompt economic development of whole society 经济发展

push the industrialization process 工业化进程

问题

put pressure on 带来压力(不要用bring)

keep pace with the demand 满足需求

reduce the quality of life

low-income people

人文：

cost of living is higher in urban than that in rural areas

fast-paced life / lack a sense of community / loss of community spirit and values / life can be extremely stressful

人们不会有社区的感觉，人与人之间的关系比较短暂，社区的团结和价值不复存在

社会：

housing shortage 住房紧缺

cannot afford house ownership 买不起房子

widen the gap between the rich and the poor

problems like traffic congestion and crime

rising rate of crime, unstable society

increasing mobility of population, high mobility of populations 大量的流动人口会导致犯罪率上升，影响社会稳定

经济：

increased infrastructure costs人口增加导致基础设施的费用增加（住房、医疗、教育等等）

facilities like water supplies and public transport cannot cope with the demands from increased population

环境：

Necessities are provided but at the cost of the environment

Cities are sometimes described as “metallic forest”

monotonous suburban landscapes ≈ eyesore [C]（建筑等）丑东西

traffic congestion 交通堵塞

delay the delivery of goods and services 影响工作效率，延误商品和服务的输送

口语Part 3练习：

Question: What are some of the serious problems associated with living in big cities?

练习一下下面的回答，说到熟练为止：

观点1：The main problem is that cities are increasingly crowded.

原因：Many people have relocated to large cities in search of employment opportunities.

结果1：Cities do not have facilities to keep pace with the demand.

结果2：This can reduce the quality of life of many city dwellers because many people are not able to afford housing ownership.

观点2：A growing population also puts pressure on the city’s infrastructure.

举例：The public transport service, for example, will be overused.

结果：Transport costs will also increase, and low-income people will be among the most affected.

解决方法

人文

保持当地的城市风貌和文化protect the local landscape and culture

community councils, take part in community activities

环境：

保护和提升自然和文化资源preserve/conserve and enhance natural and cultural resources in cities

使人们具有更强的环保意识 raise awareness / awareness campaigns

社会：

发展甚础设施的建设upgrade infrastructures, roads, streets, rapid transit system, telecommunications

develop policies to boost rural development, create employment opportunities, raise income

高层建筑：High-rise buildings, which make most use of land and space, can help solve the overcrowding problems.

例题1：The major cities in the world are growing fast, as well as their problems. What are the problems that young people living in cities are facing with? Give solutions to these problems.

例题2：The movement of people from agricultural areas to cities to work can cause serious problems in both places. What are the most serious problems? How to solve them?

例题3：Some findings have revealed that cities around the world are growing large. Could you outline the possible causes and predict consequences?

例题4：Today, the qualities of life of people in big cities are worse. What causes of this problem? Any measures should be taken to solve it?

例题5：In some countries, governments are encouraging industries and businesses to move out of large cities and into regional areas. Do you think the advantages of this development outweigh its disadvantages?

例题6：As traffic and accommodation problems are increasing in large cities, the government encourages businesses move to the rural area. Do you think the advantages outweigh disadvantage?

The movement of people from agricultural areas to cities to work can cause serious problems in both places. What are the serious problems and what measures can be taken to solve this problem?

Nowadays, an increased number of people born in the boondocks choose to relocate their residence and careers to neighboring cities or flock into / flood in far-off metropolises in search of more favorable working opportunities and living conditions. In my opinion, this trend will pose threat to both cities and country areas though. 

In terms of the problems confronting cities, a large influx of rural migrants puts the cities’ facilities and housing under huge pressure. Precisely, the city’s facilities cannot satisfy the growing demand for clean water and sanitation. In addition, the limited land resources cannot keep the pace with increasing population, especially in some land-scarce places. Those newcomers who fail to afford house ownership may live in the slums/favela and withstand poor living conditions. With primitive sanitation, people are more likely to contract diseases, like malaria, dengue, or cholera.

Correspondingly, cities’ growing population means the number of labor workers in rural areas is decreasing. It is because urban areas can provide more job opportunities to young people than the countryside does. As a result, many ambitious graduates, especially those who were born in agricultural areas while have received higher education in cities, would rather choose to find employment and move to cities than go back to the countryside. The deficiency of labor impedes the economic development in rural communities, consequently aggravating the imbalance of development between rural and urban areas.

To solve the problem lying in cities’ sanitation caused by the mass migration, the municipal council can build up more facilities like water cleaning machines and sanitation stations to satisfy the huge demand for basic necessities. Besides, the authorities can also build more high-rise apartments, creating a vertical city, to relieve the shortage of lands and the overcrowding problem. As for the problem of the shortage of manpower in agricultural areas, industries can be encouraged to be relocated from cities to rural areas and therefore, these industries will attract the young people who have decided to settle down in cities to come back to the country areas again. In this way, the economic gap between urban and agricultural areas will be closed. 

介绍段：Report ：1. 找新主语改写原题背景 + 2. 承上启下

With modern buildings being increasingly analogous with/to one another, the idea for city planning has gradually converged, and the distinctions among the cultures which used to be contained in various buildings are being blurred. In my opinion, the development of modern civil engineering should be responsible for the convergence/resemblance in the architectural field.

主体段A：原因

Technological advancement gives birth to standardized paradigms for constructing urban buildings. In order to enhance efficiency and productivity, when there is an already-existing optimal remedy for building and planning cities, the easiest choice to make is to copy and paste the successful metropolises’ experience of city construction. Hence, standardized and universal urban construction is widely employed worldwide. For example, Chinese traditional wooden buildings have been replaced by reinforced concrete structures; Beijing’s Ring Road System has worked effectively in Wuhan’s urban construction. This has also happened universally. Besides, modernized techniques give birth to vertical cities to accommodate a larger urban population, and therefore, skyscrapers, for instance, have grown in number everywhere, which has developed increasingly uniform architectural styles.

主体段B：优缺点

On the other hand, despite the seemingly prosperous development of architecture, the gradual convergence of buildings and cities causes inconvenience to urban dwellers’ life and visitors’ tours. There are similar streets, junctions, and edifices that would confuse the locals or even get them lost; also, there is a lack of distinctive landmarks or historic attractions in a concrete jungle, which would definitely dampen any tourist’s enthusiasm/passion for visiting. In the long run, the city would not only arouse antipathy from urban inhabitants but also become indistinctive or even an eyesore, being negligible in the world.  【总分总结构】

From a more macro and societal perspective, the phenomenon damages cultural diversity. As time went by, numerous historic buildings and architectural styles have been ushered out by modern high-rise buildings. This process of the replacement is irreversible, which means the historic buildings (e.g. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, quadrangle dwellings of China, and Japanese wooden pagodas), along with their cultural connotations, would not resurge once they were gone.

总结段：万能的“虽然但是”

To put it in a nutshell, the global similarity of buildings and city planning witness the development of modern technology, but it is worth mentioning that under/in the circumstances, residents’ life and local tourism will be detrimentally affected while the cultural diversity would not be properly preserved/maintained/protected.