英语四级阅读练习是提升英语能力不可或缺的环节。通过深入的阅读练习，我们不仅能够锤炼语言技巧，还能有效扩充四级考试的词汇库，进一步加深对语法知识的理解。这种综合性的学习方式，无疑为全面提升英语水平打下了坚实的基础。以下，我们将以一篇城市发展的文章为例，进行英语四级阅读练习。
英文原文
Mass transportation revised the social andeconomic fabric of the American city in threefundamental ways. It catalyzed physicalexpansion, it sorted out people and land uses, andit accelerated the inherent instability of urban life.
大众运输以三种基本方式重塑了美国城市的社会经济结构。它推动了物理扩张，对人口和土地利用进行了分类，并加速了城市生活固有的不稳定性。
By opening vast areas of unoccupied land forresidential expansion, the omnibuses, horserailways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to fourtimes more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, forexample, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by theturn of the century the radius extended ten miles.
通过开发大片未占用的土地用于住宅扩张，公共汽车、马拉轨道车、通勤火车和电动轨道车将定居区域向城市中心以外扩展了两到四倍的距离，比前现代时期更远。例如，1850年，波士顿的边界距离老商业区仅有两英里；到世纪之交时，半径扩展到了十英里。
Now those who could afford it could live farremoved from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, andentertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major citysparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urbansprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recordedwithin the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxiousto take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housedfive to six million people.
现在，那些买得起房子的人可以远离旧城市中心居住，同时仍可以通勤上班、购物和娱乐。几乎每个主要城市周边土地的新增可通达性引发了房地产开发的爆炸式增长，并推动了我们现在所说的城市蔓延。例如，在1890年至1920年间，芝加哥市界内记录了约25万个新住宅地块，其中大部分位于外围地区。在同一时期，芝加哥市界外但位于大都市区的地块又规划了55万个。急于利用通勤的可能性，房地产开发商在短短三十年内就为芝加哥地区增加了80万个潜在建筑用地——这些地块可以容纳五六百万人。
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature ofresidential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl wasessentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid littleheed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared landfor residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines andmiddle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond toit. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded muchfaster than population growth.
当然，许多地块从未被占用；芝加哥和其他城市周围总是存在大量被分割但空置的土地。这些过剩现象凸显了与大众运输增长相关的住宅扩张的一个特点：城市蔓延基本上是未经规划的。它是由成千上万的小投资者进行的，他们很少关注协调土地利用或未来的土地使用者。那些购买并准备土地用于住宅用途的人，尤其是预计会有交通线路和中产阶级居民入住的城市边界附近或以外的土地，他们的行为与其说是响应需求，不如说是创造需求。芝加哥就是这一过程的典型例子。那里的房地产细分速度远远超过了人口增长速度。
问题
1. With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
A. Types of mass transportation.
B. Instability of urban life.
C. How supply and demand determine land use.
D. The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
2. Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?
A. To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
B. To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
C. To show mass transportation changed many cities.
D. To contrast their rate of growth.
3. According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?
A. It was expensive.
B. It happened too slowly.
C. It was unplanned.
D. It created a demand for public transportation.
4. The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
A. that is large.
B. that is used as a model for land development.
C. where the development of land exceeded population growth.
D. with an excellent mass transportation system.
答案解析
1. D 公共交通运输对城市扩展的影响。文章开门见山提出这一点“公共交通运输从三个根本方面改变了美国城市的社会和经济结构。”后面文章内容就是三方面的具体化。
2. C 说明公共交通改变了许多城市。答案箭第一段第四句“举例说，1850年，波士顿市界离老的商业地区几乎不到2英里，到了这世纪末，其半径扩至10英里。现在供得起的人们可以住得很远，远离老的城市中心，仍然来回去那里上班、购物和娱乐”。第七句，“举例说，在1890至1920年期间，据记载，芝加哥市界内有约250，000个新的住宅楼区大多数设在郊区。经过同样这段时期，市区外，但仍在芝加哥大都市地区内，又计划建造了550，000个住宅楼区。”
3. C 没有计划。见第二段第三句起“城市扩展蔓延根本无计划，好几千个小的投资商进行扩展，毫不考虑相互协调配合利用土地，也不考虑未来土地利用。”
4. C(第二段中以芝加哥城市例子说明)土地开发超过人口增长速度。答案详见第二段“这些购买和置备土地建设住宅，特别是购置临近城市或就在市界外的土地，抢在交通线路和中产阶层的居民进去之前。他们这样做的目的是创造一种需求，也是响应这种需求。芝加哥就是这种过程的典型例子。那里的房地产小块土地比人口增长快得很多很多。”
以上就是英语四级阅读练习：城市发展的文章示例，希望这些练习能够成为你英语学习路上的得力助手，助你轻松应对四级考试！
