0903高级口译听力考试文本(下半场)
Note -Taking and Gap-Filling
How is urbanization negatively affecting our society? The answer to this question is not a simple one. When answering this question, one must understand that urbanization cannot be stopped but only contained in a manner that will help the United States to function better as a country.
The more densely populated and more heterogeneous a community is, the more accentuated characteristics can be associated with urbanism. Urbanism promotes urban violence, political instability, crime and aggressive behavior. Rapid population growth in urban areas also perpetuates poverty. Another major issue being created by this social problem is the breaking of the traditional family structure. Our cities are not working well---sanitation, safety, transportation, housing, education, and even electricity are failing. These are all responsibilities of the government, or it is at least their job to regulate these services deemed to be monopolies. And it is a known fact that monopolies deem toward inefficiency.
Functionalists look at our cities as a means to profit. Cities are a place where everybody visits. And therefore vendors can raise their prices and profit more on their products. For example, from my own personal experience, I bought a pack of cigarettes for three dollars at my local gas station. And when I visited inner city Orlando, I bought the same brand of cigarettes for four dollars.
In the United States, the breaking of the traditional family structure is an issue that has become increasingly noticeable in recent years, particularly in urbanized areas. The traditional mom-and-dad-and-children are rarely seen in the inner cities any more. There is a weakened bond of kinship and declining social family significance as America has transferred industrial, educational and recreational activities to specialized institutions outside of the home. It is depriving families of their most characteristic, historical functions. With divorce rates rising, delinquency is also becoming more of a problem than before. In single-parent families, parents spend less time with children. These specialized institutions often help, but cannot replace the role of a child guardian. As long as the divorce rate continues to increase, delinquency will continue to increase in these areas as well.
The variations of people give rise to segregation of people by race, religious practices, ethnic heritage as well as economic and social status. Segregation often creates much tension and prejudice between social groups. This can cause physical or mental damage to individuals or society. As for racism and segregation, there is not much that can be done to fix these problems. Individuals will always have their own opinions, no matter how ignorant. And the only thing we can do is to hope that these problems die out as we desegregate our community. People will choose their destination or place of residence according to many different ideals and needs, for example, what fits their budget? The government assumes major responsibility for development attempting to meet rapid and increasing demands for education, housing, agriculture and industrial development, transportation and employment. The government budget is not distributed equally mainly due to differentiation in areas. Areas with higher income will obviously have a higher budget to work with. |
