Reading – Cities of the future

Read the following passage and choose the best answer to each question.

Predictions about the Cities of the Future

Cities are built to survive and prosper. Over the years, we have learned to transform our surroundings according to our needs. We have cut through mountains to make more land and created artificial islands to make skyscrapers. City planning, as an organized profession, has existed for less than a century. However, a considerable amount of evidence (both archaeological and historical) proves the existence of fully planned cities in ancient times. Over the years, humans have made some mistakes in terms of using an excessive amount of resources for cities. This gives rise to the question of how sustainable the cities of the future would be.

We might be looking at smart cities in which street lights would only switch on when you are close by and traffic light would be eliminated by smart driving. The cities of the future would try to save our resources rather than deplete them. An example of an advanced city is Kansas. Plans are in place to make Kansas a smart futuristic city in the future. Planners are considering introducing sensors to monitor the water mains. Warning would be issued to city officials when the infrastructure requires repair or replacement. In this way, the city would never be at risk of having broken pipes. While the idea sounds fantastic, a large amount of rational critique has called this plan an oversold dream. Amy Glasmier is an urban planning professor at MIT. She is a smart city skeptic who believes that all the research and talk is great but gravely oversold. 

City planning is thought _______.

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

Silicon Valley is (1) _______ to hundreds of technology companies, so it comes as no surprise that San Jose has partnered with technological giant Intel to transform itself (2) _______ a smart city. San Jose and Intel will work (3) _______ to further the city's Green Vision initiative - a 15-year plan for economic growth, and improve (4) _______ which it launched in 2007. Intel expects to help San Jose create 25,000 clean-tech jobs, drive economic growth, and improve the city's environmental (5) _______. To achieve this (6) _______, Intel will work with the city to track real-time data on air quality, noise pollution, traffic flow, and other environmental and (7) _______concerns which it will then use to encourage (8) _______to reduce emissions by using public transportation or bicycles to get to work or school.

Smart cities may sound like something of the distant future (9)_______ many people thought the same thing about smartphones and smart homes. Up to now, over 70 percent of American adults have owned a smartphone and 1.9 billion smart home devices have been installed.   If smart cities are (10) _______like these other smart innovations, we will see them appear in our communities sooner rather than later.

Silicon Valley is (1)         to hundreds of technology companies,…

Silicon Valley is (1)         to hundreds of technology companies,…

City planning is thought _______.