每日阅读2021.12.07

At some point in 2008, someone, probably in either Asia or Africa, made the decision to move from the countryside to the city. This nameless person pushed the human race over a historic threshold, for it was in that year that mankind became, for the first time in its history, a predominantly urban species.

It is a trend that shows no sign of slowing. Demographers(人 口统计学家）reckon that three-quarters of humanity could be city-dwelling by 2050, with most of the increase coming in the fast-growing towns of Asia and Africa. Migrants to cities are attracted by plentiful jobs, access to hospitals and education, and the ability to escape the boredom of a farmer’s agricultural life. Those factors are more than enough to make up for the squalor（肮脏 ）disease and spectacular poverty that those same migrants must often at first endure when they become urban dwellers.

It is the city that inspires the latest book from Peter Smith. His main thesis is that the buzz of urban life, and the opportunities it offers for cooperation and collaboration, is what attracts people to the city, which in turn makes cities into the engines of art, commerce, science and progress. This is hardly revolutionary, but it is presented in a charming format. Mr Smith has written a breezy guidebook, with a series of short chapters dedicated to specific aspects of urbanity — parks, say, or the various schemes that have been put forward over the years for building the perfect city. The result is a sort of high-quality, unusually rigorous coffee-table book, designed to be dipped into rather than read from beginning to end.

In the chapter on skyscrapers, for example, Mr Smith touches on construction methods, the revolutionary invention of the automatic lift, the practicalities of living in the sky and the likelihood that, as cities become more crowded, apartment living will become the norm. But there is also time for brief diversions onto bizarre ground, such as a discussion of the skyscraper index (which holds that a boom in skyscraper construction is a foolproof sign of an imminent recession).

One obvious criticism is that the price of breadth is depth: many of Mr Smith’s essays raise as many questions as they answer. Although that can indeed be frustrating, this is probably the only way to treat so grand a topic. The city is the building block of civilization and of almost everything people do; a guidebook to the city is really, therefore, a guidebook to how a large and ever-growing chunk of humanity chooses to live. Mr Smiths book serves as an excellent introduction to a vast subject, and will suggest plenty of further lines of inquiry.

单词

1. threshold -n 门槛；入门；开端
2. reckon -v 估计；认为
3. spectacular -adj 壮观的；壮丽的
4. poverty -n 贫穷；缺乏
5. endure -v 忍受；持续
6. urban -adj 城市的
7. dwellers -n 居民
8. thesis -n 论题；命题
9. charming -adj 令人着迷的；吸引人的
10. format -n 计划；设计
11. dedicate -v 奉献
12. specific -adj 具体的；特定的
13. schemes -n 计划；方案
14. rigorous -adj 严格的；枯燥的
15. skyscraper -n 摩天大楼
16. practicalities -n可行性；适用性
17. likelihood -n可能；可能性
18. diversion -n改道；转移
19. essay -n散文
20. frustrating -adj令人懊恼的
21. grand -adj 壮丽的；宏大的
22. vast -adj 广泛的

句子

        1.This nameless person pushed the human race over a historic threshold, for it was in that year that mankind became, for the first time in its history, a predominantly urban species.

这个无名的人将人类推上了一个历史性的门槛，因为正是在那一年，人类历史上第一次成为以城市为主体的物种。

        2.Mr Smiths book serves as an excellent introduction to a vast subject, and will suggest plenty of further lines of inquiry.

史密斯先生的书是对一个广泛主题的极好介绍，并将提出许多进一步的研究方向。