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前期外刊精读：
A south Korean city designed for the future takes on a life of its own
A) Getting around a city is one thing — and then there’s the matter of getting from one city to another. One vision of the perfect city of the future: a place that offers easy access to air travel. In 2011, a University of North Carolina business professor named John Kasarda published a book called Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. Kasarda says future cities should be built intentionally around or near airports. The idea, as he has put it, is to offer businesses “rapid, long-distance connectivity on a massive scale.”
B) “The 18th century really was a waterborne century, the 19th century a rail century, the 20th century a highway, car, truck century — and the 21st century will increasingly be an aviation century, as the globe becomes increasingly connected by air,” Kasarda says. Songdo, a city built from scratch in South Korea, is one of Kasarda’s prime examples. It has existed for just a few years. “From the get-go, it was designed on the basis of connectivity and competitiveness,” says Kasada. “The government built the bridge directly from the airport to the Songdo International Business District. And the surface infrastructure was built in tandem with the new airport.”
C) Songdo is a stone’s throw from South Korea’s Incheon Airport, its main international hub. But it takes a lot more than a nearby airport to be a city of the future. Just building a place as an “international business district” doesn’t mean it will become one. Park Yeon Soo conceived this city of the future back in 1986. He considers Songdo his baby. “I am a visionary,” he says. Thirty years after he imagined the city, Park’s baby is close to 70 percent built, with 36,000 people living in the business district and 90,000 residents in greater Songdo. It’s about an hour outside Seoul, built on reclaimed tidal flats along the Yellow Sea. There’s a Coast Guard building and a tall trade tower, as well as a park, golf course and university.
D) Chances are you’ve actually seen this place. Songdo appears in the most famous music video ever to come out of South Korea. “Gangnam Style” refers to the fashionable Gangnam district in Seoul. But some of the video was filmed in Songdo. “I don’t know if you remember, there was a scene in a subway station. That was not Gangnam. That was actually Songdo,” says Jung Won Son, a professor of urban development at London’s Bartlett School of Planning. “Part of the reason to shoot there is that it’s new and nice.”
E) The city was supposed to be a hub for global companies, with employees from all over the world. But that’s not how it has turned out. Songdo’s reputation is as a futuristic ghost town. But the reality is more complicated. A bridge with big, light-blue loops leads into the business district. In the center of the main road, there’s a long line of flags of the world. On the corner, there’s a Starbucks and a 7-Eleven — all of the international brands that you see all over the world nowadays.
F) The city is not empty. There are mothers pushing strollers, old women with walkers — even in the middle of the day, when it’s 90 degrees out. Byun Young-Jin chairs the Songdo real estate association and started selling property here when the first phase of the city opened in 2005. He says demand has boomed in the past couple of years. Most of his clients are Korean. In fact, the developer says, 99 percent of the homes here are sold to Koreans. Young families move here because the schools are great. And that’s the problem: Songdo has become a popular Korean city — more popular as a residential area than a business one. It’s not yet the futuristic international business hub that planners imagined. “It’s a great place to live. And it’s becoming a great place to work,” says Scott Summers, the vice president of Gale International, the developer of the city. The floor-to-ceiling windows of his company’s offices overlook Songdo Central Park, with a canal full of kayaks and paddle boats. Shimmering glass towers line the canal’s edge.
G) “What’s happened is, because we focused on creating that quality of life first, which enabled the residents to live here, what has probably missed the mark is for companies to locate here,” he says. “There needs to be strong economic incentives. “The city is still unfinished, and it feels a bit like a theme park. It doesn’t feel all that futuristic. There’s a high-tech underground trash disposal system. Buildings are environmentally friendly. Everybody’s television set is connected to a system that streams personalized language or exercise classes.
H) But Star Trek this is not. And to some of the residents, Songdo feels hollow. “I’m, like, in prison for weekdays. That’s what we call it in the workplace,” says a woman in her 20s. She doesn’t want to use her name for fear of being fired from her job. She goes back to Seoul every weekend. “I say I’m prison-breaking on Friday nights. “But she has to make the prison break in her own car. There’s no high-speed train connecting Songdo to Seoul, just over 20 miles away.
I) The man who first imagined Songdo feels frustrated, too. Park says he built South Korea a luxury vehicle, “like Mercedes or BMW. It’s a good car now. But we’re waiting for a good driver to accelerate. “But there are lots of other good cars out there, too. The world is dotted with futuristic, high-tech cities trying to attract the biggest international companies.
J) Songdo’s backers contend that it’s still early, and business space is filling up — about 70 percent of finished offices are now occupied. Brent Ryan, who teaches urban design at MIT, says Songdo proves a universal principle. “There have been a lot of utopian cities in history. And the reason we don’t know about a lot of them is that a lot of them have vanished entirely.” In other words, when it comes to cities — or anything else — it is hard to predict the future..
单词
Aerotropolis– a city intentionally built around or near an airport, designed to offer businesses rapid, long-distance connectivity on a massive scale. 飞机都市
例句: The idea of an aerotropolis is gaining popularity as more cities try to attract global businesses.
Connectivity– the state of being connected or interconnected. 连通性
例句: The city’s easy connectivity to the rest of the world through its airport attracts many international companies.
Competitiveness– the ability to compete successfully in the marketplace. 竞争力
例句: The government built Songdo with competitiveness in mind, hoping to attract more international business.
Visionary– someone with original ideas and the ability to imagine what the future could be like. 有远见的人
例句: Park Yeon Soo is considered a visionary who imagined and brought to life the city of Songdo.
Globalcompanies– large corporations with operations in more than one country. 全球公司
例句: Songdo was designed to be a hub for global companies with employees from all over the world.
Ghosttown– a deserted or abandoned town or city. 废弃城镇
例句: Despite being built to attract international business, Songdo has been described as a futuristic ghost town.
Demand– the level of interest or desire for a particular product or service. 需求
例句: Demand for property in Songdo has increased in recent years, although mostly from Korean buyers.
Residentialarea– a place where people live, as opposed to a commercial or industrial area. 住宅区
例句: Songdo has become a more popular residential area than had been planned, with young families attracted by the great schools.
Qualityof life– the overall level of satisfaction with one’s living conditions, including access to services and facilities. 生活质量
例句: Songdo focused on creating a high quality of life for residents first, which may have led to a lack of economic incentives for businesses to locate there.
Economicincentives– benefits or advantages offered to companies to encourage them to locate in a particular area. 经济激励措施
例句: Economic incentives may need to be increased to attract more international businesses to Songdo.
Environmentallyfriendly– designed to have a minimal negative impact on the environment. 环保的
例句: Songdo’s buildings are environmentally friendly, with a high-tech underground trash disposal system.
Personalized– customized or tailored to a specific individual. 个性化的
例句: Songdo’s television system streams personalized language or exercise classes for each resident.
High-tech– using advanced technology, especially electronics and computer science. 高科技的
例句: Songdo’s underground trash disposal system is a high-tech solution to managing waste.
Marketplace– the arena of commercial competition where businesses sell their goods or services. 市场
例句: In today’s global marketplace, cities need to offer competitive advantages to attract international companies.
Abandoned– left behind or deserted. 废弃的
例句: Many industrial cities in the US have become abandoned, as companies moved their operations to other countries.
Infrastructure– the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for a society to function efficiently. 基础设施
例句: The surface infrastructure in Songdo was built in tandem with the new airport to support the expected influx of international business.
Incentive– something that motivates or encourages someone to take action. 刺激措施
例句: Financial incentives, like tax breaks or grants, can encourage businesses to locate in a particular area.
Urbandevelopment– the planning and design of urban areas, with a focus on how people will live and work in them. 城市发展
例句: Professor Jung Won Son is an expert in urban development, and the architect behind the city of Songdo.
Residency– the state or period of living in a particular place. 居住状态
例句: Songdo has attracted many families looking for a high-quality residency, rather than just a workplace.
Transportation– the movement of people or goods from one place to another. 运输
例句: Efficient transportation is crucial for economic growth and competitiveness, especially in a globalized marketplace.
Reading Questions：
36. Songdo’s popularity lies more in its quality of life than its business attraction.
37. The man who conceived Songdo feels disappointed because it has fallen short of his expectations.
38. A scene in a popular South Korean music video was shot in Songdo.
39. Songdo still lacks the financial stimulus for businesses to set up shop there.
40. Airplanes will increasingly become the chief means of transportation, according to a professor.
41. Songdo has ended up different from the city it was supposed to be.
42. Some of the people who work in Songdo complain about boredom in the workplace.
43. A business professor says that a future city should have easy access to international transportation.
44. According to an urban design professor, it is difficult for city designers to foresee what will happen in the future.
45. Park Yeon Soo, who envisioned Songdo, feels a parental connection with the city.
滑动查看答案
Answers
36.F 37.I 38.D 39.G 40.B 41.E 42.H 43.A 44.J 45.C
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