陳蕙雅思教材 - 雅思閱讀精選 (Suburbanization)

Suburbanization

If by "suburb"is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its

already developedinterior, the process    ofsuburbanization began during the

emergence of theindustrial city in the second quarter of the nineteenth        

century. Before thatperiod the city was a small highly compact cluster in

which people moved abouton foot and   goods were conveyed by horseand cart.

But the  early factories  built  in  the  1830's and  1840's  were  

located  along  waterways  and  near railheads at the edges of cities,

and housing was neededfor the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of

employment. In time, thefactories were surrounded by proliferating mill

towns of apartments  and   row  houses  that abutted  the  older, main  

cities.  As a  defense  against this encroachment and to enlarge their

tax      bases, the cities appropriated theirindustrial neighbors. In

1854,  for example,  the  city of  Philadelphia  annexed     most  of  

Philadelphia  County. Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago

and in New York. Indeed,most great      cities of the UnitedStates achieved

such status only byincorporating the communities along their borders.

With theacceleration  of industrial growth cameacute urban crowding and

accompanying socialstress -- conditions           that beganto approach disastrous

proportions when, in1888, the first commercially successful   electric

traction          line was  developed.  Within  a  few  years  the horse-drawn

trolleys were  retired and electric streetcar networks   crisscrossed and

connected every  major urban  area,  fostering a  wave  of  

suburbanization  that transformed  the  compact industrial  city into a

dispersed metropolis.Thisfirst  phase  of mass-scale suburbanization was

reinforced  by the  simultaneous  emergence of  the  urban Middle  

Class,  whose desires  for homeownership inneighborhoods far from the        

aging inner city weresatisfied by the developers of single-family housing

tracts.

郊區的發展  如果"郊區"指的是比已建好的城市內部發展更為迅速的城市邊緣地帶，那 麼郊區化可以說始於 1825 年至 1850 年工業化城市出現期間。

在這之前，城市只是高度密 集的小聚居群。  在其中，人們步行走動，商品靠馬車來運送。  但是建於 18 世紀三四十年

代的早期工廠位於城邊的航道和鐵路附近，被工作機會吸引到這裡的成千上萬的人們需要住 房。  

漸漸地，在與舊有的主要城區相毗鄰的地方，不斷湧現出由排房和公寓樓組成的工人

聚居區，包圍了工廠。作為對這種侵蝕的自衛，也為了擴大它們收稅的地域範圍，城市吞併 了工業化的臨近地帶，比如 1854

年費城的城區就兼併了費縣的絕大部分地區。 相似的城市 化也發生在芝加哥和紐約。  今天很多美國的大城市其實就是靠吞併它們附近的邊緣地區而

變成大都會的。隨著工業化的加速發展，城市裡出現了嚴重擁擠和相伴而來的社會壓力。 當

1888 年第一條商業上成功的電氣化鐵軌被製造出來時，壓力開始接近危機的程度。  幾年之

內，馬車就被廢棄了，電車網相互交織連接著各個重要的城區，從而形成了一種郊區化的潮 流，即密集的工業城市轉變成了分散的都市。  

此時城市中產階級的出現進一步加強了第一 波大規模郊區化。  這些中產階級希望在遠離老舊城市的地區擁有住宅，單一家庭住宅地區 的開發者滿足了他們的願望。