2014职称英语考试综合类概括大意练习6

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　　Pedestrians Only?

　　1 The concept of traffic-free shopping areas goes back a long time. During the Middle Ages, traffic-free shopping areas were built in Middle Eastern countries to allow people to shop in comfort and, more importantly, safety. As far back as 2,000 years ago, road traffic was banned from central Rome during the day to allow for the free movement of pedestrians (行人) and was only allowed in at night when shops and markets had closed for the day. In most other cities, however, pedestrians were forced to share the streets with horses, coaches and, later, with cars and other motorised vehicles.

　　2 The modern, traffic-free shopping street was born in Europe in the 1960s, when both city populations and car ownership increased rapidly. Dirty gases from cars and the risks involved in crossing the road were beginning to make shopping an unpleasant and dangerous experience. Many believed the time was right for experimenting with car-free streets, and shopping areas seemed the best place to start.

　　3 At first, there was resistance from shopkeepers. They believed that such a move would be bad for business. They argued that people would avoid streets if they were unable to get to them in their cars. When the first streets in Europe were closed to traffic, there were even noisy demonstrations, as many shopkeepers predicted they would lose customers.

　　4 However, research carried out afterwards in several European cities revealed some unexpected statistics. In Munich, Cologne and Hamburg, visitors to shopping areas increased by 50 percent. On Copenhagen's main shopping street, shopkeepers reported sales increases of 25-40 percent. Shopkeepers in Minneapolis, the USA. were so impressed when they learnt this that they even offered to pay for the construction and maintenance costs of their own traffic-free streets.

　　5 With the arrival of the traffic-free shopping street, many shops, especially those selling things like clothes, food and smaller luxury items, prospered. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good news for everyone, as shops selling furniture and larger electrical appliances (电器) actually saw their sates drop. Many of these were forced to move elsewhere, away from the city centre.

　　练习：

　　23. Paragraph 1________

　　24. Paragraph 2________

　　25. Paragraph 3________

　　26. Paragraph 4________

　　A Facing protests from shop owners

　　B Increase in sales and customers

　　C An idea from ancient history

　　D A need for change

　　E An experiment that went wrong

　　F Popularity of online shopping

　　27. Traffic-free shopping streets first developed in________.

　　28. In the 1960s, dirty gases from cars made shopping________.

　　29. Shopkeepers mistakenly believed the car-free streets would keep away________.

　　30. The arrival of the traffic-free shopping street made many ________ lose their business.

　　A customers

　　B pedestrians

　　C furniture sellers

　　D Middle Eastern countries

　　E a bad experience

　　F North America

　　答案：

　　23 C 第一段介绍了古代步行街的概念。

　　24 D 第二段介绍了车辆增多后对行人造成的不便，人们认为需要改变这一现象。

　　25 A 步行街刚开始出现的时候遭到许多店主的抵制。

　　26 B 步行街出现后，商店的生意不但没有下降，反而有了很大的长进。

　　27 D 第一段讲到，步行街首先出现在中东国家。

　　28 E 第二段讲到，汽车尾气和道路安全问题使得购物变成一项不愉快并且危险的行为。

　　29 A 从第三段中可以看出，店主害怕步行街的建立会使顾客减少。

　　30 C 最后一段讲到步行街的建立使得一些商店生意变好，同时，也使家具商店和大型器商店的生意受到不利影响。