-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Green Spaces in Cities
Where do children play? Years ago, any open field, any vacant lot, any group of trees — these were the places where children played. As families left family farms, small towns, and the countryside, and moved into cities, the places for their children to play in became rarer. Children in the cities had few options, fewer choices of places to play.
In fact, all people's lives change a lot when they move to the city. In cities, homes are built on top of one another — in enormous apartment buildings. The feeling of private space and ownership no longer exists in houses literally1 piled one on the other.
Psychologists have been studying the changes people experience when they leave rural areas and move into urban environments. One clear finding from their studies is that people need green spaces for better mental health. Children can play on paved playgrounds. That's true. However, they just don't have as much fun as children in small towns. Without grass and trees and bushes and, yes, dirt and mud to get dirty in, children miss an important part of childhood. The human soul, it seems, needs to stay close to its roots.
Adults can plant lots of things like bulbs in window boxes and large containers. However, tending window boxes isn't the same as being an amateur gardener and growing peas, tomatoes and salad greens in a backyard garden. The lack of green space is now recognized and understood as a problem.
City planners — the people who design neighborhoods — have begun to work on a solution. They want to build more parks, but land in cities is quite costly2. So they look for land that no one else wants. Along rivers, under power lines, near ditches and highways — these are the spaces that no one uses and they are everywhere. Why not use these unused spaces for green areas? Neighborhood groups have coordinated3 their efforts to clean up the trash or garbage. Soil from new building projects in the city has been trucked by lorries into these areas. This soil has been dumped along the sides of rivers, and strong walls have been erected4 to hold it there. Trees and bushes have been planted; the roots of these plants will hold the soil, too, and the green leaves make the area beautiful.
"People in and near cities have little opportunity to experience parks or unprotected open spaces, and that's becoming a problem," says Mister Ernest Cook, a senior vice5 president of the Trust for Public Land (TPL). This organization was started over twenty-one years ago. Its purpose is to protect land and public resources for people. In the past nineteen years, TPL has completed up to a thousand conservation projects in Canada and the United States.
In Portland, Maine, the land along the old train tracks near the coast has become a green belt of trails between areas characterized by housing developments and those characterized by downtown businesses. To Mister Charles Jordan, the director of the Portland Parks and Recreation Department, it's just a beginning. Jordan has plans for an environmental university — a huge urban park (5,000 acres ). It will include different environments, from canals and wetlands to forests. Jordan's plans include a network of trails and paths for people to use for excursions all over the city. He also wants to build a green belt from Portland, across Canada and the United States, all the way back to the Pacific Ocean. Communities across the continent could be connected by such a green belt.
Other cities have comparable projects. In Phoenix6, Arizona, for instance, the sides of the Salt River bed that have washed away are becoming a park. In Baltimore, a long strip of land (which was used for dumping garbage) is becoming a series of biking and walking trails. These trails will link a dozen neighborhoods and the downtown business areas. In some cities, the bicycle paths connect every area to every other area. In Flagstaff, Arizona, a thousand miles of bike trails lead into the San Francisco Peaks, the highest summit in the state.
In other areas, planners have made places for bicycle trails and playgrounds, for public gardens and private garden plots, and paths for walking and running excursions. The costly result is a growing greenness in the cities and a healthier environment for all the civilians7 who live there.
Where do children play? Years ago, any open field, any vacant lot, any group of trees — these were the places where children played. As families left family farms, small towns, and the countryside, and moved into cities, the places for their children to play in became rarer. Children in the cities had few options, fewer choices of places to play.
In fact, all people's lives change a lot when they move to the city. In cities, homes are built on top of one another — in enormous apartment buildings. The feeling of private space and ownership no longer exists in houses literally1 piled one on the other.
Psychologists have been studying the changes people experience when they leave rural areas and move into urban environments. One clear finding from their studies is that people need green spaces for better mental health. Children can play on paved playgrounds. That's true. However, they just don't have as much fun as children in small towns. Without grass and trees and bushes and, yes, dirt and mud to get dirty in, children miss an important part of childhood. The human soul, it seems, needs to stay close to its roots.
Adults can plant lots of things like bulbs in window boxes and large containers. However, tending window boxes isn't the same as being an amateur gardener and growing peas, tomatoes and salad greens in a backyard garden. The lack of green space is now recognized and understood as a problem.
City planners — the people who design neighborhoods — have begun to work on a solution. They want to build more parks, but land in cities is quite costly2. So they look for land that no one else wants. Along rivers, under power lines, near ditches and highways — these are the spaces that no one uses and they are everywhere. Why not use these unused spaces for green areas? Neighborhood groups have coordinated3 their efforts to clean up the trash or garbage. Soil from new building projects in the city has been trucked by lorries into these areas. This soil has been dumped along the sides of rivers, and strong walls have been erected4 to hold it there. Trees and bushes have been planted; the roots of these plants will hold the soil, too, and the green leaves make the area beautiful.
"People in and near cities have little opportunity to experience parks or unprotected open spaces, and that's becoming a problem," says Mister Ernest Cook, a senior vice5 president of the Trust for Public Land (TPL). This organization was started over twenty-one years ago. Its purpose is to protect land and public resources for people. In the past nineteen years, TPL has completed up to a thousand conservation projects in Canada and the United States.
In Portland, Maine, the land along the old train tracks near the coast has become a green belt of trails between areas characterized by housing developments and those characterized by downtown businesses. To Mister Charles Jordan, the director of the Portland Parks and Recreation Department, it's just a beginning. Jordan has plans for an environmental university — a huge urban park (5,000 acres ). It will include different environments, from canals and wetlands to forests. Jordan's plans include a network of trails and paths for people to use for excursions all over the city. He also wants to build a green belt from Portland, across Canada and the United States, all the way back to the Pacific Ocean. Communities across the continent could be connected by such a green belt.
Other cities have comparable projects. In Phoenix6, Arizona, for instance, the sides of the Salt River bed that have washed away are becoming a park. In Baltimore, a long strip of land (which was used for dumping garbage) is becoming a series of biking and walking trails. These trails will link a dozen neighborhoods and the downtown business areas. In some cities, the bicycle paths connect every area to every other area. In Flagstaff, Arizona, a thousand miles of bike trails lead into the San Francisco Peaks, the highest summit in the state.
In other areas, planners have made places for bicycle trails and playgrounds, for public gardens and private garden plots, and paths for walking and running excursions. The costly result is a growing greenness in the cities and a healthier environment for all the civilians7 who live there.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
coordinated
|
|
| adj.协调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
ERECTED
|
|
| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
phoenix
|
|
| n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
civilians
|
|
| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
购买
在百度中搜索