3.4. Mark the answer choice equal to:

three-fourths

(A) 50 % (B) 75 % (C) 25 % D) 100 %

housing

(A) accommodation (B) living (C) goods (D) shelter

deurbanization

(A) people’s moving away from big cities to bigger cities

(B) people’s moving away from big cities to smaller cities

(C) people’s moving away from small cities to bigger cities

(D) people’s moving away from small cities to smaller cities

4. Cities Now Home to More than Half of All People

4.1. Read the text:

1. Over half the world's people now live in cities. A century ago, less than 5% of all people lived in cities. By the middle of this century it could be70%, or almost 6,5 bln people. Already three-fourths of people in developed countries live in cities. Now most urban population growth is in the developing world.

2. Urbanization can lead to social and economic progress, but also pressure on cities to provide housing and services as almost 200.000 people move into cities and towns each day.

3. Another issue is urban sprawl. This is where cities expand into rural areas, sometimes at a much faster rate than urban population growth. Sprawl is common in the United States. Americans are moving away from the major cities to smaller cities. There is a trend toward “deurbanization”.

4. But urban economies still provide possibilities that rural areas do not. Sabina Deitrick is an expert on cities. She notes that urbanization brings social change that can empower women. Women entering the labor force is one big change and that always goes up with urbanization and certainly will proceed in many, many countries where urbanization is increasing rapidly. She has closely studied Pittsburgh from the loss of its main industry, steel, to its rebirth as a smaller city with different industries. She says the reuse of existing land and spaces and the reinvention of urban life is important if cities are to succeed.

5. Professor Deitrick notes that a city's ability to educate and train its people is important to jobs and new industries, even new industries based on old ideas. Around the world, people leave rural farm jobs to go to the city. Yet now there is growing demand for farm products grown close to the cities where they are used. Urban farming is taking hold in some of the world's biggest cities. Sabina Deitrick says studies show that urban farming is one area where women can earn more than men do.

4.2. Decide whether these statements are true (t) or false (f):

1. People in developed countries live mostly in cities.

2. Urbanization can lead to pressure on cities to provide housing and services, but also social and economic progress.

3. One of the studies shows that a lot of Americans are nowadays moving away from the smaller cities to major cities.

4. Sometimes cities expand into rural areas at a much slower rate than urban population growth.

5. One of the reports says thousands of people move into cities and towns each day.

6. According to one of the studies there is a trend toward urbanization across America.

7. There are no areas where women can earn more than men do.