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Development of the City Whatever the particular

游客2025-01-24  29
问题                              Development of the City
    Whatever the particular circumstances of a city, though, its vigour was likely to be affected by technological change. Just as it was improvements in farming that brought about the surpluses that made possible the first fixed settlements, so it was improvements in transport that made possible the development of trade on which the prosperity of so many cities depended. Other technological changes made it possible to survive in a city. The Romans, for instance, constructed aqueducts to bring fresh water to their towns and sewers to provide sanitation.
    But only the rich benefited. Most Romans, and many city-dwellers throughout history, lived in squalor, and many died of it. Towns were crowded and insanitary; people were often malnourished; and disease spread fast. Though cities grew in size and number for long periods, they could decline and fall, too. Between 1000 and 1300 Europe’s urban population more than doubled, to about 70m (thanks partly to a new system of crop rotation, made possible by better tools). Then, with the Black Death, it fell by a quarter. Country people died too, but the city-dwellers were especially vulnerable. Their health depended above all on clean water and sanitation, which few had, and cheap soap and medicines, which had yet to be invented.
    Not surprisingly, the next big change in the development of the city also turned on a leap in technology: the invention of engines and manufacturing machinery. The Industrial Revolution did nothing at first to make urban life easier, but it did provide jobs—lots of them. With the new factories of the industrial age that began in the late 18th century was born an entirely new urban era. Peasants left the land in their multitudes to live in new cities, first in the north of England, then all over Europe and North America. By 1900, 13% of the world’s population had become urban.
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答案                            城市的发展
    不论一个城市的具体情况如何，其生命力是最易受技术发展的影响的。农业技术进步产生了剩余物资，使最早的定居生活成为了可能，而交通方面的进步也使贸易发展成为了可能，许多城市的繁荣也就依赖于这些贸易发展。其他的技术进步又使人们在城市中得以生存。比方说，古罗马人就建造了引水渠给他们的城市引入清水，也建造了下水管道来保证环境卫生。
    但这只是让富人阶层受益。大部分罗马人和历史上众多城市的居民都生活在肮脏恶劣的环境中，许多人因此死去。城市既拥挤又不卫生，居民往往营养不良，疾病会迅速传播。尽管从长期来看，城市的规模会扩大、数量会增长，但城市也会衰落沦亡。从公元1000年到1300年，欧洲的城市人口增长了一倍多，达到七千万左右(部分是由于先进工具的出现，使新的轮作耕种成为了可能)。接着，黑死病流行，人口锐减了四分之一。乡村的人口也会因病死去，但城市的居民更为脆弱。他们的健康首先依赖于清洁的水和卫生条件，但没有多少人拥有这些，而且，低价的肥皂和药品那时还没有发明呢。
    毫无意外地，接下来城市发展的巨大变化也使技术产生了飞越：发明了发动机和大规模的生产机械。工业革命刚开始时丝毫没有使城市生活变得轻松，但确实提供了相当多的就业机会。随着18世纪末工业时期新工厂的出现，崭新的城市时代开始了，大量农民离开土地，到新城市生活，最先到英格兰北部、继而扩展到整个欧洲和北美。到1900年，13%的世界人口成为了城市居民。
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