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  3. The ambitious mayor of a big city backs a project to put a garden on a bridge

The ambitious mayor of a big city backs a project to put a garden on a bridge

游客2025-01-29  23
问题    The ambitious mayor of a big city backs a project to put a garden on a bridge. A
   celebrated designer is appointed and seductive images released. It gets compared to the High Line in New York — that urban phenomenon envied as much by rival cities as the Eiffel Tower once was. It provokes controversy.
   This much the Skygarden in Seoul has in common with Garden Bridge in London, but then their stories diverge. Where the London version has foundered, the Korean one will be opened this Saturday by Mayor Park Won-soon, a former activist who built his career on opposing both corruption and the conservative establishment, and supporting human rights.
   There are significant differences in the conception and execution of the two projects. They vary in cost (about ￡ 40m for the Skygarden and ￡ 200m-plus for the Garden Bridge) and, where the London project has spent many years not happening, the Seoul one has taken two years to take shape since its Dutch architects, MVRDV, were appointed in 2015.
   Where the Garden Bridge would have been a cherry on the already rich cake that is the center of London, the Skygarden aims to regenerate and connect places near the main railway station that have been fragmented by roads and rail tracks. The Skygarden, which will be open to all 24 hours a day, re-uses an existing structure — like the High Line — in the form of a 1970 motorway flyover that was no longer deemed safe for its original purpose.
   It is also part of a bigger set of ideas about taking a big, dense — sometimes ugly — city, one which was created without a great deal of concern for public space and pedestrian movement, and giving it qualities of walkability, neighborliness, human scale and shared enjoyment of its places. To this end, the mayor has encouraged a range of public works and created the post of city architect to help make them happen.
   The Skygarden is one of the more eye-catching examples of several initiatives promoted by the first holder of this job, Seung H-Sang, and his successor and ally Young Joon Kim.
   Seoul resembles other cities of East Asia such as Tokyo and Shanghai in its scale and rapid post-war expansion, while major western cities like New York and London also experience comparable pressures of growth. If Seoul gets its program right, it can set examples for other megacities to learn from. An inaugural Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will be held this autumn to help get the message across.
   South Korea’s capital is an ancient city, with a beautiful natural backdrop of mountains, which was devastated in the 20th century by Japanese occupation and the Korean War. It was reconstructed on American-inspired lines, with multi-lane highways criss-crossing the city. Economic and population growth — it has about 10 million people compared with 1 million in 1950, although the increase has now levelled off— caused the spaces between to be filled in at levels of density that are nearly twice New York’s.
   It is a business-minded city, its desire for prosperity being sharpened by the traumas and poverty of its recent history, and the need to erect office blocks to serve its economy has usually taken precedence over architectural and urban finesse. The lower levels of buildings tend to be intensely colonized by commercial activity. [br] How do you understand the expression "a cherry on the already rich cake" in Paragraph 4?
选项 A、An attempt or opportunity to do something.
B、A desirable feature to something which is already inviting.
C、A very pleasant situation.
D、A very enjoyable experience.
答案 B
解析 这个短语的意思是“锦上添花”，因此选B，其余选项与意思不符。
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