CAMPUS BEYOND THE RING ROAD A public preview for a less crowded centre • Rethink the university map before the...

Inner-City Pressure: More People, Same Land

What is the problem?

∙        Urbanisation is bringing more residents into the city centre.

∙        Several blocks are being discussed: one block has new flats; (7) __________ are already overcrowded.

∙        The population keeps rising, but the old city cannot (8) __________ large housing areas without better infrastructure.

What are the results?

∙        Residents are calling for (9) __________ more noise, traffic congestion or unsafe parking near their homes.

∙        (10) __________ the shortage of land, some families share rooms above shops or move far from work.

∙        Young workers cannot afford expensive flats, so affordable housing becomes a serious (11) __________. 

Join our ward talk

∙        Suggest better infrastructure, more public space and fairer residential plans.

∙        Help make the inner city safer, cleaner and a better place to (12) __________.

Question 7: A. another        B. others        C. the other        D. the others

Question 8: A. settle in        B. get around        C. expand into        D. go down

Question 9: A. no        B. any        C. much        D. many

Question 10: A. Thanks to        B. Due to        C. Unlike        D. Apart from

Question 11: A. exhibition        B. apology        C. concern        D. coast

Question 12: A. agricultural        B. colonial        C. crowded        D. comfortable

Question 13:

a. Leo: Exactly, without that exception, the camera becomes a symbol of urban control, not safer traffic.

b. Maya: They have a point; the rule should allow five-minute stops, or the fine may punish access instead of solving congestion.

c. Leo: The council will use cameras to fine cars stopping near the new clinic, but taxi drivers say sick residents need quick drop-offs.

A. b - c - a        B. c - b - a        C. a - b - c        D. c - a - b

Question 14:

a. Olivia: Both, but the workshops matter more; they employ local mechanics who cannot afford central rents.

b. Olivia: That compromise would test whether urban expansion can add housing without pushing useful jobs away.

c. Olivia: The bus depot may become student flats, and residents are arguing in the community chat.

d. Ben: Then keep ground-floor workshops and put flats above, like a mixed-use block.

e. Ben: Is the concern about student noise or losing the repair workshops beside it?

A. c - d - a - e - b        B. a - e - c - d - b        C. b - d - a - e - c        D. c - e - a - d - b

Question 15:

Dear Riverside Business Owners,

We hope your businesses are running smoothly this month.

a. Several traders support it because narrow lanes are often blocked, and customers complain about exhaust and unsafe crossings.

b. To respond to this concern, the pilot would include emergency same-day slots and a phone desk for non-digital users.

c. Your feedback will help us decide whether the system improves traffic without damaging local trade.

d. The district office is considering a booking system for delivery vans entering the colonial shopping street after morning rush hour.

e. However, some small cafes argue that fixed time slots may make fresh food deliveries less reliable.

Kind regards,

Riverside District Office

A. a - d - e - b - c        B. e - d - a - b - c        C. d - a - e - b - c        D. d - a - b - e - c

Question 16:

a. The change looked efficient on paper because workers could live near employment and reduce long bus trips from rural outskirts.

b. In several manufacturing towns, companies are building compact dormitory-style flats beside industrial parks as migration from nearby villages increases rapidly.

c. However, residents reported that the small rooms and shared kitchens made it difficult for families to settle in comfortably after the first few months.

d. These reports were supported by a local clinic survey, which linked overcrowding in the blocks with stress and poor sleep during the rainy season.

e. Compact housing may support economic growth, but it should not become a quiet way to lower living standards for new urban dwellers.

A. b - a - c - d - e        B. a - b - c - d - e        C. c - a - b - d - e        D. b - c - a - d - e

Question 17:

a. Yet the same data can leave out elderly residents, low-income workers, and recent immigrants who share phones or avoid location services.

b. As urbanisation spreads across the suburbs, some city planners now use mobile-phone data to decide where new bus routes and clinics should be placed.

c. Therefore, data-led infrastructure can be useful, but decisions should be checked through resident meetings, complaint records, and simple field visits before services are changed in real neighbourhood conditions, not only on screens.

d. Supporters argue that this method shows real movement patterns, not just old population records, so investment can reach crowded districts faster.

e. A pilot in Northgate illustrated the problem: the algorithm suggested fewer evening buses, although cleaners from nearby flats still depended on them after dark.

A. d - b - a - e - c        B. b - d - a - e - c        C. a - b - d - e - c        D. b - e - d - a - c

Housing justice has become central to urban politics as tenant groups, researchers and local communities draw attention to the fact that affordability is shaped not only by how much gets built, but by who controls land, credit and redevelopment. For that reason, many city governments, which once treated rising property values as signs of success, (18) __________, but as a precondition for stable communities and equal access to opportunity.

This change has been driven not only by worsening affordability, but also by growing recognition that displacement damages more than household finances. When families are pushed out of familiar neighbourhoods, they often lose access to childcare, transport routes and informal support, a disruption (19) __________. Yet official responses still tend to treat the crisis as a technical problem of volume rather than power. (20) __________. In practice, construction can expand overall supply while doing little to protect residents most exposed to eviction, rent shocks and speculative turnover.

The debate becomes sharper when environmental goals are added. Buildings are retrofitted, transit links are improved and investment returns are celebrated, (21) __________. Without stronger tenant protections and firmer limits on speculation, cities may become greener and more connected in appearance, (22) __________.

Question 18:

A. have increasingly come to frame housing as not merely a commodity

B. having increasingly came to frame housing not merely as a commodity

C. had increasingly come to frame housing not merely as a commodity

D. have increasingly come to frame housing not merely as a commodity

Question 19:

A. aggregate housing statistics often fail fully to capture it

B. in which aggregate housing statistics often fail fully to capture

C. which aggregate housing statistics often fail fully to capture

D. that aggregate housing statistics often fail capturing fully

Question 20:

A. Although more building may be necessary, supply alone determines who can afford to stay

B. More building may be necessary, but supply alone does not determine who can afford to stay

C. Because more building is necessary, supply alone does not determine who can afford staying

D. More building, though necessary, is what supply alone determines for those who stay

Question 21:

A. with long-term tenants facing higher costs, local networks weakened and daily routines being pushed farther away

B. while long-term tenants face higher costs, local networks weaken and daily routines are pushed farther out of reach

C. even as long-term tenants face higher costs, local networks are weakening and daily routines are pushed farther away

D. even as higher costs confront long-term tenants, local networks are weakened and daily routines are pushed farther out of reach

Question 22:

A. because those least protected from displacement are what make cities more just

B. with justice growing most clearly for those least protected from displacement

C. unless displacement is what eventually makes urban life more equitable

D. while growing less just for those least protected from displacement

The City That Promises Everything

At dawn, the edge of a megacity is already awake. Buses unload workers carrying plastic bags, school uniforms and the kind of hope that does not look dramatic from a distance. They have not come to the city because it is easy. They have come because the countryside has offered too little, and the city, despite its noise and cruelty, still seems to offer more. In places such as Lagos, São Paulo and Jakarta, urban life can indeed widen opportunity: jobs appear, services improve, and children may grow up closer to schools, hospitals and public life. But beyond the bright grammar of development, the city also asks a harder question: how many people can be invited in before arrival itself becomes another form of exclusion?

The problem is not that megacities fail to generate wealth. They generate enormous amounts of it. The problem is who gets to keep it. While daily wages for low-income workers have increased three or four times over the past decade, the earnings of salaried professionals have risen nearly ten times in the same period. The more industries develop, the more socio-economic disparity cities experience. Affordable housing has become a distant dream for many, and slum clearances, often framed as modernisation, rarely ask where the displaced go next. The shortage of decent housing has led to more and more families settling in overcrowded conditions on the urban fringe.

What makes this disparity so difficult to dismantle is that poverty and prosperity are structurally connected, not simply neighbours. Residents of informal settlements sustain the very comfort and convenience that others take for granted, yet investment in their schools and healthcare has remained less and less adequate over time. Due to this neglect, children in these communities are far more likely to drop out and find themselves unemployable later.

Perhaps the sharpest cost of megacity life is one no official response has fully addressed: urban loneliness. The bigger the city grows, the harder it becomes to truly belong. Whether megacities can hold space for those who build them, rather than merely extracting their labour, remains a concern among urban planners and ordinary residents alike.

[Adapted from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/]

Question 23: According to paragraph 3, why may children in neglected informal settlements become unemployable later?

A. Because their communities are physically far from all forms of paid work.

B. Because weak investment in basic services, especially schools, increases their risk of dropping out.

C. Because they refuse to work in the services that support richer urban residents.

D. Because urban industries no longer need workers from low-income communities.

Question 24: The word “widen” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. expand        B. protect        C. delay        D. organise

Question 25: The word “They” in paragraph 1 refers to __________.

A. public services in large cities        B. workers arriving at the city’s edge

C. schools, hospitals and public places        D. places such as Lagos and Jakarta

Question 26: Which statement best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 2?

A. Cities with advanced industries usually provide more equal opportunities for all.

B. Industrial growth often leads to a widening gap between different social classes.

C. The expansion of industries is necessary to reduce the level of urban poverty.

D. Social inequality is a prerequisite for the rapid development of urban industries.

Question 27: According to paragraph 2, which detail is NOT mentioned as part of the inequality problem in megacities?

A. Low-income workers’ wages have risen far less than professional salaries.

B. Slum clearances may ignore what happens to displaced residents afterwards.

C. Housing costs have made decent homes difficult for many families to obtain.

D. Local governments have reduced all public transport fares for poor workers.

Question 28: The word “dismantle” in paragraph 3 is OPPOSITE in meaning to __________.

A. strengthen        B. question        C. notice        D. describe

Question 29: Which paragraph discusses a social and emotional cost of megacity life that official solutions have not fully solved?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2        C. Paragraph 3        D. Paragraph 4

Question 30: In which paragraph does the author explain how poverty and prosperity are structurally connected in megacities?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2        C. Paragraph 3        D. Paragraph 4

Too Close for Comfort?

Stand at a busy intersection in Singapore on any weekday morning and the sheer number of people moving through that space can feel almost geological, a kind of human pressure that the eye cannot quite absorb. With over 8,000 residents packed into every square kilometre, the city-state holds more people per unit of land than almost anywhere else on earth. By most intuitions, that should be a recipe for chaos: overcrowded housing, strained infrastructure, pollution dense enough to taste. And yet, Singapore consistently ranks among the world's most liveable cities. Something in that gap between expectation and reality is worth examining.

Population density, in its simplest form, is just a number: the total population of an area divided by its size. But what that number produces on the ground depends almost entirely on how a city chooses to respond to it. [I] Density is typically associated with urban challenges such as congestion, housing inaccessibility, greater crime risk, social isolation, and an overall strain on infrastructure, with a high concentration of residents amplifying demand for services like healthcare and transportation, often leading to a rising cost of living and social tensions. [II] These pressures are real, and in cities where planning has failed to keep pace with growth, they become impossible to ignore. More and more families settle in overcrowded low-rise buildings; fewer and fewer green spaces survive the expansion of residential zones; air quality decreases steadily as traffic congestion increases.

What separates cities that manage density from those that are overwhelmed by it is, in large part, a commitment to long-term, human-centric design. Singapore has prioritised pervasive greenery as central to its goal of becoming a City in Nature, incorporating vegetation along pavements, road dividers, rooftops, and vertical spaces, which has contributed to maintaining a green cover of around 40% despite intense urban development. [III] Meanwhile, Barcelona has responded to its car density by pioneering Superblocks, reclaiming road space for pedestrians and redistributing the benefit of cleaner, quieter streets across entire neighbourhoods. Cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong, having expanded their rail networks considerably, have recorded a decreasing trend in emissions from the transport sector.

[IV] The more densely populated a city becomes, the harder it is to afford to live there, and the harder it is to find genuine quiet. What these cities demonstrate, though, is that density is not a sentence. It is, rather, a condition that demands imagination from its planners and patience from its residents. Whether most cities currently have enough of either remains an open question.

[Adapted from Centre for Liveable Cities Knowledge Hub]

Question 31: Where in the passage does the following sentence best fit?

None of this suggests that density is easy to live with.

A. [I]        B. [II]        C. [III]        D. [IV]

Question 32: The word “sheer” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. huge        B. actual        C. steady        D. usual

Question 33: The word "they" in paragraph 2 refers to __________.

A. density-related pressures                B. expanding populations        

C. residential zones                        D. planning strategies

Question 34: Which of the following is most likely implied by the passage as a whole?

A. The ultimate solution to urban congestion is to strictly limit the mathematical ratio of residents per square kilometre in modern major cities.

B. A city's liveability depends not only on how many people it contains, but also on thoughtful planning and residents’ ability to adapt.

C. Even with the most advanced human-centric designs, metropolitan areas will eventually need to dismantle their high-rise infrastructures to survive.

D. Residents of highly populated cities must accept poor air quality and severe social isolation in exchange for technologically enhanced transportation networks

Question 35: Which of the following best captures the main message of paragraph 3?

A. By prioritizing pedestrian spaces and rail systems, several cities have shown that environmental pressures can be reduced without changing density itself.

B. Highlighting the necessity of innovative and human-focused planning, this section illustrates how specific metropolises have effectively mitigated the burdens of density.

C. Through the strict enforcement of environmental regulations, cities like Singapore and Tokyo have managed to permanently reverse the demographic trends causing extreme overcrowding.

D. Despite their commitment to long-term architectural design, several major cities continue to struggle significantly with maintaining adequate green spaces for their residents.

Question 36: Which of the following is NOT stated in paragraph 2?

A. A large number of residents can increase pressure on healthcare and transport.

B. Poor planning can make density-related pressures much harder to ignore.

C. Higher density has forced cities to replace all low-rise housing with towers.

D. Traffic congestion can gradually worsen the quality of air in dense areas.

Question 37: According to paragraph 3, what is suggested by the examples of Singapore, Barcelona, Tokyo and Hong Kong?

A. Dense cities can become liveable only when they reduce their total population.

B. Greenery is more important than transport planning in every crowded city.

C. Rail expansion works only in cities that already have very little car use.

D. Design choices can reduce some pressures created by dense urban living.

Question 38: Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

A. Cities that successfully handle dense populations differ from failing ones mainly through their dedication to sustainable, people-oriented urban planning.

B. The only way to prevent a city from being overwhelmed by extreme population growth is to temporarily prioritize human-centric architectural designs.

C. Long-term urban planning is largely responsible for strictly separating residential areas from commercial zones in cities overwhelmed by population density.

D. While human-centric design is important, it cannot fully protect densely populated cities from being eventually overwhelmed by the demands of their own residents.

Question 39: Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. The most liveable dense cities are those that remove cars and replace roads with parks.

B. Dense cities need both physical planning and social tolerance to remain comfortable places to live.

C. High density mainly becomes successful when cities stop expanding healthcare and transport services.

D. Urban residents usually oppose design changes even when these changes improve daily life.

Question 40: Which of the following best summarises the passage?

A. While high population density typically leads to severe urban decay and unrest, recent technological advancements have allowed modern cities to completely eliminate these inevitable environmental challenges.

B. Population density presents significant infrastructural challenges; however, through visionary planning and human-oriented design, cities can transform intense demographic pressures into functional, highly liveable environments.

C. The rapid expansion of urban populations has forced city authorities to abandon traditional public transportation systems in favour of prioritizing extensive green spaces and dedicated pedestrian zones.

D. Despite the continuous efforts of urban planners to introduce more green cover and railway networks, living in densely populated cities remains an unbearable and chaotic experience for modern citizens.