FLOW & FIELD CITY WEEKEND ▪ Smarter Movement: When urbanisation brings convenience but also smog, expensive fl...

Ride & Repair Morning: One Street Without Car Noise!

▪        A cleaner route to school: Is your residential street too noisy before 7
A. m.? (7) __________ recent investment in a small tram stop, our ward is testing a car-light morning this Friday.

▪        Pick a map: At the gate, you will receive two route cards. One shows the tram line; (8) __________ marks safe walking lanes past the old colonial building.

▪        Meet your guides: Your guides will help residents (9) __________ without using a motorbike. They will also run a quick repair table. A (10) __________ of simple checks—brakes, lights and tyres—can make short trips safer.

▪        Use the shared space: The market gate is now a small community (11) __________ with seats, shade and refill bottles. Try one low-emission trip, talk to neighbours and help create a calmer (12) __________ street. Sign up at the board by Thursday.

Question 7: A. Apart from        B. Instead of        C. Thanks to        D. Unlike

Question 8: A. another        B. other        C. the other        D. others

Question 9: A. get around        B. go up        C. bring back        D. settle in

Question 10: A. number        B. amount        C. level        D. deal

Question 11: A. complaint        B. facility        C. expense        D. shortage

Question 12: A. agricultural        B. coastal        C. colonial        D. urban

Question 13:

a. Liam: That risk is real, but timed deliveries and clearer signs could keep children safer without hurting local shops.

b. Ava: The council plans to close Pine Street to cars at school time, and some parents say traffic will move into smaller lanes.

c. Ava: I agree, if they review the data after a month instead of calling every complaint anti-progress.

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

Question 14:

a. Sam: Mostly deliveries; the bakery says flour trucks now block the next street at 6
A. m.

b. Nora: The city could add two loading bays and keep the bus lane clear during rush hour.

c. Sam: That seems more balanced than removing the lane, because buses finally arrive reliably.

d. Sam: The new bus-only road has cut my commute, but the shop owners nearby look angry.

e. Nora: Are they worried about losing customers, or about delivery vans having no place to stop?

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

Question 15:

Dear Lakeview Residents,

We hope this notice finds you well.

a. Some residents support the idea because the basement is often half empty, while green space is limited around the high-rise.

b. To respond to that concern, we will keep short-term spaces near the entrance and open a two-week online vote.

c. Your comments will help us decide whether this improvement brings real convenience without reducing access for residents.

d. Our management team is considering replacing twelve unused parking spaces with a shared garden and bicycle room.

e. Others, however, worry that visitors will find parking even more inconvenient on busy weekends.

Kind regards,

Lakeview Management Team

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

Question 16:

a. In one commercial district, a quiet block near the station was changed into small rental homes with a shared laundry room and bike storage.

b. Such projects can reduce housing shortages, yet they need clear space standards so urban living does not become uncomfortable.

c. As city centres become more expensive, many councils are asking whether empty offices should be turned into flats.

d. This brought life back to cafés after dark, but some families complained that the rooms were too small for children.

e. The idea is attractive because office workers often stay at home, while young residents still struggle to find affordable housing.

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

Question 17:

a. Yet this argument becomes weaker when new flats are so expensive that former residents must migrate to cheaper regions outside the city.

b. In older districts, urbanisation often appears as a choice between preserving low-rise streets and replacing them with high-rise apartments for a growing population.

c. Therefore, renewal should allow extra housing, but it should also protect long-term residents, useful local trade, and the architecture that gives a district its memory, not just a cleaner skyline.

d. Developers argue that taller buildings use land efficiently, attract investment, and give more residents access to modern facilities near the centre.

e. A craft street in my city shows the conflict clearly: its colonial shops brought visitors, but several are now empty after rents rose and traders left.

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

The city’s health problem is not always visible in its hospitals first; it often begins in the speed with which new neighbourhoods appear before clinics, pharmacies and preventive services can follow. Urbanisation has brought workers closer to jobs and children closer to schools, but it has also stretched public healthcare across areas planned mainly for housing, roads and commerce. When thousands of new residents rely on a few existing public clinics, routine illnesses become harder to treat early, and hospital waiting rooms (18) __________. This pressure is not only about the number of patients. Newcomers may live far from registered providers, work irregular hours, or lack documents needed for subsidised care, a situation (19) __________.

City leaders sometimes respond by building bigger hospitals, and such investment can save lives in emergencies. (20) __________. If basic care, vaccination, mental-health support, and disease screening remain distant, minor problems are more likely to become serious before anyone receives help. Digital booking systems and mobile clinics can reduce some delays, but they work only when residents trust them and can use them. (21) __________, especially in informal districts where stable addresses, internet access, and paid time off are unevenly available. The challenge, therefore, is not simply to add beds after a crisis, (22) __________.

Question 18:

A. which, as overcrowded waiting areas for delayed cases, encourage officials to blame migration
B. have become overflow points for conditions that should have been treated earlier
C. and local clinics have handled cases already requiring hospital-level care
D. that routine care can be delayed until hospital treatment becomes urgently necessary

Question 19:

A. in which healthcare access is shaped by location, paperwork and working hours
B. turning subsidised care into a reward for residents with better health habits
C. that proves medical inequality is caused mainly by patients’ poor planning
D. under a system of registration, distance and clinic schedules that appears neutral

Question 20:

A. As a result, emergency investment proves that neighbourhood clinics no longer deserve public funding

B. Even so, larger hospitals do not automatically make everyday healthcare easier to reach
C. For this reason, city growth can be managed mainly through specialised hospital departments
D. In practice, emergency care should replace prevention once urban migration accelerates each year

Question 21:

A. Technology therefore improves access unevenly unless matched with practical community support

B. Mobile services therefore matter less than hospital image when neighbourhoods lack stable addresses

C. Technology therefore removes access barriers once clinics provide a few online appointment slots

D. Trust becomes unnecessary whenever residents receive enough information about clinics online

Question 22:

A. but building daily services around each new residential area

B. but to build everyday care into the city’s growth itself

C. while everyday care is built after residential growth slows

D. and the city’s growth itself can build everyday care

Smart Cities and the Price of Being Seen

At 7
A. m., a resident opens an app and sees which tram is crowded, which road is blocked, and where an accident has slowed traffic. The city feels more convenient than it did a decade ago, when urbanisation made buses late and congestion ordinary. Sensors and connected lights now help people get around with less wasted time. For commuters, that is not a cold technical promise. It is breakfast not missed, a child not left waiting, a job reached reliably.

Yet the same system that improves comfort also asks the public to accept a bargain. Internet of Things integration means that street lights, buses, buildings and phones can share information. Real-time data analytics can help officials respond to pollution, crime, broken facilities or unsafe roads quickly. Not only can such tools improve infrastructure, but they can also make public services more equal when poorer districts are no longer invisible.

The difficulty begins when useful data becomes personal data. A camera used to manage traffic may also record where a worker goes after work. An automated transit system may reduce jams, while leaving behind a trail of daily habits. The more the city learns, the more residents may feel watched. Data privacy concerns are therefore not a luxury for people who dislike technology. They are a basic question about who may turn ordinary movement into permanent memory.

There is a better way to imagine the smart city. It should not be a place where ubiquitous surveillance is accepted simply because trains arrive faster. Nor should fear make cities reject every digital improvement. The wiser question is whether officials can make sure that data is limited, protected and clearly explained. A modern city should be smart enough to solve problems, and decent enough to know when not to look.

[Adapted from https://www.oecd.org/en.html]

Question 23: What can be inferred about real-time data in paragraph 2?

A. It can help officials notice and respond to urban problems in areas that might otherwise be underserved.

B. It makes public services equal as soon as buildings, buses and phones exchange information.

C. It is useful mainly when richer districts receive faster updates about transport and safety.

D. It prevents urban problems by removing the need for repairs, planning or local decisions.

Question 24: The word “bargain” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. trade-off        B. routine        C. discount        D. warning

Question 25: The word “They” in paragraph 3 refers to __________.

A. concerns about how personal data may be used

B. doubts about whether traffic systems reduce jams

C. worries about whether officials can repair roads quickly

D. questions about whether apps make commuting convenient

Question 26: According to paragraph 3, all of the following are raised as privacy-related risks EXCEPT __________.

A. traffic cameras may record people’s movements beyond traffic control

B. automated transport may leave records of repeated daily routines

C. ordinary movement may become information kept for a long time

D. transport data may be sold to advertisers to target residents personally

Question 27: Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 4?

A. Cities should prioritize solving urban problems through smart technology over focusing on the moral behaviors of their residents.

B. The primary responsibility of a smart city is to monitor problems constantly so that residents do not have to look out for themselves.

C. To solve complex urban challenges, modern cities need smart systems that intentionally completely ignore personal data.

D. An advanced city must balance its technological capacity to resolve issues with an ethical respect for citizens' privacy.

Question 28: The word “ubiquitous” in paragraph 4 is OPPOSITE in meaning to __________.

A. rare        B. legal        C. useful        D. hidden

Question 29: In which paragraph does the author describe how smart-city technology can make daily travel more convenient for residents?

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

Question 30: In which paragraph does the author discuss the hidden cost of using urban data?

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

The City That Forgot How to Absorb Rain

A new road is often introduced as progress before anyone asks what it has replaced. A garden becomes a parking space, a pond becomes a foundation, a strip of soil becomes another clean line of concrete. Nothing looks dramatic at first. The city simply grows smoother, harder and more confident. Then rain arrives, and the very neatness that once seemed modern begins to look strangely fragile.

The problem is not rain itself, but the city’s habit of treating the ground as something to seal. Asphalt, rooftops and paved surfaces stop water from soaking naturally into soil. Instead, stormwater runs quickly across streets, collecting oil, litter, sediment and other pollutants before entering drains, rivers or overloaded sewer systems. Not only does this increase local flooding, but it also turns ordinary rainfall into a test of everything urban planning has ignored. A city can appear upgraded while quietly losing one of its oldest survival skills.

This does not mean that every answer must be anti development. Roads, housing and commercial space are real needs, especially in cities under population pressure. The sharper question is whether growth has to mean making the landscape less absorbent. Green infrastructure, including rain gardens, street trees, planted areas and spaces designed to hold water temporarily, offers a less theatrical but more intelligent response. Used well, it slows water down, filters pollutants and allows some rainfall to return underground. It is not decoration beside the serious city. It is part of how the serious city learns to breathe.

There is also a moral discomfort hidden inside flooded streets. Public awareness matters, because people need to see that drainage is not just a technical problem buried under manholes. [I] But fear can be exploited too easily. [II] Images of submerged motorbikes and exhausted residents may raise concern, or they may become seasonal content, useful for clicks and promises. The harder truth is quieter: some neighbourhoods are protected by design, while others are left to absorb the cost of growth they did not choose. [III] It is memory returning. [IV]

[Adapted from Environmental Benefits of Green Infrastructure]

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

When a city forgets how to receive rain, the flood is not only water.

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

Question 32: Which of the following best captures the main message of paragraph 1?

A. The rapid expansion of concrete infrastructure is essential for a city to look more modern and confident to its residents.

B. Modern urban development often prioritizes aesthetic neatness and structural growth over the natural ability of the land to handle water.

C. The replacement of gardens with parking spaces is a dramatic change that city planners often fail to notice until it is too late.

D. Rain serves as a powerful natural force that can destroy even the most advanced and well-designed concrete foundations of a city.

Question 33: The phrase “look strangely fragile” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. seem impressively organized        B. appear unexpectedly vulnerable

C. become visually unfamiliar        D. feel newly unfinished

Question 34: The word “that” in paragraph 1 refers to __________.

A. the city’s polished order        B. the new transport route

C. the disappearing pond                D. the sudden rainfall

Question 35: Which of the following is NOT stated about the way cities handle rainwater?

A. Hard urban surfaces can prevent rain from entering the earth naturally.

B. Runoff may carry unwanted materials into drainage networks.

C. Ordinary rainfall can reveal weaknesses in urban planning.

D. More concrete surfaces can change regional weather and produce heavier storms.

Question 36: The word “absorbent” in paragraph 3 is OPPOSITE in meaning to __________.

A. fertile        B. shaded        C. waterproofed        D. planted

Question 37: What does paragraph 3 imply about a city’s idea of progress?

A. Progress should mean adding roads and buildings as quickly as population pressure demands.

B. A city becomes modern only when natural spaces are kept separate from commercial areas.

C. Real progress should include the ability to grow without destroying the land’s capacity to handle rain.

D. Green projects are useful mainly when traditional drainage systems have already failed.

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

A. Green spaces should not be viewed as mere ornaments but as vital systems that allow a city to function sustainably.

B. The serious city must focus on its breathing exercises by planting more trees instead of building commercial spaces.

C. Decorative elements in urban planning are less important than the serious infrastructure needed to support a growing population.

D. While plants are beautiful decorations, they are unable to solve the core technical problems of a city's drainage system.

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

A. Flood images are useful mainly because they force officials to make immediate public promises.

B. Drainage problems would disappear if residents better understood the technical causes of flooding.

C. Flooding reflects not only natural rainfall but also decisions about whose neighbourhoods are protected.

D. Cities should stop expanding until gardens, ponds and open soil are fully restored everywhere.

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

A. Urban growth becomes dangerous when it replaces absorbent land with hard surfaces, so cities need greener and fairer ways to live with rain.

B. Flooding is mostly a media-driven problem, and public concern often makes urban planning less practical.

C. Since roads and housing damage natural systems, cities should reject development and return land to its earlier condition.

D. Better drainage technology can solve flooding if cities invest less in planted spaces and more in underground systems.