Focus on Words

Multiculturalism was adopted as official policy, in several Western nations from
the 1970s onward, for reasons that varied from country to country. The great cities of
the Western world are increasingly made of a mosaic of cultures. Some express a point
of view that multiculturalism promotes peace and understanding between peoples
through culture. A third position gaining popularity is the notion that multiculturalism
is a new form of monoculture in which no differences exist and everyone just shift
between various lifestyles in terms of music, cloth and other aspects within one single
culture. The global domination of American culture at the expense of traditional
diversity goes on.
B. One of the spheres where
cross-cultural contacts are most
apparent is architecture. In every city
today you will find high-rise houses
made of stone, steel and glass. Some
of them are virtual pieces of modern
architecture while many of them
make the city faceless. Such high rise
houses were considered to be a
solution to the housing problem. But
life proved that many of them are not
comfortable places to live in. They
are located in congested, noisy areas
and lack playgrounds.
C. Modern cities have other problems as well–pollution, traffic jams, ghettos, etc.
The heads of the city are trying to find ways out of these problems.
Since the introduction of the motor car at the beginning of the century, our roads
have become more and more congested and our cities increasingly polluted. In Mexico
City, for example, where there are over two million cars, children are used to smog. It
is said that the damage caused to children’s lungs is the same as that from smoking two
packets of cigarettes a day.
Seen from up the air, such cities as London and Los Angeles appear to be covered
in a blanket of cloud that is, in a fact, the haze of pollution.
Car manufacturers and city planners are now hard working to try and control the
number of vehicles and improve the way they run to make them less polluting. One
major advance has been the development of the electric car. Using batteries, these
vehicles are able to move quietly around.
Cities are trying to introduce new traffic laws. London had the worst traffic in the
UK and was one of the worst cities in Europe. Drivers spent 50% of their time in traffic
jams. and pollution was terrible. In 2003, the mayor of London made a new law to help
reduce traffic. It costs 8 pounds a day to drive in central London. More people use
public transport and bicycles now in London because of this law. Traffic is bad.....but
not too bad.
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