TRANSCRIPT

Today, we're looking at how the suburbs of cities in the USA have developed since the
middle of the 20th century, but first a little history.
Suburbs have existed in various forms since antiquity, when cities typically were walled and
the villages outside them were inferior in size and status. However, the modern American notion of the
quiet, unspoiled outskirts as a retreat for the wealthy city dweller is in evidence as early as the 6th
century BC in Babylon. Further early evidence comes from Cicero, writing in the 1st century BC, who
refers to Suburbani, large country estates just outside Rome. Throughout Europe, the distinction
between the city and outlying districts tended to remain sharp through the Middle Ages and
Renaissance. To accommodate a large influx of newcomers, city walls were expanded, or as with
London, towns adjacent to the overcrowded city were gradually annexed to itGenerally considered a
less desirable location, the urban periphery was inhabited largely by the poor. In England, the rich who
owned weekend villas outside London gradually transferred their main residences there, and the
middle class soon followed.
By the mid-19th century, there was a marked preference for suburban living. Migration from
the central city to the suburbs was encouraged by a succession of technological advances in
transportation. Horse-drawn stage coaches, railways, and the electric street car or trolley all enabled
urban dwellers to commute longer distances than had previously been practical. Now in Europe, unlike
the United States, suburbs grew organically as a response to human needs, and each suburb there
generally has a center, and often has a quite distinct quality from other suburbs. Since the mid-20th
century, however, North America has seen a distinctive pattern of growth called suburban sprawl, an
almost endless spread of low-density housing without any distinct neighborhood centers. This is an
artificial system, conceived by architects, engineers, and planners, and it's already showing itself to be
unsustainable. Unlike the traditional neighborhood, sprawl is not healthy growth. It's essentially self-
destructive. It consumes land at an alarming rate while producing insurmountable traffic problems. As
the Ring of Suburbia grows around most North American cities, so the void at the center grows too.
Business and people move to fresher locations on a new suburban edge, leaving behind deteriorating
downtown neighborhoods, which can only be revitalized with enormous effort. Suburban sprawl came
about as the direct result of a number of U.S. federal policies. The most significant were the housing
and loan programs, which, from the 1940s, provided mortgages to encourage home purchase. These
mortgages were directed at new single-family suburban construction, discouraging the renovation of

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existing housing stock and the construction of higher density housing. Simultaneously, a major
highway program, coupled with a neglect of mass transit, helped make automotive commuting
affordable and convenient for the average citizen.
Questions 7-11: Circle FIVE letters A-J
Which FIVE claims does the writer make about suburban sprawl?
A. Housing and other components are usually separated from each other.
B. There are insufficient controls over the actions of developers.
C. Life in housing districts is more limited than in traditional towns.
D. The residents have no input into the names of new suburbs.
E. Names may give a false impression of suburbs.
F. The design of school buildings tends to be old-fashioned.
G. The size of schools creates problems for their students.
H. The location of school encourages the use of cars.
I. The population is too small to support shops serving a small area.
J. One reason for heavy traffic in suburbs is that a car is likely to contain only the driver.

TRANSCRIPT
Suburban sprawl actually tends to be very simple, consisting of just a few components which
are normally kept strictly segregated from each other (A). One component is housing subdivisions,
which are districts consisting only of residences. There are sometimes called villages, towns, or
neighborhoods by their developers, which is misleading (E). Since those terms denote places which
are not exclusively residential, and which provide a richness of experience that is not available in a
housing tract. Subdivisions can be identified as such by their contrived names, which tend toward the
romantic and often pay tribute to the natural or historic resource they have displaced—woodland,
mills, or ponds, maybe, that have been destroyed. (B)
Another element, schools, have evolved dramatically in the past thirty or forty years. A
comparison between the size of the car park and the size of the building is revealing. Most are schools
to which no child will ever walk. Pedestrian access is usually nonexistent, and the spread of homes
often makes school buses impractical, so the designs of schools in the new suburbs assume massive
automotive transportation. (H)
Other components, too, such as shopping areas and business parks, have their own separate

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locations. As a result, one of the most conspicuous components of sprawl consists of the endless
roadways that are necessary to connect all these elements. Since each section of suburbia serves only
one type of activity, and since daily life involves a wide variety of activities, the residents of suburbia
spend an unprecedented amount of time and money moving from one place to the next. And as most of
this motion takes place in singly occupied automobiles, even a sparsely populated area can generate
the traffic of a much larger traditional town (J). Now I'm going to examine the road.

Part 2. Questions 12-20 (0.9 pt)

Complete the summary below. Write only ONE word for each answer.
When companies are interviewing job applicants, one quality that they generally demand is personal
initiative. This means that the person is a (12) _____self-starter_______, and understands his or her
needs for (13) _____training________ and experience. Recruiters prefer candidates to show necessary
(14) ________focus_______ in their job applications. Another valuable quality is being able to deal
with (15) ______pressure_________ without giving up. Candidates should feel positive about a (16)
_______challenge_______. They should be confident, and treat other people with (17)
_______respect______.
They should base their questions in the interview on previous (18)________experience________. It is
useful to record the (19) ________skills______ that they can offer the employer. It is essential to be
good at (20) _______communication_________ in a variety of situations.

TRANSCRIPT
Now, I know that many of you are applying for jobs at the moment, so here's some advice on
maximising your chances of success. If you've been invited to a job interview, particularly if it's your
first, you're probably delighted that you've got that far. But you may be wondering how recruiters
make their choice. They want to appoint the best person for the job, but how do they decide?
Sometimes it's difficult to know exactly what they're looking for in an ideal candidate, so let me tell
you what generally impresses interviewers. One important area is personal initiative. This covers a
range of skills, competencies, and qualities, and includes things like being a self-starter. That is, not
waiting to be told everything, but making an effort to find out for yourself, asking questions, doing
tasks that need to be done, and which are within your capabilities. Initiative also involves showing a
potential employer that you've identified your professional goals and have worked out how to achieve

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them, both the training and the hands-on experience that you want within the organisation. Most
recruiters will be uneasy if you've applied for jobs as varied as an accountant, a teacher, and a sales
executive. They'll suspect that you lack the necessary focus, and they won't expect you to be interested
enough in the work, or determined enough to succeed. Recruiters generally want someone who won't
give up. In most jobs these days, people are working under pressure, and you need to be able to
handle it. As the saying goes, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Recruiters are normally
interested in someone who's enthusiastic about getting involved, so you should show that you welcome
a challenge. They also look for confident individuals who are adaptable and flexible. The ability to
project the right image is a must-have skill for most employers. This means always behaving in a
professional way, and having respect for people, whether these are colleagues, customers, or suppliers.
And this needs to be maintained even in difficult situations, and always make sure you promote a
positive image both of yourself and of the organisation. If applicants haven't bothered to find out
before the interview about the organisation they're applying to, it suggests that they aren't really
interested in working there, so it pays to do some research. Then in the interview itself you can ask
questions that both impress the recruiters and give you the information you need. Job applicants very
often undersell what they're capable of doing, and this may be because they've failed to review their
experience so far. It's a worthwhile exercise to compile a list of your skills and how you developed
them . Then when you get to an interview you'll have plenty of examples to refer to. You may be the
perfect candidate, but you need to let others know about it. It's really important that one of your
strengths is communication . You need to be able to put your point across in a discussion, take on
board what other people are saying, and respond appropriately. Being at ease and able to chat with
others on an everyday level is a valuable aspect of this too. I hope this is making you think about how
to prepare for an interview, and also how to behave.