Name : Nguyễn Đăng Khoa

Class : 1B

Urbanization

Professor:  Right, everyone, let’s begin. I’d like to introduce the topic we’re
going to be discussing this week, and that’s urbanization. By urbanization, I mean
the (1)………movement……. of people from the countryside to the city. And
those people are moving in very large numbers.
Some scholars say this movement from rural to urban is the biggest (2)  …
migration………. in human history. That’s a big claim, but the statistics are very
compelling. Between now and the end of the 21st
century, about three billion people will move from the village to the city. That’s
three billion, with a ‘b.’ Right now, about(3) ……50%……….of the world’s
people live in cities,
but by 2050 that number will be about 70%.
Student:  So –
Professor:  Yes, Diana?
Student:  Sorry, I was just wondering why so many people move to cities. Is there
one main reason for it?
Professor:  OK, I’ll get to that, but let me finish this point first. Right.
Urbanization is happening very quickly and (4) ………dramatically…….. Let me
just give you some statistics to (5) ……illustrate………. this point.
In the year 1950, there were 86 cities with more than a million people. That’s 86
for the whole world. Today there are 400. India has 35 of these cities. China has a
hundred and sixty-six. One of those
Chinese cities is Shenzhen That’s where the iPhone and other high-tech devices are
made. Over 14 million people live there today; in 1980 it was a little fishing village
of 25,000. The city’s (6) ……population………. is still increasing.
Now, Diana wants to know whether there is one main cause of urbanization. The
answer is simple. Life
in a rural village is not easy. I know we see pictures of rural Asia or Africa and
think, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live there? Life must be so much simpler!’
Well, in fact, there are about a billion people in the world now who are living on
less than a dollar a day, and three quarters of them are small farmers in (7) ……
agricultural………. villages. Think about that statistic for a second. A dollar a day
isn’t much. There’s poverty, hunger, and disease in the village, and people don’t
live as long
Of course, moving to the city is not easy. A lot of these migrants are living in (8)
…………slums…. – about a billion people, in fact, according to the U.N. That’s a
lot. These places can be crowded, dirty, and
sometimes dangerous, but they also do a lot of good for people. For one thing,
some so-called ‘slums’ are really not that bad; there may not be clean water, but
there is cable TV, Internet access, and access to (9) ……public
transportation……..
And more importantly, the slum is where your network is. People from your
village are already there. These connections can help you find a job, (10) ………
grow……. you money to start a business,
mind your kids while you’re working, and so on. And the houses may be small and
simple, but in a lot of cases, the people actually own them. In some slums, the rate
of home ownership is as high as 85 percent.
In addition to this, it’s important to note that not all megacities have these issues.
Shenzhen, for instance,
is a totally (11) …………plants…. city. Most of the workers there live in
dormitories in the factories. Another interesting fact about urbanization in China is
that the vast majority of the factory workers are female. This is just one example of
how urbanization is increasing opportunities for women around the world.
So, even though there are some concerns about urbanization, it can have some
very positive effects. In fact, I’d say it’s mostly positive. Number one, it has lifted
millions and millions of people out of poverty. Although some areas of these
cities are very poor, the people who arrive there often move into the middle class –
or at least their children do. Also, the migrants in the city send money back to the
villages. A lot of money, actually – $250 billion dollars a year, according to one
estimate.
And here’s one more thing to consider. People in cities have smaller families, and
thanks to public transportation, they use less energy. Because of urbanization, in
2050 the world’s population will actually start to decrease. That is great news for
the environment, for (12) ……global warming………., and for a number of other
issues we face in the future.