单项选择题

Finding the Lost Freedom

 

Children’s independent access to their local streets may be important for their own personal, mental and psychological development. Allowing them to know their own neighborhood and community gives them a "sense of place". This depends on "active exploration". which is not provided for when children are passengers in cars. (Such children may see more, but they learn less.) Not only is it important that children be able to get to local play areas by themselves, but walking and cycling journeys to school and to other destinations provide genuine play activities in themselves.
There are very significant time and money costs their children to school, sport and to other locations. For parents associated with transporting.
Tile reduction in children’s freedom may also contribute to a weakening of the sense of local community. As fewer children and adults use the streets as pedestrians, these streets become less sociable place. There is less opportunity for children and adults to have the spontaneous exchanges that help to engender a feeling of community. This in itself may exacerbate fears associated with assault and molestation of children, because there are fewer adults available to know their neighbors’ children, and who can look out for their safety.
The extra traffic involved in transporting children results in increased traffic congestion, pollution and accident risk. As our roads become more dangerous, more parents drive their children to more places, thus contributing to increased levels of danger for the remaining pedestrians. Anyone who has experienced either the reduced volume of traffic in peak hour during school holidays, or the traffic jams near school at the end of a school day, will not need convincing about these points. Thus, there are also important environmental implications of children’s loss of freedom.
As individuals, parents strive to provide the best upbringing they can for their children. However, in doing so, (e. g. by driving their children to sport, school or recreation) parents may be contributing to a more dangerous environment for children generally. The idea that streets are for cars and backyards and playgrounds are for children’s is a strongly held belief, and parents have little choice as individuals but to keep their children off the streets if they want to protect their safety.
In many parts of Dutch cities, and some traffic-calmed precincts in Germany, residential streets are now places where cars must give way to pedestrians. In these areas, residents are accepting the view that the function of streets is not solely to provide mobility for cars. Streets may also be for social interaction, walking, cycling and playing. One of the most important aspects of these European cities, in terms of giving cities hack to children, has been a range of "traffic calming" initiatives, aimed at reducing the volume speed of traffic. These initiatives have had complex interactive effects, leading to a sense that children have been able to do this in safety. Recent research has demonstrated that children in many German cities have significantly higher levels of freedom to travel to places in their own neighborhood or city than children in other cities in the world.
Modifying cities in order to enhance children’s self-awareness will become more environmentally sustainable, as well as more sociable and more livable for all city residents. Perhaps it will be our concern for our children’s welfare that convinces us that we need to challenge the dominance of the car in our cities.
41．Children should play______.
42．In some German towns, pedestrians______.
43．Streets should also be used for______.
44．Reducing the amount Of traffic and the speed is______.
45．All people who live in the city will benefit if cities______.

45（）

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