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In the debates about how a particular piece of land is to be used, the priorities often conflict. What should you do, for example, if you find out that under the fertile fields of a farming community there is a thick bed of coal which can be strip mined? Strip mining rips up top soil and vegetation. But mining may create jobs, bring money to the towns businesses. Those who approve of strip mining say that the coal is needed, and they point out that it is quicker and cheaper to get coal from the surface than to go deep into the earth to get it by standard mining techniques. On the other hand, it takes nature 500 years to create an inch of top soil. As the countryside fills up, people are becoming more aware of the need for open space. Nearly every proposal for a new power plant, highway, or airport draws fierce opposition. Everyone wants the big, land-eating “ uglies ” to be in someone else’s backyard. Minneapolis and St.Paul, Minnesota, for example, have been debating about the site of a future airport for years. Yet if a new airport is needed, it will have to go somewhere. ?
How do we find our way out of the land-used problem? One way might be to reexamine our values, to think in new directions. Does everyone have to have a car with its need for highways and parking lots? What about developing mass transit systems that use less land? Do suburbs have to sprawl? Can they be designed so they use less space? Do we have to have more energy? If we do, do we really have to strip-mine coal to provide it? ?
However difficult they may be to arrive at, choices will have to be made if we want to preserve the beauty and usefulness of the land. For there is at least one point on which all of us can agree: The land does have its limits.
The word “priorities” in the sentence means ____.
A) the various needs
B) the most important goal
C) the number one necessity
D) the first thing to be considered
“… , people are becoming more aware of the need for open space. ” tells us that ____.
A) people are thinking to develop their living space into the sky
B) people noticed the need for unoccupied land
C) people are struggling to get more land from the space ?
D) people are becoming more active on the space issue
How do we find our way out of the land use problems?
A) One way might be to reexamine our values, to think in new directions.
B) Everyone has to have a car with its need for highways and parking lots.
C) We have to have more energy. We need strip ? mine coal to provide it.
D) We may develop mass transit systems which use less land.
“ Everyone wants the big, land-eating ‘ uglies to be in someone else s backyard. ” shows that ____.
A) people don t want more big projects
B) people don t want to live in the neighborhood of the big projects
C) people regard the large construction projects are “ uglies ”
D) people don t like the undesirable building projects
The main idea of this article is ____.
A) The Limits of Land
B) Land
C) Land and Our Life Styles
D) Land and Space
