Cities of the Future - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations

M: OK, we've been looking at how societies will develop in the future and at the increase in the size of cities, so I want to talk to you today about the key considerations in these cities of the future. There are three key elements I want to look at and these are the new features they will have, issues of size and the main problems to be considered. First of all, individual transportation will be a big factor in these new mega cities as public transport becomes unmanageable. There'll be a huge rise in the use of Segways, which are personal transporters like motorised scooters. As a result, and partly also to reduce pollution, roads will be altered so that they are narrower and will take up less of a city's space than they do currently. Naturally, this is a major change to the infrastructure and something that may hinder it is the huge amount of investment it will require. The next thing is, what is going to happen to the commercial areas? We do not want these to become even larger concrete jungles than they are at present so we have to look at design, and current designs for city development include building gardens on the roofs of these buildings to make a more pleasant environment for workers. And you may think that these areas will expand to cope with increased commercial activity. In fact, the prediction is that they will cover one fifth of the area that they do at present as we build upwards. The exception to this is shopping centres, which we predict will expand with more and more temperature controlled malls. What may cause difficulties is that the superstores will be confined to the outer edges of the city as they will be too big to fit into the new malls. Then, of course, there are the residential areas and these will undergo their own changes. One particular development will be houses which are built from glass, as innovations in this material allow it to provide light without causing problems with temperature inside a building. The residential areas will not be allowed to expand without limit, as happens in some areas at present, and their size will be restricted to a population of 15,000. One issue which has yet to be resolved, and I'm not sure it ever will be, is how we manage to house older residents. They will be increasing in numbers as time goes on. Finally, how will these cities live? We know we have limited energy sources so what will we do? Well, something currently in development which will be a feature, is that waste is going to become an energy source, for example, to provide gas in homes. Also as new technology and systems are developed we will find that energy plants will become smaller. Another energy source we could use, but one which raises issues of having enough space and too much noise is windfarms. Because of the problems, I'm not convinced these will be the grand solution to our energy problems that we thought they were going to be.

Now, moving on to looking at the social aspect of cities, we need to look at housing and how people will live. Cities currently have flats in the centre populated by single people and wealthier residents, and families tend to move to the outskirts. In the future, the centre of cities will see a dramatic change. We will see many more examples of co-operative buildings. This is where people join together to form a company that owns the building they live in. And, despite continuing shortages, there will also be a rise in the provision of retirement homes in city centres so that the elderly can have easy access to hospitals and shops. Recently, we have seen a levelling off in the growth of private housing and I think that will not change, but we are likely to see more social housing as far fewer people will be able to afford to own their own homes.

OK, now, if anybody ... (fade) ...