“Slow City” — a recently launched project focused on preserving the traditional quality of life enjoyed in some of Italy’s smaller cities and towns. The project was born from the idea of the “Slow Food” movement — started in Italy in the 1980s — which promotes leisurely eating and the growing of local, healthy products to fight against the American fast-food style.
“The American urban model has invaded our cities, making Italian towns look the same. We want to stop this kind of globalization,” says Paolo Saturnini, an Italian mayor.
The “Slow City” project plans to emphasize the rich, cultural, culinary(厨房的) and artistic local traditions of each community.
Walking areas will be enlarged and squares and parks will be made greener with more plants. Car alarms and other noise that disturbs the peace will be banned, and ugly TV aerials(天线), advertising posters, and signs will be taken down.
City councils will also insist on the use of recycling and renewable energy sources, and will also introduce ecological transport systems. Parking will be made stress-free by creating more public parking areas, and easily accessible walkways and bike lanes will cross the city. But in the “Slow City” way, all improvements will probably come about slowly.
Thirty-two Italian city councils, which joined the “Slow City” program, have decided to take further steps in this direction by increasing the numbers of traditional family-style eating establishments, reducing noise pollution, and concentrating on making their towns friendlier for people to live in.
Organic local produce will be promoted in all restaurants and genetically modified foods(转基因食品) will be banned. “We can’t stop large, fast-food chains from coming here, but we hope that people who come to our towns will not want to eat exactly the same hamburger they can eat in Melbourne, London or Paris, but want something genuine and different,” said Saturnini.
小题1:According to the passage, the “Slow City” project aims at _____.
A．preventing Italy from being affected by America
B．beautifying the environment of small Italian cities and towns
C．calling on Italians to enjoy stress-free life
D．protecting the traditional Italian lifestyle小题2:From Paragraphs 4-5, we can infer that ______.
A．cars in “Slow City” will have to go slowly
B．people can park their cars free of charge in “Slow City”
C．“Slow City” will take on an environmentally friendly look
D．advertising in “Slow City” will be banned小题3:Further measures will be included in the “Slow City” program EXCEPT _____.
A．cutting down noise pollution
B．stop genetically modified foods
C．getting more towns involved in the project
D．building more family-style restaurants小题4:In Saturnini’s opinion, when traveling in “Slow Cities”, visitors_____.
A．aren’t provided with fast food
B．will see few fast-food chains
C．can enjoy themselves like in London
D．can enjoy real Italian-style healthy food
