1. Listening 1

OK, everyone, what I want to do today is continue our discussion about cities and the challenges they face, and, I’d like to focus on the city of Venice, in Italy, which is an extraordinary example. So, to begin with, let’s review a few of the points we’ve discussed so far. Remember that, for centuries, the city has been struggling with the problem of flooding. As you know, the regular floodwaters—called the acqua alta—are a big problem in the city. You may also recall（想起） that the government has started the innovative（创新的） MOSE project to build water barriers and stop flooding from the ocean. Now, flooding is an important issue, but many Venetians say that the city has more serious problems than the acqua alta or the MOSE project. And most of these problems have to do with tourism. Of course, tourism has both the positive and negative side—tourism is extremely profitable. But the problem in Venice is too many tourists.

For example, in 2007 the number of Venetian residents was 60,000. And what do you think the number of visitors to Venice was in that year? Twenty-one million! Recently, on a single holiday weekend in May, 80,000 tourists visited the city. Public parking lots filled up and were closed. And tourists walked through the streets eating and drinking and leaving a lot of trash behind.

The result is that Venice’s city services just can’t handle（处理，应对) so many people. The city has to pay more and more money for garbage collection to clean up all of the trash. In addition, public transportation on the famous boats and gondolas(平底船) is so crowded that Venetian residents（居民） can barely find room to get on.

Along with trash and crowded transportation, city residents also have to deal with

higher prices for food and for housing. Food prices continue to rise around the city. Some cafés charge as much as 13 U.S. dollars for a soft drink! In the Rialto Market—an area with many shops and stores—some of the grocery（食品，杂货） stores have been replaced by souvenir shops, which means that Venetians have fewer places to buy their groceries. In popular tourist areas, rent has almost tripled(三倍), and many small local businesses—for example, toy（玩具） stores and hardware（五金） stores—can’t afford to pay.

Let me add that there is a serious housing problem in Venice. At one time, there were regulations（规章） making it illegal to convert（改装） residential buildings into hotels. But a law in 1999 removed those regulations, and the housing problem got even worse. Since then, the number of hotels and guesthouses has increased by 600 percent, and the number of houses that are available for local residents has gone down.

These days, housing is only affordable for the very rich or for people who already own houses because they’ve been passed down by family. Young Venetians simply can’t afford to buy any property（财产） in the city. This has forced a huge number of Venetian residents to move out of the city. Thirty years ago, the population of Venice was around 120,000. Now it’s less than 60,000.

So, why does Venice continue to encourage tourism when it causes so many problems? Mainly it’s because tourism in Venice generates（产生） more than two billion U.S. dollars a year in revenue（税）—and many think that the amount is much higher.

Also, there’s a lot of financial pressure on Venice. The cleaning of canals（水道）, restoration（恢复） of old structures, and the MOSE project are all very expensive. Tourism

brings in money to help the city solve these problems.

Another point I want to make is that many people in Venice have jobs related to tourism. As more tourists come to the city, hotels, restaurants, and museums need to hire more workers. In fact, the city of Venice has a lower unemployment rate than the rest of Italy, and it’s likely a result of the tourism industry.

Some people think that Venice is to blame for its own problems—that these problems are the result of greed for tourists’ money. There’s a lot of talk about limiting tourists, taxing tourists, and even asking tourists to avoid the busy seasons of Easter and Carnival. However, as you can see, maximizing the number of tourists in Venice is also necessary. So, there seem to be no simple solutions to Venice’s tourism problem.

好,大家,我今天要做的就是继续讨论城市和他们面临的挑战,我想把重点放在意大利的威尼斯市,这是一个非常好的例子。所以,首先回顾一下我们迄今为止讨论过的几点。请记住,几个世纪以来,这座城市一直在为洪水问题而苦苦挣扎。正如你所知道的那样,定期的洪水称为“获得”- 在这个城市是个大问题。你也许还记得,政府已经启动了创新的MOSE项目来建造水屏障,并阻止海洋的洪水。 现在,洪水是一个重要的问题,但是很多威尼斯人认为,这个城市比俄罗斯联邦和莫斯科项目有更严重的问题。而这些问题大部分都与旅游有关。

当然,旅游既有正面的也有负面的,副旅游是非常有利可图的。但在威尼斯的问题是太多的游客。

例如,2007年威尼斯居民的人数是6万人。你认为那年威尼斯的游客人数是多少’二千一百万!最近在五月的一个假期周末,有8万游客参观了这座城市。公共停车场已满,关闭。游客在街上走着吃喝,留下了很多垃圾。

结果是威尼斯的城市服务不能处理这么多人。这个城市不得不支付越来越多的垃圾回收资金来清理所有的垃圾。此外,着名的小船和吊船上的公共交通如此拥挤,威尼斯人居民几乎找不到空间。

随着垃圾和交通挤塞,城市居民也不得不面对更高的食物和住房价格。全市食品价格继续上涨。一些咖啡馆收取高达13美元的软饮料!在里亚托市场这个拥有许多商店和商店的地区,一些杂货店已经被纪念品商店所取代,这意味着威尼斯人没有购买杂货的地方。在受欢迎的旅游地区,租金几乎增加了两倍,许多小型的当地企业(如玩具店和五金店)也无力支付。让我补充一点,威尼斯有一个严重的住房问题。有一段时间,有规定将住宅改建为宾馆是非法的。但1999年的法律删除了这些规定,住房问题变得更糟。从那以后,宾馆和宾馆的数量增加了600%,可供当地居民居住的房屋数量下降了。

这些日子里,住房只有为富人或者已经拥有住房的人才买得起,因为他们是被家庭遗弃的。年轻的威尼斯人根本买不起这个城市的任何财产。这迫使很多威尼斯人居住在这个城市。三十年前,威尼斯人口约为十二万人。现在还不到6万。 那么,为什么威尼斯在引发这么多问题的时候继续鼓励旅游呢’主要是因为威尼斯的旅游业每年的收入超过20亿美元,而且很多人认为这个数字要高得多。 而且,威尼斯有很大的经济压力。运河清理,旧建筑修复和MOSE项目都非常昂贵。旅游业带来资金帮助城市解决这些问题。

我想说的另一点是,威尼斯的许多人都有旅游相关的工作。随着更多的游客来到这个城市,酒店,餐馆和博物馆需要雇用更多的工人。事实上,威尼斯市的失业率比意大利其他地区要低,这可能是旅游业的结果。

有人认为威尼斯是自己的问题,这些问题是贪婪游客钱的结果。关于限制游客,