1. Listening 1
OK, everyone, what I want to do today is continue our discussion about cities and the
challenges
they
face,
and,
I
鈥?/p>
d
like
to
focus
on
the
city
of
Venice,
in
Italy,
which
is
an
extraordinary example. So, to begin with, let
鈥?/p>
s review a few of the points we
鈥?/p>
ve discussed
so
far.
Remember
that,
for
centuries,
the
city
has
been
struggling
with
the
problem
of
flooding. As you know, the regular floodwaters
鈥?/p>
called the acqua alta
鈥?/p>
are a big problem
in the city. You may also recall
锛?/p>
鎯宠捣锛?/p>
that the government has started the innovative
锛堝垱
鏂扮殑锛?/p>
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
鈥?/p>
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
鈥?/p>
s city services just can
鈥?/p>
t handle
锛堝鐞嗭紝
搴斿
) 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(
骞冲簳鑸?/p>
) is so
crowded that Venetian residents
锛堝眳姘戯級
can barely find room to get on.
Along
with
trash
and
crowded
transportation,
city
residents
also
have
to
deal
with