The Advantages of City Life (IELTS Reading practice)

For a long time, many people believed that cities were bad for the environment. Cities are crowded, noisy and polluted, and the people who live in them often buy and use more things. It seems natural to think that life in the countryside is “greener”.

However, a growing number of planners and environmental writers now argue the opposite. When many people live close together, they can share roads, water pipes and power lines. A city needs much less of these per person than a village spread over a large area.

Housing is another example. A flat in an apartment building shares walls, floors and ceilings with other flats, so it usually needs less energy to heat or cool than a separate house. In addition, because shops, schools and workplaces are close together, city dwellers can often walk, cycle or take public transport instead of driving.

There is also a benefit for nature. If people live in dense cities, more land outside the cities can stay as farmland, forest or open country. If the same number of people spread out across the countryside, they would build roads and houses over a much larger area.

This does not mean that cities have no problems. Air pollution, traffic and high living costs are serious issues in many large cities. But supporters of city life say the answer is to make cities cleaner and better planned, not to leave them.