Urbanisation in the present-day world – stage 3 – answers
1 It seems faster and bigger than before – ‘it is unprecedented in speed and scale‘.
2 95% or so (= about / approximately).
3 ‘at a pretty rapid pace’
Notice that ‘fast‘ is an adjective and adverb – unlike the adjectives quick and rapid which as adverbs are quickly and rapidly.
4 In the poorest and least urbanised parts of the world i.e. above all in Africa and Asia.
5 That they were relatively easy to organise (or easily organised) a few years ago, but are not so now, (because they have grown much bigger, and have the problems associated with this).
6 That they have grown into huge areas of slums – and this is also a huge change.
7 As a precarious existence in many respects.
8 Typically slum-dwellers are without water, sanitation, electricity and without any security of tenure.
9 That because you have no security of tenure, 1) you can be evicted (thrown out (‘chucked out’) at any time, 2) you can’t get insurance for your house, 3) you are not an official person, because very often you don’t have an address, so 4) (you) are unable to borrow on the value of your house, and 5) (you) have no incentive to improve it.
10 The missing words are: striking cheerful tribute even considerable adversity get on with extraordinarily
In context:
"One of the striking things about slums is that many people there are really quite cheerful. It is a tribute to the human spirit that, even in the face of considerable adversity, so many people get on with their lives, they’re busy, they’re making money and organise themselves in an extraordinarily impressive way."
11 That in many places there has been quite (a) considerable improvement in the life of many slum-dwellers (because many slums have been improved / upgraded).
12 No, only in parts of them.
13 Slum life is ‘pretty ghastly’ for most people just arriving in cities from the countryside, and for many people it is actually getting worse.
ghastly = very unpleasant, absolutely dreadful
14 Because the growth of slums is faster than the growth of urbanisation.
15 At the end of the 19th century or during the period that followed the industrial revolution.
16 Because of de-industrialisation and the decline of manufacturing.
17 That they have seen a drift (of the population) from the centre of the city towards the suburbs or the periphery – and the centre seems to be dying.
18 Because once the centre dies, it is very hard to keep the heart of the city alive and beating. There is a fear that this will happen in other places, too.
19 That of being able to re-invent themselves or To be able to re-invent themselves.
20 By re-inventing itself not just once but twice or three times / by going through several transformations.
21 As (being) the fundamental economic factors that provide the livelihood for many of its people. A move to a knowledge-based economy is the kind of re-invention which will be necessary for other cities which go through declines due to the death of a particular industry.
22 No, he corrects the interviewer, saying that good government is certainly extremely important, but that a strong economy is just as essential.
23 The election of mayors of cities and the development of city governments (so that cities have the power to create the urban policies which they need).
24 That there no signs of any reversal of this, and that projections suggest that two thirds / 2/3rds of the human race will be living in cities by the year 2050.
25 That it is probably better to live in urban poverty than rural poverty – people prefer urban squalor to rural hopelessness. People come to cities because they have the hope of a better life, and very often if you’re living in extreme poverty in Africa or India you don’t have that hope. It is hope above all rather than the reality of experience that keeps people incities and brings more and more people to cities.