Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

 
F 
In the decades after the 1940s, city environments suffered from heavy pollution as 
they sought to cope with increased automobile usage, pollution from industrial 
production, new varieties of chemical pesticides and the wastes of an increasingly 
consumer-oriented economy. Cleaner fuels and smoke control laws largely freed cities 
during the 1940s and 1950s of the dense smoke that they had previously suffered 
from. Improved urban air quality resulted largely from the substitution of natural gas 
and oil for coal and the replacement of the steam locomotive by the diesel-electric. 
However, great increases in automobile usage in some larger cities produced the new 
phenomenon of smog, and air pollution replaced smoke as a major concern. 
G 
During these decades, the suburban out-migration, which had begun in the nineteenth 
century with commuter trains and streetcars and accelerated because of the 
availability and convenience of the automobile, now increased to a torrent, putting 
major strains on the formerly rural and undeveloped metropolitan fringes. To a great 
extent, suburban layouts ignored environmental considerations, making little provision 
for open space, producing endless rows of resource-consuming and fertilizer-
dependent lawns, contaminating groundwater through leaking septic tanks, and 
absorbing excessive amounts of fresh water and energy. The growth of the outer city 

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 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
131 
since the 1970s reflected a continued preference on the part of many people in the 
western world for space-intensive single-family houses surrounded by lawns, for 
private automobiles over public transit, and for the development of previously 
untouched areas. Without better planning for land use and environmental protection, 
urban life will, as it has in the past, continue to damage and stress the natural 
environment. 
Questions 8 – 13 
 
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? 
In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write