Over the past 50 years, expansive, low-density communities have prolif

Over the past 50 years, expansive, low-density
communities have proliferated at the edges of many
cities in the United States and Canada, creating a
phenomenon known as suburban sprawl. Andres
(5) Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, a
group of prominent town planners belonging to a
movement called New Urbanism, contend that
suburban sprawl contributes to the decline of civic
life and civility. For reasons involving the flow of
(10) automobile traffic, they note, zoning laws usually
dictate that suburban homes, stores, businesses, and
schools be built in separate areas, and this separation
robs people of communal space where they can
interact and get to know one another. It is as difficult
(15) to imagine the concept of community without a town
square or local pub, these town planners contend, as
it is to imagine the concept of family independent of
the home.

Suburban housing subdivisions, Duany and his
(20) colleagues add, usually contain homes identical not
only in appearance but also in price, resulting in a de
facto economic segregation of residential
neighborhoods. Children growing up in these
neighborhoods, whatever their economic
(25) circumstances, are certain to be ill prepared for life in
a diverse society. Moreover, because the widely
separated suburban homes and businesses are
connected only by “collector roads,” residents are
forced to drive, often in heavy traffic, in order to
(30) perform many daily tasks. Time that would in a town
center involve social interaction within a physical
public realm is now spent inside the automobile,
where people cease to be community members and
instead become motorists, competing for road space,
(35) often acting antisocially. Pedestrians rarely act in this
manner toward each other. Duany and his colleagues
advocate development based on early-twentieth-
century urban neighborhoods that mix housing of
different prices and offer residents a “gratifying
(40) public realm” that includes narrow, tree-lined streets,
parks, corner grocery stores, cafes, small
neighborhood schools, all within walking distance.
This, they believe, would give people of diverse
backgrounds and lifestyles an opportunity to interact
(45) and thus develop mutual respect.

Opponents of New Urbanism claim that migration
to sprawling suburbs is an expression of people’s
legitimate desire to secure the enjoyment and
personal mobility provided by the automobile and the
(50) lifestyle that it makes possible. However, the New
Urbanists do not question people’s right to their own
values; instead, they suggest that we should take a
more critical view of these values and of the sprawl
conducive zoning and subdivision policies that reflect
(55) them. New Urbanists are fundamentally concerned
with the long-term social costs of the now-prevailing
attitude that individual mobility, consumption, and
wealth should be valued absolutely, regardless of their
impact on community life.

1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) In their critique of policies that promote suburban sprawl, the New Urbanists neglect to consider the interests and values of those who prefer suburban lifestyles.
(B) The New Urbanists hold that suburban sprawl inhibits social interaction among people of diverse economic circumstances, and they advocate specific reforms of zoning laws as a solution to this problem.
(C) The New Urbanists argue that most people find that life in small urban neighborhoods is generally more gratifying than life in a
suburban environment.
(D) The New Urbanists hold that suburban sprawl has a corrosive effect on community life, and as an alternative they advocate development modeled on small urban neighborhoods.
(E) The New Urbanists analyze suburban sprawl as a phenomenon that results from short-sighted traffic policies and advocate changes to these traffic policies as a means of reducing the negative effects of sprawl.


2. According to the passage, the New Urbanists cite which one of the following as a detrimental result of the need for people to travel extensively every day by automobile?

(A) It imposes an extra financial burden on the residents of sprawling suburbs, thus detracting from the advantages of suburban life.
(B) It detracts from the amount of time that people could otherwise devote to productive employment.
(C) It increases the amount of time people spend in situations in which antisocial behavior occurs.
(D) It produces significant amounts of air pollution and thus tends to harm the quality of people’s lives.
(E) It decreases the amount of time that parents spend in enjoyable interactions with their
children.


3. The passage most strongly suggests that the New Urbanists would agree with which one of the following statements?

(A) The primary factor affecting a neighborhood’s conduciveness to the maintenance of civility is the amount of time required to get from one place to another.
(B) Private citizens in suburbs have little opportunity to influence the long-term effects of zoning policies enacted by public officials.
(C) People who live in suburban neighborhoods usually have little difficulty finding easily accessible jobs that do not require commuting to urban centers.
(D) The spatial configuration of suburban neighborhoods both influences and is influenced by the attitudes of those who live in them.
(E) Although people have a right to their own values, personal values should not affect the ways in which neighborhoods are designed.


4. Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s use of the word “communities” in line 2 and “community” in line 15?

(A) They are intended to be understood in almost identical ways, the only significant difference being that one is plural and the other is singular.
(B) The former is intended to refer to dwellings— and their inhabitants—that happen to be clustered together in particular areas; in the latter, the author means that a group of people have a sense of belonging together.
(C) In the former, the author means that the groups referred to are to be defined in terms of the interests of their members; the latter is intended to refer generically to a group of people who have something else in common.
(D) The former is intended to refer to groups of people whose members have professional or political ties to one another; the latter is intended to refer to a geographical area in which people live in close proximity to one another.
(E) In the former, the author means that there are informal personal ties among members of a group of people; the latter is intended to indicate that a group of people have similar backgrounds and lifestyles.


5. Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the position that the passage attributes to critics of the New Urbanists?

(A) Most people who spend more time than they would like getting from one daily task to another live in central areas of large cities.
(B) Most people who often drive long distances for shopping and entertainment live in small towns rather than in suburban areas surrounding large cities.
(C) Most people who have easy access to shopping and entertainment do not live in suburban areas.
(D) Most people who choose to live in sprawling suburbs do so because comparable housing in neighborhoods that do not require extensive automobile travel is more expensive.
(E) Most people who vote in municipal elections do not cast their votes on the basis of candidates’ positions on zoning policies.


6. The passage most strongly suggests that which one of the following would occur if new housing subdivisions in suburban communities were built in accordance with the recommendations of Duany and his colleagues?

(A) The need for zoning laws to help regulate traffic flow would eventually be eliminated.
(B) There would be a decrease in the percentage of suburban buildings that contain two or more apartments.
(C) The amount of time that residents of suburbs spend traveling to the central business districts of cities for work and shopping would increase.
(D) The need for coordination of zoning policies between large-city governments and governments of nearby suburban communities would be eliminated.
(E) There would be an increase in the per capita number of grocery stores and schools in those suburban communities.


7. The second paragraph most strongly supports the inference that the New Urbanists make which one of the following assumptions?

(A) Most of those who buy houses in sprawling suburbs do not pay drastically less than they can afford.
(B) Zoning regulations often cause economically uniform suburbs to become economically diverse.
(C) City dwellers who do not frequently travel in automobiles often have feelings of hostility toward motorists.
(D) Few residents of suburbs are aware of the potential health benefits of walking, instead of driving, to carry out daily tasks.
(E) People generally prefer to live in houses that look very similar to most of the other houses around them.