Critical Thinking
How do you understand the significance of China building smart cities?
I think building smart cities is significant for China in many ways. For example, it can drive economic growth and create jobs, encourage technological innovations and improve efficiency, offer sustainable urban development solutions, and create modern, safe, and convenient environments for citizens to live in. All these are essential for China to become more prosperous and stronger and ensure its people a happier life.
With your generous support, our charity fund will be __________(poised/streamlined) for continued growth and success for many years to come.
poised
Tell a synonym of ‘predominant’ and their difference.
“dominant”更强调权威和地位，而“predominant”更强调数量和比例。
To enable urban sustainability in a smart city, city managers try to monitor various things in real time through using embedded IoT sensors. Can you give a few examples to illustrate this point?
• Traffic flow can be managed because sensors installed in the city can collect data about real-time traffic conditions and help city managers adjust the traffic flow in these areas. As a result, time and gasoline can be saved, and less air pollution will be caused.
• Intelligent street lights with efficient lamps can save energy and costs because they are programmed to dim or brighten automatically.
Advances in mobile phone technology have enabled the rapid development of __________ (tangible/instantaneous) communication, such as instant messaging and voice chatting.
instantaneous
Tell 2 examples of fossil fuels.
Diesel and petroleum.
There are likely to be many challenges with the development of a smart city. What challenges do you think may have to be addressed while developing a smart city?
• Smart city development requires advanced infrastructure, which most of the current cities don’t have yet and will need generous funding and full government support to build.
• Security issues can be challenging to smart cities. With IoT devices all interconnected, an operation system could be completely paralyzed in case of a cyberattack.
For the convenience of drivers, China rolled out digital driver’s licenses across the country amid efforts to __________ (evoke/streamline) services.
streamline
Tell a synonym of ‘detrimental’.
Harmful
Building a smart city requires a lot of preparation and careful planning. What steps do you think should be followed in deciding on a smart city project?
1) Collect data. Every smart city project starts with data. We need to collect new data, categorize them, and integrate them into data pools for analysis.
2) Identify pain points. Every urban community has its own pain points, from traffic congestion to limited parking availability and energy shortage. We need to identify the most pressing issues for the smart city project to tackle.
3) Work out the financing and budgeting plan. Smart city projects are expensive, and we should try to get funding from various sources, including city budgets, businesses, individuals, government grants, and crowdfunding.
4) Launch a pilot project. Smart city projects are irreversible. Being able to test how your project will work, such as how it will collect and process feedback, is a must. So, it’s wise to launch a pilot project first.
Studies have shown that long-term confinement is __________ (detrimental/lavish) to the physical and psychological well-being of animals.
detrimental
What’s the adj. of ‘intuition’?
Intuitive
A city can’t be built smart unless its citizens are ready to participate. How should we as individuals engage ourselves actively in the development of smart cities?
1) Get ourselves mentally and technically prepared for urban smartness. For example, we should:
• raise our awareness about smart services in the city through various sources;
• learn to use smart urban apps and software.
2) Do what we can to help the city better implement smartness. For example, we can:
• shift to smart devices in the home environment;
• help collect real-time data and user opinions for city managers to optimize smart services;
• help children and older people to get involved in smart city trends.
This study was conducted to test the __________ (hurdle/hypothesis) that exposure to urban air pollution contributes to the development of chronic lung diseases.
hypothesis
What’s the noun of ‘equate’?
Equation