Questão 562804

_____ Some time in 2006 more than half the population of

the world will, for the first time, be living in a town or city.

This is all a bit odd. Homo sapiens has been around for at

least 25,000 years, and for almost all that time he has

5 been a rural creature, his habitat dominated by the need

to find food. Villages came about only with the development

of farming — at the end of the last ice age, about 9,000

years ago — and even then the vast majority of people had

to be close to their animals and crops. Cities of more

10 than 100,000 people were not developed until the days of

classical antiquity, 3,000 years ago.

_____ By that time improvements in farming were leading

to surpluses of meat and grain, and improvements in

transport were making possible the development of trade.

15 Some people were thus freed from the duty to produce

their own food, and so to live in towns. But it took another

huge leap in technology, the invention less than three

centuries ago of engines and machinery, to draw peasants

in large numbers from the land to the cities, there to work

20 in the new factories of the industrial age. They survived,

some even prospered, in these conditions, thanks to other

inventions, such as soap, medicines and sewerage. Even

in 1800, though, only 3% of the world’s population was

urbanized. […]

25 _____ The current surge of urbanization is almost entirely

driven by the relative impoverishment of the countryside.

True, it is medical and other scientific advances that have

in the past 50-60 years made possible the vast growth of

the world’s population, from roughly 2.5 billion to 6.5 billion

30 people; and nearly two-thirds of these extra souls have

been absorbed by the cities. But they have not been drawn

by the demand for jobs so much as the hope of jobs. The

reality is often unemployment and poverty. Moreover, the

cities growing fastest today are not, as they used to be,

35 in the richer parts of the world. They are in the poorer

parts, notably Africa and the Indian subcontinent. […]

_____ Where will it all end? Man is adaptable, and has in

the rich world often created a passable countryside in the

city: many urbanites seem happy with parks, not open

40 country, and gyms, not manual labour. But today’s cities

may be growing a bit too fast for their own good. Only if

the new cities of the developing world can find the

prosperity associated with the older ones of the rich world

will they seem a natural habitat for the rustic peasants of

45 everyone’s yesterday.

By John Grimond, The World in 2006

Check the option that best summarizes the central idea of the text.