Here are the answers to your city questions.
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A city is a large and important town, with houses, markets and places of
business. It is a center for commerce (buying and selling) and education.
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We gather together in cities for many reasons: to be close to work and
shopping, for friendship and safety.
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Transportation in the city can be many things: cars, trucks, buses, taxis,
bicycles
and motorbikes. Some cities have trains, also subways (which are trains
underground), and elevated trains above the ground called "els".
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Cities have markets where meat and produce are brought from the country.
Stores and restaurants can go to the markets to buy food for sale to the
public. Some stores and restaurants have their food delivered to their
businesses so they do not have to go to the market themselves.
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Cities have a water system with reservoirs and pipes that go underground. The
water may come from a lake or river or a natural spring from an underground
aquafer. Cities can also tap these underground sources with wells. The water
is tested for purity (to see if its safe to drink) and then might be treated
and stored until it is piped to the houses and businesses. Do you have a well
or city water?
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Cities have lots of things to do for fun. There are parks and playgrounds.
Some cities have museums and zoos and centers for recreation like skating rinks
and swimming pools; also tennis and basketball courts.
Many have ballparks for softball
and little league and soccer fields too. Does your city have any of these?
or a city near you that you can visit?
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Building codes are laws and rules that must be followed by anyone building
something in the city. They are good because they make sure that safe
structures are built. They regulate what materials can be used and the size
of structures.
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Tall buildings are sometimes called skyscrapers. (can you think of why people
called them this?) The tallest buildings in the world are the Petronas Towers
in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (that's on the other side of the world from North
America, south of China) They were built in 1996 and are each 1,483 feet
tall. (that's 88 stories!) you cannot go to the top to look around from these
towers but other buildings have observatories on the top floors. The Sears
Tower in Chicago is 1'454 feet high and was built in 1973. It has 110 stories
so you can see that the stories of this tower are closer together than the one
in Malaysia. You can see all of Chicago from the Sears Tower. Some other tall
buildings are in New York City. The World Trade Center is 1,368 feet tall and
is the one King Kong climbed in the movie. The Empire State building was also
climbed by King Kong in the first movie made about him. It is 1250 tall. The
Chrysler Building in New York was built in 1930 and was the world's first
building over 1,000 feet tall.
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The fact is, people keep just about any kind of animal in a city. Usually
there are restrictions against some animals--like farm animals (sheep, pigs,
cows), and some large exotic animals like elephants, lions and bears. Cities
are so big that people keep many different kinds of birds, dogs
, cats, snakes, fish, lizards and taurantulas ( Kevin's brother had one in Home
Alone). Pigeons are also kept as pets. They are special breeds and some are
trained to race. Yes,race! The pigeons can fly up to 45 mph and race over
hundreds of miles, sometimes over several days but they can always find their
way back to the coop they came from. There are also many pigeons that are free
in the city, especially in parks. Remember the pigeon lady in Home Alone II?
And the lady who fed the birds in Mary Poppins?
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There are some cities with more than a million people living in them such as
Mexico City in Mexico and Sao Paulo in Brazil. Before the Industrial
Revolution, most people lived outside the city walls. Most cities in Europe
had walls for protection. London was the first important European city to have
people who were not farmers move outside the walls to live.
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The major concern with cities is our dependence upon the internal-combustion
engine (what runs our cars, trucks and airplanes). Sometime in the future our
world will not have enough fuel to power these vehicles. The pollution from
their exhaust can reach dangerous levels in the city and make it very diffucult
to breathe. There are so many cities with so many cars and trucks that the
pollution is endangering our whole planet. Scientists are working to discover
practical and inexpensive fuels.
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Electronics are wonderful! Electronics are what makes it possible for you to
be online and visit this site and learn some new things. You do not have to
live in the city to be online and do business or communicate with others; so
many people can have their businesses and homes far away from the city.
Because we are developing better ways to deliver products right to peoples
homes, they don't have to be close to the city and so the concentration of
exhaust is lessened and even eliminated in some cases because more people have
to do less traveling to get things done. Their traveling can be for special
things like vacations. (Whoopee!)
How did you do? Did you learn a lot of new things?
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