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The cartoon above shows a man ill in hospital with his sickness apparently caused by a city's increasing population, worsening environment, transportation and housing problems, together with dwindling resources.

It seems that these five problems have combined to cause the man's hospitalization. A burgeoning urban population leads to overcrowding and a worsening of the housing situation where properties become overcrowded and expensive. A crowded city leads to traffic problems such as traffic jams and packed public transport. The resources needed to meet an ever expanding city such as water supply become severely overstretched. If these five problems remain untreated, it inevitably leads to a worsening condition of the city's inhabitants.

Urbanization may not necessarily be a bad thing. However, as a country becomes more urbanized, urban residents may suffer a lot. If the rate of urbanization remains unchecked, we are just going to have to put up with increasing medical bills.

上面的漫画显示了一位生病住院的男士，他的病貌似是由城市中日益增长的人口、不断恶化的环境、交通和住房问题以及日渐减少的资源引起的。

似乎这五个问题加在一起导致了这位男士住院。快速增长的城市人口导致了过度拥挤以及住房状况的恶化--住房拥挤不堪，房价高。拥挤的城市导致了诸如交通阻塞、拥挤的公共交通之类的交通问题。满足日益扩大的城市所需的资源--如自来水供应--已严重超负荷。如果仍不去解决这五个问题，必然会导致城市居民的生存状况持续恶化。

城市化也许不一定是坏事。不过，当一个国家越来越城市化，城市居民可能会遭受严重后果。如果城市化的速度不加控制，那我们就得承受不断增加的医药费。

ill in hospital 生病住院

sickness 疾病

apparently 貌似

worsen 变得更糟

transportation 交通

housing 住房

dwindle 逐渐变少

hospitalization 住院

overcrowding 过度拥挤

property 房产

overcrowded 过度拥挤的

traffic jam 交通阻塞，塞车

water supply 自来水供应（系统）

severely 严重地

overstretch 硬撑，勉强维持

remain 仍然是

untreated 未经处理的

inhabitant 居民

urbanization 城市化

urbanized 城市化的

medical bill 医药费

1 Urbanization has some negative effects on society as large concentrations of people compete for limited resources.

城市化对社会有一些负面的影响，因为大量集中的人口要争夺有限的资源。

2 Population explosion leads to more waste and garbage.

人口爆炸会产生更多的废物和垃圾。

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