Directions: In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 【B1】 to 【B5】, choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 2.

The private car is assumed to have widened our horizons and increased our mobility. When we consider our children’s mobility, they can be driven to more places (and more distant places) than they could visit without access to motor vehicle. However, allowing our cities to be dominated by cars has progressively eroded children’s independence mobility.

【B1】____________________In recent surveys, when parents in some cities were asked about their own childhood experiences, the majority remembered having more, or far more, opportunities for going out on their own, compared with their own children today. They had more freedom to explore their own environment.

Children’s independent access to their local streets may be important for their own personal, mental and physical development. Allowing them to get to know their own neighborhood and community gives them a “sense of place”. This depends on “active exploration”, which is not provided for when children are passengers in cars. (Such children may see more, but they learn less.)【B2】____________________

There are very significant time and money costs for parents associated with transporting their children to school, sport and to other locations. Research in the United Kingdom estimated that this cost, in 1990, was between 10 billion and 20 billion pounds.

The reduction in children’s freedom may also contribute to a weakening of the sense of local community. As fewer children and adults use the streets as pedestrians, these streets become less sociable places. 【B3】 ____________________This in itself may exacerbate fears associated with assault and molestation, because there are fewer adults available who know their neighbors’ children, and who can look out for their safety.

The extra traffic involved in transporting children results in increased traffic congestion, pollution and accident risk. 【B4】 ____________________

Anyone who has experienced either the reduced volume of traffic jams near schools at the end of a school day, will not need convincing about these points. Thus, there are also important environmental implications of children’s loss of freedom.

【B5】 ____________________The idea that “streets are for cars and back yards and playground are for children” is a strongly held belief, and parents have little choice as individuals but to keep their children off the streets if they want to protect their safety.

A. In these areas, residents are accepting the view that the function of streets is not solely to provide mobility for cars.

B. Not only is it important that children be able to get to local play areas by themselves, but walking and cycling journeys to school and to other destinations provide genuine play activities in themselves.

C. As our roads become more dangerous, more parents drive their children to more places, thus contributing to increased levels of danger for the remaining pedestrians.

D. Children have lost much of their freedom to explore their own neighborhood or city without adult supervision.

E. As individuals, parents strive to provide the best upbringing they can for their children. However, in doing so, (e.g. by driving their children to sport, school or recreation) parents may be contributing to a more dangerous environment for children generally.

F. There is less opportunity for children and adults to have the spontaneous exchanges that help to engender a feeling of community.

G. Modifying cities in order to enhance children’s freedom will not only benefit children. Such cities will become more environmentally sustainable, as well as more sociable and more livable for all city residents.