directions:

in the following text, some sentences have been removed. for questions 41–45, 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 the answer sheet. (10 points)

as you cruise round the ring road at 50mph, they slide into view: huge square hulks with their supernaturally bright colours and 6ft lettering. underappreciated and rarely discussed, commercial retail parks are a major part of the uk’s economic and social life. (41) _______.

the reasons for the retail park’s demise are structural, but some are contingent and immediate, supercharged by the pandemic. the obvious deep threat is online: to shop we now follow links, rather than signs round the ring road. while this affects the whole retail sector, the pre-covid high street was pivoting towards services such as nails bars as much as it could. what, then, can retail parks do?

(42) _______. new retail park developments across the country are grinding to a halt, according to a 2019 report. and having been a pioneer of the retail park in europe, the uk is going off them altogether.

uk planning law allows for an amount of “permitted development” before planning officers get involved. in a legal sense it’s already possible to convert these places, in a limited way, into housing. retail units of up to 150 sq metres can be converted into residential units, through “change

of use”. so the question is: why hasn’t this happened more?

there are major technical issues, not least the provision of natural light, which mean that converting commercial into residential isn’t a great idea. (43) _______.

the outer skin of the retail park box is hard to adjust – adding a storey, for example, would be prohibitively costly. dividing the interior with partition walls is feasible, but would result in

deep plans, perhaps suited to live/work studio flats, but not a three-bed family home. (44) _______. in the immediate future this seems unlikely, but if the pressure on housing grows further, it may become inevitable.

within their skin, these buildings are very adaptable. (45) _______. camborne business park, outside cambridge, has developed new plans for reinvention that include live/work units and co-working and workshop spaces.

retail parks express our contradictions: economic efficiency and sentimental attachment to consumer goods. they also show how adaptable we are. while the uk endlessly looks back to its past, it is also very capable of embracing novelty. retail parks were once the future, but the future didn’t last long.

点击视频看老夏给你精讲答案

视频加载中…

搜索小程序“词邦”，即可加入到今日头条小程序，直接看历史文章，和老夏每天最先发布的文章啦！选择底部的【学习】菜单按钮，就可找到《最新题源外刊每日一题》了。