Single correct option
The passage below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Urban planners have increasingly turned to the concept of the '15-minute city' — a neighbourhood designed so that most daily needs, from groceries to schools to healthcare, can be reached within a short walk or bicycle ride. Proponents argue this reduces car dependence and revitalises local economies. Critics counter that retrofitting existing car-centric cities to this model is prohibitively expensive and may inadvertently raise housing costs in the newly convenient neighbourhoods, displacing the very residents the policy aims to serve, unless it is paired with deliberate affordability safeguards.
Urban planners have increasingly turned to the concept of the '15-minute city' — a neighbourhood designed so that most daily needs, from groceries to schools to healthcare, can be reached within a short walk or bicycle ride. Proponents argue this reduces car dependence and revitalises local economies. Critics counter that retrofitting existing car-centric cities to this model is prohibitively expensive and may inadvertently raise housing costs in the newly convenient neighbourhoods, displacing the very residents the policy aims to serve, unless it is paired with deliberate affordability safeguards.
- A. The 15-minute city concept has been universally praised by planners and faces no significant practical obstacles.
- B. The 15-minute city aims to make daily needs locally accessible, but critics warn that without affordability safeguards, retrofitting costs and rising local housing prices could displace existing residents.
- C. Car-centric cities cannot be redesigned under any circumstances, making the 15-minute city concept purely theoretical.
- D. Housing costs are unrelated to urban design and depend entirely on national economic policy.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) The 15-minute city aims to make daily needs locally accessible, but critics warn that without affordability safeguards, retrofitting costs and rising local housing prices could displace existing residents.
The passage presents both the proponents' goal (local accessibility, reduced car dependence) and the critics' specific caveat (cost of retrofitting, risk of displacement absent affordability measures). Option B is the only one capturing both sides accurately. A ignores the critique entirely; C overstates the critics' point into an absolute impossibility; D contradicts the passage's explicit link between local design and housing costs.
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