Effec的ts of the Automobile on Societies.docVIP

Unit 8 Text A Effects of the Automobile on Societies I. Background information 1. Zoning It is a device of land use regulation used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another. Zoning may be use-based (regulating the uses to which land may be put), or it may regulate building height, lot coverage, and similar characteristics, or some combination of these. 2. Surface runoff It is the water flow which occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water, from rain, snowmelt, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the hydrologic cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source. If a nonpoint source contains man-made contaminants, the runoff is called nonpoint source pollution. A land area which produces runoff draining to common point is called a watershed. When runoff flows along the ground, it can pick up soil contaminants such as petroleum, pesticides (in particular herbicides and insecticides), or fertilizers that become discharge or nonpoint source pollution. 3. Margaret Thatcher She was born in Grantham, England, 13 October, 1925 and was the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990. Margaret Thatcher was the United Kingdom’s first woman prime minister, and she held the office of PM for longer than anyone in the 20th century. Elected in 1979, Thatcher shored up a Conservative-led government, favored privatization plans, led the country through the Falklands War with Argentina, and did it all with a stern no-nonsense flair that earned her the nickname The Iron Lady. Although Thatcher was elected to three consecutive terms, widespread discontent and political disputes within her party forced her to resign in 1990. She was succeeded by John Major. II. Language points 1. ...the automobile rapidly developed from an expensi