A student essay on urban sprawl

Read an essay written by Iris Lin, who is working on building her TOEFL-taking skills at New York Language Center. This essay is an integrated writing task where students read a short passage, listen to a short lecture on the topic, and respond to a question.

You'll find the first two paragraphs of her essay below; the full essay and Iris's background are at our main blog.

           Urban sprawl is the growth of cities in an unplanned manner. U.S. cities and towns are experiencing urban sprawl, leading to the rise of anti-sprawl movements such as New Urbanism. Urban sprawl has some negative and positive effects. In the passage, we learn about how New Urbanism principles can help solve the problems of urban sprawl.

            Urban sprawl problems include four parts. First, suburban cities grow outward and use land that should be left to nature. Second, single-family homes cause sprawl. Third, there are traffic jams between suburbs and cities. Fourth, there is lack of social interaction. For instance, in the 1990s,L.A., Atlanta, and Houston experienced urban sprawl. It is very harmful, and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club call sprawl “irresponsible,” a “cancer,” a “virus,” and misuse of the land.

For the full essay, please head over to our main blog. 

A quick note: To streamline our messages to our visitors, NYLC will now post all articles and student writings at our main blog. Please stop by for a visit and spread the word! :-)