DAY 70 Covid-19 might not alter

DAY 70 Covid-19 might not alter cities as much as previous pandemics

Covid-19 might not alter them as much as plague, cholera and tuberculosis did

plague   /pleɪɡ/   瘟疫 ；鼠疫 （ Black Death ）
[u] a disease spread by rats that causes a high temperature, swellings (= areas that are larger and rounder than usual) on the body and usually death

cholera   [ˈkɒlərə]   霍乱;
​a serious disease caught from bacteria in water that causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting and often causes death

tuberculosis   /tjuːˌbɜːkjuˈləʊsɪs/   n.结核病;
a serious disease, caused by bacteria, in which swellings appear on the lungs and other parts of the body

1 Apart from the occasional wailing siren, New York City is eerily quiet—so quiet that you may be woken by birdsong, says Beatriz Colomina, an architectural historian. The city looks different, too. Pedestrians have taken to the roads, which are almost empty of moving cars. Those widely spaced walkers can look up and see things that they missed before. For Ms Colomina, it is an ideal time to appreciate buildings.

Apart from    /əˈpɑːt frəm/
1>  ​except for
2>  ​in addition to; as well as
  prep.除了…外(都); 要不是; 除了…外(还); 此外; 加之;

occasional    /əˈkeɪʒənl/  a   偶然的; 临时的;
​happening or done sometimes but not often

wailing   /ˈweɪlɪŋ/  n 
a long loud high sound made by somebody who is sad or in pain
(因悲伤或疼痛) 哭号，恸哭; 大声呼叫; 哀号; 高声抱怨; 发出长而高的声音; 呼啸;

siren   /ˈsaɪrən/   n   n.汽笛; 警报器; 
a device that makes a long loud sound as a signal or warning

eerily    /ˈɪərəli/  
in a strange, mysterious and frightening way

wake  /weɪk/  to stop sleeping

architectural    /ˌɑːkɪˈtektʃərəl/     adj.建筑学的; 建筑方面的;
 relating to architecture and buildings

historian   /hɪˈstɔːriən/    历史学家;
​a person who studies or writes about history; an expert in history

Pedestrian  /pəˈdestriən/  n 
​a person walking in the street and not travelling in a vehicle

spaced walker   /ˈwɔːkə(r)/  间隔开的行人

widely spaced  分得非常开的

2 New York is an excellent place for that, both in terms of aesthetics and of history. Not only does it contain much fine architecture. It also displays the scars of previous contagions, some of them far deadlier than covid-19. From the tenements of the Lower East Side to Central Park to the subway system, New York has been shaped by disease and attempts to contain it. The “city of living death”, as one commentator dubbed it in the early 20th century, is not the only one so affected. Some of the other cities hardest hit by covid-19, such as London and Milan, previously battled plague, cholera and tuberculosis, and changed as a result. In all sorts of places architecture has been shaped by disease. Looking at the history of urban contagions makes it a little easier to predict how covid-19 will change cities. Past experience suggests that the pandemic will have only a short-lived impact—briefer than some people now hope.

aesthetics   /iːsˈθetɪk/
[c] the qualities and ideas in a work of art or literature that relate to beauty and the nature of art

contagion  = disease 传染病

deadlier 

tenement    /ˈtenəmənt/   n
a large building divided into flats, especially in a poor area of a city

3 Until about a century ago many cities levied such a heavy “mortality penalty” on their inhabitants that they would have shrunk had migrants not kept pouring into them. In 1847 a Scottish doctor, Hector Gavin, estimated that Londoners gave up eight years of life compared with the English average, whereas the inhabitants of Liverpool lost 19. This was probably an underestimate, he added.

levy   v.征收; 征(税);   ˈlevi
to use official authority to demand and collect a payment, tax, etc.

mortality   mɔːˈtæləti   n.生命的有限; 死亡数量; 死亡率; 死亡;
penalty   ˈpenəlti]

inhabitant   [ɪnˈhæbɪtənt]   n.(某地的) 居民，栖息动物;

shrink  ʃrɪŋk   
v.(使) 缩水，收缩，缩小，皱缩; (使) 缩小，减少; 退缩; 畏缩;

pouring into   大量投入（金钱或供应品）; 大量涌来;

 migrant    ˈ maɪɡrənt
n.(为工作) 移居者; 移民; 候鸟; 迁徙动物;

Scottish   英[ˈskɒtɪʃ]   苏格兰的; 
doctor   ˈdɒktə(r)

whereas   /ˌweərˈæz/
 used to compare or contrast two facts
conj.(用以比较或对比两个事实) 然而，但是，尽管; (用于正式文件中句子的开头) 鉴于;

 Liverpool   /ˈlɪvəpuːl/

4 Cities were deadly, Gavin went on to explain, because their air was so bad. He did not mean the coal and wood smoke that hung over them. “The poison which causes death is not a gas,” he said, “but a sort of atmosphere of organic particles, undergoing incessant transformations.” Gavin was reiterating the centuries-old orthodoxy that bad air, or “miasma”, caused a host of diseases. This theory dominated secular thinking about disease from the Middle Ages to the second half of the 19th century, when it was gradually displaced by germ theory. Miasmas explained why cities, with their narrow alleys, fetid streams and stinking piles of animal waste, were so much sicker than villages.

incessant  /ɪnˈsesnt/  = constant
​never stopping 

reiterate   /riˈɪtəreɪt/  v
​to repeat something that you have already said, especially to emphasize it

orthodoxy    /ˈɔːθədɒksi/
 (formal) an idea or view that is generally accepted
n.正统观念; 普遍接受的观点; 正统的信仰(或做法); 正教会; 正教信仰与做法;

a host of diseases  导致疾病的元凶

secular   /ˈsekjələ(r)/  a
not connected with spiritual or religious matters

displace   /dɪsˈpleɪs/
to take the place of somebody/something  = replace

Miasmas   /miˈæzmə/   n.污浊难闻的空气;
​a mass of air that is dirty and smells unpleasant

fetid   /ˈfetɪd/   恶臭
smelling very unpleasant =  stinking

stinking piles 厚厚一层的

5 If you believe that disease is caused by such miasmas, you naturally try to purify the air. During outbreaks of plague, which periodically ravaged European cities from the 14th to the 18th centuries, urban officials cleared the streets of rotting rubbish, lit bonfires and even fired guns. Walled cities stopped travellers and burned soft goods that might harbour miasma. Plague victims were shut in their homes, lest their emanations infect others. Their doors were marked with crosses, as a protection and a warning.

ravage  /ˈrævɪdʒ/  v 破坏 = devastate

bonfire   /ˈbɒnfaɪə(r)/  n  大火堆
a large outdoor fire for burning waste or as part of a celebration

emanation   /ˌeməˈneɪʃn/   n 散发出的气体
emanation (of something) (from something) something that is produced or appears from a particular place

lest  /lest/  以免
​1> in order to prevent something from happening
2> used to introduce the reason for the particular emotion mentioned

6 A few tried to do more. By the 15th century the great Italian cities were creating “lazzaretti”, or pesthouses, to quarantine the sick during epidemics. Milan’s could hold 16,000 people, packed into small rooms with chimneys to vent noxious emanations. Conditions there were dreadful. In 1629 a public-health official “went into a dead faint for the stinking smells that came forth from all those bodies and those little rooms”. The complex was demolished in the late 19th century and replaced with homes. But its church remains, and the outline of the lazzaretto can still be seen in the city’s street plan.

pesthouses  传染病医院

vent   /vent/ 
1> v  to express feelings, especially anger, strongly 
2> n 

demolish
to pull or knock down a building; to destroy something

 street plan  街道平面图

7 Not all cities followed suit. In the 1660s a Parliamentary bill that would have forced English parishes to build pesthouses was defeated in the House of Lords, their lordships not being keen on plague victims massing near their mansions. Pestilence did, however, encourage people to upgrade their homes. In 1652 the London bricklayers argued, self-interestedly, that plague could be held off by replacing wooden structures. They reasoned that wooden houses with overhanging storeys stifle the air, contributing to miasma—but also, in an argument that modern science would approve, that brick homes are less verminous.

parish   /ˈpærɪʃ/   n

 an area that has its own church and that a priest is responsible for

 mansion    /ˈmænʃn/  
 a large, impressive house

Pestilence    /ˈpestɪləns/
ny disease that spreads quickly and kills a lot of people

bricklayers   瓦工

held off   阻止

stifle   /ˈstaɪfl/   v   = suppress ;suffocate
to prevent something from happening; to prevent a feeling from being expressed

 verminous   /ˈvɜːmɪnəs/
covered with vermin

vermin    /ˈvɜːmɪn/  
​wild animals or birds that destroy plants or food, or attack farm animals and birds

8 In the early 19th century the cities of Europe and America faced for the first time a disease long familiar in Asia: cholera. City officials responded by deploying the old anti-plague techniques—clearing the streets of rubbish and carting people off to pesthouses. This time the popular reaction was swift and violent. Many cities, including Paris, rioted. In 1831 a furious crowd invaded a St Petersburg hospital, killed a doctor and liberated the people who had been taken there. Sir Richard Evans, a historian who has studied these episodes, argues that the authorities were so spooked by the violent reaction to their measures that they hesitated to use them again. Instead they began to think differently. To break the cycle of disease and disorder, they would have to make cities healthier.

deploy  /dɪˈplɔɪ/  v
1> to move soldiers or weapons into a position where they are ready for military action
2>  (formal) to use something effectively

cart off 
cart     /kɑːt/
1> to carry something in a cart or other vehicle
2>  (informal) to carry something that is large or heavy or difficult to carry

riot   /ˈraɪət/  v 
​(of a crowd of people) to behave in a violent way in a public place, often as a protest

spook  /spuːk/     
​to frighten a person or an animal; to become frightened

St Petersburg  saint 

santa 
~ Cruse/ Barbara

9 In France an official report written in 1834 noted that cholera had struck the poor hardest, and argued that was partly a result of their environment. Disease was festering in Paris’s narrow streets and alleys; to prevent it from erupting again, wider streets and public squares with trees were needed. These would “finally spread light and life in those obscure quarters where half the population vegetates so sadly, where dirt is so widespread, the air so infected”. The wide boulevards of the Second Empire were for grandeur and social control, but also for the control of disease.

fester  /ˈfestə(r)/  v 恶化 蔓延
1>   (of a wound or cut) to become painful and infected (= full of bacteria)
2>  (of bad feelings or thoughts) to become much worse because you do not deal with them successfully

obscure quarters  不知名的地方

vegetate  /ˈvedʒəteɪt/
​(of a person) to spend time doing very little and feeling bored

boulevard   /ˈbuːləvɑːd/  n
a wide city street, often with trees on either side

10 In Europe and America sewers and drinking fountains proliferated. So did large parks—which were viewed not merely as desirable urban amenities but as machines for purifying air and water. In New York the competition to design Central Park was won in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Wanting to create a “mechanically improved” park on what was then marshland, they turned to George Waring, an expert on farm drainage and a firm believer in the miasma theory of disease. Waring brought in huge quantities of earth to raise the low-lying areas and laid an enormous network of underground pipes to ensure that the grass would drain freely.

sewer   /ˈsuːə(r)/  n
an underground pipe that is used to carry sewage away from houses, factories, etc.

proliferate   /prəˈlɪfəreɪt/   v  = multiply
​to increase rapidly in number or amount

amenities   /əˈmiːnəti/   n.生活福利设施; 便利设施;
​a feature or service that makes a place pleasant, comfortable or easy to live in 

raise the low-lying areas   提高低洼的地势

11 Ideally, Olmsted thought, urbanites would not merely have access to parks but would live in places that resembled them. “It is an established conclusion”, he wrote to landowners near Chicago in 1868, that “the mere proximity of dwellings which characterises all strictly urban neighbourhoods, is a prolific source of morbid conditions of the body and mind”. Only low-density suburbs, with winding roads and lots of green space, could keep people safe.

proximity   /prɒkˈsɪməti/  n
​the state of being near somebody/something in distance or time

dwelling   /ˈdwelɪŋ/
​a house, flat, etc. where a person lives

prolific   /prəˈlɪfɪk/  
1> (of an artist, a writer, etc.) producing many works, etc.
2>  (of plants, animals, etc.) producing a lot of fruit, flowers, young, etc.

morbid  /ˈmɔːbɪd/
having or expressing a strong interest in sad or unpleasant things, especially disease or death

winding   /ˈwaɪndɪŋ/
​having a curving and twisting shape 

12 Others were reaching the same conclusion. By the late 19th century American urban reformers were focused on the densely packed rooming-houses known as tenements. These were regarded as breeding grounds for cholera and, especially, tuberculosis—a disease that by the 1880s was known to be caused by a bacterium. New York insisted on the construction of air shafts, which led to buildings that were wide in front, facing the street, and wide at the back, but narrow in the middle—known as dumbbells. The law tightened in 1901, when builders were obliged to create large courtyards. They responded by building higher, especially on corner plots. All this can still be seen in Manhattan’s old residential neighbourhoods.

dumbbell  哑铃

 shaft   /ʃɑːft/
a long, narrow passage that usually goes straight down in a building or underground, used especially for a lift or as a way of allowing air in or out

be obliged to  感谢; 不得已而…;

corner lot/plot  街角

13 It was not enough for the reformers. In 1908 an exhibit known as the “Congestion Show” toured New York’s museums. This aimed to persuade the authorities that overcrowding itself was facilitating the spread of tuberculosis; it seems to have convinced the state governor, who declared himself “oppressed and depressed”. Plans for an extensive subway system were accelerated. Within a decade New York was covered by a zoning plan, which ensured that the fast-growing suburbs of Brooklyn and Queens would never quite resemble Manhattan’s human anthills.

facilitating the spread of tuberculosis   促进……的传播

zoning plan  分区方案

anthill  /ˈænthɪl/   n   /ˈænthɪl/
a pile of earth formed by ants over their nests

14 In Europe tuberculosis had a still greater, though indirect, effect on buildings. Ms Colomina’s book “X-ray Architecture” shows that modernist architects were influenced by the sanatoriums that had sprung up in towns like Davos, in Switzerland. These had white walls and floor-to-ceiling windows to maximise light, which was known to kill germs (as the popular saying went, “thirty years in the dark but thirty seconds in the sun”). They also had flat roofs, mostly to prevent ice from falling and hitting people below. White paint, glass walls, flat roofs—all became features of modernist architecture.

sanatorium   /ˌsænəˈtɔːriəm/   n.疗养院; 休养所;
a place like a hospital where patients who have a long-term illness or who are getting better after an illness are treated 

thirty years in the dark but thirty seconds in the sun
黑暗中三十年，太阳下三十秒

15 The Finnish architect Alvar Aalto designed a celebrated sanatorium in Paimio, then went on to create libraries, churches and apartment buildings. Others, like Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, borrowed the sanatorium aesthetic. One of Mies’s masterpieces, the Farnsworth house in Illinois, was described by one occupier as “transparent, like an x-ray… There is already the local rumour that it’s a tuberculosis sanatorium.” Modernist architecture has sometimes been called sterile. It is supposed to be.

sterile   /ˈsteraɪl/   = infertile
(of humans or animals) not able to produce children or young animals

Fitter, happier, more productive

16 Some observers now predict, or hope, that covid-19 will transform cities. Cycling advocates point to roads that have been closed to cars and argue that they should stay that way. Joel Kotkin, an urbanist at Chapman University in California, believes the coronavirus will speed “the end of the megacity era”. He argues that germy cities like New York will lose their appeal.

17 History suggests that it is foolish to bet against big cities. Repeated terrible outbreaks of plague and cholera barely delayed the growth of London or Paris. Richard Florida, an urbanist at the University of Toronto, points out that the flu pandemic of 1918-19 did not interrupt the ascendancy of Chicago, New York or Philadelphia. Covid-19 is not only less deadly than these pandemics; it is also notably wayward in its aim. It has hit some large, dense cities. But it has also struck ski resorts and suburban care homes.

ascendancy   /əˈsendənsi/   n  支配地位; 优势; 影响;
​the position of having power or influence over somebody/something

 wayward    /ˈweɪwəd/  =  headstrong
difficult to control

18 If covid-19 can be run to ground in a couple of years, the urban fabric might not change much. Plague, cholera and tuberculosis worked on cities slowly. They forced change because people believed they would return or never leave. By contrast, many people hope that coronavirus will be defeated fairly quickly. In the first country it attacked, some urban adaptations have already been undone. In China many apartment blocks acquired shelves where delivery drivers could leave food and other goods. Almost as soon as the lockdowns lifted, they were taken down. ■