For many people who live in cities, parks are an important part of the landscape. They provide a place for people to relax and play sports, as well as a refuge from the often harsh environment of a city. What people often overlook is that parks also provide considerable environmental benefits.

One benefit of parks is that plants absorb carbon dioxide—a key pollutant—and emit oxygen, which humans need to breathe. According to one study, an acre of trees can absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide that a typical car emits in 11,000 miles of driving. Parks also make cities cooler. Scientists have long noted what is called the Urban Heat Island Effect: building materials such as metal, concrete, and asphalt absorb much more of the sun’s heat and release it much more quickly than organic surfaces like trees and grass. Because city landscapes contain so much of these building materials, cities are usually warmer than surrounding rural areas. Parks and other green spaces help to mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect.

Unfortunately, many cities cannot easily create more parks because most land is already being used for buildings, roads, parking lots, and other essential parts of the urban environment. However, cities could benefit from many of the positive effects of parks by encouraging citizens to create another type of green space: rooftop gardens. While most people would not think of starting a garden on their roof, human beings have been planting gardens on rooftops for thousands of years. Some rooftop gardens are very complex and require complicated

 

engineering, but others are simple container gardens that anyone can create with the investment of a few hundred dollars and a few hours of work.

Rooftop gardens provide many of the same benefits as other urban park and garden spaces, but without taking up the much-needed land. Like parks, rooftop gardens help to replace carbon dioxide in the air with nourishing oxygen. They also help to lessen the Urban Heat Island Effect, which can save people money. In the summer, rooftop gardens prevent buildings from absorbing heat from the sun, which can significantly reduce cooling bills. In the winter, gardens help hold in the heat that materials like brick and concrete radiate so quickly, leading to savings on heating bills. Rooftop vegetable and herb gardens can also provide fresh food for city dwellers, saving them money and making their diets healthier. Rooftop gardens are not only something everyone can enjoy, they are also a smart environmental investment.

The author’s tone in the passage is best described as .........

Câu hỏi liên quan

• In paragraph 1, “streaming pupils"________.

• It can be inferred from the passage that the sounds produced by the trees ...............

• The word "fused" in line 2 is closest in meaning to .......

ZUNIA12

• Which of the following has nothing to do with the isolation among Americans?

• Why did the author write the passage?

• Which of the following can result from the loss of one species in a food chain?

• In the first paragraph, the word “elements” is closest in meaning to____.

• Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word “nocturnal”?

• According to the passage, why someone would choose to drink tea instead of coffee?

• The word "their" in line 12 refers to ......

• The fourth paragraph of the passage primarily discusses .....

• What did the professor learn from the study?

• Which of the following is NOT true?

• The word "grip" in the passage means to ..........

• Which of the following is NOT true about algae?

• What did the five campers do when they saw a group of apelike creatures?

• Which of the following sentences is true?

• At the age of eight, the writer's house was ..............

• What percent of the total rainfall on the earth does the Amazon rain forests receive?

• We sometimes think of writing as more real than speech because ..............