Grade 5 scoring sampler passage set and prompt

Grade 10 Scoring Sampler Passage Set and Prompt Read the “Car-Free Cities” passage set. Car-Free Cities Source 1: In German Suburb, Life Goes On Without Cars by Elisabeth Rosenthal 1 VAUBAN, Germany—Residents of this upscale community are suburban pioneers, going where few soccer moms or commuting executives have ever gone before: they have given up their cars. 2 Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free”—except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park—large garages at the edge of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home. 3 As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here. “When I had a car I was always tense. I’m much happier this way,” said Heidrun Walter, a media trainer and mother of two, as she walked verdant streets where the swish of bicycles and the chatter of wandering children drown out the occasional distant motor. 4 Vauban, completed in 2006, is an example of a growing trend in Europe, the United States and elsewhere to separate suburban life from auto use, as a component of a movement called “smart planning.” 5 Automobiles are the linchpin of suburbs, where middle-class families from Chicago to Shanghai tend to make their homes. And that, experts say, is a huge impediment to current efforts to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes . . . . Passenger cars are responsible for 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe . . . and up to 50 percent in some car-intensive areas in the United States. 6 While there have been efforts in the past two decades to make cities denser, and better for walking, planners are now taking the concept to the suburbs . . . . Vauban, home to 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile, may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban life. But its basic precepts are being adopted around the world in attempts to make suburbs more compact and more accessible to public transportation, with less space for parking. In this new approach, stores are placed a walk away, on a main street, rather than in malls along some distant highway. 7 “All of our development since World War II has been centered on the car, and that will have to change,” said David Goldberg, an official of Transportation for America, a Copyright ® 2015. All rights reserved. 1 Grade 10 Scoring Sampler Passage Set and Prompt fast-growing coalition of hundreds of groups in the United States . . . who are promoting new communities that are less dependent on cars. Mr. Goldberg added: “How much you drive is as important as whether you have a hybrid.” 8 Levittown and Scarsdale, New York suburbs with spread-out homes and private garages, were the dream towns of the 1950s and still exert a strong appeal. But some new suburbs may well look more Vauban-like, not only in developed countries but also in the developing world, where emissions from an increasing number of private cars owned by the burgeoning middle class are choking cities. 9 In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is promoting “car reduced” communities, and legislators are starting to act, if cautiously. Many experts expect public transport serving suburbs to play a much larger role in a new six-year federal transportation bill to be approved this year, Mr. Goldberg said. In previous bills, 80 percent of appropriations have by law gone to highways and only 20 percent to other transport. Excerpt from “In German Suburb, Life Goes On Without Cars” by Elisabeth Rosenthal, from the New York Times. Copyright © 2009 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission of the New York Times Company via Copyright Clearance Center. Source 2: Paris bans driving due to smog by Robert Duffer 10 After days of near-record pollution, Paris enforced a partial driving ban to clear the air of the global city. 11 On Monday motorists with even-numbered license plates were ordered to leave their cars at home or suffer a 22-euro fine ($31). The same would apply to odd-numbered plates the following day. 12 Almost 4,000 drivers were fined, according to Reuters1 . . . [Twenty-seven] people had their cars impounded for their reaction to the fine. 13 14 15 That’s easier to imagine than a car-free Champs-Elysees.2 Congestion3 was down 60 percent in the capital of France, after five-days of intensifying smog . . . [The smog] rivaled Beijing, China, which is known as one of the most polluted cities in the world. Cold nights and warm days caused the warmer layer of air to trap car emissions. 16 Diesel fuel was blamed, since France has . . . [a] tax policy that favors diesel over gasoline. Diesels make up 67 percent of vehicles in France, compared to a 53.3 percent average of diesel engines in the rest of Western Europe, according to Reuters. 17 Paris typically has more smog than other European capitals . . . [Last] week Paris had 147 micrograms of particulate matter (PM) per cubic meter compared with 114 in Brussels and 79.7 in London, Reuters found. 1Reuters: an international news agency headquartered in London 2Champs-Elysees: a famous street in Paris 3congestion: car traffic 2 Copyright ® 2015. All rights reserved. Grade 10 Scoring Sampler Passage Set and Prompt 18 Delivery companies complained of lost revenue, while exceptions were made for plug-in cars, hybrids, and cars carrying three or more passengers. Public transit was free of charge from Friday to Monday, according to the BBC. 19 The smog cleared enough Monday for the ruling French party to rescind the ban for odd-numbered plates on Tuesday. Excerpt from “Paris bans driving due to smog” by Robert Duffer, from the Chicago Tribune.