TOEFL iBT Writing. In this integrated writing task, you will write a response to a question about a reading passage and a lecture. Your response will be scored on the quality of your writing and on how well you connect the points in the lecture with points in the reading. Typically, an effective response will have 150 to 225 words. Reading Time - 3 minutes The growth of the suburbs was a direct result of the rise of the automobile. Suburban housing developments allow car owners to live farther away from their workplace than ever before. Before the automobile, commuters relied on trains and buses, whose service was generally restricted to urban areas. The convenience of the private automobile and an extensive system of highways have virtually eliminated the restrictions on travel that characterize public transportation. Because every suburban household owns at least one car, public transit has become unnecessary. Crowding in the central city and a consequent deterioration of living conditions there have provided an incentive for people to move to suburbia. Many suburban developments are primarily residential districts close to the city. The suburban lifestyle is very appealing because it evokes an ideal of an “urban“ society living graciously in a “country“ setting of single-family houses on large, private lots. Suburban neighborhoods are built for the automobile. They are separated from the city’s problems yet are within driving distance of the city’s employment opportunities and cultural attractions. The shift of population out of the central city has had the effect of attracting industry and commerce to the suburbs. Many suburbs are built around a single purpose of economic activity and are particularly successful in attracting shopping centers or high-technology industries. Large areas of suburban land have been zoned primarily for office space, leading to the rise of the suburban business park. Much commercial activity has moved to large suburban centers that rival the central city’s downtown, providing further incentive for people to migrate to the suburbs. Now listen to the lecture. You may take notes, and you may use your notes to help you write your response. After you hear the question, you have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. You may look at the reading passage during the writing time. Summarize the points made in the lecture, explaining how they differ from points made in the reading. Stop Time - 20 minutes  Now listen to part of a lecture on this topic in an urban studies class. The growth of the suburbs has caused millions of workers tc depend on the automobile to get to work, leading to more cars on the highways, more traffic problems, and more air pollution from cars. However, cities are fighting back. Urban planners have developed a new concept, the urban village, a neighborhood that’s a distinct community within the greater city—a mix of commercial buildings, public spaces, and housing. Unlike the automobile-dependent suburbs, urban villages are transit-friendly. Residents in urban villages don’t even need a car because buses and trains stop right there. It’s hard to build a coherent neighborhood around a suburban highway. But in an urban village, light-rail transit stops are an excellent way to anchor and center the neighborhood. Urban villages are small, dense, and walkable, so a lot of daily trips can be done on foot. Suburban life is predictable at best, boring at worst. A suburban district is unbalanced because it specializes in a single use. A lot of suburbs are “bedroom communities“ because people just go there to sleep. There’s not much else there—just residences. A suburb is a cultural desert—isolated and unfriendly—where neighbors are strangers to each other. On the other hand, an urban village is a multiple-use district, with a balance of housing, shops, and recreation—a mix of private and public spaces. This makes an urban village a coherent, balanced, diverse neighborhood, unlike the cultural desert of the suburbs. Summarize the points made in the lecture, explaining how they differ from points made in the reading.