Read the text and choose the correct answers.

Where smart cities were once regarded purely as a vision of the future, they are now becoming a reality in numerous urban centres across the globe. From Dubai, Singapore, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Madrid to Southampton in the UK, we’re already beginning to see smart cities provide inhabitants with improved living conditions, easier mobility and cleaner, safer environments, by using cloud computing to power services. But as with all public sector initiatives, smart city services need to be delivered as cost effectively as possible to minimize the taxpayer burden. Often, key decision makers are met with obstacles when it comes to deploying smart services, preventing smart cities initiatives from reaching their full potential – or worse, blocking them altogether.

Central to the functioning of most ‘normal’ city ecosystems is the underlying data they run on. Regardless as to whether that data is stored on local servers or using cloud storage, when that data is fragmented or incomplete, identifying emerging trends for strategic planning and cost reduction becomes extremely difficult – and because of this, authorities have to adopt an entirely reactive approach. Conversely, in a smart city environment, connected sensors forming an Internet of Things (IoT) provide valuable data for analysis and, in turn, insight into the specific city’s behavioral trends. With this level of information, services can be optimized to reduce costs and risk, increase urban flows and manage assets. Importantly, they can also provide real-time connections and interactions between the city’s businesses, local governments, service providers and citizens.

In this way, operations and services are elevated through the integration and connections of physical devices via IoT networks, ultimately transforming how a city runs.

1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

A. A question of data.

B. Alignment of minds.

C. Smart city’s supporters.

D. The same old route.

2. According to paragraph 1, which statement is correct about the current situation for smart cities?

A. Smart cities promise technological convenience so high service fees are not a problem.

B. Dubai, Amsterdam and Hampton are among the cities advancing the title of “smart”.

C. There still exist many challenges for the institution and development of smart cities.

D. The already successful smart city in the world were the works of policy-makers.

3. The word “they” in paragraph 2 refers to ___________ .

A. environments

B. ecosystems

C. services

D. initiatives

4. According to paragraph 2, what is the matter that the author wants to emphasize?

A. Human’s urge to share information.

B. The importance of data network.

C. The possibilities of tech disasters.

D. The caliber of artificial intelligence.

5. The word “elevated” in paragraph 3 can be replaced by __________.

A. demoted

B. controlled

C. dignified

D. upgraded