Living in Cities.

Urbanization has been a constant 1. in human development for the past ten thousand years. 2. there has always been the necessity for a minimum - sometimes a very substantial minimum - of the 3. to work the land, such surplus individuals as can be 4. have tended to gather in cities.

Two thousand years ago, the cities of antiquity 5. an administrative 6. for the surrounding area, and a refuge from attack.

In the Middle Ages, it was the city folk 7. were the first to break the stultifying grip of feudalism, and it was in the cities of Northern Italy that the 8. of the Renaissance was 9. .

Today only a fraction of mankind lives in the country, and the 10. which does so is decreasing. Mega-cities with populations exceeding ten million are common, and they will become even 11. so over the coming decades.

While many 12. of city life are unattractive - pollution, stress, and separation from 13. to name but a few - more and more of humanity 14. to be choosing an urban existence.

15. to this fact is going to be 16. of the major challenges of the coming century.

And 17. of the country? The 18. are that its relative decline will be reversed as the information revolution 19. it possible to enjoy the benefits of social contact 20. needing to leave one's rural residence.