Best in the world: The Upper Belvedere Palace in Vienna in one of the sites greeting tourists in the city, which has again been voted number one in a survey. |
It is the so-called city of dreams that counts some of the greatest luminaries of music and art among its erstwhile inhabitants. And it seems Vienna still has plenty to boast about, as it has been named the best place to live in the world – for the third year running. The Austrian capital, which was home to Mozart, Beethoven and Klimt, among others, and has a population of 1.7million, has the best living standards in the world, according to an annual quality of living survey. It is the third year in a row that the city has topped the survey. European cities represent more than half of the top 25 cities in the rankings, which are based on factors such as crime, food and climate. Zurich was ranked second, followed by Auckland, New Zealand, and Munich and Dusseldorf. But just one UK city makes it into the top fifty, with London coming in at 38th – one place up from last year and ahead of New York in 47th. Other UK cities, including Birmingham, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Belfast, crept into the top 100. This year, the survey included for the first time a list of the safest cities. Luxembourg topped the list, followed by Bern, Switzerland, Helsinki, Finland, and Zurich, Switzerland. London came 68th, joint with New York, highlighting the crime rates in the capital. At the bottom of the 221-strong list, for the second year in a row, was Baghdad, in Iraq, which had the lowest standard of living and was ranked the least safe city by the Mercer survey. Other cities with poor living standards include N’Djamena, Chad, at number 220, Abidjan, C?te d’Ivoire, at number 219, and Bangui, Central African Republic at number 218. Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, said: ‘European cities in general continue to have high standards of living, because they enjoy advanced and modern city infrastructures combined with high-class facilities.’ ‘But economic turmoil, high levels of unemployment and lack of confidence in political institutions make their future positions hard to predict.’ (Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
維也納堪稱夢幻之都,一些最偉大的音樂家和藝術大師都曾經(jīng)居住在這里。 已經(jīng)連續(xù)第三年被評為世界最宜居城市的維也納似乎有很多值得夸耀的地方。 根據(jù)一項年度生活質量調查,人口170萬的奧地利首都維也納擁有全世界最高的生活水平。它也是莫扎特、貝多芬和克林姆等名人的故鄉(xiāng)。 這是維也納連續(xù)第三年在該調查的排名中榮登榜首。 該排行的前25名中,歐洲城市占據(jù)了大半,排名因素包括犯罪率、食物和氣候等。 蘇黎世排在第二名,其后是新西蘭的奧克蘭、德國的慕尼黑和杜塞爾多夫。 不過只有一個英國城市躋身前50名,就是排在第38名的倫敦,比去年上升了一位,領先于紐約(47名)。其他入圍前100名的英國城市還有伯明翰、阿伯丁、格拉斯哥和貝爾法斯特。 今年該調查首次發(fā)布了最安全城市榜單。 盧森堡在最安全城市榜單中居首,其后是瑞士的伯爾尼、芬蘭的赫爾辛基和瑞士的蘇黎世。倫敦和紐約并列第68位,突出反映了英國首都的高犯罪率。 排行列出的221個城市中,連續(xù)第二年墊底的是伊拉克的巴格達,該城市生活水平最低,還在Mercer公司的調查中被評為最不安全城市。 其他生活水平低的城市包括乍得的恩賈梅納(排在第220名),科特迪瓦的阿比讓(第219名)和中非共和國的班吉(第218名)。 Mercer公司的高級研究員斯拉金?帕拉卡提爾說:“歐洲城市總體上依然擁有較高的生活水平,因為他們享有先進的現(xiàn)代城市基礎設施和一流的設備。 “但是經(jīng)濟動蕩、高失業(yè)率和政府失信于民讓歐洲城市未來的地位難以預料。” 相關閱讀 (中國日報英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯:Julie) |
Vocabulary: luminary: 杰出人物;才智出眾的人 erstwhile: 從前的,往昔的 Klimt: Gustav Klimt,古斯塔夫·克林姆,生于維也納,是奧地利知名象征主義畫家。他的畫作特色在于特殊的象征式裝飾花紋,并在畫作中大量使用性愛主題。 |