Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the option that best fits each of the numbered...

The debate over urbanization has shifted in recent years from whether cities should continue expanding to how that expansion ought to be governed. As housing shortages, rising temperatures and infrastructure strain intensify across major metropolitan areas, (18) __________ has moved from the margins of academic planning into the centre of public debate. Contemporary urban policy now focuses not only on growth itself, but on the form that growth takes: whether cities should build upward, outward or more selectively around transport corridors. This marks a clear departure from earlier models, in which urban expansion was often treated as an unavoidable sign of progress.

(19) __________. Planners increasingly integrate data on commuting patterns, flood risk and energy demand into redevelopment strategies, using digital mapping tools to predict how neighbourhoods may respond to rising population density. Yet such models often assume that efficiency and sustainability can be pursued together without conflict. In practice, however, the construction of denser and more technologically integrated districts may improve environmental performance while simultaneously accelerating land speculation and displacement, a dynamic (20) __________.

A particularly contentious issue, visible in cities across both the Global North and South, is that (21) __________, even when it is presented as climate-conscious or socially progressive. New transport links, green redevelopment zones and “smart” residential projects often attract investment faster than they improve affordability, leaving long-term residents exposed to rising rents and cultural erasure. This tension has complicated urban policy, as governments seek to reconcile decarbonisation goals with demands for housing justice, especially in rapidly growing cities where basic services remain unevenly distributed, (22) __________.