■維也納獲選為全球最宜居城市。 資料圖片【原文】下文摘錄自香港《文匯報》2018 年8月15 日報道：
英國經濟學人智庫（Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU）前日公佈全球最宜居城市排行榜（Global Liveability Index），奧地利首都維也納（Vienna）以社會穩定性範疇獲得滿分，整體壓倒已連續7年排首位的澳洲墨爾本（Melbourne），首次成為全球最宜居城市。EIU指出，由於過去一年西歐恐怖襲擊威脅消減，加上維也納罪案率（crime rate）極低，因此登上榜首，亦是首個奪冠的歐洲城市。
EIU衡量全球140個城市的5項指標，包括社會穩定性（social stability）、醫療服務（healthcare）、文化與環境（culture and environment）、教育（education）及基礎建設（infrastructure），以100分為滿分。維也納和墨爾本在醫療、教育及基建方面均取滿分，但維也納在社會穩定方面拿下100分，墨爾本僅得95分，墨爾本雖在文化及環境項目勝出，但維也納最終以總分99.1分稱冠。日本大阪（Osaka）排第三位，加拿大卡爾加里（Calgary）及澳洲悉尼（Sydney）分別獲第4及第5名。
EIU發表聲明指出，雖然過去數年西歐城市持續受恐怖襲擊威脅，需要提高安全措施（security measure），但過去一年回復正常，受激進分子（terrorist）攻擊的危險性降低，而維也納在社會穩定方面分數上升，今年成功摘冠。
單計亞洲城市，以大阪排第三最高，其次為第七位的東京（Tokyo），去年被新加坡（Singapore）首次超越的香港，今年連升10位，升至第三十五位，力壓排名第三十七的新加坡，在亞洲排名第三高。中國內地排名最高的城市為蘇州（Suzhou），排第七十四位，北京（Beijing）第七十五位，其餘上榜內地城市還有天津（Tianjin）（77）、上海（Shanghai）（81）、深圳（Shenzhen）（82）、大連（Dalian）（90）、廣州（Guangzhou）（95）及青島（Qingdao）（97）。
敘利亞（Syria）連年內戰，首都大馬士革（Damascus）繼續成為全球最不宜居城市，其次為孟加拉（Bangladesh）首都達卡（Dhaka）及尼日利亞（Nigeria）拉各斯（Lagos）。這排行榜並沒包括全球最危險的城市，例如伊拉克（Iraq）首都巴格達（Baghdad）及阿富汗（Afghanistan）首都喀布爾（Kabul）。
EIU表示，排名前列的城市通常是發達國家的中型（medium-sized）城市，人口密度（population density）相對較低，而大型城市一般犯罪率較高及基建損耗（overstretch）大，影響相關評分，例如英國倫敦（London）只排第四十八位，而美國排名最高的城市為第二十三位的檀香山（Honolulu）。
Vienna becomes the world's most liveable city
【譯文】The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published the Global Liveability Index recently, in which Austria's capital city Vienna had defeated Australia's Melbourne - a city topping the list for the last seven consecutive years - to become the world's most liveable city by achieving full marks in social stability rating. EIU pointed out that the spreading perceived threat of terrorism in the Western Europe had diminished over the past year, added that the crime rate of Vienna was extremely low, it was therefore the top-ranked on the list and the first European city to win the championship.
EIU measured 5 main categories including social stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure in 140 different cities, with an overall score of 100. Both Vienna and Melbourne scored full marks on health, education and infrastructure ratings, but Vienna achieved a score of 100 on social stability, whereas Melbourne got only 95. Although Melbourne performed remarkably well on the component of culture and environment, Vienna topped the list by receiving an overall score of 99.1. Japan's Osaka came in the third place, while Canada's Calgary and Australia's Sydney took the fourth and the fifth place respectively.
The report of EIU added that although the Western European cities had been subject to high-profile terrorist attacks in recent years and were in urgent need to reinforce security measures, the situation had returned to normal over the past year and the risk of terrorist attacks was reduced. Under such circumstances, Vienna stood out with its increase in social stability rating and climbed to the top.
Osaka achieved the highest ranking among all Asian cities, coming in the third place and followed by Tokyo which ranked the seventh. Hong Kong, whose position was taken over by Singapore for the first time last year, had climbed 10 places on the list and moved up to the 35th, becoming the third highest in Asia and achieving a more noticeable ranking than Singapore which took the 37th. While the top-ranked city in mainland China came to Suzhou which ranked the 74th, with Beijing coming behind at the 75th. Other cities on the list included Tianjin (77th), Shanghai (81st), Shenzhen (82nd), Dalian (90th), Guangzhou (95th) and Qingdao (97th).
Syria's war-torn capital Damascus continued to be the least liveable city worldwide, followed by Bangladesh's capital Dhaka and Nigeria's Lagos. The list did not include the most dangerous cities over the world, such as Iraq's capital Baghdad and Afghanistan's capital Kabul.
EIU supplemented that most of the best-performing spots were medium-sized cities in wealthier countries with relatively low population density, whereas the mega global business centers often suffered from overstretched infrastructure and higher crime rates, leading to relatively low overall scores. For example, the prestigious hub of Britain's London only came to the 48th place, while America's Honolulu - the top-ranked city in the country - just took the 23rd worldwide.■龐嘉儀
Questions
1. 維也納獨特的文化氣息令其享有什麼美譽？
2. 根據是次排行榜，英國排名最高的城市是哪個？
3 經濟學人首份全球最宜居城市報告於哪年發表？
4. 還有哪個關於宜居城市的調查較具公信力？
Answer
1. 音樂之都（City of Music）
2. 曼徹斯特（Manchester，與香港並列第35位）
3. 2004年
4.美世生活品質調查（Mercer Quality of Living Survey）