Module 3 Cities and Countries

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life

Life in a Large Modern City ***

It goes without saying that life in a big city has got a lot of disadvantages. The first and foremost is an enormous air- and noise-pollu­tion. The car exhaust contains several pollutants and one of them is lead, which is particularly harmful to children, because their brains and nervous systems are more vulnerable than those of adults are. Be­sides, life in a big city is much more stressful than that in the country. Drivers suffer from traffic jams, accidents and car crashes, pedestrians suffer from rush hours, constant queuing and irregular public transport. Businessmen and clerks are scared to lose their jobs and become unemployed. Everyone grumbles about high rents that must be paid for tiny flats. Apart from accommodation, the cost of living is very high. A cit­izen runs into a lot of extra expenses paying for public transport, snacks, food delivery and entertain­ment.

But whatever the disadvantages are, I personally wouldn't replace life in the city with anything in the world. There're several valid reasons for that.

Firstly, life in the city is more anonymous. You can be who you want to be and do what you want to do without anybody getting very upset about it, whereas in the country everybody knows you and expects you to live and behave in a certain way.

Secondly, I find the city an easy place to make friends in. In fact, you have a much wider range of people to choose from and to make friends with.

Another reason why I like living in the city is because there is so much going on, you have access to a huge range of concerts, of different types of music - pop, classical, jazz, whatever you are looking for. There are a lot of theatres, a lot of cinemas, there are art galleries, museums, libraries, discos and what not to do culturally. I love my city for its non-stop entertainment, every day, all year round. The challenge is to take advan­tage of as much entertainment as possible.

It is needless to say that the citizens are more advantaged in education. The students have museum classes and excursions. They can attend lectures and preparatory courses and therefore have more chances to enter this or that university. After graduating from the university the residents of big cities are more likely to find a prestigious and well-paid job than the outsiders. They are more communicative, more experi­enced and have more friends, relatives and acquaint­ances to help them.

So, I ultimately disagree with the statement that only a madman would live in a modern city, because I'm a big city child and I can hardly do without all the hustle and bustle of my native city. So instead of speaking about five million of madmen of St Petersburg or nine million of New Yorkers and eight million of lunatics of London I'd rather quote Samuel Johnson's words who said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." To my mind it is 100 percent true. If you are tired of fun, pleasure, comfort and excitement a big modern city offers you, you are either tired of life or, most probably need some relaxing break in the country for a change.

Exercises

Ex.1. Find the matches between the nouns and their definitions

1) Pollution

2) Exhaust

3) Accident

4) Traffic jam

5) Pedestrian

6) Rush hour

7) Queuing

8) Accommodation

9) Expense

10) Snack

11) Access

12) Entertainment

13) Resident

14) Outsider

15) Hustle and bustle

a) the right or opportunity to have or use something that will bring you benefits

b) waiting for something in a shop or similar place in a line

c) someone who does not belong to a particular group or organization

d) a crash involving a car, train, plane, or other vehicle

e) someone who lives in a particular place

f) the time of day when there are a lot of cars on the road because most people are travelling to or from work

g) gases or steam produced by an engine as it works

h) an amount of money you spend in order to buy or do something

i) a lot of noisy activity

j) performances that people enjoy

k) a small amount of food that you eat between meals

l) a line of vehicles waiting behind something that is blocking the road

m) the process of damaging the air, water, or land with chemicals or other substances

n) someone who is walking, especially in a town or city, instead of driving or riding