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  3. To many visitors to a country the word "city" means the capital city. And that in its turn means what would be taken in by a gro

To many visitors to a country the word "city" means the capital city. And that in its turn means what would be taken in by a gro

admin2013-09-23  57
问题     To many visitors to a country the word "city" means the capital city. And that in its turn means what would be taken in by a group of tourists who had set out to see the sights. To many visitors to Britain, London is where it’s all going on. The man who is tired of London is tired of life, Doctor Johnson said in 1750. Or as an updated version has it, London is where the action is. Well, that’s now it’s put down in the guide books anyway.
    Of course to Londoners the word city means "the City" with a capital C, that square mile eventually marked out and walled in by the Romans after they had set up their original camp by the Thames about 50 AD. Some Londoners still live there, but most Londoners are not Londoners and do not live in the London they work in. Their home is in one of the many large villages that make up London as it began spilling over and pushing out in the late 18th and 19th centuries. They live either in the inner suburbs of the Metropolitan area or the outer suburbs of the Greater London area. It’s all very expensive and overcrowded and yet more and more people are piling in and looking for a nest. For everyone who finds it too expensive and moves out, at least three are waiting to move in.
    Where does Britain really begin? In London? Well, does France begin in Paris? Only a Parisian or a Londoner would make this claim and Londoners are scarcer than Parisians these days. What! With nine million inhabitants? You might ask in astonishment. But what is meant by that is that these days in London if you’re in a roomful of people the chances of coming across a second-generation Londoner are about one in a hundred. And a third-generation Londoner is something to make people’s eyes pop.
    The old Londoners have died off, or moved out of a London they could no longer put up or identify with. Equally, the new Londoners cannot identify with something that for them has no identity as such. For London is not England, let alone Britain, neither in its inner nor outer suburbs. Any other city stands for its region in a way capital never can. The needs for a centre for commerce, finance and government have conspired to set up these artificial growths, and London like most capitals is a huge, tension-filled, problem-filled, necessary anomaly.
    For all that, London is still growing though it’s much slower external growth today, not like a tree putting on a new ring each year or a middle-aged waistline suddenly expanding. Outside, beyond the limits where the city runs out and agriculture and nature begin, is still for many people the beginning of reality. For them the real roots still lie in the land they have "got away from" or at heart want to get back to, or if they are true city-dwellers, imagine they want to go to throw off the artificial life. But no one is ever completely satisfied. The trouble about cities is that they can grow on one in true love-hate fashion and while the grass always looks greener in the next village it usually turns out not to be.
The passage suggests that few people______.
选项 A、have parents born in London
B、have been born in London
C、know where Britain really begins
D、know any second-generation
答案A
解析 推理题 从第三段第七句“…in London if you’re in a roomful of people thechances of coming across a second-generation Londoner are about one in a hundred．Anda third-generation Londoner is something to make people’s eyes pop．”可以推知正确答案为[A]。
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