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  3. Subway If anything truly revolutionized the way New Yorkers live, work and play, it’s the subway. On any given weekday, 4.5

Subway If anything truly revolutionized the way New Yorkers live, work and play, it’s the subway. On any given weekday, 4.5

admin2010-04-12  48
问题                         Subway
    If anything truly revolutionized the way New Yorkers live, work and play, it’s the subway. On any given weekday, 4.5 million people travel on the 6,400 cars that run along 722 miles of track beneath the city’s five teeming (热闹的) boroughs. For all their complaints about it-the dirt! The crowding! The noise!—the subway remains nothing short of the miracle it was when the subway opened in 1904.
    What was the original impetus behind developing the subway?
    Existence on these streets, with the teeming masses, could not be borne any longer. Many areas were very diseased, new immigrants were huddled together. What was needed was the development of the outer boroughs to really occupy the workers, and the people needed to fill the jobs and facilities and services that Manhattan always had.
    Was there any resistance to building it?
    New York City had all the difficulties that we have today: NIMBY-ism existed even then. We had Tammany Hall we had corruption. But we also had a lot of very high-minded New Yorkers, people who really felt that this city must grow and had the best interests of the city at heart. At the same time electricity was invented. Being a very, very new science it was being very closely adapted for street railways. Then you have this invention of multiple-unit train control, where whole series of cars can run at the same time while piloted by the first-car motorman. That was an incredible thing. Now they had the tools in which they could run underground and not worry about soot ventilation(通风). Then of course you have to pick the route. Just like today, everybody wants it to go somewhere else. It’s very interesting to note that the first subway route was a public-private venture, where the city owned the subway and put up the money, some ＄50 million, which at the time was astronomical(庞大的).
    Is the initial economic impact at all quantifiable?
    Around 1910, before the subway started going to Brooklyn it was nowhere near a million in population. Within ab6ut 10 years of the opening of the subway systems there, the population goes beyond a million. If you look at the 1930s when it went out to Flushing, there’s nothing out there. It’s like prairie; it’s like going out to Montana. If you look at it after the war, there’s not one lot left. Basically, we built an empire based on public transit. This does not happen with the automobile. We did not see this with the maze of highway systems that went up. What we did see was the deterioration of the center core city to the growth of the suburbs. One of the things about a subway car, there’s from 40 to 150 people in this ear. I am now going to put every one of them in an automobile: You would have a line of automobiles that would stretch four to five blocks in length. But they all fit in one subway car, they all fit in one bus.
    Is subway central to the city even today?
Everything the city of New York depends on the growth of the subway system. About three quarters of people took the train to work today. The idea of public transit is essential, sensible and the key to a healthy city. The ability New York City had on the opening of the subway is that they could physically move 30,000 people from 125th Street to Wall Street in less than 15 minutes. That’s incredible. No one was able to do that. When the subway system was able to pull this kind of volume, people said "You know, I think I am going to live in the Bronx. I think I am going to live in upper Manhattan-96th Street doesn’t look so far away when you think of it." It was a massive success, it was money spent in the right place. I would say that that ＄50 million probably brought the tune of trillions of dollars and are still producing trillions of dollars to this day.
    Why did people think the subway was an aesthetic wonder?
    More than a technological feat, the subway was also an aesthetic wonder. They got the idea, really, from Budapest. You can’t take the loop around anymore and see City Hall Station, which was probably the most artistic achievement of any of the stations with vaulted (拱状的) arches, a lighted glass ceiling. The subway museum wanted to make it part of their museum exhibit, and really should, but can’t because of the terrorist threats and its location so close to the foot of City Hall—you can come out of the staircases and 20 feet later walk right up the steps of City Hall.
    What is New York about if it isn’t tearing down and rebuilding?
    New York City in the 1830s and 1850s, you couldn’t ever live anywhere, it was always being torn down. Your home was being torn down for a store, a business, a building, a shop, and it kept marching and marching on. And it’s still marching today. New York is still changing. Today we’re looking at the West Side with great avarice. It’s the new growth place. New York City has a real riotous past of tearing down everything. We do not have any of the elevated lines left in Manhattan. But the original subway route is still very much intact.
    Why is subway part of the culture?
    The subway system is one of the great cultural factors. The subway system does two major important things that are still begging to be understood on the 100(上标)th anniversary. One is that public transit does do a great deal to really make the urban experience exciting. People can move about freely. The city. was your huckleberry. This is a civilizing thing. It gets you to meet new people. You have to talk--the train stops, it doesn’t move, you look at him, she looks at you, what’s going on? And you start talking. As a person who lived most of my life in the city of New York, New Yorkers are the most helpful, the most generous, the most giving. And no one sees this more than when you ride the subway and say, "Can you tell me how to get to 14th Street?" Every New Yorker is their own personal authority on the transit system and the best way to get to DeKalh Avenue and the best way to get to Park Place. You are asking them for their brilliance and expertise.
The subway system is one of the great cultural factors.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案A
解析 文章在“Why is subway part of the culture?”一段中指出“The subway system is one of the great cultural factors”；“地铁系统是一种重要的文化因素”。故答案为Yes。
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