单选题 It might appear to any casual visitor who may have taken a few rides about town in a taxicab that all New Yorkers are filled with a loudmouthed ill will towards each other. The fact of the matter is, though, that however cold and cruel things seem on the surface, there has never been a society of people in all history with so much compassion for its fellow man. It clothes, feeds, and houses 15 percent of its own because 1.26 million people in New York are unable to do it for themselves. You couldn't call that cold or cruel.
Everyone must have seen pictures at least of the great number of poor people who live in New York. And it seems strange, in view of this, that so many people come here seeking their fortune. But if anything about the city's population is more expressive than the great number of poor people, it's the great number of rich people. There's no need to search for buried treasure in New York. The great American dream is out in the open for everyone to see and to reach for. It must be because even those people who can never realistically believe they'll get rich themselves can still dream about it. And they respond to the hope of getting what they see others having. Their hope alone seems to be enough to sustain them. The woman going into Tiffany's to buy another diamond pin can pass within ten feet of a man without money enough for lunch. They are oblivious to (为在意) each other. He feels no envy; she no remorse.
There's a disregard for the past in New York that dismays even a lot of New Yorkers. It's true that no one pays much attention to antiquity. The immigrants who came here came for something new, and what New York used to be means nothing to them. Their heritage is somewhere else.
Old million-dollar buildings are constantly being torn down and replaced by new fifty-million-dollar ones. In London, Rome, Paris, much of the land has only been built on once in all their long history. In relatively new New York, some lots have already been built on four times.
Because strangers only see New Yorkers in move, they leave with the impression that the city is in one great mindless rush to nowhere. They complain that it's moving too fast, but they don't notice that it's getting there first. For better and for worse, New York has been where the rest of the country is going.

单选题 The author thinks that most New Yorkers ______.
A. are hostile to visitors
B. are cold and cruel toward each other
C. are full of compassion for their fellow man
D. are unable to get the bare necessities of life

单选题 It is implied in the second paragraph that ______.
A. there are more rich people than poor people in New York city
B. it's easy to get rich in New York because the American dream is out in the open for everyone
C. in New York, the poor resent the rich, and the rich feel remorse about their wealth
D. the rich and poor both have a place and seem to get along in New York

单选题 For immigrants, what New York used to be means nothing because ______.
A. they don't like New York at all
B. they don't like the old things in New York
C. they don't know much about New York's past
D. they do not relate New York's past to their own roots

单选题 The main idea of the last paragraph is that ______.
A. New York is moving fast and is getting nowhere
B. New York seems to be changing for the worse
C. New York is a leader among American cities
D. New York is often criticized for being in great mindless rush

单选题 The author's purpose in writing this text is to ______.
A. criticize New York
B. praise New York
C. introduce New York to visitors
D. express sympathy with New Yorkers