问答题 There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter - the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; naives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference; each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company. The commuter is the queerest bird of all. The suburb he inhabits has no essential vitality of its own and is mere roost where he comes at day's end to go to sleep. 无
【正确答案】纽约人大体上有三类。第一类是指土生土长的纽约人,他们对纽约早已习以为常,也习惯了纽约巨大规模,认为喧嚣的生活是不可避免的;第二类是指纽约上班族,每天早上比肩接踵的涌入纽约,晚上又都形色匆忙的回家;第三类是指在其他城市出生但来纽约寻找机会的人。在这三类躁动不安的纽约人中,最伟大的要数最后一个,纽约是他们最终的目的地,是他们奋斗的目标,也正是因为这第三类人,纽约才拥有高度紧张的节奏、优雅的举止、为艺术献身的精神和无法比拟的成就。上班族给纽约带来了繁忙,就像潮汐般永无停歇,本地人维系了纽约的长久和团结,而外来定居者则赋予了纽约激情。不管你是从意大利来在贫民区开小杂货店的农场主,还是从密西西比的小城镇逃出来不想被邻居欺负的姑娘,或是一个从玉米带地区来拎着手稿但内心充满悲伤的小伙儿,来到纽约,就像拥抱初恋情人一样,每个人都兴奋不已,每个人用冒险家新奇的目光注视着纽约,每个人身上发出的光和热,就连爱迪生联合公司都相形见绌。上班族是最为古怪的一类人,他们住的郊区本没有的生机,那只是他们每天天晚的时候回去睡觉的地方而己。
【答案解析】