IV. Выучите следующие слова. Проанализируйте и переведите текст. Defy description – не поддаваться описанию
defy description – не поддаваться описанию
safe-cracker [¢seIf,krxkq] n – взломщик сейфов
swamp [swOmp] n – болото
fever [¢fJvq] n – лихорадка
swamp fever – малярия
scratch [skrxC] v – царапать, проникать
rickety [¢rIkItI] a – шаткий, покосившийся
shack [snxk] n – лачуга, хижина
luxurious [lAg¢zjVqrIqs] a – роскошный
mansion [mxnS(q)n] n – дворец, большой особняк
tenement [¢tenIment] n – многоквартирный дом
according to [q¢kLdIN,tV] prep – согласно, в соответствии с
lack [lxk] n – недостаток, нужда
at breakneck speed – сломя голову
skyscraper [¢skaI,skreIpq] n – небоскреб
borough [¢bArq] n – небольшой город; амер. один из пяти районов Нью-Йорка
subway [¢sAbweI] n – амер. метро
garbage [¢gQ:bIG] n – отбросы, мусор
bottomless market – рынок с неограниченными возможностями
New York
by Mitreille Vautier
New York defies description. You can say anything about it and always be right; if you listen to different people talking about it, they could each be describing a different town. For some, it’s a center of art, music and theater; for others, a city of finance and politics. For manufacturers it’s a bottomless market, for safe-crackers, Ali Baba’s cave.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Manhattan was mostly swamp – so unhealthy that there was an epidemic of yellow fever, a disease more often associated with tropical regions. While the fine residential streets of London and the grand boulevards of Paris were being built, chickens were scratching around the muddy streets of New York. Rickety shacks housed people – and pigs; it wasn’t until 1867 that a municipal decree was passed, forbidding people to let their pigs run freely through the streets. Although rich ship-owners and financiers were building luxurious hotels and mansions, the newly arrived immigrants lived in disgusting slums. Buildings were divided and subdivided to accommodate as many people as possible; some even collapsed under the weight of extra storeys hastily added on. People lived in tenements which were nothing more that rows of dark cages: no lighting, running water or windows. According to police reports of the time, children died simply from lack of fresh air. Fires and diseases were a part of normal life.
In 1875 the population of New York was one million; twenty five years later it was over three and a half million. New inventions were developed to deal with the population expansion. At breakneck speed New York covered itself with trains, suspension bridges, elevated railways, steamboats, and then skyscrapers. The first skyscraper was put up in 1888. It had only thirteen storeys, but the next had twenty two, the Empire State Building had 102, and now the World Trade Center has reached 110. Manhattan solved the space problem by building up. But although the population of New York has stabilized, the city continues to construct itself.
Statistics are impressive. New York City has five boroughs and shelters roughly eight million people – sixteen million if you include the suburbs. But each day the city fills up with another four million who work here but live somewhere else. The subway uses 7,000 cars to transport five million people each day. New Yorkers produce 3 kg of garbage per day – that represents 200,000 tons to collect every day from 9,000 km of streets and avenues. The police force employs 25,000 officers – the equivalent of the population of Monaco. It’s not surprising that being a mayor of New York is supposed to be the most difficult job in the world.
New York is not a city; it is a world of many cities which crowd together. There are business cities which die each day at five o’clock, neon pleasure cities where bars and cinemas shelter noisy crowds, middle-class cities with elegant street lighting and sad cities where no trees grow. New York is all of these and more.
UNIT XIV