Aids to Comprehension
This article is a piece of expository writing It is about New York City. New York is a cosmopolitan city. a fabulous city with many striking features. Different people have different feelings about this city. In this article the writer talks about the different aspects of New York ,its attractiveness and the city 's diminished reputation .His feeling toward the city is a mixed one ,a love -hate attitude .The main theme or thesis is stated by the title " Loving and Hating New York ,"or more specifically by the first sentence of the last paragraph ," Loving and hating New York becomes a matter of alternating moods ,often in the same day ." The first four paragraphs describe how New York City is not the top anymore :its reputation as a pacesetter is outdated .Paragraph 5 sets forth the status of New York as a favorite city in the eyes of many Europeans .The last sentence of Paragraph 5 acts as a transition to the actual descriptions of New York City 's charged ,nervous atmosphere ,its vulgar dynamism ."New York is about energy ,contention ,and striving "is the topic sentence of Paragraph 6 .In Paragraph 7 ,the writer admits that he chooses to live in New York rather than any other city but it 'snot easy to define why .Nevertheless ,in the rest of the article he makes an attempt to explain why by discussing the different sides and modes of the city .In spite of its shortcomings and disadvantages compared with other cities ,New Yorkers still love their city for its " rawness, tension ,urgency ,its bracing competitiveness ,the rigor of its judgment .."
The writer develops his main thesis by both objective and emotional description of New York and the life and struggle of New Yorkers. The writer states that he both loves and hates New York, but the reader fails to see why he hates New York. It is clear Griffith loves New York and feels exhilarated living there. He may sometimes feel exasperated but this feeling is never strong enough to turn to hate "Loving and Hating New York" is a column article. Unlike normal news articles, which are supposed to be objective and factual, columns are subjective, making personal comments In the article we find the writer uses" "and explains things from his personal point of view. The columnists all have their unique styles in order to attract the attention of their readers. We can see Griffith, an experienced columnist writing for more than one magazine, has a style of his own. For instance, like Shulman in his" Love Is a Fallacy " Griffith also uses many American English terms, phrases and constructions in discussing New York.
Loving and Hating New York" appeared in The Atlantic Monthly This magazine was founded in 1857, and still in publication today. One of Americas oldest magazines. The Atlantic Monthly features interesting and intelligent articles More than three decades have passed since the publication of the article. During this period of time. many changes have taken place in New York. It might be of interest for readers to compare the New York under Griffith's pen and New York today.
Those ad campaigns celebrating the Big Apple, those T-shirts with a heart design proclaiming “I love New York,” are signs, pathetic in their desperation, of how the mighty has fallen. New York City used to leave the bragging to others, for bragging was “bush” Being unique, the biggest and the best, New York didn’t have to assert how special it was.
It isn’t the top anymore, at least if the top is measured by who begets the styles and sets the trends. Nowadays New York is out of phase with American taste as often as it is out of step with American politics. Once it was the nation’s undisputed fashion authority, but it too long resisted the incoming casual style and lost its monopoly. No longer so looked up to or copied, New York even prides itself on being a holdout from prevailing American trends, a place to escape Common Denominator Land.
Its deficiencies as a pacesetter are more and more evident. A dozen other cities have buildings more inspired architecturally than any built in New York City in the past twenty years. The giant Manhattan television studios where Toscanini’s NBC Symphony once played now sit empty most of the time, while sitcoms cloned and canned in Hollywood, and the Johnny Carson show live, preempt the airways from California. Tin Pan Alley has moved to Nashville and Hollywood. Vegas casinos routinely pay heavy sums to singers and entertainers whom no nightspot in Manhattan can afford to hire. In sports, the bigger superdomes, the more exciting teams, the most enthusiastic fans, are often found elsewhere.
New York was never a good convention city – being regarded as unfriendly, unsafe, overcrowded, and expensive – but it is making something of a comeback as a tourist attraction. Even so, most Americans would probably rate New Orleans, San Francisco, Washington, or Disneyland higher. A dozen other cities, including my hometown of Seattle, are widely considered better cities to live in.
Why, then, do many Europeans call New York their favorite city? They take more readily than do most Americans to its cosmopolitan complexities, its surviving, aloof, European standards, its alien mixtures. Perhaps some of these Europeans are reassured by the sight, on the twin fashion avenues of Madison and Fifth, of all those familiar international names – the jewelers, shoe stores, and designer shops that exist to flatter and bilk the frivolous rich. But no; what most excites Europeans is the city’s charged , nervous atmosphere, its vulgar dynamism .
New York is about energy, contention, and striving. And since it contains its share of articulate losers, it is also about mockery, the put-down , the loser’s shrug (“whaddya gonna do?”). It is about constant battles for subway seats, for a cabdriver’s or a clerk’s or a waiter’s attention, for a foothold , a chance, a better address, a larger billing. To win in New York is to be uneasy; to lose is to live in jostling proximity to the frustrated majority.
New York was never Mecca to me. And though I have lived there more than half my life, you won’t find me wearing an “I Love New York” T-shirt. But all in all, I can’, t think of many places in the world I’d rather li, ve. It’, s not easy to define why.
Nature’s pleasures are much qualified in N, ew York, . You never see a star-filled sky; the city’s bright glow arrogantly obscures the heavens. Sunsets can be spectacular: oranges and reds tinting the sky over the Jersey meadows and gaudily reflected in a thousand windows on Manhattan’s jagged skyline. Nature constantly yields to man in New York: witness those fragile sidewalk trees gamely struggling against encroaching cement and petrol fumes. Central Park, which Frederick Law Olmsted designed as lungs for the city’s poor, is in places grassless and filled with trash, no longer pristine yet lively with the noise and vivacity of people, largely youths, blacks, and Puerto Ricans, enjoying themselves. On park benches sit older people, mostly white, looking displaced. It has become less a tranquil park than an untidy carnival.
Not the glamour of the city, which never beckoned to me from a distance, but its opportunity – to practice the kind of journalism I wanted – drew me to New York. I wasn’t even sure how I’d measure up against others who had been more soundly educated at Ivy League schools, or whether I could compete against that tough local breed, those intellectual sons of immigrants, so highly motivated and single-minded, such as Alfred Kazin, who for diversion (for heaven’t sake!) played Bach’s Unaccompanied Partitas on the violin.
A testing of oneself, a fear of giving in to the most banal and marketable of one’s talents, still draws many of the young to New York. That and, as always, the company of others fleeing something constricting where they came from. Together these young share a freedom, a community of inexpensive amusements, a casual living, and some rough times. It can’t be the living conditions that appeal, for only fond memory will forgive the inconvenience, risk, and squalor. Commercial Broadway may be inaccessible to them, but there is off- Broadway, and then off-off-Broadway. If painters disdain Madison Avenue’s plush art galleries, Madison Avenue dealers set up shop in the grubby precincts of Soho. But the purity of a bohemian dedication can be exaggerated. The artistic young inhabit the same Greenwich Village and its fringes in which the experimentalists in the arts lived during the Depression, united by a world against them. But the present generation is enough of a subculture to be a source of profitable boutiques and coffeehouses. And it is not all that estranged.
Manhattan is an island cut off in most respects from mainland America, but in two areas it remains dominant. It is the banking and the communications headquarters for America. In both these roles it ratifies more than it creates. Wall Street will advance the millions to make a Hollywood movie only if convinced that a bestselling title or a star name will ensure its success. The networks’ news centers are here, and the largest book publishers, and the biggest magazines – and therefore the largest body of critics to appraise the films, the plays, the music, the books that others have created. New York is a judging town, and often invokes standards that the rest of the country deplores or ignores. A market for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.
The ad agencies are all here too, testing the markets and devising the catchy jingles that will move millions from McDonald’s to Burger king, so that the ad agency’s “creative director” can lunch instead in Manhattan’s expense-account French restaurants. The bankers and the admen. The marketing specialists and a thousand well-paid ancillary service people, really set the city’s brittle tone— catering to a wide American public whose numbers must be respected but whose tastes do not have to shared. The condescending view from the fiftieth floor of the city’s crowds below cuts these people off from humanity. So does an attitude which sees the public only in terms of large, malleable numbers— as impersonally as does the clattering subway turnstile beneath the office towers.
I am surprised by the lack of cynicism, particularly among the younger ones, of those who work in such fields. The television generation grew up in the insistent presence of hype, delights in much of it, and has no scruples about practicing it. Men and woman do their jobs professionally, and, like the pilots who from great heights bombed Hanoi, seem unmarked by it. They lead their real lives elsewhere, in the Village bars they are indistinguishable in dress or behavior from would-be artists, actors, and writers. The boundaries of “art for art’s sake” aren’t so rigid anymore; art itself is less sharply defined, and those whose paintings don’t sell do illustrations; those who can’ get acting jobs do commercials; those who are writing ambitious novels sustain themselves on the magazines. Besides, serious art often feeds in the popular these days, changing it with fond irony.
In time the newcomers find or from their won worlds; Manhatten is many such words, huddled together but rarely interaction. I think this is what gives the city its sense of freedom. There are enough like you, whatever you are. And it isn’t as necessary to know anything about an apartment neighbor- or to worry about his judgment of you- as it is about someone with an adjoining yard. In New York, like seeks like, and by economy of effort excludes the rest as stranger. This distancing, this uncaring in ordinary encounters, has another side: in no other American city can the lonely be as lonely.
So much more needs to be said. New Your is a wounded city, declining in its amenities . Overloaded by its tax burdens. But it is not dying city; the streets are safer than they were five years age; Broadway, which seemed to be succumbing to the tawdriness of its environment, is astir again.
The trash-strewn streets, the unruly schools, the uneasy feeling or menace, the noise, the brusqueness- all confirm outsiders in their conviction that they wouldn’t live here if you gave them the place. Yet show a New Yorker a splendid home in Dallas, or a swimming pool and cabana in Beverly Hills, and he will be admiring but not envious. So much of well-to-do America now lives antiseptically in enclaves, tranquil and luxurious, that shut out the world. Too static, the New Yorker would say. Tell him about the vigor of your outdoor pleasures; he prefers the unhealthy hassle and the vitality of urban life. He is hopelessly provincial. To him New York- despite its faults, which her will impatiently concede (“so what else is new?”) — is the spoiler of all other American cities.
It is possible in twenty other American cities to visit first-rate art museums, to hear good music and see lively experimental theater, to meet intelligent and sophisticated people who know how to live, dine, and talk well; and to enjoy all this in congenial and spacious surroundings. The New Yorkers still wouldn’t want to live there.
What he would find missing is what many outsiders find oppressive and distasteful about New York – its rawness, tension, urgency; its bracing competitiveness; the rigor of its judgments; and the congested, democratic presence of so many other New Yorkers, encased in their own worlds, the defeated are not hidden away somewhere else on the wrong side of town. In the subways, in the buses, in the streets, it is impossible to avoid people whose lives are harder than yours. With the desperate, the ill, the fatigued, the overwhelmed, one learns not to strike up conversation (which isn’t wanted ) but to make brief, sympathetic eye contact, to include them in the human race. It isn’t much, but it is the fleeting hospitality of New Yorkers, each jealous of his privacy in the crowd. Ever helpfulness is often delivered as a taunt: a man, rushing the traffic light, shouts the man behind him. “ You want to be wearing a Buick with Jersey plates?” — great scorn in the word Jersey, home of drivers who don’t belong here.
By Adolf Hitler’s definition, New York is mongrel city. It is in fact the first truly international metropolis. No other great city- not London, Paris, Rome or Tokyo- plays host (or hostage) to so many nationalities. The mix is much wider- Asians, Africans, Latins - that when that tumultuous variety of European crowded ashore at Ellis Island. The newcomers are never fully absorbed, but are added precariously to the undigested many.
New York is too big to be dominated by any group, by Wasps or Jews or blacks, or by Catholics of many origins — Irish, Italian, Hispanic. All have their little sovereignties, all are sizable enough to be reckoned with and tough in asserting their claims, but none is powerful enough to subdue the others. Characteristically, the city swallows up the United Nations and refuses to take it seriously, regarding it as an unworkable mixture of the idealistic, the impractical, and the hypocritical. But New Yorkers themselves are in training in how to live together in a diversity of races- the necessary initiation into the future.
The diversity gives endless color to the city, so that walking in it is constant education in sights and smells. There is wonderful variety of places to eat or shop, and though the most successful of such places are likely to touristy hybrid compromises, they too have genuine roots. Other American cities have ethnic turfs jealously defended, but not, I think, such an admixture of groups, thrown together in such jarring juxtapositions . In the same way, avenues of high-rise luxury in New York are never far from poverty and mean streets. The sadness and fortitude of New York must be celebrated, along with its treasures of art and music. The combination is unstable; it produces friction, or an uneasy forbearance that sometimes becomes a real toleration.
Loving and hating New York becomes a matter of alternating moods, often in the same day. The place constantly exasperates , at times exhilarates . To me it is the city of unavoidable experience. Living there, one has the reassurance of steadily confronting life.
词汇(Vocabulary)
bush (adj.) : rustic，countrified，belonging to small towns粗俗的；乡土气的；乡下的
beget (v.) : bring into being；produce使产生，引起，招致
holdout (n.) : [Americanism]a place that holds out [美语]坚固据点
deficiency (n.) : the quality or state of being deficient; absence of something essential；a shortage缺乏，缺少，欠缺；缺陷，不足之处
pacesetter (n.) : a person that leads the way or serves as a model标兵
sitcom (n.) : [口]situation comedy的缩略
clone (v.) : derive all the descendants asexually from a single individual无性繁殖
preempt (v.) : radio and TV]replace(a regularly scheduled program)[广播、电视]先占，先取得
casino (n.) : a public room or building for entertainments．dancing，or，now specifically，gambling俱乐部，娱乐场；(现尤指)赌场
nightspot (n.) : nightclub夜总会
bilk (v.) : cheat or swindle；defraud欺骗，蒙骗
dynamism (n.) : the quality of being energetic，vigorous，etc．推动力；活力，精力，劲头
put-down (n.) : [American slang]a belittling remark or crushing retort[美俚]贬低的话；反驳；无礼的回答
foothold (n.) : a secure position from which it is difficult to be dislodged立足点，据点
jostle (v.) : bump or push，as in a crowd；elbow or shove roughly(在人群中)拥挤；用肘推；撞
proximity (n.) : the state or quality of being near；nearness in space，time，etc．最近；接近；(地方，时间等)最接近
obscure (v.) : darken；make dim使黑暗；使朦胧
tint (v.) : give a color or a shading of a color to着上(淡)色
gaudy (adj.) : bright and showy, but lacking in good taste；cheaply brilliant and ornate华丽而俗气的，炫丽的
jagged (adj.) : having sharp projecting points锯齿状的；(外形)参差不齐的
skyline (n.) : an outline，as of a city，seen against the sky (城市等)以天空为背景映出的轮廓
gamely (adv.) : pluckily；courageously勇敢地，不屈不挠地
encroach (adj.) : trespass or intrude (on or upon the rights．property，etc．，of another)，esp. in a gradual or sneaking way侵占，占用(别人的时间)；侵犯(别人的权力、财产等)
pristine (adj.) : still pure or untouched；uncorrupted; unspoiled质朴的；纯洁的；未受腐蚀的
vivacity (n.) : the quality or state 0f being vivacious；liveliness to pint；animation快活；活泼；充满生命力；有生气
carnival(n.) : a reveling or time of revelry；festivity；merrymaking狂欢，欢宴，尽情作乐
glamour (n.) : seemingly misterious and elusive fascination or allure，as o{some person，0bject，etc．；bewitching charm; the current sense(人的)魅力；(物、景色的)吸引力，迷惑力
beckon (v.) : call or summon by a silent gesture(以招手、点头等)表不召唤或招呼
breed (n.) : kind；sort；type种类，类别，类型
banal (adj.) : dull or stale as because of overuse；trite：hackneyed；commonplace陈腐的；平庸的；平凡的；老一套的
squalor (n.) : the quality or condition of being squalid；filth and wretchedness肮脏；悲惨，不幸
inaccessible (adj.) : impossible to reach or enter诀不到的；进不去的
plush (adj.) : [American slang]luxurious，as in furnishings [美俚]豪华的
grubby (adj.) : messy；untidy脏的；凌乱的
precincts (n.) : environs neighborhood范围；界线
fringe (n.) : an outer edge；border；margin外围，边缘；边界
subculture (n.) : the distinct cultural patterns of a group(within a society)of persons of the same age，social or economic, status. ethnic background，etc．亚文化群
boutique (n.) : a small shop，or a small department in a store，where fashionable，usually expensive，clothes and other articles are sold时装精品店(或百货公司中的时装精品部)
estrange (n.) : turn(a person)from an affectionate or friendly attitude to an indifferent，unfriendly，or hostile one. alienate the affections of使疏远；使失和
ratify (v.) : pprove or confirm，esp.，give official sanction to批准；认可
deplore (v.) : be regretful or sorry about；lament懊悔；遗憾；痛惜
catchy (adj.) : easily caught up and remembered醒目的；引人注意的
jingle (n.) : a verse that jingles；jingling arrangement of words or syllables具有简单韵律的诗句；合于简单韵律的排列
admen (n.) : [Americanism]a person whose work or business is advertising[美]广告员
ancillary (adj.) : that serves as an aid；helping；auxiliary作为助手的；辅助的
brittle (adj.) : having a sharp，hard quality(声音)尖利的，刺耳的
condescending (adj.) : showing condescension，esp.，patronizing表示屈尊的；(尤指)以恩人自居的，屈尊俯就的
malleable (adj.) : capable of being changed，molded，trained，etc．；adaptable柔顺的；易适应的；可训练的
turnstile (n.) : a similar apparatus，often coin-operated used at entrances to admit persons one at a time and to count those passing through(使人逐个通过的)旋转(式)栅门
hype (n.) : cheating，esp. the extravagant promotional advertising欺骗；骗局(尤指大肆宣传，大做广告)
scruple (n.) : a feeling of hesitancy，doubt，or uneasiness arising from difficulty in deciding what is right，proper，ethical．etc．：qualm or misgiving about something one thinks is wrong踌躇；顾忌，犹豫
adjoining (adj.) : touching at some point or along a line；contiguous隔壁的：毗连的；毗邻的
amenity (n.) : an attractive or desirable feature,as of a place, climate,ere.(地方,气候等的)舒适,宜人;温柔
succumb (v.) : give way；yield；submit屈服，屈从
tawdry (adj.) : cheap and showy；gaudy；sleezy俗气的；俗丽的；花哨而庸俗的
astir (adj.) : in motion; in excited activity动起来的；轰赳采的；有活动力的
strew (v.) : scatter，partly cover撒，撒布
brusque (adj.) : rough and abrupt in manlier or speech．curt(态度、语言上)粗暴的，鲁莽的；唐突的
cabana (n.) : a small shelter used as a bath house on the beach, etc,；a cabin(海滩等地的)简易浴室(或更衣处)；小屋；棚屋
antiseptic (adj.) : untouched by life，its problems，emotions，etc．冷静的；超然的；客观的
enclave (n.) :a minority culture group living as an entity within a larger group在大文化团体中的一少数派集团
hassle (n.) : [Americanism]a state of commotion or confusion；turmoil[美]混乱
congenial (adj.) : suited to one's needs or disposition；agreeable适合的；惬意的；令人愉快的
bracing (adj.) : invigorating；stimulating；refreshing令人鼓舞的；令人振奋的；激励的
rigor (n.) : harshness or severity严厉
taunt (n.) : a scornful or jeering remark; gibe嘲笑，嘲弄，嘲骂
mongrel (n.) : [a derogatory term] mixed breed，race．origin or character[贬]杂种；混交种
metropolis (n.) : any large city or center of population：culture，etc．大城市，大都会
tumultuous (adj.) : full of or characterized by tumult：wild and noisy；uproarious；riotous喧闹的，喧嚣的；吵闹的
hybrid (adj.) : (of animal，plant，etc．)from parents of different species or varieties混合的；杂种的(动植物等)
turf (n.) : [slang]a neighbour hood area regarded by a street gang as its own territory to be defended against other gangs[俚](街头流氓集团的)地盘；势力范围
admixture (n.) : a mixture混合(状态)
jar (n.) : clash，disagree，or quarrel sharply抵触；冲突；不调和，不和谐；争吵
juxtaposition (n.) : putting side by side or close together并列，并置
fortitude (n.) : the strength to bear misfortune，pain，etc．，calmly and patiently firm courage坚韧不拔，刚毅
forbearance (n.) : ．the quality of being forbearing；self control；patient restraint容忍，忍耐
exhilarate (v.) : fill with high spirits鼓舞；使兴奋
短语 (Expressions)
out of phase : out of harmony相异的，不协调的
例： The driver f10und that the windshield wipers were out of phase．司机发现挡风玻璃上的刮水器动作不协调。
measure up : be good enough t0 do a particular job or to reach a par-ticular standard合格，符合标准
例： How will the manager measure up to his new responsibilicy?经理怎样才能达到他新职责的标准呢?
play host(to) : provide the place，food etc．for a special meeting or event招待，接待
例： Beijing will play host to the Olympics in 2008．北京将在 2008年主办奥运会。
