全新版大学英语快速阅读第三册课文.doc

Unit 1 Why I Love the City A lot of my friends are moving out of the city. They re buying houses in the suburbs because they want to get away from the noise, smog, traffic, and crime of the city. One friend says, Theres too much air pollution in the city. I prefer the suburbs, where the air is clean. Another friend complains about the traffic: There are too many cars downtown! You cant find a parking place, and the traffic jams are terrible. Everyone complains about crime: The city is full of criminals. I rarely leave my house at night—its too dangerous. Before my friends move out of the city, they usually recite the advantages of suburban life: green grass, flowers, swimming pools, barbecues, and so on. Yet after my friends have lived there for a year or so, they realize that suburban life is not so pleasant as they were expecting. What causes this change? Their gardens! They soon learn that one unavoidable part of suburban life is yardwork. After they work all weekend in their gardens, they re much too tired to take a swim in their pools or even to cook some meat on their barbecues. And they have another complaint: they cant live in the suburbs without a car. Most of my friends moved to the suburbs to avoid traffic, but now they have to commute to work downtown. They sit on a busy freeway two hours every day! My opinions about urban life are very different from my friends—I live downtown? and I love it! Why? Well, first, I love nature—flowers, green grass, trees, and animals. In the city, I have all the advantages of nature: I can walk through the public park, smell the flowers, and sit on the grass under the trees. I can visit the animals in the zoo. Yet I have none of the disadvantages: I dont have to do yardwork or feed the animals. Also, in the city, I can get everywhere by bus? if theres a traffic jam, I can walk home. It seems that everyone is moving to the suburbs to avoid the crime of the big cities. I have a theory about urban crime, however, so I fee