大学英语

　　《大学英语快速阅读教程3》：　　It's amazing that in a modern, huge city like New York, problems with the weather and subway can create complete chaos for millions of New Yorkers. This winter, New York City has been the victim of many a snow storm. Several storms were actually hyped as "blizzards" by the news. We had one a couple of months ago that dumped about 15 inches of snow on the city. Luckily, that storm occurred over a weekend, so New Yorkers, who were famous for always being out and about, holed themselves in their apartments, only venturing out into the snow for food. I actually even saw a couple of people go outside in skis during that storm!　　. This winter has been so unpredictable. Just when we think spring has finally arrived, it starts to snow. One day, it may be 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and the next day, it may be below zero with snow and dangerous winds! Sometimes the wind and snow make it so cold and unbearable that I feel as if my heart will stop beating when I go outside. No matter what, when there are rapid changes in weather, and certainly when there is snow, New York City subways almost always cease to run in any sort of predictable manner. Everyone I know takes the subway. New York has too many people and is too crowded to drive a car around the city. For myself, I have no choice but to take the subway everywhere I go. I cannot afford to take taxi cabs everywhere. So basically, if the subway stops working, I have no way of getting anywhere.　　The Monday after the big weekend blizzard that dropped 15 inches of snow on the city, the MTA （ the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which owns NYC subways） failed to make proper adjustments, and I walked to the subway on my way to work to discover that there would be no subway trains coming to my station! I ended up walking over 30 blocks in 15 inches of snow to get to a different station that had subway trains running. I was two hours late for work that day. On another winter day, it didn't even snow; it just had rained a lot the night before, and because of "flooding" in the subway tunnels, subway trains ran only every 45 minutes! I was about an hour and a half late for work that day. Especially when it snows, New Yorkers become very irate and rude when the subway isn't running normally. The thing is, the city keeps on running like normal - Wall Street opens at the same time, schools are usually still open, law firms still meet with clients and make trial appearances at scheduled times - it's just that there's no way for the people who make this city run to get to work!　　It's completely ridiculous - yes, I know that NYC has had a lot of snow this winter, but the people of NYC depend on the subway to run even if there is snow. The MTA, which is a private company and who owns almost all of mass transit in this city, is always teetering close to declaring bankruptcy. I do not understand how this can be when they have a complete monopoly over public transportation in NYC. The MTA has even recently raised fares （ though they raised fares only a few years before）. Now, it costs $ 76 dollars for a monthly subway card. It costs $ 76 dollars for me to never get to work on time. I do not get paid for the time I miss from work because of subway malfunctions and/or delays. Just last week, even though there was no snow or otherwise bothersome weather condition, three subway lines, the 4, 5 and 6 trains, just stopped working. The MTA gave no explanation, and I ended up having to fight off three other stranded people on their way to work for a cab so I could pay $ 15 dollars to get to work 45 minutes late. The MTA gripes that it does not have enough money to fix or maintain all the subway lines properly. This sounds completely ludicrous to me.　　The subway and weather in NYC are two things that make me detest living in this city sometimes.　　Sometimes I fantasize about living in temperate Seattle or sunny California. It would be more practical to drive a car, and I could therefore be more or less in control of when I arrive places. But alas, this is New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world, and the price you pay for living here and all the opportunity that this city offers, is that you must deal with bad weather, and be entirely dependent on unreliable transportation. So the only thing I can do, along with all New Yorkers, is to hope and pray for spring to finally come and that someday, there will be more than one mode of transportation in this city.　　……