Exercise 3. Match the words from two columns to make up word combinations:

Match the words from two columns to make up word combinations:

art

skating

parking

bus

beauty

railway

concert

shopping

rink

salon

hall

gallery

stop

meter

station

mall

THE ”PRIVILEGE“ OF LIVING IN A CITY

”Avoid the rush hour“ must be a slogan of large cities the world over. If it is, it's a slogan no one takes the least notice of. Twice a day, with predictable regularity, the pot boils over. Wherever you look there are people, people, people. The trains, which leave or arrive every few minutes, are packed: an endless procession of human sardine tins. The streets are so crowded there is hardly room to move on the pavements. The queues for buses reach staggering proportions. It takes ages for a bus to get to you because the traffic on the roads has virtually come to a standstill. Even when a bus does at least arrive, it is so full, it cannot take any more passen­gers. This whole crazy system of commuting stretches man's resources to the utmost. The smallest unforeseen event can bring about conditions of utter chaos. A power cut, for instance, exceptionally heavy snowfall or a minor derailment must always make city-dwellers realize how precarious the balance is. The extraordinary thing is not that people put up with these conditions, but that they actually choose them in preference to anything else.

Large modern cities are too big to control. They impose their own living conditions on the people who inhabit them. City-dwellers are obliged by their environment to adopt a wholly unnatural way of life. They lose touch with the land and the rhythm of nature. It is possible to live such an air-conditioned existence in a large city that you are barely conscious of the seasons. A few flowers in a public park may remind you that it is spring or summer. All the simple, good thing of life like the sunshine and fresh air are at a premium. Tall building block out the sun, traffic fumes pollute the atmosphere. The funny thing about it all is that you pay dearly for the «privilege» of living in a city. The demand for accommodation is so great, that it is often impossible for ordinary people to buy a residence of their own. Exorbitant rents must be paid for tiny flats, which even country hens would disdain to live in. Accommodation apart the cost of living is very high. Just about everything you buy is like more expensively that it would be in the country.

In addition to all this, city-dwellers live under constant threat. The crime rate in most cities is very high. Houses are burgled with alarming frequency. Cities breed crime and violence and are full if places you would be afraid to visit at night. If you think about it, they're not really fit to live in at all. Can anyone really doubt that the country is what man was born for and where he truly belongs?