Upward Bound: First year. Воробьева М.Г - 145 стр.

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— 145 —
where you can pick up anything from bananas to salsa to Listerine,
and 24-hour news-stands with magazines and newspapers. It’s easy
to get a dose of culture in the city — just how many small towns can
boast first-class museums and theaters? — and big-time sports are
there for the taking, too.
You can get anything you want in the city delivered to your
door: dry cleaning, drug prescriptions, groceries, videotapes and
prepared foods of every imaginable variety. In my neighborhood alone,
you have your pick of half a dozen Chinese restaurants, four Mexican
restaurants, four delicatessens and five pizza joints.
Nature and the vagaries of the weather need never complicate
your life in the metropolis. No snow shoveling, no weeding, no raking
leaves, no moving the lawn. In the city, you don’t have to worry about
equipping your car with antifreeze or snow tires, because there are
convoys of taxis and buses waiting to whisk you away.
Most cities are impervious to natural disasters. Hurricanes aren’t
much of a problem in places like New York, Detroit or Seattle, nor
are blizzards, tsunamis, avalanches or plagues of locusts. In the
event that something bad does happen, hospitals, medical specialists
and shrinks are within easy reach — something that can’t be said for
picturesque little villages.
You say you still miss nature? Most cities have public parks
where you can frolic about on your Rollerblades completely free of
charge — parks that tend to have thing that your backyard would
never dream of, like botanical gardens with rare flowers, boating
ponds and gazebos, and zoos with lions and tigers and bears. As for
your nature-impoverished apartment, there are roses and tulips to
be had for a few bucks at your corner deli.
Living in the country is simple not because it’s easy, but because
it keeps the connections visible. In spring you plant the seeds; in
summer the vegetables come. You increase your chances of good
and healthy crop by providing fertile soil and plenty of moisture.
Once upon a time, most people lived this way. Now most people live
an urban life, and cause and effect are kept apart by layers of
bureaucracy.
Stores assume you’re honest and don’t demand that you dump
a dozen pieces of identification on the counter before they’ll accept
your check.

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