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  3. I have been living in London for more than 60 years, but still, when I’m dri

I have been living in London for more than 60 years, but still, when I’m dri

游客2024-08-07  26
问题     I have been living in London for more than 60 years, but still, when I’m driving and take some clever back-street short-cut, I catch myself thinking how extraordinary it is that I am doing this ! For a moment the town mouse I have become is being seen by the country mouse t used to be. And although, given a new start, I would again become a town mouse, when I visit relations in the country, I envy them.

    Recently, I stood beside a freshwater lake in Norfolk, made by diverting a small river, near where my brother lives. As he was identifying some of the birds we could see, in came seven swans. They circled, then the haunting sound of their wing beats gave way to silence as they glided into a splash-down.
    It is not a " picturesque" part of the coast, but it has a definite character of line and fight and color. "You do live in a lovely place," I said to my brother, and he answered, "Yes, I do. " There are probably few days when he does not pause to recognize its loveliness as he works with his boats--he teaches sailing-or goes about his many other occupations.
    The lake’s creator is a local landowner, continuing the tradition whereby the nature of our countryside has been determined by those who own the land. Formerly, landowners would almost certainly have made such changes for their own benefit, but this time it was done to help preserve the wildlife here, which is available for any visitor to see, providing they do nothing to disturb the birds. It is evidence of change: country life is changing fast.
    One of the biggest changes I have witnessed is that second-homers, together with commuters, have come to be accepted as a vital part of the country scene. Also the men and women who service their cars, dig their gardens, install their phones, repair their word processors, lay their carpets and do all the other things they need, are vital to modern country life.
    It is quite likely that the children of today’s workers may be moving into the same kind of jobs as the second-homers and the retired. Both the children of a country woman I know are at university, and she herself, now that they have left home, is working towards a university degree. One of the delights of country life today, it seems, is that there you can see how much social mobility is increasing.
    Much depends, of course, on the part of the countryside you are living in and on personality-- your own and that of your neighbors. In my brother’s Norfolk village, social life seems dizzying to a Londoner. In addition to dropping in on neighbors, people throw and attend parties far more often than we do. My brother’s wife, Mary, and her friends fly off on the most dashing bargain breaks in Krakow or Prague or Venice, and are always going into Norwich for a concert or to King’s Lynn for an exhibition. The boring country life that people from cities talk about is a thing of the past--or perhaps that was only ever an impression.
    This is very unlike living in a London street for 50 years and knowing only the names of four other residents. In these 50 years I have made only one real friend among them. I do enjoy my life, and Mary says that she sometimes envies it (the grass on the other side of the fence) , but whenever I go to Norfolk, I end up feeling that the lives of country mice are more admirable than my own.  [br] What is suggested about outsiders who now live in the country?
选项 A、That country people no longer reject them.
B、That they often do work like servicing cars and digging gardens.
C、That the men and women who work for them are from the city.
D、That many of them have been in the countryside for a long time.
答案 A
解析 第五段第一句提到second-homers, together with commuters, have come to be accepted as a vital part of the country scene，即这些外来的人已经被接纳，不再受到排斥，成为乡村的一个重要部分。
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