New York As I See it

My first impressions of the skyscrapers in NewYork were a definite anticlimax. Like the pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt they are over publicized and take fantastic proportion in the minds of people who have seen them. My first impressions of both are identical： .°Not bigger than that！。±But soon I was caught by the special fascination of New York， that strange city with its Mediterranean faces and its cold， efficient， Nordic soul. In no other city do the human types more remind one of Naples， Tel Aviv

　　Cairo. But these Mediterranean faces are without the warm， sensitive and paorssionate Mediterranean soul. The predominantly dark faces are， it were， a disguise，forthesoulbehindthemremindoneofLondonandBerlin.Thesasoul of New York is cold and indifferent， and brutally efficient， like the soul of Northern Europe. Cities like Rome or Paris or Vienna somehow seem to return one's love but New York does not. And yet it seems to me， paradoxically， eminently lovable and sometimes painfully beautiful， like a dazzling but aloof woman.

　　There is other city in the world where feel more delightfully and absolutelyalnooneinNewYork，forinnoothercityaonerepecanople more indifferent toward each other. In other great cities in the world there people who are at least interestedinotherpeople'swallets，orcuriousabouteachareother for various reasons. Not so in New York， where the inhabitants not only ignore each other， but seem to look through each other， which is still a step father in the gradations of indifference. If somebody ignores you， he is still somehow ware of you， and you have at least a negative importance. But if he looks straight through you， as though you were invisible， you eventually begin to wonder if you really still cast a shadow.

　　anticlimax 令人掃興，興趣驟降，虎頭蛇尾

　　over publicize 過度宣傳

　　proportion 比例，部分

　　identical 同一的，不變的，相似的

　　Mediterranean 地中海式的

　　Nordic 北歐日耳曼民族的

　　sensitive 敏感的

　　passionate 熱情奔放的

　　predominantly 絕大多數地，普遍地

　　disguise 偽裝，假裝

　　indifferent 冷漠的，無動於衷的

　　brutally 殘忍地，蠻橫地

　　paradoxically 自相矛盾地，似是而非地

　　eminently 出衆地，超凡的

　　dazzling 漂亮迷人的，令人眩惑的

　　aloof 冷淡的，清高的

　　absolutely 絕對地

　　inhabitant 居住者

　　gradation 等級，程序

　　Sphinx 獅身人麪像

　　Naples 那不勒斯

　　Tel Aviv 特拉維夫

　　Cairo 開羅

　　Which is still a step farther in the gradations of indifference. 就冷漠程度而論是更進了一步。