东京-Tokyo

 
Tokyo
    Tokyo is one of those places that you call love and hate at the same time.
    In Tokyo there are always too many people in the places where I want to be. Of course there are too many cars. The Japanese drive very fast when they can, but in Tokyo they often spend a long time in traffic jams. Tokyo is not different from London, Paris and New York in that. It is different when one wants to walk.
    At certain times of the day there are a lot of people on foot in London＇s Oxford Street. But the streets near the Ginza in Tokyo always have a lot of people on foot, and sometimes it is really difficult to walk. People are very politel there are just too many of theln.
    The worst time to be in the street is at 11:30 at night. That is when the night clubs are closing and everybody wants to go home. There are 35,000 night clubs in Tokyo, and you do not often see one that is empty.
    During the day, most people travel to and from work by train, Tokyo people buy six million train tickets every day. At most stations, trains arrive every two or three minutes, but at certain hours there do not seem to be enough trains. Although they are usually crowded, Japanese trains are very good. They always leave and arrive on time. On a London train you would see everybody reading a newspaper. In Tokyo trains everybody in a seat seems to be asleep, whether his journey is long or short.
    In Tokyo, I stood outside the station for five minutes. Three fire engines raced past on the way to one of the many fires that Tokyo has every day. Tokyo has so many surprises that none of them can really surprse me now.
[点评]
    此文从另一角度描述了东京。作者将自己对东京的喜恶，用比较与对比的手法及具体的数据和时间描绘出一幅十分清晰的图画，使我们有身临其境之感。
[参考译文]
东京
    东京是那种让你同时既爱又恨的地方之一。
    在东京，我想去的地方总是有太多的人。当然也有太多的车。日本人只要有可能，车就开得飞快，但在东京他们总是把大量的时间浪费在交通堵塞上。东京在这方面与伦敦、巴黎、纽约没什么不同，所不同的是在你想步行的时候。
    白天有些时候伦敦牛津大街上也会有很多人在走路，但在东京Ginza(银座)附近的街道上永远都有许许多多的人在走，有时候让人感到很难走出去。人们倒是非常有礼貌的，只是人实在是太多了。
    在街上行走最糟糕的时间是晚上十一点半。此时正是夜总会关门，人们纷纷回家的时间。东京有35 ooo家夜总会，而很少看到一家是空的。
    白天，大部分人乘火车上班下班，东京人一天要买六百万张火车票，大部分火车站每两三分钟就有一列火车驶进，但有时候火车还是显得不够多。尽管日本火车经常人特别多，但它们却是非常出色，永远都是起止准时，在伦敦火车上，你总会看到人们都在看报纸，而在东京火车上，不管是旅途长短，有座的人好像都在打瞌睡。
    我在火车站外面站了五分钟。三辆消防车疾驰而过奔向火灾现场，而东京每天要发生许多火灾。东京每天都有许许多多让人惊奇的事情在发生，不过现在再也没有什么事可真让我惊奇的了。