A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Read the text. For questions 1-4, choose the appropriate paragraph and write the corresponding letter (A–E) in the table. One paragraph does not match any of the questions.
A. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when San Francisco morphed into bizarro-world New York, when it became, in many ways, more New York-ish than New York itself − its wealth more impressive, its infatuation with power and status more blinding. Maybe it was when, after the crash, bonus-starved Wall Street bankers started quitting their jobs and flocking to the Bay Area in droves to join the start-up gold rush. Or maybe it was when San Francisco was announced to have the least affordable mortgage rates in the country.
B. It’s no secret that New York is having a bit of an identity crisis these days. Wall Street lost its swagger during the crash and hasn’t gotten it back. Big banks are adding employees in Salt Lake City while cutting them in Manhattan. New York City’s budget experts expect the city to add only 67,000 jobs next year, a sluggish number that faster-growing cities like Denver and Austin will look upon with pity. The city’s culture seems to be changing, too: uniformity and neutrality are in, high heels and striped suits are out; junior bankers now get Saturdays off; “work-life balance” is no longer synonymous with laziness.
C. Meanwhile, certain pockets of San Francisco have become the sort of gilded playground that New York once was. Paper millionaires spend their nights at the Battery, a members-only club with a tech-heavy roster and a $10,000-per-night penthouse suite. Upscale restaurants pop up at regular intervals, each with a more elite clientele and a hipster menu − everything from avocado and goat cheese toast to fancy dinners including sustainable seafood.
D. In many ways, San Francisco is the nation’s new success theater. It’s the city where dreamers go to prove themselves − the place where just being able to afford a normal life serves as an indicator of courage and ability. I had lunch the other day with a Harvard Business School student who belonged to a 90-person section, of whom 12 were start-up entrepreneurs. You can imagine the whole dozen packing their bags for the West Coast after collecting their MBAs, conceitedly thinking: I can make it there. And if I make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.
E. San Francisco hasn’t pulled off this transition effortlessly. The city still has its lefty legacy, after all, and as the tech sector has grown into an economic powerhouse, so has resentment toward its elites. Residents, angry about the rising costs and widening inequality, are blockading tech-employee shuttles in the streets. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, long suspected of being in the tech industry’s pocket, is accused of not doing enough to help the working class cope with the problems of the local economy. Silicon Valley is exploding, as Wall Street did in the 1980s and as Detroit did in the 1940s. And as in those booms, not everyone is going along for the ride.
adapted from http://nymag.com
