Read four commentaries on the subject of living in London. For questions 1 – 4, choose from the commentaries A – D. The commentaries may be chosen more than once.
LONDON
A. Bridget Atkins
London is a harsh city. A quick walk from the steel and glass money temples of the financial district to one of the rundown estates fifteen minutes away shows you most of what you need to know about its harshness and problems. Depressing as that walk may be, I would still recommend it more than struggling through the public transport network. It isn't just that the trains are overcrowded, overheated and unreliable it's that you have to pay such an insulting amount for the privilege of travelling in such misery. Talking about contempt, I haven't even gotten to landlords, rent, and the fact that a shoebox in London will cost you more than a palace outside London. That's not to say it's all bad though. I do rejoice in the internationalism of my city, and the way I learn so much about different cultures and cuisines just by attending a local street party.
B. Tim Christie
London is an endlessly inventive city. We have happily embraced using both the London Underground and Overground, cycling and walking, and finding one-bed flats further away from the centre. Until now, the trend has been to move further out to find a place to live, but it doesn't need to be like that. Some of the most fascinating work currently happening in London revolves around the politics of scarcity. We need to release spare space, as well as investigate new models for flexible living and co-housing. People talk about disparities between the haves and the have-nots, but I would say there is no other place in the world where it's better to be an entrepreneur. You don't have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth to make it here, and that's what I see people who are in the process of making it or who already have just in different places on a kaleidoscopic spectrum.
C. Anna Fry
Aside from the fact that most people can no longer afford to live here, there also seems to be a sad conformity among those who do. The big beard, tight-trousered, hipster phenomenon, for instance, is essentially tribal and conservative. I do love the eclectic transport system though. You can make your way across the city by a multitude of transport modes; the whole city is pretty much anti-car. Even if you're happy to pay the congestion charge, you still have to drive around in circles looking for a place to park. Get it wrong and there will be one of London's finest parking attendants there to remind you with the much-despised penalty charge notice. But I'm all in favour of that. We all have to breathe the air no matter if we're rich or poor, and that's what I love about the whole system. It's a great equaliser. Take it or leave it.
D. Jon Bennett
I don't get the fascination with London's decrepit housing stock. It's overpriced and falling to pieces. All this talk of old-world charm, character and conservation areas, for what is essentially a totally dysfunctional stock of properties not fit for modern-day living. Unless you're a multi-millionaire that is, with money to burn on heating, only for it to go straight out the hundred-year-old windows. Because that's who's drawn here unless we're talking about the run-down, gritty areas that attract outsiders from all walks of life. Were it not for them, this would be a dull place to live. I love the way they colonise an area with pop-ups, cafés and art spaces until they are priced out. The system seems to favour those living off their inheritance. Why else would you need to pay such a ridiculous sum just to get from A to B on a late-running, museum-piece transport system?
Which commentator:
| • expresses a different view from the other three commentators regarding the housing situation in London? | (1) ____________ |
| • shares C's opinion on London's public transport system? | (2) ____________ |
| • has a different view from A on the multi-cultural nature of London's population? | (3) ____________ |
| • shares A's opinion on the inequality of wealth prevalent in London? | (4) ____________ |
