中級閱讀模擬測驗　第四十回

Every weekday before dawn the platforms begin to fill. Commuters 11 toward the same three doors, though the rest of the train is half empty. A quick 12 at a phone screen replaces conversation, and by seven the carriage is silent. Some passengers have 13 on the same seat for twenty years and feel robbed if a stranger takes it. Fares have 14 since the line was extended, yet the trains are more crowded than ever. City planners say the real 15 is not money but time: nobody will walk ten extra minutes to a quieter station.

My flat is on the fourth floor of a building with no lift, and the restaurant downstairs sells 16 until midnight. Friends ask how I sleep. The truth is that noise becomes ordinary; what I could never get used to was the 17 left in the stairwell every Sunday morning. Our 18 finally put a camera above the door, and the problem 19 within a week. City life is a series of small agreements like this one. You give up silence and space; in return you can buy noodles at two in the morning and 20 ever need a car.