this document refers to how important the development new york city has gone through over the past few years, why this city is so amazing and multicultural and how the people have changed the esence of such city.

1. “New York, New York”<br />Here we are in New York, the incredible city where all the languages are spoken, and where people live on the ground, travel under the ground and work in the sky. New York makes a profound impression on all visitors because of its many lofty buildings, its gigantic department stores, its immense theatres, museums, and hotels, its magnificent bridges and its exclusive shops with their fabulous prices. <br />The first permanent white settlers came to New York from Holland in 1626. Seeing the city today, we find it hard to imagine that these Dutch settlers bought all of Manhattan Island from the Indians for the equivalent of twenty-four dollars an acre. This island is the heart of the city; it is connected by six long suspension bridges, as well as by tunnels and ferries, with the other four boroughs that constitute New York City, and with the state of New Jersey across the Hudson River. <br />New York is the largest city in the United States. Today there are more people living in New York City than in Venezuela, Iraq, or Sweden. There are people from every state, from every Canadian province, and from every country in the world. Among the seven million New Yorkers, there are two million who were born in foreign countries. Of these the Italians, the Russians, and the Germans from the largest groups. To these many foreigners, now Americans, the Statue of Liberty in the harbor has always symbolized the ideal of freedom in the New World. <br />For transportation, New York depends mainly on buses, subways, taxis, and ferries. The buses are slow because of crowded streets, whereas the subway trains, sometimes stopping only at the most important stations. We may ride all day on the subway for fifteen cents, if we change trains but do not go out if the stations. <br />New York moves vertically as well as horizontally, taking its citizens by elevator to their offices on the fortieth, sixtieth or eightieth floor, here is the tallest building in the world the Empire State Building, with its 102 stories that are served by sixty-three passenger elevators. The Chrysler Building (77 stories), the RCA Building (70 stories), and the Wool-worth Building (60 stories) also reach into the clouds; and many other skyscrapers have from 40 to71 floors. <br />New York is the richest and the poorest, the most modern and the most old-fashioned of cities. It is the home of exclusive hotels and cheap boardinghouses; the home of great symphonies and popular jazz, of cathedrals and night clubs; the home of the famous Metropolitan Opera, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History; the home of many of the publishing houses of the United States and the biggest newspapers. On Fifth Avenue there are many exclusive stores of international fame, but around the corner one may find little shops where imitations diamonds and cheap souvenirs are sold. New York is a city of immense beauty and immense ugliness, a place where everyone is in a hurry and where none seems to have time to live. <br />Bright, noisy, spectacular, and impersonal --that is New York. It would take years for one person to see everything that is important in New York. It is a mixture of all that is the United States, but it is not like any other American city. <br />NEW YORK CITY BEFORE AND AFTER<br /> <br />“The present in New York is so powerful that the past is lost”<br />ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS CRITICALLY<br />Why is New York called the incredible city?<br />Who were the first permanent white settlers? <br />Where did they come from?<br />How much did they pay for Manhattan Island?<br />What river separates Manhattan Island from New Jersey? <br />Where do the inhabitants of New York come from?<br />What are the principal means of transportation in New York?<br />Why do so many people prefer the subway?<br />Inferential questions:<br />Why might you think New York is not the most typical North American city?<br />What would you specially like to see there?<br />Has your country had much immigration in the last hundred years?<br />According o the pictures do you consider New York has changed a lot over the past few years?<br />Which city do you think you would enjoy the most, the old or the new one? Why? <br />