Is San Francisco losing its soul?
Read this “advanced article” from The Guardian and highlight five words that you didn’t know before. No more than five!
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Poet and painter Lawrence Ferlinghetti came to San Francisco in 1951 because he heard it was a great place to be a bohemian. He settled in the Italian working-class neighbourhood of North Beach with its cheap rents and European ambience. And before long he put the city on the world’s counter-cultural map by publishing the work of Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.
But despite his status as world and local literary legend, the 94-year-old co-owner of the renowned City Lights bookshop and publishing house doesn’t feel so at home in the City by the Bay anymore.
He complains of a “soulless group of people”, a “new breed” of men and women too busy with iPhones to “be here” in the moment, and shiny new Mercedes-Benzs on his street.
What does it mean? Click and find out!
ambience (n) the character and atmosphere of a place
Beat (adj) relating to the beat generation or its philosophy
soulless (adj) lacking any attractive or interesting qualities that make people feel happy
breed (n) a type of person
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