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I count myself lucky to live in the relative calm of the countryside, a safe distance away from the chaos and claustrophobia of city life. However, I have to venture into the urban jungle every day to work and it's then that I realise how rude city dwellers can be.

Maybe I'm being unfair. Not everyone comes from the city – many of us commute from somewhere else and, together with a large number of tourists, we are all squeezed into this small space – so it's no surprise that we get irritable and hot under the collar.

Competing for a space on the Tube train or bus is only one of the reasons that makes us grumpy. Our rush to get into the office and home again means we have no time to make conversation with other people: we are driven by efficiency. Thomas Farley, writer and broadcaster explains that, "We’re in a rush, we’re off to a meeting, to a luncheon… and I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I just think we need to be mindful that it’s not a deliberate disregard or somebody’s trying to be rude on purpose." So we are not trying to be rude, we just have something important on our mind to think about.

Cities can, however, be scary places – especially if you're not used to them and this can make us reluctant to start a conversation. We might be hyper-vigilant thinking that the person next to us is going to kill us or worse still, get into conversation with us! Dr Elle Boag, a social psychologist at Birmingham City University, agrees that people can view cities as threatening places. She says, "We’re persistently looking for potential threats around us, and this then makes us not give eye contact, this will reduce the likelihood that anybody will say hello." She calls this our 'protective mechanism' which is another way that makes us appear antisocial.

Perhaps if we did start talking more to each other we may realise that our fellow train or bus passenger is actually quite normal with the same concerns and that if you have to grin and bear the pressures of city life, at least you can do it together. In London, a group called 'Talk to me London' is trying to encourage just that. They have created 'Tube Chat' badges which you can wear to show you're happy to talk to a stranger.

But of course, you may choose to live in the city in order to be anonymous – to blend in with the crowd – and not have to talk to people! Maybe that's the benefit of living in the city: you can be who you like – and as rude as you like. Do you think people in your city seem to be rude?

vocabulary

claustrophobia [ˌklɔ:strəˈfəʊbiə] 幽闭恐惧症
urban jungle “城市丛林”，都市生活中令人感到不快的部分
city dweller 城市居民
irritable 烦躁的
hot under the collar 恼火的，窘迫的
grumpy 易怒的，脾气不好的
disregard 漠视
reluctant 不情愿的
hyper-vigilant 异常警惕的，高度警觉的
persistently 执意地
eye contact 目光接触，眼神交流
antisocial 不合群的，不喜社交的
grin and bear 苦笑着忍受，忍气吞声
Tube Chat “地铁聊天”活动
anonymous 匿名的

make sentences

The boys were very irritable in class because they went to bed very late last night.
He persistently turned up late for work so in the end they sacked him.
These days, smoking in a cafe or bar is seen as antisocial by many people.
The manager got hot under the collar when the referee disallowed a goal his team scored.
The party was awful. It was in a small room with too many people – it felt very claustrophobic.