The Uncounted Stop
Erase every intermediate station from a regional railway map, and the line would still look reassuringly complete. Commuters bound for the terminus might even arrive sooner, while the timetable acquired a pleasing simplicity. But a rail network is not merely a device for covering distance. At a village platform, the last train may determine whether a nurse can accept an evening shift. A market gardener may reach the town market before dawn only because the local service stops where the express thunders past. Eliminate these pauses, and the faster railway would quietly transfer its costs to people with fewer alternatives. The loss would not appear in journey tables, which measure motion more readily than access. Nor would a blank platform reveal the errands, shifts, and deliveries that no longer make sense. The thought experiment exposes a misleading equation, since fewer stops do not always mean a better connection. Sometimes, what slows a train is precisely what allows a region to move together.
「The Uncounted Stop」は、旅行をテーマにした無料のC1 上級英語リスニング・ディクテーションです。所要時間は約2分です。
再生ボタンを押して自然な英語音声を一文ずつ聞き、聞こえたとおりに入力すると、つづり・抜けた単語・余分な単語についてすぐにフィードバックが表示されます。最後にすべての間違いが解説されます。