بخش سوم

Page 48

Track 21

Listening 3

1

I could never buy a car at home because we pay a very high tax on cars. Only rich people can really afford to buy a car at home. Here in the US., I drive a nice new car and I can easily afford it.

You don’t have to be rich to own a car, which is great.

2

At home it only costs about S300 a month to rent a nice apartment. That’s what I used to pay for a four-room apartment in a good neighborhood. Here in the US., I pay more than twice that for a much smaller apartment, and it’s not in a very nice neighborhood.

3

I bought a lot of clothes in my country before I moved to the US. because everyone told me how expensive American clothing is. I was kind of surprised that I could get nice clothes here for very reasonable prices. In fact,It costs me less for clothes here than it used to cost me at home.

4

In my country, not a lot of people travel by plane because it costs more than most people can afford. But the U.S. is such a big country and the population is large, so you have a lot of people traveling by plane. That’s what keeps the prices down. That means I can afford to fly here and I do It all the time. I couldn’t do that at home.

5

Most people send their children to private schools at home because the public schools are not very good. You have to pay a lot to do that, so it’s a big expense for many people. Public schools are better in the US., and they’re free, so most people here send their children to public schools.

6

Here in the US.

you need to have health insurance because it costs a lot to see a doctor or to enter a hospital. At home, you don’t have to pay much to see a doctor or go to a hospital because most of the clinics and hospitals are run by the government.