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0Pest Side Story: New York Rats Become a Tourist Attraction
Rats. Squeezing into drainpipes. Scrabbling through sewers. Squeaking as they scurry across the subway tracks and over the gutters of New York’s streets—the squadrons of rodents that live off the city’s squalor.
People have always thought of New York as dirty. So it comes as no surprise that some in the city have responded by developing a rat-tourism industry, marketed as "ideal if you like to dig beneath the surface while traveling." Multiple tours now lead visitors to rat-infested hot spots, with tickets as much as $50 a pop. One 2½-hour tour takes visitors through grimy lower Manhattan. "We’ll never look at garbage or rats the same way," one five-star reviewer writes.
Kenny Bollwerk, founder of a viral TikTok series called "Rat Tok," heads another tour. Visitors to the city "can only see the Empire State Building and Times Square a few times. It gets boring," Mr. Bollwerk tells me during a night tour through lower Manhattan. "The rat tour is the new trendy thing."
Orkin, a national pest-control company, has ranked New York the third rattiest city in the country, but it’s hard to measure precisely how many scuttle through the city’s streets. Eric Adams, New York’s beleaguered mayor, is particularly rat-phobic and has scurried to take action. Not always effectively—a Brooklyn row house he owns has been cited several times for rat infestations. A tour of the city’s infestations will convince anyone that New York needs a mayor who will get the rat numbers down. Way down.
scurry 英 [ˈskʌri] 美 [ˈskɜːri] v. 匆匆跑回
To "scurry" means to move quickly with small, fast steps, like an animal or a person in a hurry.
The children scurried back to class when the bell rang.当铃声响起时，孩子们匆匆跑回教室。
A group of rats scurried across the street at night.一群老鼠在夜晚窜过马路。
squalor 英 [ˈskwɒlə] 美 [ˈskwɑːlər] n. 非常脏的环境
"Squalor" means very dirty, unpleasant conditions, sometimes where people live.
The prisoners lived in squalor in the old prison.囚犯们在这座老旧监狱生活，环境肮脏不堪。
The old abandoned house was left in squalor, with rubbish everywhere. 那座废弃的老宅荒废破败，垃圾遍地。
a pop 每个
We use "a pop" in informal English to mean "each one" or "for every single one", especially when we are talking how much something costs.
The concert tickets cost over $100 a pop. 这场音乐会的门票每张要价超过100美元。
The new phones sell for $800 a pop but sometimes you can get a discount. 新款手机每部售价800美元，但有时能享受折扣。
beleaguered 英 [bɪˈliːɡəd] 美 [bɪˈliːɡərd] adj. 陷入困境的
If someone is "beleaguered," it means they are in a very difficult situation, with many problems or too much pressure.
The beleaguered team struggled after losing five games in a row.这支饱受打击的球队在连输五场后陷入困境。
The beleaguered company will close within a month. 这家陷入困境的公司将在一个月内倒闭。
rat-phobic / something-phobic 老鼠恐惧症
When we add "-phobic" to a word, it means being very afraid of that thing. "Rat-phobic" means being very afraid of rats.
She is mouse-phobic and screams whenever she sees one.她患有"老鼠恐惧症"，一见到老鼠就会尖叫。
Many people are spider-phobic; they can’t even look at a spider. 许多人患有"蜘蛛恐惧症"，连看都不敢看蜘蛛一眼。
