Hillbilly Elegy - Jan 23

This is especially obvious at Armco, which employed ________(数个) the town’s population.

Looking back, I don’t know if the “really poor” areas and my block were any different, or whether these divisions were ________(想法) that didn’t want to believe it was really poor.

As I grew up, I noticed that the tennis court lines faded with each passing month, and that the city had stopped ________(填补[水泥]裂口) or replacing the nets on the basketball courts.

I learned that our neighborhood had “________(每况愈下)” after two bikes were stolen in the course of the week.

Now her grandkids ________(醒来时发现) thick locks cracked in two by ________(锁定插销) cutters.

If Middletown had changed little by the time I was born, ________(衰败的迹象早已赫然在目) almost immediately thereafter.

It’s easy even for residents to miss it because the change has been gradual—________(不似崩塌，更像腐蚀).

My favorite store was the local Kmart, which was the main attraction in ________(商店街/单排商业区), near a branch of Dillman’s—a local grocer with three or four locations.

Now one of those malls is a parking lot, and the other serves as ________(步道) for the elderly (though it still has a few stores).

Richie’s isn’t far from an old pharmacy that, ________(在全盛时期), had a soda bar and served root beer floats.

If you need ________(发薪日前的短期高利贷) or ________(收购金饰的商店), ________(Middledown的中心地带正是应该去的地方).

Not far from the ________(最繁华的街道) of empty shops and boarded-up windows is the Sorg Mansion.

Despite its beauty, a Maryland couple recently purchased the mansion for $225,000, or about half of what a decent multi-room apartment ________(猜测：costs you) in Washington, D.C.

Most have ________(陷入失修状态).

A street that was once the pride of Middletown today serves as a meeting spot for ________(吸毒者和毒贩). Main Street is now the place you avoid ________(天黑后).

Even if you’d like to move, you can’t, because ________(某个产品或某个行业彻底停滞)—you now owe more than any buyer is willing to pay.