题型：阅读理解 题类：常考题 难易度：普通
福建省莆田市第二十五中学2016-2017学年高二下学期期末考试英语试题
In London's art gallery six or seven men, mostly in their 30s, are busy painting the walls with new designs in colorful lettering and clever tricks. Tins of spray paint and beer stand on the ground. The atmosphere is not unlike that of a golf course: a mix of concentration and relaxation.
Graffiti(涂鸦) painting is traditionally a daring hobby. Teenagers avoid security guards to put their names on trains and buses. But over the past decade that has almost disappeared from Britain's cities. Between 2007 and 2017 the number of incidents of graffiti recorded by the British Transport Police fell by 63%. A survey by the environment ministry shows that fewer places are damaged by tags(绘名) than ever. Graffiti are increasingly limited to only a few walls. In time the practice may die out entirely.
The most obvious reason for the decline in tagging and train-painting is better policing, says Keegan Webb, who runs The London Vandal, a graffiti blog (博客). Numerous cameras mean it is harder to get away with painting illegally. And punishments are more severe. A generational change is apparent, too. Now teenagers prefer to play with iPads and video games. Those who do get involved tend to prefer street art to graffiti. And the internet helps painters win far more attention by posting pictures online than they can by breaking into a railway yard.
Taggers and graffiti artists mostly grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. Those men are now older and less willing to take risks. "We can't run away from the police any more," says Ben Eine, who turned from tagging to street art. The hip-hop culture that inspired graffiti in the first place has faded. Video games and comic books provide more inspiration than music.
Graffiti may eventually disappear. But for now the hobby is almost respectable. Mr Eine says he has lots of friends who used to paint trains. Now with wives and children, they paint abandoned houses at the weekend. It has become something to do on a Sunday afternoon—a slightly healthier alternative to sitting watching the football.
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