New Destinations B2 Module 1

Read the article from the travel section of a newspaper. Choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

Don't go on Holiday!

Dawn Lanare takes a good look at some of the reasons not to travel this summer.

Yes. I'm being completely serious. Travel can broaden the mind but that's not likely on a two-week holiday. Let me tell you why.

It's summertime again and you're planning to pack your bags and take off for a package holiday for two weeks in the sun. It’s a chance to relax, recharge your batteries and enjoy yourself. But if you're honest with yourself, is it really such a good idea? Think about all the holidays you've had in the past few years. What were they really like?

For a start, there is the stress of travelling. The actual getting to and returning from our chosen destination is usually stressful and tiring. Airports are always in the middle of nowhere and take hours to get to. It's also expensive to get to them, too. Then there’s the fact that you have to be at the airport at least an hour before your departure, which adds more hours to all the travel. Let's not forget, either, that even a short hop to the nearest sunny resort is going to take at least a couple of hours and, during the main holiday season, delays and strikes can mean getting stuck at the airport. All too often, by the time you get to your holiday destination, you'll be too tired and miserable to enjoy your first day there.

One of the reasons we convince ourselves that going abroad is a good idea is because we want to learn something about the place we're going to visit. We might go sightseeing around museums and archaeological sites and we hope we will absorb some of the culture of the place while we're there. But we're just fooling ourselves. It simply isn't possible to learn anything meaningful about a culture in just two weeks. We might learn a few words of the language and try some new food but we're not even so much as scratching the surface of a country's culture when we spend most of our time in a resort, sitting on a beach with hundreds of other tourists.

Another white lie we tell ourselves is that at least we’re helping the local economy by going on holiday. The bitter truth is that you probably aren't. If you’re on a package holiday, then very little of your money goes to local people. Most of the profits will go to the companies that run the resorts and they are, as you've probably guessed, usually foreign-owned companies. Most tourists will spend very little money in the local community as their package holiday covers all their meals. So the only money that goes straight into the local economy is what you spend buying souvenirs or traditional craftworks from local people.

Now I don't want to make you all feel too downhearted but there's no getting away from facts. In short, mass tourism is of very little value to local communities and their environments. Package holidays are sold to us as a wonderful opportunity to see the world cheaply, but we are being cheated. We spend two weeks away from home in a resort where we will hardly get a chance to see what life in the country we are visiting is like and where our presence is more likely to do harm than good.

It's not that I'm completely against all travel, not at all. What I'm against is the form of mass tourism that has developed in the 21st century. I think we should go back to the days when travel was a leisurely pursuit, when people would spend months getting to know a place, learning the language and soaking up the culture. Unfortunately, this form of travel isn't possible for most of us as we only get a couple of weeks off in the summer. But if you ever do get the chance to really spend time in another country, then you should jump at it.

When the writer advises people not to go on holiday, she

Read the article from the travel section of a newspaper. Choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

Don't go on Holiday!

Dawn Lanare takes a good look at some of the reasons not to travel this summer.

Yes. I'm being completely serious. Travel can broaden the mind but that's not likely on a two-week holiday. Let me tell you why.

It's summertime again and you're planning to pack your bags and take off for a package holiday for two weeks in the sun. It’s a chance to relax, recharge your batteries and enjoy yourself. But if you're honest with yourself, is it really such a good idea? Think about all the holidays you've had in the past few years. What were they really like?

For a start, there is the stress of travelling. The actual getting to and returning from our chosen destination is usually stressful and tiring. Airports are always in the middle of nowhere and take hours to get to. It's also expensive to get to them, too. Then there’s the fact that you have to be at the airport at least an hour before your departure, which adds more hours to all the travel. Let's not forget, either, that even a short hop to the nearest sunny resort is going to take at least a couple of hours and, during the main holiday season, delays and strikes can mean getting stuck at the airport. All too often, by the time you get to your holiday destination, you'll be too tired and miserable to enjoy your first day there.

One of the reasons we convince ourselves that going abroad is a good idea is because we want to learn something about the place we're going to visit. We might go sightseeing around museums and archaeological sites and we hope we will absorb some of the culture of the place while we're there. But we're just fooling ourselves. It simply isn't possible to learn anything meaningful about a culture in just two weeks. We might learn a few words of the language and try some new food but we're not even so much as scratching the surface of a country's culture when we spend most of our time in a resort, sitting on a beach with hundreds of other tourists.

Another white lie we tell ourselves is that at least we’re helping the local economy by going on holiday. The bitter truth is that you probably aren't. If you’re on a package holiday, then very little of your money goes to local people. Most of the profits will go to the companies that run the resorts and they are, as you've probably guessed, usually foreign-owned companies. Most tourists will spend very little money in the local community as their package holiday covers all their meals. So the only money that goes straight into the local economy is what you spend buying souvenirs or traditional craftworks from local people.

Now I don't want to make you all feel too downhearted but there's no getting away from facts. In short, mass tourism is of very little value to local communities and their environments. Package holidays are sold to us as a wonderful opportunity to see the world cheaply, but we are being cheated. We spend two weeks away from home in a resort where we will hardly get a chance to see what life in the country we are visiting is like and where our presence is more likely to do harm than good.

It's not that I'm completely against all travel, not at all. What I'm against is the form of mass tourism that has developed in the 21st century. I think we should go back to the days when travel was a leisurely pursuit, when people would spend months getting to know a place, learning the language and soaking up the culture. Unfortunately, this form of travel isn't possible for most of us as we only get a couple of weeks off in the summer. But if you ever do get the chance to really spend time in another country, then you should jump at it.

According to the writer, airports are

Read the article from the travel section of a newspaper. Choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

Don't go on Holiday!

Dawn Lanare takes a good look at some of the reasons not to travel this summer.

Yes. I'm being completely serious. Travel can broaden the mind but that's not likely on a two-week holiday. Let me tell you why.

It's summertime again and you're planning to pack your bags and take off for a package holiday for two weeks in the sun. It’s a chance to relax, recharge your batteries and enjoy yourself. But if you're honest with yourself, is it really such a good idea? Think about all the holidays you've had in the past few years. What were they really like?

For a start, there is the stress of travelling. The actual getting to and returning from our chosen destination is usually stressful and tiring. Airports are always in the middle of nowhere and take hours to get to. It's also expensive to get to them, too. Then there’s the fact that you have to be at the airport at least an hour before your departure, which adds more hours to all the travel. Let's not forget, either, that even a short hop to the nearest sunny resort is going to take at least a couple of hours and, during the main holiday season, delays and strikes can mean getting stuck at the airport. All too often, by the time you get to your holiday destination, you'll be too tired and miserable to enjoy your first day there.

One of the reasons we convince ourselves that going abroad is a good idea is because we want to learn something about the place we're going to visit. We might go sightseeing around museums and archaeological sites and we hope we will absorb some of the culture of the place while we're there. But we're just fooling ourselves. It simply isn't possible to learn anything meaningful about a culture in just two weeks. We might learn a few words of the language and try some new food but we're not even so much as scratching the surface of a country's culture when we spend most of our time in a resort, sitting on a beach with hundreds of other tourists.

Another white lie we tell ourselves is that at least we’re helping the local economy by going on holiday. The bitter truth is that you probably aren't. If you’re on a package holiday, then very little of your money goes to local people. Most of the profits will go to the companies that run the resorts and they are, as you've probably guessed, usually foreign-owned companies. Most tourists will spend very little money in the local community as their package holiday covers all their meals. So the only money that goes straight into the local economy is what you spend buying souvenirs or traditional craftworks from local people.

Now I don't want to make you all feel too downhearted but there's no getting away from facts. In short, mass tourism is of very little value to local communities and their environments. Package holidays are sold to us as a wonderful opportunity to see the world cheaply, but we are being cheated. We spend two weeks away from home in a resort where we will hardly get a chance to see what life in the country we are visiting is like and where our presence is more likely to do harm than good.

It's not that I'm completely against all travel, not at all. What I'm against is the form of mass tourism that has developed in the 21st century. I think we should go back to the days when travel was a leisurely pursuit, when people would spend months getting to know a place, learning the language and soaking up the culture. Unfortunately, this form of travel isn't possible for most of us as we only get a couple of weeks off in the summer. But if you ever do get the chance to really spend time in another country, then you should jump at it.

The writer uses the phrase ‘a short hop' to describe