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For questions 1-4 read the following texts.

Antarctica represents ten percent of the Earth's landmass and is also the world's last unspoilt wilderness, so it is hardly surprising that greater numbers of people are visiting the frozen continent every year. Tourism to Antarctica began in the late 1950s but it wasn't until the 1990s that it began to have a commercial impact. In the summer season 2004-5, over 27,000 tourists visited Antarctica, and if one takes into account the crew, support teams and scientists that went there too, the actual number of visitors was closer to 50,000. The tourist industry is predicting that these figures will increase even further. Mass tourism has arrived.

Tourism is already exerting pressures on the Antarctic environment, and what worries environmentalists is that there is no current regulation and very little constraint on where people may go and what they can do there.Tours to important wildlife and historic sites often attract large numbers of people, and a new kind of 'adventure tourism' - offering activities such as scuba-diving, skydiving, and skiing - has also arrived. Tourists can even fly directly in to waiting ships, and there is now better access to inland areas thanks to light aircraft, helicopters and land vehicles. Inevitably, there have been calls for accommodation to be built ashore, as well as airstrips and landing sites.

However, if tourism is not to compromise Antarctica's designation as a natural reserve, it must be subject to certain restrictions concerning where people can go and the types of activities they can do once they get there. Otherwise it is doubtful whether Antarctica can remain the last pristine environment on the planet for much longer.

1. What does the writer mean by “commercial impact”? (line 4) tourism began to produce profit

2.Which word in the text echoes the word “constraint”? (line 11) restriction

 

Antarctica has no indigenous population - if you exclude the unavoidable colonies of penguins - and the only people you are likely to see there are other tourists. Some prudent tour operators, however, schedule their landings so they don't bump into each other, thus reinforcing the illusion of thewilderness experience.

Vessels travelling to the Antarctic vary in size from cruisers carrying around fifty passengers to much larger ice-strengthened vessels with a capacity of 1,000 or so. The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), a well-respected voluntary organisation, has established rules about the size of ships allowed into Antarctic waters and conduct at landing sites, so you should check that the tour company you go with is a member. One of these rules states that no more than 100 people can visit land at anyone time, so it is usually better to go with a smaller ship to ensure you will get to see some of the spectacular wildlife and natural features of the continent up close.

Tours operate in the summer months, between November and March, when you can expect more than twenty hours of sunlight and temperatures up to 10°C. In the winter temperatures can plunge to -90°C, but only a handful of hardened scientists ever sit it out.

3. Explain what is meant by “reinforcing the illusion of wilderness experience”? (line 4) create the feeling of being on the uninhabited area

4. Why are the scientists who winter in Antarctica described as “hardened”? because only the most devoted to their jobs people can bear all the unconveniences of winter in Antarctica

Listening

Listen to the story (SB p.55 ex.2) and insert the missing words.

On 5 May 1931, my uncle, August Courtauld, was spending his 150th day alone on the 1) ____ ____. Since the last week of March, his tented igloo had been covered by snow; his food was now running out. There was no light, and he was smoking tea-leaves in his pipe. On that day, his paraffin primus stove gave its last 2) _____. Suddenly there was an appalling noise like a bus going by, followed by a confused 3) _______. The voice of his expedition leader came down the ventilator pipe, and his five-month incarceration through an Arctic winter was over. If he hadn't been rescued, he would almost certainly have had to walk back to his base alone, with no 4) ________ whatsoever - that is if he'd been able to dig himself out! But August never regarded it as an 5) ________; never said he wished he hadn't gone. He had, after all volunteered to stay alone at the ice cap station, and take 6) _______ of the weather there, something which had never been done before.

Uncle August was a member of an expedition which had gone to Greenland in the summer of 1930 to map the coast and mountain 7) _______. It was also important in considering the setting up of a regular air route over Greenland to North America, to see what the weather was like on the ice cap, 8) ________ in winter. There was, however, more to the expedition than that. Its members had an average age of 25. Many of them had not long ago been at university, and there was a clubbable 9) _____ of youthful adventure among them. But the air of gentlemanly amateurishness could be 10) ________: most significantly, and in contrast to Scott's expedition to the South Pole, they learnt how to use dogs for 11) __________.

Speaking

Topics for Discussion

ü Are you a tourist or a traveler? What is the difference?

ü What do you gain from travelling experience? Can travel broaden the mind? How?

ü How much do the tourists really learn about the countries they visit?

ü Outline the advantages and disadvantages of tourism development.

ü Why is eco-tourism becoming very popular nowadays?

ü What are the pros and cons of travelling: alone / with a companion / in a group with a guide?

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