The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming and going, you’d expect greater’ understanding to develop between the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each other’s countries at a moderate cost. What was once the grand tour, reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybody’s grasp The package tour and chartered flights are not to be sneered at. Modern travelers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldn’t have dreamed of. But what’s the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other’
Many tourist organizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set out to protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modern tourist leads a cosseted, sheltered life. He li
A. conducted tour is disappointing
B. the way of touring should be changed
C. when traveling, you notice characteristics which confirm preconception
D. national stereotypes should be changed
Text 2
House-price falls are gathering momentum and are spreading across the UK, according to a monthly poll of surveyors which on Monday delivered its gloomiest reading for nearly 12 years.
Fifty-six per cent of surveyors contacted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported price falls in the three months to October. Only 3 per cent saw prices rise in their area, compared with 58 per cent as recently as May.
There was further evidence of slowing activity in the property market as the number of sales per surveyor dived to a nine-year low. Unsold stock on agents’ books has increased 10 per cent since the summer. Ian Perry, Rics’ national housing spokesman, said it was now very clear that buyers were unsettled by higher interest rates.
The Bank of England raised rates five times to 4.75 per cent over the last year to cool the property boom.
But he also blamed comments by Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor,
A. the present house price falls are at most a momentary phenomenon.
B. the property market is experiencing its most depressing time over the decade.
C. 58 percent of surveyors contacted started to encounter house price falls in May.
D. Rics' widely-followed headline indicator began to fall since Dec. 1992.
Passage Three
When Walt Disney was drawing one night, he suddenly heard a strange sound. The sound came from the waste basket. Walt looked at it and saw a family of mice eating pieces of bread in it. For many nights, they played there. And Walt began to like them.
Walt liked one little mouse better than any of the others. This little animal gave him some new ideas for his drawing. He began to draw it. But in the picture, it did not look like a mouse, but more like a funny man. He showed it to his wife and she liked it very much, too.
Walt named this little mouse "Mickey Mouse". He hoped his Mickey Mouse would be different from the other pictures of his. He wanted to make Mickey talk. He put his fingers on his nose and made a strange sound. Then he recorded the voice this way. Later he sold his sound pictures to a cinema. When the film was shown, many people went to see it. Mickey Mouse in the film sang and danced and did all kinds of fun n
A. some mice
B. the waste paper
C. the basket
D. Walt Disney
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