Reading Practice
Tourism
A
Tourism, holidaymaking and travel are these days more significant social phenomena than most commentators have considered. On the face of it there could not be a more trivial subject for a book. indeed since social scientists have had considerable difficulty explaining weightier topics, such as politics, it might be thought that they would have great difficulties in accounting for more trivial phenomena such as holidaymaking. However, there are interesting parallels with the study of deviance. This investigation of bizarre and idiosyncratic social practices which happen to be defined as deviant societies but not necessarily in others. The assumption is that the investigation of deviance can reveal interesting and significant aspects of normal societies. It could be said that a similar analysis can tourism.
B
Tourism is a leisure activity which presupposes its opposite, namely regulated and organised work. manifestation of how work and leisure are organised as separate and regulated spheres of social modern societies. Indeed acting as a tourist is one of the defining characteristics of being ‘modern’ popular concept of tourism is that it is organised within particular places and occurs for regularised time. Tourist relationships arise from a movement of people to, and their stay in, various destinations. necessarily involves some movement, that is the journey, and a period of stay in a new place or journey and the stay’ are by definition outside the normal places of residence and work and are of and temporary nature and there is a clear intention to return ‘home’ within a relatively short period C A substantial proportion of the population of modern societies engages in such tourist practices new forms of provision have developed in order to cope with the mass character of the gazes of tourists opposed to the individual character of travel. Places are chosen to be visited and be gazed upon there is an anticipation especially through daydreaming and fantasy of intense pleasures, either scale or involving different senses from those customarily encountered. Such anticipation is constructed sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices such as films, TV literature, magazines records which construct and reinforce this daydreaming.
D
Tourists tend to visit features of landscape and townscape which separate them off from everyday Such aspects are viewed because they are taken to be in some sense out of the ordinary. The viewing these tourist sights often involves different forms of social patterning with a much greater sensitivity elements of landscape or townscape than is normally found in everyday life. People linger over these a way that they would not normally do in their home environment and the vision is objectified or captured through photographs postcards films and so on which enable the memory to be endlessly reproduced recaptured.
E
One of the earliest dissertations on the subject of tourism is Boorstins analysis of the pseudo event where he argues that contemporary. Americans cannot experience reality directly but thrive on pseudo Isolated from the host environment and the local people the mass tourist travels in guided groups pleasure in inauthentic contrived attractions gullibly enjoying the pseudo events and disregarding world outside. Over time the images generated of different tourist sights come to constitute a closed system of illusions which provide the tourist with the basis for selecting and evaluating Access places to visit. Such visits are made says Boorstin, within the environmental bubble of the familiar style hotel which insulates the tourist from the strangeness of the host environment.
F
To service the burgeoning tourist industry, an array of professionals has developed who attempt ever-new objects for the tourist to look at. These objects or places are located in a complex and hierarchy. This depends upon the interplay between, on the one hand, competition between interests in the provision of such objects and, on the other hand changing class, gender, and generational of taste within the potential population of visitors. It has been said that to be a tourist is one of the characteristics of the modern experience. Not to go away is like not possessing a car or a nice house. is a marker of status in modern societies and is also thought to be necessary for good health. The professional, therefore, is to cater for the needs and tastes of the tourists in accordance with their overall expectations.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has 6 paragraphs (A-F).
Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-ix) in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet Paragraph D has
been done for you as an example.
NB There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all of them.
You may use any heading more than once.
1..................... Paragraph A
2..................... Paragraph B
3..................... Paragraph C
Example
Paragraph D Answer: ix
4..................... Paragraph E
5..................... Paragraph F
List of Headings
i. The politics of tourism
ii. The cost of tourism
iii. Justifying the study of tourism
iv. Tourism contrasted with travel
v. The essence of modern tourism
vi. Tourism versus leisure
vii. The artificiality of modern tourism
viii. The role of modern tour guides
ix. Creating an alternative to the everyday experience
Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage? In
boxes 6-10 write
YES if the statement agrees with the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
Example
People who can’t afford to travel watch films and TV. Answer: NOT GIVEN
6..................... Tourism is a trivial subject.
7..................... An analysis of deviance can act as a model for the analysis of tourism.
8..................... Tourists usually choose to travel overseas.
9..................... Tourists focus more on places they visit than those at home.
10..................... Tour operators try to cheat tourists.
Questions 11-14
Chose one phrase (A-H) from the list of phrases to complete each key point below. Write
the appropriate letters (A-H) in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
The information in the completed sentences should be an accurate summary of points
made by the writer.
NB There are more phrases A-H than sentences so you will not use them all. You
may use any phrase more than once.
11 Our concept of tourism arises from 11.....................
12 The media can be used to enhance 12.....................
13 People view tourist landscapes in a different way from 13.....................
14 Group tours encourage participants to look at 14.....................
List of Phrases
A
local people and their environment.
E
the individual character of travel.
B
the expectations of tourists.
F
places seen in everyday life.
C
the phenomen a of holiday making.
G
photographs which recapture our holidays.
D
the distinction we make
H
sights designed specially between work and leisure. for tourists.
Solution:
1. iii 8. NOT GIVEN
2. v 9. YES
3. iv 10. NOT GIVEN
4. vii 11. D
5. viii 12. B
6. NO 13. F
7. YES 14. H
PASSWORD: 8MAY2025
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