专八阅读训练：The Tourist Trade Contributes Nothing

The Tourist Trade Contributes Absolutely Nothing to Increasing Understanding between Nations

The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming andgoing, you’d expect greater understanding to develop betweenthe nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems ofcommunication by air, sea and land make it possible for us tovisit each other’s countries at a moderate cost. What was oncethe ‘grand tour’, reserved for only the very rich, is now withineverybody’s grasp? The package tour and chartered flights are not to be sneered at. Moderntravelers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldn’thave dreamed of. But what’s the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of theworld remain basically ignorant of each other?

Many tourist organizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set outto protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modern tourist leadsa cosseted, sheltered life. He lives at international hotels, where he eats his international food andsips his international drink while he gazes at the natives from a distance. Conducted tours to placesof interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see only what the organizers want himto see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own;and anyway, language is always a barrier, so he is only too happy to be protected in this way. Atits very worst, this leads to a new and hideous kind of colonization. The summer quarters of theinhabitants of the cite universitaire: are temporarily reestablished on the island of Corfu. Blackpool isrecreated at Torremolinos where the traveler goes not to eat paella, but fish and chips.

The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. Wedon’t see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believethey are. You can test this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English,American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, amorous,cold, pedantic, native. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of thepeoples just mentioned, these adjectives actually act as barriers. So when you set out on yourtravels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm your preconceptions. Youcome away with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression that, say, ‘Anglo-Saxons arehypocrites’ of that ‘Latin peoples shout a lot’. You only have to make a few foreign friends tounderstand how absurd and harmful national stereotypes are. But how can you make foreignfriends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you?

Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. Wild generalizations stir up racialhatred and blind us to the basic fact—how trite it sounds! – That all people are human. We are allsimilar to each other and at the same time all unique.

1. The best title for this passage is
[A] tourism contributes nothing to increasing understanding between nations.
[B] Tourism is tiresome.
[C] Conducted tour is dull.
[D] tourism really does something to one’s country.

2. What is the author’s attitude toward tourism?
[A] apprehensive.
[B] negative.
[C] critical.
[D] appreciative.

3. Which word in the following is the best to summarize Latin people shout a lot?
[A] silent.
[B] noisy.
[C] lively.
[D] active.

4. The purpose of the author’s criticism is to point out
[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.

5. What is ‘grand tour’ now?
[A] moderate cost.
[B] local sight-seeing is investigated by the tourist organization.
[C] people enjoy the first-rate comforts.
[D] everybody can enjoy the ‘grand tour’.