单选题 There are those whom we instantly recognize as clinging to the traditional values of travel, the people who endure a kind of alienation and panic in foreign parts for the after-taste of having sampled new scenes. On the whole, travel at its best is rather comfortless, but travel is never easy: you get very tired, you get lost, you get your feet wet, you get little co-operation, and—if it is to have any value at all—you go alone. Homesickness is part of this kind of travel. In these circumstances, it is possible to make interesting discoveries about oneself and one"s surroundings. Travel has less to do with distance than with insight: it is, very often, a way of seeing.
The second group of travelers has only appeared in numbers in the best twenty years. For these people, paradoxically, travel is an experience of familiar things; it is travel that carries with it the illusion of immobility. It is going to a familiar airport and being strapped into a seat and held captive for a number of hours—immobile; then arriving at an almost identical airport; being whisked to a hotel so fast it is not like movement at all, and the hotel and the food are identical to the hotel and the food in the city one has just left. This is all tremendously reassuring and effortless; indeed, it is possible to go from, say, London to Singapore and not experience the feeling of having traveled anywhere.
For many years in the past, this was enjoyed by the rich. It is wrong to call it tourism, because businessmen also travel this way; and many people, who believe themselves to be travelers, object to being called tourists. The luxury travelers of the past set an example for the package tourists of today. In this sort of travel you take your society with you: your language, your food, your styles of hotel and service. It is of course the prerogative of rich nations—America, Western Europe, and Japan. It has had a profound effect on our view of the world. It has made real travel greatly sought-after and somewhat rare. And I think it has caused a resurgence of travel writing.
As everyone knows, travel is very unsettling, and it can be quite hazardous and worrying. One way of overcoming this anxiety is to travel packaged in style: luxury is a great remedy for the alienation of travel. What helps calm us is a reminder of stability and protection, and what the average package tourist looks for in foreign surroundings is familiar sights.
单选题 The travelers described in paragraph 1 ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第一段描述的传统的旅行者喜欢见识新的风景,即便旅途中会有很多不便,也并不舒服。这种旅行的关键不在于旅途的长短,而在于增长新的见识。故选C。
单选题 According to the author, the "traditional" traveler ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第一段提到Homesickness is part of this kind of travel。故选C。
单选题 The author suggests that the second group of travelers ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】第二种人则是追求不变的、熟悉的舒服的感觉,不喜欢新环境带来的不适。所以应该选B。
单选题 What gives travel an "illusion of immobility"?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】文中提到,这种人去到哪里都选择熟悉的环境、住同样的宾馆、吃同样的食物。这种完全没有新体验的感觉让他们有种“不变的幻觉”。故选A。
单选题 Which of the following statements best sums up the author"s attitude to travel?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】通过作者对过去和现在旅行者的不同进行对比看出,传统的旅行虽然有很多不便,却非常有趣又增长见识,而现在的旅行却变得越来越舒服,却越来越没有新意,没意思。本题选C。