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Read the story and answer the questions.
The issue of how our heritage is to survive an ever greater inundation of tourists becomes more and more pressing.
The inundation is happening here and now. London has run out of hotel rooms, Heathrow has run out of tarmac. Think of the impact made already, and multiply all that by 10: that gives some indication of the mighty tide of tourism we will face in the early years of the next century.
They will flock through Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, and the effect will be merely decorative. But they will also go to the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Stratford-on-Avon and Stonehenge. A minority — but a stunning number of people all the same — will go to the Lake District, too.
But this is not just a problem for the future. Under the press of numbers, many tourist experiences are already being destroyed.
Everybody gets to see the picture, the monument, the palace — but no one gets to see it properly. Everyone goes to Venice, but all you can think about while you are there are the jams of people seeing it with you.
The result is the progressive closing-off of sensitive sites. No one today can climb the tower of Pisa, walk among the columns of the Parthenon, or explore the colleges of Oxford. To our children, such experiences will be as mythic and improbable as driving on traffic-free roads or looking round unlocked country churches.
The danger is that more and more of the planet’s cherished places will suffer the same fate: disappearing under immense crowds, then being ‘rescued’ with the result that no one is able to enjoy them at all.
Allowing the tourist market to take its course unimpeded makes no more sense than allowing loggers to have their way in Amazonia.
For any particular monument there is an optimum number of people who can enjoy it to the full at any given time. Mona Lisa, 5; Stonehenge, 50; Venice, perhaps, 10,000.
The task ahead for those who administrate such places is devising ways that will permit access to the right sorts of numbers, so that each person who pays their entrance fee will do so confident that they will be able to enjoy it to the full, in the same way that they enjoy the theatre or cinema, confident of having a seat with a view.
The challenge of the future will be to allow all who want it the most intimate possible contact with our heritage, while making sure that future generations will be able to enjoy it in the same way. Those twin goals will be impossible without a widespread and intelligently administered form of time ticketing.
1. Which of the following is not true?
A The need to protect everything precious handed down to new generations is becoming more and more urgent.
В There isn’t enough of the material that roads and the airport runways at Heathrow are made of.
С The mighty tide of tourism will be under the press of the impact it faced.
D The overwhelming numbers of tourists will cause even more problems for top tourist attractions throughout the world.
2. The Lake District is mentioned in the text as
A a place never visited by tourists.
В the most visited place.
С one of tourists’ attractions.
D the attraction to be visited.
3. According to the text, walking among the columns of Parthenon seems to be
A undesirable.
В possible.
С real.
D unlikely.
4. Many places that are greatly loved
A are on the way of traffic jams of people seeing them with you.
В are closed down as sensitive sites for progress in future.
С are endangered to be rescued by those who are not able to enjoy them at all.
D could be destroyed by an inundation of tourists.
5. What is the only way to keep the heritage for future generations?
A To limit the number of tourists who are allowed to visit a site, and also the time that they can spend there.
В Let the tourist market develop without restrictions.
С To allow loggers to have their way in Amazonia.
D To help establish the most intimate possible contact with our heritage.
6. Which of the titles below would best suit the text?
A Cherished places rescued by tourists.
В Time ticketing — a panacea for our heritage.
С Tourist attractions destroyed forever.
D Tourist sites drama for intelligent administrators.
7. The word unimpeded means
A regulated, planned.
В free, without any obstacles or regulations.
С state directed.
D lucrative, profitable.