1 . Tips to Keep Your Personal Items Safe While Travelling
You might be surprised to hear that even in the limited space of an airplane, thefts still do occur. In a case reported, two men on board a flight were arrested after being suspected of stealing cash from fellow passengers’ mid-flight.
Keep your valuables such as cash, your ID and passport, and jewellery in a small bag that you can place under the seat in front of you. Rest your feet on your bag to make sure no one gets close to the bag.
| A．To ensure you get enough storage room, try to board the flight early. |
| B．Bring it with you whenever you leave your seat. |
| C．Thieves won’t spend too long on locked bags as it may draw attention to themselves. |
| D．Cases like this are known as in-flight, or mid-flight thefts. |
| E．Keep your cash or credit cards in different hiding places. |
| F．Make sure your bag is easily recognizable so thieves can’t just switch it out with a similar looking bag. |
2 . Getting Around Britain
In Britain, we still calculate distances in miles and we still drive on the left. Many of Britain’s roads follow ancient Roman roads and you have to pay at some old roll（收费）bridges dating back hundreds of years. In London, we still have red double-decker buses and black London taxis. Before they can work, London taxi drivers still have to spend about 18 months learning all about the streets of London to get ‘the knowledge’.
Despite all of this, there are some fantastic ways of getting around the country and enjoying yourself at the same time.
| A．For example, you can go on a cycling holiday. |
| B．However, not everything about British transport is as it used to be fifty years ago. |
| C．Nevertheless, there is one road in London, where you have to drive on the right! |
| D．And even though we invented the railways, our train network is not in a terribly good state. |
| E．If you want something a bit safer and less energetic, go on a narrow boat. |
| F．To sum up, Britain is a country that puts traditional and modern elements together. |
3 . An Aurora (极光) Adventure in Norway
Beyond the cottage windows the world is white and still. Snow-covered mountains stretch to the sea. It’s only 2 p.m., but already the light is fading, bathing the scene in a mysterious blue.
We rented a riverside house in the tiny fishing village of Oldervik.
Exciting activities, such as dog sledding and reindeer adventures, are easy to arrange.
At Oldervik, it’s possible to catch the aurora anytime from September to April. The best time is from mid-November to mid-January, when the sun never appears. With cloudy skies we have no luck so far but on our last night, at the first sign of clouds clearing, we got into the car and hadn’t driven far when, with great excitement, we spotted a strange glowing arc (弧形) crossing the road like a milky rainbow.
And then it begins: beams of greeny-white light dance as if from spotlights on the ground. To the naked eye (肉眼), the lights are not the bright greens and blues cameras capture on long exposures, but it’s fascinating none the less. The temperature during this time has fallen to –10℃ but we don’t feel it as we lie on the ground, gazing up and never wanting to leave.
| A．Sleep is effortless in this quiet land. |
| B．So are northern light excursions. |
| C．There’s little light pollution here, but the night is cloudy and a little cold. |
| D．When we hike south along the river, the moon hangs above the peaks in the sky. |
| E．It’s the appeal of the Arctic winter that has brought me to the very north of Norway in January. |
| F．The stars are against the blackest of skies, with white mountains on both sides glowing under a small piece of the moon. |
4 . You don’t need to travel long distances to find pleasure in nature
The Greek historian Herodotus is said to have made one of the earliest lists of seven wonders of the world. These were man-made structures, including the still mysterious feat of ancient horticulture known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. More recent times saw natural alternatives to these marvels of classical architecture proposed: waterfalls, mountains, canyons, reefs.
As environmental consciousness has risen in the west, attitudes to such sightseeing have changed. Yes, it is thrilling to visit remote forests or spot rare species. But travelling to far-flung destinations is carbon-intensive when flights or long road journeys are involved, and conservation can be made more difficult as well as assisted by sightseers. There is a balance to be struck, and ethical governments and businesses around the world try to maximize the benefits while minimizing the harms.
Most of us, in the rich countries where people take most holidays, understand better than ever that there are costs as well as benefits associated with exploring. One of the six pledges proposed by an environmental campaign launched last month, The Jump, is to “holiday local”, taking short-haul flights once every three years and long-haul flights very rarely. Fortunately, the UK’s 15 national parks, 86 areas of outstanding natural beauty （known in Scotland as national scenic areas）, and countless other landscapes that are without formal status, but beloved nonetheless, mean that there is no shortage of special places for domestic nature tourists to visit—while a host of European beauty spots are accessible by rail.
One recent survey found that Windsor Great Park and Kew have become Britain’s most popular attractions, while Covid has created difficulties for indoor spaces which do not apply to outdoor ones.
| A．Colombia, for example, recently introduced laws aimed at promoting sustainable tourism. |
| B．Visitor numbers at wildlife trusts are high, with waiting lists for beaver-spotting. |
| C．Travelling, especially air travel, is a luxury that is bad for the environment. |
| D．Dramatic landscapes, features and wildlife, and the pleasure and excitement they offer to visitors, are staples of tourism. |
| E．Today, the tourism sector has become one of the great economic engines in many countries, forming part of the international political agenda. |
| F．This is not to minimize the destruction of nature that is also taking place. |
5 . Twenty years ago, the Urban Land Institute defined the two types of cities that dominated the US landscape: smaller cities that operated around standard 9-5 business hours and large metropolitan areas that ran all 24 hours of the day.
In recent years, many mid-sized cities have begun to adopt a middle-of-the-road approach incorporating the excitement and opportunity of large cities with small cities’ quiet after midnight.
18-hour cities combine the best of 24-hour and 9-5 cities, which contributes to downtown revitalization. For decades, many downtown cores in small to mid-sized cities were abandoned after work hours by workers who lived in the suburbs.
Transforming downtown areas so that they incorporate modern housing and improved walkability to local restaurants, retail, and entertainment — especially when combined with improved infrastructure for cyclists and public transit — makes them appeal to a more affluent demographic.
These 18-hour cities are rapidly on the rise and offer great opportunities for homeowner investment. In many of these cities such as Denver, a diverse and vigorous economy attracted to the urban core has offered stable employment for residents.
| A．Because of their smaller size, most keep hours that allow people to enjoy themselves, then have some quiet after midnight. |
| B．These 18-hour cities are beginning to make waves in real estate rankings and attract more real estate investment. |
| C．Analyzing and comparing cities using the lens of this basic divide gives interesting context to how investment capital flows and housing prices have shifted. |
| D．These adjustments encourage employers in the knowledge and talent industries to keep their offices downtown. |
| E．The right urban mix has propped up home occupancy, increased property values, and attracted significant investment capital. |
| F．Movement out of city centers was widespread, and downtown tenants were predominantly made up of the working poor. |
6 . Seize the day! Live today and stop putting off what you have always dreamt of experiencing. How exciting and fun your life is depends only on you. Traveling is what makes your life complete. Finding balance isn’t easy yet it is worth trying. Enhance your life by going to South America to learn the history of the ancient tribes(部落).
There is no tomorrow- take a break right now. Be unplanned and travel whenever you feel like leaving your daily routine and boredom.
You cannot be a good employee if you are unhappy and tense. Your family suffers too. When your mind is free, you can perform at 200 percent.
Actually, it does not pay off to go on vacation when the season is in full swing. Prices are usually much higher in this period and you may spend much more money than expected.
| A．Having a travel agency help you with all the bookings may be a good choice. |
| B．It is stressful to find out that you cannot book tickets or hotel rooms for a reasonable price. |
| C．There’s so much to see when you finally take your annual leave. |
| D．Visiting Southeast Asia with its impressive beaches. |
| E．Waiting for a certain time of the year so that you could spoil yourself is wrong. |
| F．You are useless as a worker if your body does not feel great |
7 . The Rise of the Grown-Up Gap Year
It was 2012,Tim Potter, who was in public relations, had just finished working on the London Olympics alongside his partner.A career break to go travelling — or a “grown-up gap year”— seemed like a natural thing to both of them.
The couple spent four months traveling around Asia. Next, they flew to Mexico via Canada, worked their way down through Central America, and spent a month in both Colombia and Brazil.
But is Potter’s experience common or did he get lucky? Some people assume taking a career break will automatically be off-putting to potential employers, but according to Emily Bain, managing director of secretarial recruitment agency Bain and Gray, it can actually be quite the opposite.
“As an employer, I see it as a positive,” she says.
Tim Fryer, U.K. manager at STA Travel, says grown-up gap years can have a positive effect on your career. “Taking a break gives travelers time to refocus on work as well as the space to reflect on what exactly it is they want to do,” he explains.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. Emily Bain admits that some employers’ instinct is to turn their noses up at someone who’s had a break. However, she says, the duty is on the traveler to sell their experience as something that will benefit their future employer. “You have to explain the whole picture,” she says. “Making your CV (简历) gap accountable actually brings your profile to life.” So, don’t hide it — make a big deal of it.
Bain holds that although gap years are acceptable, it is still important to learn some kind of skill regardless of whatever else you may be doing during this time.
| A．These people are often at a turning point in their careers or lives. |
| B．The desire to go travelling is by no means all work-related, though. |
| C．The most obvious skill to take from travel, of course, is a language. |
| D．Taking a gap year when you’re older means that you have different things to consider. |
| E．Not in any way did the lack of work affect his prospects. |
| F．Bain goes on to say that taking a grown-up gap year is more common than you’d think. |
