Road to Ielts 8
A. When you get tired of typical sight-seeing, when you have had enough of monuments, statues, and cathedrals, then think outside the box. Read the four paragraphs below about the innovative types of tourism emerging around the globe and discover ways to spice up your itinerary.
B. One could eat your way through your travels if one wished. A comparatively new kind of tourism is gaining popularity across the world. In this, food and beverages are the main factors that motivate a person to travel to a particular destination. Combining food, drink and culture, this type of travel provides for an authentic experience, the food and restaurants reflecting the local and unique flavors of a particular region or country. Studies conducted into this travel phenomenon have shown that food plays, consciously or unconsciously, an important part in the vacations of a good number of travelers. Those trying this are looking for a more participatory style of holiday experience. Analysts have noticed a shift from ‘passive observation’ to ‘interaction and involvement’ in tourists, whereby the visitor comes into close contact with locals and their way of life rather than remaining a mere spectator.
C. This is a novel approach to tourism in which visitors do not visit the ordinary tourist attractions in traditional fashion. Rather, they let their whims be their guides! Destinations are chosen not on their standard touristic merit but on the basis of an idea or concept often involving elements of humor, serendipity, and chance. One example is known as Monopoly-travel. Participants armed with the local version of a Monopoly game board explore a city at the whim of a dice roll, shuttling between elegant shopping areas and the local water plant – with the occasional visit to jail. Another example is Counter-travel, which requires you to take snapshots with your back turned to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. Joël Henry, the French founder of Latourex, has developed dozens of ideas since coming up with the concept in 1990. The traveler must increase his or her receptiveness, in this way, no trip is ever planned or predictable. Henry’s most unusual invention is known as “Erotravel”, where a couple heads to the same town but travels there separately. The challenge is to find one another abroad. He and his wife have engaged in the pursuit in five cities and have managed to meet up every time.
D. This involves any crop-based or animal based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. It has recently become widespread in America, and participants can choose from a wide range of activities that include picking fruits and vegetables, riding horses, tasting honey, learning about wine and cheese making, or shopping in farm gift shops for local and regional products or handicrafts.
For rural economies struggling to stay afloat in this age of industrial farming, it has become an important and marketable opportunity for improving the incomes and potential economic viability of small farms and rural communities. In western North Carolina, the organization ‘HandMade in America’ is using this method to develop their local economy and craft trades, and to educate visitors about farming practices. On their website, it is described as a niche market. As people are becoming more interested in the ecological importance of local food production, related projects reinforce the need to support local growers and allow visitors to experience the relationship between food and our natural environment.
E. This is the trend of traveling to destinations that are first seen in movies, for instance, touring London in a high-speed boat like James Bond or visiting the stately homes that are seen in Jane Austin films. The term was first coined in the US press in the New York Post by journalist Gretchen Kelly, who wrote a 2007 article entitled “The sexiest film locations from 2007 to visit now.”
Currently, summer blockbuster movies are being used as themed marketing tools by companies like Expedia and Fandango, who are promoting trips to where the Steven Spielberg film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was made. Corporations as well as convention and tourism boards are exploiting the trend, creating their own location based travel maps, like the Elizabeth: The Golden Age movie map published by VisitBritain, Britain’s official travel and tourism guide. Other travel itineraries have been created by tourism boards for movies including The Da Vinci Code (France), In Bruges (Belgium), and P.S. I Love You (Ireland). Although a new concept, it’s fast becoming a major factor in the choices travelers make in an increasingly tight economic climate. If a traveler has seen a site in a major motion picture, its media exposure makes it a compelling choice for a family vacation or honeymoon.
Questions
Questions 28–31
Reading Passage 3 has five sections, A–E. Choose the correct heading for sections B–E from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i–viii, in boxes 28–31 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Experimental Tourism
ii. Cuisine Tourism
iii. Adventure Tourism
iv. Fashion Tourism
v. Photographic Travels
vi. Set-jetting
vii. Agritourism
viii. Introduction
ix. Capital Cities
e.g. Section A : viii
| Section B | 28 ………. |
| Section C | 29 ………. |
| Section D | 30 ………. |
| Section E | 31 ………. |
Questions 32-35
Look at the following statements (Questions 32–35). Read passage 3and complete the sentences using ONE WORD ONLY from the text.Write the answers for questions 32-35 on your answer sheet.
- Putting together and enjoying culinary delights ensures the trip is more 32 …………….
- Moving quickly between more mundane public service facilities and malls that are more 33 …………….
- Film sets for hugely popular blockbuster movies are attracting couples to go there for their 34 …………….
- In the USA, visiting a strawberry picking field or listening to lectures on producing good wine is becoming increasingly 35 …………….
Questions 36-39
Label as true, false or not given (T / F / NG) Do the following statements agree with the information given in passage 2? Write your answers in the boxes for questions 36-39 as:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
36. ……………… Enjoying good foods is the most critical part of any good holiday for the majority of travellers.
37. ……………… Taking photos facing directly opposite from and facing away from a popular tourist site is a need for Counter-travel.
38. ……………… People are gaining appreciation for the need to back those producing local grown vegetables and other crops.
39. ……………… The term for promoting travel related to the film industry was first used in the British media.
Question 40
Read the text and choose the best match for the underlined phrase in the text, from the three options, A-C.
40. For people who are bored of doing the usual activities such as looking at the common tourist attractions, they need to reconsider things from a different perspective. This means to think is a way that is …
A. unique.
B. new.
C. creative.
Answers
Questions 28–31
28. Answer: ii
Section B
- This section discusses a type of tourism in which: “food and beverages are the main factors that motivate a person to travel to a particular destination”.
- Throughout this section, the author describes how food plays an important role in the holiday of travelers. The appropriate heading is clearly ii – Cuisine Tourism.
- cuisine = food and beverages
- The answer is ii.
29. Answer: i
Section C
- Section C includes some unconventional tourism approaches such as Monopoly-travel, Counter-travel and Ero-travel.
- Although the word “fashion” appears right at the beginning of the section, it is not the theme of this type of tourism, so iv – Fashion tourism is incorrect.
- Similarly, while the concept of Counter-travel requires you to take photos, it is only a part of the experience and you shouldn’t call this “photographic travel” (v).
- The best heading would be i – Experimental tourism because the common thing among these three examples is that they are all unpredictable and involves some kind of challenges. In addition, we are told that this is “a novel approach to tourism”. It started with one man: “Joel Henry, the French founder of Latourex, has developed dozens of ideas since coming up with the concept in 1990”.
- Clearly, this type of tourism is based on experimenting with novel ideas to see if tourists enjoy these kinds of holidays.
- The answer is i.
30. Answer: vii
Section D
- The kind of tourism mentioned in this section is related to crops and animals, which are two aspects of agriculture. To be more specific, the author describes a few ways in which certain farms and ranches have integrated their usual agricultural activities into tourism in order to increase their income.
- For example, tourists can experience “…picking fruits and vegetables, riding horses, tasting honey, learning about wine and cheese making, or shopping in farm gift shops”.
- Therefore, this is clearly “agritourism” (vii), the combination between agriculture and tourism.
- The answer is vii.
31. Answer: vi
Section E
- This section is about the kind of travelling where you visit the locations of famous movies, or where they were made. These are known as ‘film/movie sets’, or simply ‘sets’. The idea of the term ‘set-jetting’ is that you fly on your holiday (jet) aircraft to visit a famous film/movie set.
- The most appropriate heading must be set-jetting (vi), and we can easily rule out adventure, fashion, photographic tourism and capital cities (iii, iv, v, ix respectively).
- The answer is vi.
Questions 32-35
32. Answer: authentic
- Key words: enjoying, culinary delights, ensures, trip
- Information about the type of tourism that features culinary elements (food and beverages) can be found in paragraph B.
- Combining food, drink and culture, this type of travel provides for an authentic experience, the food and restaurants reflecting the local and unique flavors of a particular region or country.”
- Here, “combining” means “putting together” and the foods that reflect local and unique flavors are considered “culinary delights”.
- Hence, the trip is more authentic than conventional tourism. This means that tourists experience the real food and drink of the region that they visit. Their experience is, therefore, ‘authentic’. The word to fill in the blank is “authentic”.
- putting together = combining
- culinary ~ food, drink
- The answer is authentic.
33. Answer: elegant
- Key words: mundane, public service facilities, malls
- In paragraph C, the author mentions a type of tourism where tourists:
- “…explore a city at the whim of a dice roll, shuttling between elegant shopping areas and the local water plant”.
- In this sentence, “shuttling” is similar to “moving quickly”. The local water plant is one of the public service facilities, and “shopping areas” refer to “malls”.
- This can be paraphrased as: tourists move quickly between public service facilities and malls. These malls are described as “elegant”, hence the answer is “elegant”.
- moving quickly ~ shuttling
- malls = shopping areas
- The answer is elegant.
34. Answer: honeymoon
- Key words: film sets, blockbuster, couples
- We can find information relating to film sets or film locations in paragraph E.
- ” It is said that blockbuster movies like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Da Vinci Code, In Bruges, and P.S. I Love You, etc. are being used as marketing tools to promote trips to where these films were made. “
- These holiday locations are described by the author as “a compelling choice for a family vacation or honeymoon”. Since the question has something to do with “couples”, we can deduce that the appropriate answer is “honeymoon”.
- film sets ~ where these films were made
- The answer is honeymoon.
35. Answer: widespread
- Key words: USA, strawberry picking, lectures, wine,
- Paragraph D mentions the type of tourism which includes: “…picking fruits and vegetables, riding horses, tasting honey, learning about wine and cheese making…”
- Picking strawberries is of course “picking fruits”, and listening to lectures about producing wine is the same as “learning about wine making”.
- This kind of experience “has recently become widespread” in America (or the USA), so the correct answer is “widespread”.
- the USA ~ America
- listening to lectures ~ learning
- producing = making
- The answer is widespread.
Questions 36-39
36. Answer: Not Given
- Key words: good foods, critical, majority, travellers
- In paragraph B, we learn that in terms of Cuisine Tourism: “Studies conducted into this travel phenomenon have shown that food plays, consciously or unconsciously, an important part in the vacations of a good number of travelers”.
- Here, “important” is similar to “critical”, “vacations” is similar to “holiday” and “a good number of travelers” is similar to “majority of travelers”. However, ‘a good number’ does not necessarily refer to ‘a majority’.
- So, for many travelers (we do not know if this is a majority) we know that food is an important part of a good holiday. However, we also do not know if this is ‘the most critical part’, only that it is important for many travelers to enjoy good food as part of a good holiday.
- Therefore, the answer is NOT GIVEN.
- critical = important
- holiday ~vacation
37. Answer: True
- Key words: photos, facing away, popular tourist site, Counter-travel
- We can use the scan skill to locate the term “Counter-travel” which is in paragraph C: “Another example is Counter-travel, which requires you to take snapshots with your back turned to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben”.
- A ‘snapshot’ is a photo which is taken quickly. The Eiffel Tower and Big Ben are given as examples of ‘landmarks’ – popular and well-known tourist sites. You must take photos with your back turned to these ‘landmarks’, in other words you must be ‘facing directly opposite and facing away’ from them.
- Thus, it is clear that this statement is true.
- photos = snapshots
- popular tourist sites ~landmarks
- need = require
- The answer is TRUE.
38. Answer: True
- Key words: appreciation, need, back, local grown crops
- It is mentioned in paragraph D that:
- “…people are becoming more interested in the ecological importance of local food production” and hence
- “…related projects reinforce the need to support local growers”.
- In this context, “support” and “back” have the same meaning. “Local growers” are those producing local grown products like vegetables and other crops.
- Therefore, it can be said that people are gaining more interest in local rural products and more appreciation for the need to support local farmers.
- back = support
- The answer is TRUE.
39. Answer: False
- Key words: term, travel, film industry, first, British media
- In the last paragraph, it is clearly stated that:
- “The term was first coined in the US press…”,
- with “the term” referring to the trend of traveling to destinations related to the locations of movies.
- The word “coin” here means to invent a new word or name, so obviously “the term” (Set-jetting) was first used by the US press, NOT the British media. The statement therefore is False.
- media ~ press
- The answer is FALSE.
Question 40
40. Answer: C. creative.
- Key words: bored, reconsider, different perspective
- At the beginning of the passage, it is said that: “When you get tired of typical sight-seeing, when you have had enough of monuments, statues, and cathedrals, then think outside the box”.
- Thinking outside the box means to think in a free and creative way, not bound by limitations or restrictions. Therefore, C is the correct answer.
- Note that the other two adjectives, “unique” and “new”, are also correct when describing the term “thinking outside the box” but “creative” is the best match.
- usual activities ~ typical sight-seeing
- common tourist attractions ~ monuments, statues, cathedrals
- outside the box = creative
- The answer is C.
