Travelling at high speeds is a means, not an end.
It is also a pleasure in itself.
Air travel is exciting and presents one with an unusual view of the world.
Sea travel in a modern ship is a wonderful holiday: one never gets tired of the view of the sea.
Twentieth-century methods of travel are practical and labour-saving.
It is foolish to climb a mountain when one can get to the top by a cable-railway or in a car.
Travelling on foot is exhausting and gets you nowhere.
If one wants to see the palaces and cathedrals of Petersburg or Rome, the mosques of Samarkand or Stambul, is one supposed to go there on foot?
If we depended on our legs alone, we would be isolated from the splendour of the world.
A good long walk is a fine pastime, but why call it "travel"?
Modern means of travel extend and not replace the use of our
legs.
3. a) Travelling and holiday-making are in a way related to each other. Read the following dialogue for enlarging your topical vocabulary (A — student of English; В — teacher).
A: How d'you explain it when people.go abroad in a group, withall the arrangements taken care of by a travel agency?
You go abroad on a package tour.
What about someone who doesn't like planning, but just likes doing what he feels like at any particular moment or going where he feels like?
People like that play it off the cuff.
So, it's all right if I say I like playing it off the cuff when I'm on holiday?
Yes, perfect. That's what you plan doing, isn't it?
Well, for some of my holiday, anyway. What about when I'm on the beach and lying in the sun?
Use to sunbathe or to do some sunbathing or to soak up the sun.
And if I soak up the sun for two weeks?
Then you become tanned or you get a tan. The simile, by the
way, is as brown as a berry.
And if I just go horribly red?
As red as a lobster.
Well, I just want to get a lovely tan and be lazy.
A good verb for just being lazy and relaxing is to laze around.
So it's correct if I say I'm going to spend two weeks lazing
around on the beach?
Yes, I hope you have good weather.
So do I. Talking of weather how d'you explain it when you take a chance on having good weather?
That's the actual expression, to take a chance with the weather.
Assuming the weather's good and I have a good time, how will I feel when I get back?
Well, you can say my holiday did me the world of good or I feel as fit as a fiddle.
I see. Now what about expressions connected with places which have been discovered and those which haven't? If, for instance, I want to find somewhere well away from the usual tourist places?
Use off the beaten track. For instance there are hundreds oflovely places in Britain off the beaten track.
And if a hotel, for example, is miles from anywhere?
Just say, "I stayed at a hotel in the middle of nowhere."
My car once broke down in the middle of nowhere. What about when a place is full of tourists?
Well, if it's one of those places that's really crowded use to be swarming with. For example, "St. Paul's Cathedral was swarmingwith tourists when I was there."
A: And if all the hotels are full?
Just say the hotels were booked solid or there wasn't a bed to be had anywhere.
And if a person doesn't stay in a hotel, but sleeps in parks or railway stations, and so on?
Use to sleep rough. I remember I used to sleep rough sometimeswhen I was a student.
How about a few expressions connected with camping?
Well, I suppose most people who go camping like to get back to nature. Don't forget, by the way, that the place where you campis the camp site and not "the camping". What else? You either pitch or put up the tent. You take some camping equipment with you.
Equipment, by the way, is always singular.
What about people who take everything with them? There's an expression, isn't there?
Yes, they take everything bar the kitchen sink.
I like that one. Getting back to town, what's the expression for having a look at the famous places?
Well, use to do some sightseeing or to go sightseeing or to see the sights.
Well, thanks for all that.
(From: "BBC English by Radio and Television")
B) Make up dialogues of your own describing your travelling or holiday im-pressions. Use the vocabulary of the dialogue above. (Keep it in mind that most of it represents informal style.)
