Listening

Understanding Spoken English 2004 “Away from Home” p.4

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1. Read the extract below and then comment upon this quotation: “I should like to spend the whole of my time in travelling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home.” (William Hazlitt)

Adventure is necessary to us all. It keeps us from growing stale and old; it stimulates our imagination. It gives us that movement and change which are necessary to our well-being.

One of the objects of travel is to go in search of beauty. The beauty spots of the world are magnets which draw pilgrims year after year. Yet even more valuable to the traveller is the knowledge which he gets of his fellow men by going among people of different enthusiasms. It is the story of the stay-at-home who is always ready to call someone else “queer” because his ways are a little different; the much travelled man has sympathy to be able to understand another point of view than his own. Frequent travel to other countries by all sorts and conditions of men and women would be the best possible insurance against war.

And then there is for the traveller the great joy of coming home again. He who never leaves his home sees all its imperfection; but the voyager, when his lust for sew Scenes is satiated, turns his thoughts towards home with longing and affection. However humble his home may be, it contains all the things with which he is most familiar. He loves them, and being parted for a little while from them increases his desire for them. So the traveller, besides the delight of travel, has the additional satisfaction of a fuller appreciation of his home.

(From “Fifty Model Essays” by Joyce Miller)

2. Comment upon the following quotation:

“When we are young we travel to see the world, afterwards to make sure it is still here.”

(Cyril Connoly)

III reading

1. 1). Read the passage from “Along the Road” by Aldous Huxley. Learn the new vocabulary.

2). Do you believe that some people really travel out of snobbery? Have you met such people? What do you think of them?

WHY NOT STAY AT HOME?

Some people travel on business, some in search of health. But it is neither the sickly, nor the men of affairs who fill the Grand Hotels and the pockets of their proprietors. It is those who travel “for pleasure”, as the phrase goes.

And do they find their happiness?

I think not, for tourists are, in the main, a very gloomy-looking tribe. Only when they can band together and pretend, for a brief hour, that they are at home, do the majority of tourists abroad look really happy. One wonders why they come abroad.

The fact is that few travellers really like travelling. If they go to the trouble and expense of travelling, it is not so much from curiosity, for fun, or because they like to see things beautiful and strange, as out of a kind of snobbery. People travel for the same reason as they collect works of art: because the best people do it. To have been to certain spots on the earth's surface is socially correct; and having been there, one is superior to those who have not. Moreover, travelling gives one something to talk about when one gets home. The subjects of conversation are not so numerous that one can neglect an opportunity of adding to one’s store.

NOTES

expense, n

1. spending (of money, time, energy, etc.); cost,

e.g. I want the best you can supply, you need spare no expenses.

at the expense of (= at the cost of)

e.g. He has become a brilliant scholar but only at the expense of his health.

2. (usu. pl) money used or needed

e.g. travelling expenses; Illness, holidays and other expenses reduced his bank balance to almost nothing.

expensive, a

causing expense; costing a great deal

expensively, adv

neglect, v

1. pay no attention to; give no or not enough care to

e.g. neglect one’s studies/ children/ health

2. omit or fail (to do sth)

e.g. He neglected to say “Thank you”.

neglect, n

neglecting or being neglected

e.g. neglect of duty; the garden was in a state of neglect

neglectful, a

in the habit of neglecting things

e.g. neglectful of his appearance

pretend, v

1. make oneself appear (to be (doing) sth), either in play or to deceive others

e.g.. pretend to be asleep; They pretended not to see us.

2. say falsely that one has (as an excuse or reason, or to avoid danger, difficulty, etc.)

e.g. pretend sickness

pretence, (AmE also pretense), n

1. pretending

e.g. under the pretence of friendship; It's all pretence.

2. pretext or excuse; false claim or reason

false pretenses

e.g. get money by/ on/ under false pretenses

pretender, n

person who has a claim (to a throne, etc.) that not everyone agrees to

pretension, n

1. (often pl) (statement of a) claim

e.g. He makes no pretensions to expert knowledge of the subject.

2. being pretentious

e.g. Pretension is his worst fault.

pretentious, a

claiming (without justification) great merit or importance

e.g. a pretentious student/ speech

snob, n

1. (derog) person who pays too much attention to social class, and dislikes or keeps away from people of a lower class

snob appeal (= power to attract the interest of snobs)

2. person who is too proud of having special knowledge or judgement, and thinks that sth liked by many people is no good

e.g. a music snob who only likes Mozart. It's not really a very good make of car, but it does have a certain snob value (= is greatly admired by a particular set of people)

snobbery, n

the behaviour of snobs

snobbish, a (also snobby, a)

typical of a snob, esp. in being too proud about one’s social position

snobbishness, n

snobbishly, adv