1. Read and translate the text. Write 6 questions to the text. Social tourism

Although tourism seems to be the most natural of activities to many people around the world today, to many others it seems an almost impossible dream. This leaves large sections of society unable to benefit from tourism even in countries in the developed world. The programmes and measures carried out by both public and private sector groups in order to help those that are marginalized in this way are jointly known as social tourism. Marginalization typically affects:

1. the young, families, single-parent families, and the unemployed, who all lack the financial means to travel;

2. disabled people, who can suffer mobility, hearing, visual, or mental impairment;

3. elderly people, who may lack the necessary finance, or suffer problems of age-related disability, or a combination of both.

The origins of social tourism are often associated with the policies the Belgian government put in place after the Second World War to facilitate tourism for the young and for families. Similar policies were being implemented at the same time, however, by the government and the Catholic church in Argentina. Possibly the earliest organised attempts at organized social tourism date back to the work of the state and the trade unions in Russia, where paid holidays were a right from 1918. In 1988, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, 42 million USSR citizens benefited from these programmes.

The international non-profit association BITS (the International Bureau of Social Tourism) has worked since its foundation in 1963 to favour ‘the development of social tourism in the international framework’. To do this it coordinates the tourist activities of member states, and promotes access to leisure, holidays, and tourism for marginalized groups.

For the tourism industry itself, social tourism brings a number of benefits. In Spain, for example, the heavy seasonality of the Mediterranean resorts is compensated for by offering accommodation and other resort facilities at reduced prices in the low season. Government-backed programmes for the elderly take advantage of these off-season tariffs, and hotel employees benefit from an extended season.

The recent boom in low-cost travel is seen by some as another step towards making tourism available to everybody, but some critics argue that such cheap transport only serves to transport the social problems of richer nations to dumping grounds in the cities and on the beaches of (usually) poorer countries in the same area.

2. Choose the right word.

The Taj Mahal in Agra, northern India, and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, are two of the most beautiful 1) dwellings / monuments in the world today, and are visited by thousands of people every year. The Taj Mahal is relatively new construction 2) compared / opposed to the Parthenon. The Taj Mahal was built in 1631, 3) whereas / still the Parthenon dates back to 447 BC. Another difference between the two is the reason they were built. The Taj Mahal was built by the emperor Shah-Jahan in 4) memory / commemoration of his favourite wife, while the Parthenon is actually a 5) temple / church dedicated to the goddess Athena, where the ancient Greeks would come tp worship. One similarity between the two buildings is that they both consist entirely 6) from / of marble.