PROTECTING ANTARCTICA FROM TOURISM

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK: Do you like to get away from it all and go somewhere far away from everything? Complete this table with your partner(s). Where is the best and worst place to go for a holiday?

Destination	Good things	Bad things
Antarctica
The Moon
Middle of the Sahara
The Amazon jungle
The deepest caves

HOLIDAYS: What is the best holiday for you? Rank the vacation types below in order of which you like most. Talk to your partner(s) about your rankings.

_____  beach _____  shopping _____  hiking and camping _____  cities and culture

_____  adventure _____  working voluntarily _____  skiing _____  other (_______________)

TOURISM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘tourism’.

TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Antarctica is a good place for tourists who want to avoid the crowds.	T / F
b.	You cannot go to Antarctica without lots of big pockets.	T / F
c.	More and more people are going to Antarctica every year.	T / F
d.	A major global tour company will soon buy Antarctica at an auction.	T / F
e.	There are no more unspoiled places left on Earth.	T / F
f.	Antarctica became a country more than two hundred years ago.	T / F
g.	There is no government in Antarctica to make laws.	T / F
h.	Money from auctioning tourist places might help Antarctica’s future.	T / F

SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

1.	at hand	a.	idea
2	sprung up	b.	pure
3.	gets under way	c.	near
4.	pristine	d.	popped up
5.	limit	e.	starts
6.	wilderness	f.	achievable
7.	delicate	g.	talk to
8.	proposal	h.	great outdoors
9.	workable	i.	restrict
10.	consult	j.	fragile

PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one. combination is possible):

1.	A solution may be at	a.	tourists
2	get off the beaten	b.	environment
3.	get away from	c.	place on Earth
4.	for those with the deepest	d.	the frozen wilderness
5.	a negative effect on the pristine	e.	track
6.	there is a need to protect	f.	of tourist places
7.	Antarctica is the last unspoiled	g.	hand
8.	hordes of	h.	environmental damage
9.	auction off a fixed number	i.	it all
10.	contain the amount of	j.	pockets

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

A solution may be at __________ for holidaymakers who are finding it harder to get off the beaten __________. For those who really want to get away from it all, a new holiday destination has sprung up – Antarctica. However, this new __________, or freezing zone, might only be for those with the deepest __________ if a new policy gets under way. Tourism on Antarctica has been increasing __________ in the past twenty years, from a few thousand people in 1985 to more than 40,000 in 2007. The growing numbers are having a __________ effect on the pristine environment of the South Pole. To __________ this, researchers from Holland’s Maastricht University have come up with a possible solution: limit the number of tourists allowed to visit and auction the vacations to the __________ bidders.		negative pockets track dramatically hand highest combat hotspot
Many environmental protection agencies __________ that there is a need to protect the frozen wilderness from the damage __________ by modern tourism. Antarctica is the last unspoiled place on Earth. It has a very delicate ecosystem that could be easily __________ by hordes of tourists landing in airplanes and using skimobiles. A difficulty exists because Antarctica is not a country and therefore has no government to __________ laws or guidelines to control the number of visitors. The Maastricht University team’s proposal to auction __________ a fixed number of tourist places seems a workable solution. It would __________ the number of visitors and therefore contain the amount of environmental damage, and the money would be used to protect Antarctica’s __________. For further details, __________ your local South Pole travel agent.		future  agree limit pass created consult upset off