Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 31 to 35.
Travel at the North and South Poles has become an expensive leisure activity, suitable for tourists of all ages. The poles may be inhospitable places, but they are seeing increasing numbers of visitors. Annual figures for the Arctic, where tourism has existed since the 19th century, have increased from about a million in the early 1990s to more than 1.5 million today. This is partly because of the lengthening summer season brought about by climate change.
The global economic downturn may have affected the annual 20.6 percent rate of increase in visitors to the Antarctic - last season saw a drop of 17 percent to 38,200 - but there has been a 760 percent rise in land-based tourism there since 1997. More people than ever are landing at fragile sites, with light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles increasingly used for greater access.
Although polar tourism is widely accepted, there have been few regulations up until recently. At the meeting of the Antarctic Treaty in Baltimore, the 28 member nations adopted proposals for limits to tourist numbers. These included safety codes for tourist vessels in Antarctic waters, and improved environmental protection for the continent. They agreed to prevent ships with more than 500 passengers from landing in Antarctica, as well as limit the number of passengers going ashore to a maximum of 100 at any one time, with a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists.
These days, rarely a week passes without a negative headline in the newspapers. The suffering polar bear has become a symbol of a warming world, its plight a warning that the clock is ticking. It would seem that this ticking clock is a small but growing factor for some tourists. ‘There’s an element of “do it now”,’ acknowledges Prisca Campbell, Marketing director of Quark Expeditions, which takes 7,000 people to the poles annually. Leaving the trip until later, it seems, may mean leaving it too late.
(Adapted from Complete IELTS by Guy Brook-Hart and Vanessa Jakeman)
Question 31. Which could be the best title for the passage?
A. Poles apart – How the world is different today.
B. Tourism is changing as we know it.
C. Here today, gone tomorrow.
D. Do it now - before it’s too late.
Question 32. The word ‘inhospitable’ in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. inhabitable B. unwelcoming C. generous D. negative
Question 33. The word ‘they’ in paragraph 3 refers to _______.
A. member nations B. tourist vessels C. proposals D. passengers
Question 34. According to the passage, what does Prisca Campbell say about the trend of Arctic tourism?
A. Tourists are excited about the prospect of Arctic tourism more than they were in the past.
B. Tourists have very little concern about the endangered polar bears suffering potential extinction.
C. Tourists believe that opportunities to visit the Arctic may soon become scarce.
D. Tourists believe that they are living in a great era for Arctic exploration.
Question 35. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?
A. The number of tourists to the Arctic circle has more than doubled since the 1990’s.
B. Climate change has played no part in accelerating the growth of tourism in Antarctica.
C. Various restrictions have been introduced recently to limit the growing polar tourist numbers.
D. The polar bears which are still alive today face an enormous amount of suffering at the hands of tourists.
