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  3. The South Pole Travels of Stability It is not quite Benidorm yet, but Antarctica has become an increasingly popular destinat

The South Pole Travels of Stability It is not quite Benidorm yet, but Antarctica has become an increasingly popular destinat

admin2013-04-03  71
问题                     The South Pole Travels of Stability
    It is not quite Benidorm yet, but Antarctica has become an increasingly popular destination for the more adventurous tourist. In this year’s southern hemisphere summer season, running from November to March, as many as 39, 000 visitors are expected to make the trip from Tierra del Fuego, the nearest jumping-off point to the world’s emptiest continent. That amounts to a fourfold increase in a decade. Officials in both Chile and Argentina are getting increasingly worried about the risk of a fatal accident—"a new Titanic" as one Chilean naval officer puts it.
    Nobody has died so far, but there have been some near-collisions. In 2007 more than 150 people were evacuated when their ship, the Explorer, sank after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. They were "very lucky with the weather", says Chile’s deputy minister for the navy,Carolina Echeverrla. That was one of only two accidents last season, with a similar number the previous year and one so far this season.
    Help is usually not far away. Although cruise ships plan their route so as to keep out of each other’s sight, there are generally 20 to 30 boats heading to or from the Antarctic Peninsula on anyone day. Even so, surviving an accident is something of a lottery. It depends partly on the weather: Not all the ships have the covered lifeboats recommended for polar conditions. Small boats, like the Explorer, have a better chance of being able to transfer their passengers if they get into difficulties. But some cruise ships visiting Antarctica now carry almost 3,000 passengers—more than ten times the limit that offers a reasonable chance of timely rescue, according to Chile’s navy.
    The navy is annoyed about the cost of patrols, rescue operations and cleaning up fuel spills. It wants legally binding rules, backed by penalties, for Antarctic cruise ships. But that is hard to achieve. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty no country can exercise sovereignty over any part of the continent and its waters are international. Some rules on tourism have been written under the treaty: cruise ships carrying over 500 passengers cannot make landings, for example. But these are not legally enforceable. Neither will be rules being debated by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization on safety requirements.
    Some tour operators say they would welcome tighter regulation and higher safety standards. Others insist that safety is already adequate. The world recession may place a temporary brake on the trade. But Chilean officials reckon that the trend to big cruise ships, with their cheaper fares, will resume once recovery comes. If so, a tragedy may be only a matter of time.
We learn from the first paragraph that Antarctica has______.
选项 A、become a Benidorm-like tourist destination
B、witnessed more fatal accidents than before
C、attracted more bold guests than before
D、experienced a new Titanic period
答案C
解析 事实细节题。该段首句指出，南极洲已经越来越受具有冒险精神的旅游者的欢迎，因此[C]项为正确答案。首句还提到“虽然南极洲还赶不上西班牙旅游胜地贝尼多姆，但……”，由此可知[A]项错误；末句仅提到政府官员对致命事故的日益担忧，故[B]项“目击了比以前更多的事故”属无中生有，错误；[D]项把对未来的担忧说成是事实，亦可排除。
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