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  3. Menorca or Majorca? It is that time of the year again. The brochures are piling up in travel agents while newspapers and magazin

Menorca or Majorca? It is that time of the year again. The brochures are piling up in travel agents while newspapers and magazin

admin2011-04-12  99
问题     Menorca or Majorca? It is that time of the year again. The brochures are piling up in travel agents while newspapers and magazines bulge with advice about where to go. But the traditional packaged holiday, a British innovation that provided many timid natives with their first experience of warm sand, is not what it was. Indeed, the industry is anxiously awaiting a High Court ruling to find out exactly what it now is.
    Two things have changed the way Britons research and book their holidays: low-cost airlines and the Internet.  Instead of buying a ready-made package consisting of a flight, hotel, car hire and assorted entertainment from a tour operator’s brochure, it is now easy to put together a trip using an online travel agent like Expedia or Travelocity, which last July bought Lastminute. com for ￡ 577 million ($1 billion), or from the proliferating websites of airlines, hotels and car-rental firms.
    This has led some to sound the death knell for high-street travel agents and tour operators. There have been upheavals and closures, but the traditional firms are starting to fight back, in part by moving more of their business online. First Choice Holidays, for instance, saw its pre-tax profit rise by 16% to ￡ 114 million ($195 million) in the year to the end of October. Although the overall number of holidays booked has fallen, the company is concentrating on more valuable long-haul and adventure trips. First Choice now sells more than half its trips directly, either via the Internet, over the telephone or from its own travel shops. It wants that to reach 75% within a few years.
    Other tour operators are showing similar hustle. MyTravel managed to cut its loss by almost half in 2005. Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays, now both German owned, are also bullish about the coming holiday season. Highstreet travel agents are having a tougher time, though, not least because many leading tour operations have cut the commissions they pay.
    Some high-street travel agents are also learning to live with the Internet, helping people book complicated trips that they have researched online, providing advice and tacking on other services. This is seen as a growth area. But if an agent puts together separate flights and hotel accommodation, is that a package, too?
    The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says it is and the agent should hold an Air Travel Organisers Licence, which provides financial guarantees to repatriate people and provide refunds. The scheme dates from the early 1970s, when some large British travel firms went bust, stranding customers on the Costas. Although such failures are less common these days, the CAA had to help out some 30,000 people last year. The Association of British Travel Agents went to the High Court in November to argue such bookings are not traditional packages and so do not require agents to acquire the costly licences. While the court decides, millions of Britons will happily click away buying  online holidays,  unaware  of the difference.  
According to the first and last paragraphs, which of the following is still in suspense?
选项 A、A legal definition.
B、A congestion charge.
C、Financial guarantee.
D、An adventure trip.
答案A
解析 这是一道细节归纳题，测试考生控制原文结构以及归纳原文信息的能力。本题的答案信息在首段尾句和尾段的倒数第一、二句。首段尾句的大意是：“实际上，该行业正在焦急等待最高法院的裁定以便准确获知传统的一揽子假日旅游现在是什么样子”。尾段倒数第一、二句的大意是：“英国旅行代理协会在11月到最高法院上诉，认为这种预定不是传统的一揽子假日旅游……。当最高法院还在决定的时候，众多的英国人快乐地通过点击方式购买网上的假日旅游……”。从上面的内容分析，目前仍然悬而未决的问题是：法院还未给出一个有关“传统假日旅游”的定义。故本题的正确选项是A“a legal definition”(一个法律上的定义)。考生在阅读时要重视把握全文整体的能力。
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