Read the four texts again and answer the following
questions by choosing the correct option.
Text A
– IS EGYPT SAFE?
The biggest danger in Egypt
may be getting hassled for business, from the ad hoc tour guides
just outside temples and tombs to hawkers offering “free”
souvenirs and camel rides beside the pyramids at Giza. Otherwise,
street crime is almost unheard of. “The riskiest thing you’ll do in Egypt
is crossing our busy streets,” says Shawki. While terrorist
activities in the Sinai Peninsula and Western Desert mean
the U.S.
Department of State currently classifies Egypt under a Level 3, or
“reconsider travel” advisory these areas aren’t close to typical
tourist attractions including in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, and
Aswan.
Millions of dollars have been
invested in road improvements, signage is inconsistent and road
congestion common. Some areas, like the Nile Valley, require
security convoys, and military checkpoints are the norm. Guided
tours and taxis are the best ways to get around; Uber also
operates in Cairo and Alexandria. Additional spots worth adding to
your itinerary include resort areas like Sharm
El-Sheik on the Red Sea for diving and snorkeling or oasis towns
such as artsy, archaeology-rich Tunis Village (about two hours by
car from Cairo).
Text B
– SCOTLAND AS THE FIRST ‘REWILDED’
NATION.
This reinvigorated landscape
is now home to 4,000 native plant and animal species,
including a rush of roe deer, mountain hare, water
vole, long-eared bat, otter, and black grouse. The hope is that
visitors will be inspired to reengage with nature in new ways at
home. For full immersion, the rewilding gateway, with exhibitions
and classrooms, will house a 40-bed complex for researchers and
volunteers.
Travelers can attempt to
galvanize their relationship with everything from pine cones to
pipits at Scotland’s most ambitious rewilding project, Cairngorms
Connect. Concentrated on a 232-square-mile subarctic plateau in
Cairngorms National Park, the largest in Britain, the
multi-landowner enterprise has embarked on a 200-year plan to
restore rivers and reseed ancient Caledonian pine forest.
Already, visitors can join ranger-led tours and rewilding
weekends to help revitalize the landscape. Next year 20 wildcats
will be introduced by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
for the first time.
Text C
– MACHU PICCHU RIVALS WITH OTHERS.
Choquequirao’s size and
remoteness mean that much of the site has never been excavated.
Nelson Sierra, who operates a high-mountain trekking company,
Ritisuyo, points to vine-covered elevations rising beyond the
central clearing. They are not small hills, but collapsed
structures reclaimed by dense vegetation. “So much work is still
needed here, but restoring it all would be a massive job,” he
says.
As trekkers approach the
ruins, the first thing they see are terraces, step-like platforms
that turn hillsides into arable land, still used by farmers in highland
Peru. Choquequirao has miles and miles of them, most still
buried. The terraces stretch from the top of the ruins nearly a
mile down toward the Apurímac River. Mabel Covarrubias, whose
family has lived in the nearby community of Marampata for more
than a century, says her ancestors used the terraces for planting
and pasturing livestock until the 1980s.
Text D
– BECOMING A DARK SKY NATION.
The untainted night skies
above Lake Tekapo (Takapō in te reo Māori) are part of the 1,686-square-mile
area in the Aoraki National Park and Mackenzie Basin, designated
by the IDSA as a dark sky reserve, just one of 20 in the world.
About 74 percent of the night skies in New Zealand’s North Island
and 93 percent in the South Island are considered “pristine or
degraded only near the horizon.” New Zealand is now on a mission
to become the second dark sky country after Niue, which was
certified in 2020. Nalayini Davies, a New Zealand astronomer
who’s also on the board of directors at the IDSA, says it’s
within reach—but will take at least three years to raise
awareness among residents, change and implement local light
ordinances, and expand the area of protected places.
The next step is raising
awareness of light pollution through education, which is where
astrotourism _______________. The Dark Sky Project is co-owned by
Ngāi Tahu, one of the largest iwi (tribes) in New Zealand. The tour company raises
awareness of protecting dark skies while incorporating science
with Māori astronomy. “Looking at the sky and connecting to it
sits at the heart of humanity. It’s one of the earliest
activities every single culture on the planet did, and the night
sky is intrinsically connected to who we are as humans,” Mātāmua
says.
In Text C, the underlined phrase ‘arable land’
means the same as: