1    Everybody loves vacations! People pay every year for flights, hotels, tours, nice meals, trinkets and tourist traps. They get pick-pocketed, scammed and robbed, sometimes without even noticing. Often in Third-World countries vacationers will go only to a resort of some kind and stay there; they are not exposed to the reality of the world they are visiting. The only locals they see are those who work for the resorts or in restaurants. They meet other traveling tourists from various nations who are a great deal like themselves. They hang out by the pool getting crispy under the sun or on the crowded beaches.

2    All resorts look very much alike whether they are in   Bali or Negril. This is because many are owned by a select group of corporations who have bought up land with help from politicians in order to set up, say, a Club Med on some previously untouched beach. What is the point of spending all that time and effort to pay for a man-made illusion? Doesn’t the idea of traveling to experience a new land, culture and environment sound better? There is much more to be gained by taking the back roads, supporting local establishments, veering from the mainstream, and looking behind the façade of the resorts.

3    Traveling in a way that makes you feel integrated into your new surroundings opens the door to greater cultural awareness. In other words, it’s important to see and experience a world outside of our own, to learn that it’s not like at home everywhere, and to understand the value of other cultures.

4    America is such an expansive country, with long distances between most state lines, let alone national borders, that many people never travel abroad. In comparison, Europe is far more diverse when it comes to the number of different countries in an area that is smaller than the U.S. Most Europeans speak more than two languages and have traveled to their neighboring countries. While regional and cultural differences exist, Europeans seem to have a much stronger sense of community across borders.

5    The forces behind commercialized tourism have created the misconception that traveling has to be expensive. But that depends on a person’s choice of travel style. There is a whole world apart from the resort towns and guided tourism that caters to middle- or upper-class people. Once you experience this real world, you’ll never go back to the “     package deals.”

6    Why go somewhere to be amongst people that are just like you? There is nothing new to be gained there. I encourage all those who have the inkling to travel and see the real world to just go out and do it.

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1. Third-World countries: 

The term is often used to describe the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Many poorer nations adopt the term to describe themselves. 

第三世界国家通常指亚洲、非洲、拉丁美洲的发展中国家。许多较穷的国家也自称第三世界国家。

2. package deal:

 A group of services related to travel or vacations that are sold together for one price. 一揽子交易；整批交易；成套交易。课文中指“随团旅游，旅游套餐”。又如：

I want a package deal including airfare and hotel. 

我需要一条龙服务，包括机票和住宿。

The Commission attempted to bring all three proposals into one package deal.

该委员会试图把这三项提议放进一笔一揽子交易里面去。