Camping Is the Ideal Way of Spending a Holiday

There was a time when camping was considered to be a poor way of spending a holiday: OK for boy scouts and hard-up students, but hardly the thing for sophisticated, comfort-loving adults. The adults have at last discovered that the boy scouts have really been on to a good thing all these years. If you go camping, it no longer means that you will be bitten to death by mosquitoes; have to drink brackish coffee; live on corned beef; suffocate or freeze in a sleeping bag; hump gargantuan weights on your back. Camping has become the great pursuit of motorists the world over. All the discomforts associated with it have been miraculously whisked away. For a modest outlay, you can have a comfortable, insulated tent. For a not-so-modest outlay, you can have an elaborate affair which resembles a portable bungalow, complete with three bedrooms, a living-room, a kitchen and a porch. The portable furniture is light and comfortable; the gas stove brews excellent coffee or grills a tender steak; the refrigerator keeps the beer and ice-cream cold; and as for a good night’s rest, well, you literally sleep on air. What more could you want?

No wonder the great rush is on. You see, camping has so much to offer. You enjoy absolute freedom. You have none of the headaches of advance hotel booking or driving round and round a city at midnight looking for a room. There are no cold hotel breakfasts, no surly stuff to tip. For a ludicrously small sum, you can enjoy comforts which few hotels could provide. Modern camping sites are well equipped with hot and cold running water and even shops and dance-floors! Low-cost holidays make camping an attractive proposition. But above all, you enjoy tremendous mobility. If you don’t like a place, or if it is too crowded, you can simply get up and go. Conversely, you can stay as long as you like. You’re the boss.

And then there’s the sheer fun of it – especially if you have a family. Moping around a stuffy hotel room wondering what they are going to give you for dinner is a tedious business. By comparison, it’s so exciting to arrive all a camp site, put up your tent and start getting a meal ready. You are active all the time and you are always close to nature. Imagine yourself beside some clear stream with mountains in the background. Night is falling, everything is peaceful – except for the delightful sound of chops sizzling in the pan! Camping provides you with a real change from everyday living. You get up earlier, go to bed earlier, develop a healthy appetite. You have enormous opportunity to meet people of various nationalities and to share your pleasures with them. People are so friendly when they are relaxed. How remote the strained world of hotels seems when you are camping! How cold and unfriendly the formal greetings that are exchanged each day between the residents! For a few precious weeks in a year, you really adopt a completely different way of life. And that’s the essence of true recreation and real enjoyment.

7.2.3 Прочитайте следующие высказывания. Исправьте неверные высказывания в соответствие с содержанием текста:

1). Camping was considered to be a good way of spending a holiday for sophisticated, comfort-loving adults.

2). If you go camping, it means that you will be bitten to death by mosquitoes.

3). All the comforts associated with camping have been miraculously whisked away.

4).For a not-so-modest outlay, you can have a comfortable, insulated tent.

5). You enjoy absolute freedom staying at a hotel.

6). If you go camping, you have to drive round and round a city at midnight looking for a room.

7). Modern camping sites are badly equipped with hot and cold running water, shops and dance floors.

8). Low-cost holidays make staying at a hotel an attractive proposition.

9). It’s so boring to arrive at a camp site, put up a tent and start a meal ready.

10). Camping provides you with a real change from holidays.

7.2.4 Заполните пропуски следующими словами:

Poor, mosquitoes, active, time, miraculously, insulated, not-so-modest, to tip, to provide, nature, appetite, to death, discomforts, modest, portable, ludicrously, crowded, earlier(2).

1). There was a … when camping was considered to be a … way of spending a holiday.

2). If you go camping, it no longer means that you will be bitten … by … . 3). All the … associated with camping have been … whisked away.

4). For a … outlay, you can have a comfortable … tent.

5). For a … outlay, you can have an elaborate affair which resembles a … bungalow.

6). There are no cold hotel breakfast, no surly stuff … .

7). For a … small sum, you can enjoy comforts which few hotels can … .

8). If you don’t like the peace, or if it is too … , you can simply get up and go.

9). You are all the time and you are always close to … .

10). You get up … , go to bed … , develop a hearty … .

7.2.5 Прокомментируйте следующие высказывания:

1). You enjoy absolute freedom.

2). You enjoy tremendous mobility.