Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. personalized
    • ex. On Nina’s birthday, I gave her a personalized necklace with her name on it.
  2. cope with (something)
    • ex. The city is learning to cope with air pollution by planting more trees.
  3. archaeological
    • ex. The archaeological park shows how people lived in ancient times.
  4. a measure
    • ex. The government is planning measures to help people who lost their jobs.
  5. sustainable
    • ex. To make tourism sustainable, tourists are only allowed to walk or ride bikes on the island instead of using cars.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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The Pompeii Archaeological Park is limiting the number of visitors per day. The park also introduced personalized tickets in November. This is to cope with the problem of having too many tourists and to protect the World Heritage Site. The park made this change after a busy summer when over 4 million people visited the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

According to the park’s director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the number of visitors each day is already between 15,000 to 20,000. Personalized tickets to the park now have visitors’ full names, and only 20,000 tickets are available each day. In addition, there are different time slots when visitors can come to control the crowds, especially during busy seasons.

As a part of the “Greater Pompeii” project, the management also wants tourists to visit other nearby archaeological places. They now offer a free ride to places, like Stabia and Boscoreale. Zuchtriegel explained that these measures are to promote a slow and sustainable type of tourism. At the same time, they hope to show visitors other cultural spots around Pompeii to improve their experience.

This material was based on an article by The Associated Press.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Sustainable Tourism

  • Zuchtriegel explained that the management wants to promote a slow and sustainable type of tourism. What do you think “slow and sustainable” means in tourism? Discuss.
  • What are some possible benefits of sustainable tourism for the local community? Discuss.
  • As a tourist, what are your preferences when visiting a tourist spot (ex. the place is crowded with tourists, the place has few visitors)? Discuss.

Archaeological Places

  • What do you think is interesting about visiting archaeological places like Pompeii? Discuss.
  • Why is it important to protect historical and archaeological places? Discuss.
  • Imagine you have a foreign friend who wants to visit an archaeological place in your country. What place would you suggest? Discuss.