Tourism: reading answers and analysis
An academic argues tourism deserves serious study, like deviance, because it reveals what 'normal' life is. Tourism assumes regulated work, happens in set places and periods, and is shaped by media-fed daydreams. Tourists gaze at the out-of-the-ordinary, Boorstin sees mass tourists living in a bubble of 'pseudo events', and professionals keep producing new sights to suit each class's taste.
Questions 28-41 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The headings (28-32) cover every paragraph except D, the example. YES / NO / NOT GIVEN (33-37) covers A to F. The key-point endings (38-41) come from B to E.
Questions 28-32
A justifies studying a 'trivial' subject, and B defines what modern tourism essentially is. C contrasts mass tourism with individual travel, E is Boorstin's artificial 'pseudo events', and F is about professionals producing sights, the nearest to tour guides. The cost and politics headings are distractors.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 28 | iii | — |
| 29 | v | — |
| 30 | iv | — |
| 31 | vii | — |
| 32 | viii | — |
Questions 33-37
The writer says tourism only seems trivial and is actually significant (NO to 'trivial'). Studying deviance is offered as a model (YES), and people linger over tourist sights in a way they don't at home (YES). Travelling overseas and tour operators cheating are never discussed.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | NO | — |
| 34 | YES | — |
| 35 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 36 | YES | — |
| 37 | NOT GIVEN | — |
Questions 38-41
Tourism presupposes the split between work and leisure. Media such as films and magazines build tourists' expectations. People view tourist sights differently from everyday places, and group tours direct attention to sights made for tourists (pseudo events).
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | D | — |
| 39 | B | — |
| 40 | F | — |
| 41 | H | — |
The questions most people get wrong
NO. 'On the face of it' tourism might seem trivial, but the writer's point is that it's more significant than commentators have thought.
iv. C sets the 'mass character' of tourist gazing against 'the individual character of travel'. The anticipation it describes is a detail, not the paragraph's main contrast.
H. Boorstin's guided groups enjoy 'inauthentic, contrived attractions', which are sights made for tourists. Local people (A) are exactly what they're isolated from.
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