[al:新概念英语（四）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（美音）] [ti:The Great Escape] [by:更多学习内容，请到yingyu.chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.08]Lesson 47 [00:02.83]The great escape [00:10.41]What is one of the features of modern camping where nationality is concerned? [00:18.10]Economy is one powerful motive for camping, [00:22.33]since after the initial outlay upon equipment, or through hiring it, the total expense can be far less than the cost of hotels. [00:34.23]But, contrary to a popular assumption, it is far from being the only one, or even the greatest. [00:44.23]The man who manoeuvres carelessly into his 20 pounds' worth of space at one of Europe's myriad permanent sites may find himself bumping a Bentley. [00:55.54]More likely, Ford Escort will be hub to hub with Renault or Mercedes, but rarely with bicycles made for two. [01:06.19]That the equipment of modern camping becomes yearly more sophisticated is an entertaining paradox for the cynic, [01:15.25]a brighter promise for the hopeful traveller who has sworn to get away from it all. [01:21.14]It also provides--and some student sociologist might care to base his thesis upon the phenomenon--an escape of another kind. [01:33.12]The modern traveller is often a man who dislikes the Splendide and the Bellavista, [01:39.19]not because he cannot afford, or shuns their material comforts, but because he is afraid of them. [01:47.22]Affluent he may be, but he is by no means sure what to tip the doorman or the chambermaid. [01:55.49]Master in his own house he has little idea of when to say boo to a manager hotel. [02:04.49]From all such fears camping releases him. [02:08.23]Granted, a snobbery of camping itself, based upon equipment and techniques, already exists; [02:16.19]but it is of a kind that, if he meets it, he can readily understand and deal with. [02:22.93]There is no superior 'they' in the shape of managements and hotel hierarchies to darken his holiday days. [02:32.21]To such motives, yet another must be added. [02:36.45]The contemporary phenomenon of car worship is to be explained not least by the sense of independence and freedom that ownership entails. [02:47.35]To this pleasure camping gives an exquisite refinement. [02:52.24]From one's own front door to home or foreign hills or sands and back again, everything is to hand. [03:01.50]Not only are the means of arriving at the holiday paradise entirely within one's own command and keeping, [03:09.13]but the means of escape from holiday hell (if the beach proves too crowded, the local weather too inclement) [03:17.68]are there, outside--or, as likely, part of--the tent. [03:25.20]Idealists have objected to the practice of camping, as to the package tour, [03:31.06]that the traveller abroad thereby denies himself the opportunity of getting to know the people of the country visited. [03:38.46]Insularity and self-containment, it is argued, go hand in hand. [03:44.87]The opinion does not survive experience of a popular Continental camping place. [03:50.49]Holiday hotels tend to cater for one nationality of visitors especially, sometimes exclusively. [03:59.77]Camping sites, by contrast, are highly cosmopolitan. [04:04.55]Granted, a preponderance of Germans is a characteristic that seems common to most Mediterranean sites; [04:12.51]but as yet there is no overwhelmingly specialized patronage. [04:18.28]Notices forbidding the open-air drying of clothes, [04:21.77]or the use of water points for car washing, [04:25.30]or those inviting 'our camping friends' to a dance or a boat trip are printed not only in French or Italian or Spanish, but also in English, German and Dutch. [04:37.99]At meal times the odour of sauerkraut vies with that of garlic. [04:43.13]The Frenchman's breakfast coffee competes with the Englishman's bacon and eggs. [04:49.73]Whether the remarkable growth of organized camping means the eventual death of the more independent kind is hard to say. [04:58.15]Municipalities naturally want to secure the campers' site fees and other custom. [05:04.09]Police are wary of itinerants who cannot be traced to a recognized camp boundary or to four walls.