[al:新概念英语（四）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:The Great Escape] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.49]Lesson 47 [00:03.71]The great escape [00:12.53]What is one of the features of modern camping where nationality is concerned? [00:20.21]Economy is one powerful motive for camping, [00:23.91]since after the initial outlay upon equipment, or through hiring it, [00:28.62]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. [00:41.16]The man who manoeuvres carelessly into his 20 pounds' worth of space [00:45.58]at one of Europe's myriad permanent sites may find himself bumping a Bentley. [00:51.54]More likely, Ford Escort will be hub to hub with Renault or Mercedes, [00:56.86]but rarely with bicycles made for two. [01:00.50]That the equipment of modern camping becomes yearly more sophisticated [01:04.99]is an entertaining paradox for the cynic, [01:08.27]a brighter promise for the hopeful traveller who has sworn to get away from it all. [01:14.38]It also provides--and some student sociologist might care to base his thesis upon the phenomenon--an escape of another kind. [01:24.58]The modern traveller is often a man who dislikes the Splendide and the Bellavista, [01:30.87]not because he cannot afford, or shuns their material comforts, but because he is afraid of them. [01:37.97]Affluent he may be, but he is by no means sure what to tip the doorman or the chambermaid. [01:44.85]Master in his own house he has little idea of when to say boo to a manager hotel. [01:52.27]From all such fears camping releases him. [01:55.95]Granted, a snobbery of camping itself, based upon equipment and techniques, already exists; [02:02.87]but it is of a kind that, if he meets it, he can readily understand and deal with. [02:09.09]There is no superior 'they' in the shape of managements and hotel hierarchies to darken his holiday days. [02:18.02]To such motives, yet another must be added. [02:21.96]The contemporary phenomenon of car worship is to be explained [02:26.45]not least by the sense of independence and freedom that ownership entails. [02:32.00]To this pleasure camping gives an exquisite refinement. [02:36.67]From one's own front door to home or foreign hills or sands and back again, everything is to hand. [02:44.06]Not only are the means of arriving at the holiday paradise [02:47.64]entirely within one's own command and keeping, [02:50.63]but the means of escape from holiday hell (if the beach proves too crowded, the local weather too inclement) [02:57.31]are there, outside--or, as likely, part of--the tent. [03:03.51]Idealists have objected to the practice of camping, as to the package tour, [03:08.94]that the traveller abroad thereby denies himself the opportunity of getting to know the people of the country visited. [03:16.98]Insularity and self-containment, it is argued, go hand in hand. [03:22.45]The opinion does not survive experience of a popular Continental camping place. [03:28.75]Holiday hotels tend to cater for one nationality of visitors especially, sometimes exclusively. [03:36.34]Camping sites, by contrast, are highly cosmopolitan. [03:40.85]Granted, a preponderance of Germans is a characteristic [03:44.85]that seems common to most Mediterranean sites; [03:48.24]but as yet there is no overwhelmingly specialized patronage. [03:53.09]Notices forbidding the open-air drying of clothes, [03:56.74]or the use of water points for car washing, [03:59.91]or those inviting 'our camping friends' to a dance or a boat trip [04:05.10]are printed not only in French or Italian or Spanish, but also in English, German and Dutch. [04:12.70]At meal times the odour of sauerkraut vies with that of garlic. [04:18.63]The Frenchman's breakfast coffee competes with the Englishman's bacon and eggs. [04:24.46]Whether the remarkable growth of organized camping [04:27.96]means the eventual death of the more independent kind is hard to say. [04:33.02]Municipalities naturally want to secure the campers' site fees and other custom.