D. Read the text about airline movie policy from Edward-Jones’s novel «Air Babylon».
| I |
f you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears. If you wish to forget your fears – watch a movie during the flight.
As we are not the most modern and up-to-date of airlines, we sadly have the old tape system with the standard Hollywood-issue type of movies on offer. Some of the more luxurious airlines now offer fourteen-inch personal monitors, DVDs and AVOD (audio visual on demand), which means that you can choose your own film and pause if you fancy a chat, for a meal-break or a quick trip to the toilet; we, on the other hand, have Hugh Grant film or Shrek 2 for our delight and delectation. Both are suitably old and both are suitably banal.
But then, that is to be expected. Airlines are not allowed to show any Hollywood movies until three months after they have premiered in the US. The film packages on offer to the passenger vary from month to month, according to the time of the year. During the school holidays, for example, we show more child-friendly material. The art-house staff, although rare, does get shown during more low-season flights. Foreign films don’t translate too well as there isn’t much room for subtleties on small screens, but big hitters like Amelie do get a look-in. On the whole, the films chosen by those people who specialize in ordering in-flight entertainment for airlines are supposed to reflect the airline’s image. BA would like to think that their in-flight entertainment is ‘respectable, strong and intelligent’; Virgin, to go with their double-beds-in-upper-class image, might well have a slightly racier selection.
There are some films, however, that would never make it on to a plane. Anything that has too much sex and violence, for a start. Nudity and gambling are banned from Arab flights, and the film Alive, about a plane crash in South America where the survivors are reduced to eating one another, has never been shown anywhere. Neither, these days, are films with scenes showing aircraft in ‘extreme or disastrous situations’. So you can see why it’s so much easier for us to plump for a nice, simple, safe Hugh Grant movie.
E. Answer the questions:
1) Have you ever flown with a foreign airline? Did you watch movies on board?
2) What system of film demonstration does the company have? Why?
3) Describe systems the most luxurious airlines offer for their passengers.
4) When are the airlines allowed to show Hollywood movies on board?
|
|
|
5) According to what do the film packages on board vary?
6) Do the art-house and foreign films get shown on board? Why?
7) How are the film packages and airlines’ image connected?
8) What film would never make it on a plane?
9) Arab airlines’ film package is different from others, isn’t it? How?
10) Why the film Alive has never been shown on any plane?
F. Travel, trip or journey? Choose the best variant. Remember that ‘travel’ is an uncountable noun and you cannot say ‘a travel’. ‘A journey’ is when you travel long distance from one place to another usually by land, ‘a trip’ is when you go somewhere for a short time and come back again.
a) Foreign travel / trip / journeynever really appealed to him until he retired.
b) The whole family went on a journey / trip / travel to Disneyland.
c) Our parents wished us a safe journey / travel / trip and we drove away.
d) Our agency deals mostly with business trip / travel / journey.
e) I faced the prospect of a 12-hour bus journey / trip / travel home.
f) The tour included a short travel / trip / journey to the museum.
g) It’s a seven-hour railway trip / journey / travel to Boston from here.
h) Cheap air trip / travel / journey is one of the privileges of airline work.
i) Flying still ranks among the safest forms of journey / travel / trip.
j) We’re planning a travel / trip / journey to the zoo on my day off.
G. Look at the highlighted words from the text. What part of speech are they? Complete the word families:
Дата добавления: 2019-09-08; просмотров: 1367; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!