Eco tourism projects from around the globe

Types of houses in Britain.

The given article focuses on the types of houses and flats in Britain. At the beginning he claims that the size of dwellings tends to be measured by the number of bedrooms rather than the area in square meters. As well as preferring houses to flats, for many people a garden is also important consideration.

Author writes that the overwhelming majority of new houses are two-storey houses, built either in rows (terraced houses), in pairs (semi-detached houses), or singly (detached houses), with a small enclosed garden at the front and the back. In recent years a considerably higher proportion of new housing has been in the form of flats, and blocks of flats have now become a common feature of the urban scene.

Author states that an increasing number of people, chiefly elderly persons and childless couples, prefer to live in bungalows. Accommodation known as “sheltered” housing provides homes (with some degree of assistance) for elderly and disabled people.

In the main part, author says, that families prefer to live in houses rather than a flats ( apartments). 78 % of householders occupy a whole house, 21 % live in shared accommodation. The remainder lives in mobile homes (caravans) or in accommodation rented with business premises – for example, rooms over a shop. Wealthy people can always find the house or flat in a most expensive district. For some people, the address of their property is important because it shows they are wealthy.

In addition to that, some people have two homes, a flat in town and a cottage in the country. A “cottage” is not necessarily small – it may be quite a large country house.

Author explains that most houses in Britain are still built with bricks, but house-building is much more mechanized than it used to be. Contemporary bricklayers, plasterers, glaziers, electricians and plumbers use modern techniques, and work with new kind of materials and standardized components. The unit-constructions of blocks of flats, using large prefabricated concrete panels of room-units, is not yet widespread in Britain, however. The outer walls of most houses and bungalows and even many blocks of flats are built of brick; stone and wood are used chiefly for decorative purposes.

The final section is about details of home decorations. Some flats and the great majority of houses used to be heated wholly or partly by means of open fireplaces. But recently central heating has become more common.

Modern British houses rarely have attics, cellars or balconies, and double glazing is also a rarity.

As almost every house has a small garden, window-boxes and indoor plants are less common than in some other countries. The front-garden, which is often surrounded by well-trimmed hedges, usually consists of a smooth green lawn surrounded by neat flower-beds. The back garden may be similar, or may be used for growing vegetables. In either case it will almost certainly contain a wooden shed in which tools, bicycles and all sorts of odds and ends are kept.

 

Types of houses in USA.

The given article focuses on Types of houses in USA. American homes are some of the largest in some of the world. Many have a garage for one or two cars, a big, modern kitchen, a living room, and a playroom for the children. Upstairs there are two bathrooms and three or four bedrooms. Some families have two homes. They may have one house or apartment in the city or suburbs where they live and work and another home near the sea or in the mountains where they spend weekends and vacations.

In the first part ,author stresses that 70% of Americans buy the house they live in. The rest rent their home from a landlord. The poorest people live in “public housing” apartments. Americans who live in towns and cities often move. A family stays in one house for four or five years, and then they move again. Some people move because they have found a new job. Other people move because they want a bigger or a smaller home. In American suburbs, families come and go all the time. Every year 20% of Americans move house.

Taking into account Americans are always trying to make their homes better. They take a lot of time to buy furniture and make their homes beautiful. They work hard on their homes in the evenings and on weekends. Many young Americans do not live with their families, but in apartment blocks or residential areas where everyone is more or less of the same age. Young people often more away from home when they live school into rented apartments or small, one-room “studio” apartments. They do their own cooking and cleaning, and go to the family home perhaps for the weekend. Old people seldom live with their grown-up children. Many live in old people’s homes. Some live in special towns built for old people, where there are no young children and the atmosphere is quiet.

In the next part, author writes, that American houses vary a lot depending on the region they are in. Native Americans’ homes were tall, round tents called “tepees”. They stood in a circle, each covered with buffalo skins sewn together. Many tepees had beautiful religious paintings on them showing animals and the sun, the moon and the stars. There was a fireplace inside and a hole in the roof for the smoke to go out. Natives in the hot, dry Southwest built villages called “pueblos” in high places on rocky cliffs. Pueblo houses were made of stone, wood and “adobe” – dry mud bricks. You can see adobe houses in many places in the Southwest, but there are different from the old ones, because original pueblo houses didn’t have either doors or windows not to let enemies come in. People climbed up ladders onto the roofs and then down inside the houses through holes made in the roofs.

In the Northest you will find a lot of old historical houses of 55 red-colored brick or white-painted wood, with long windows in the “colonial” style.

California is famous for its one-story bungalows with a yard around it. In the centre of it there is an open place, or “patio”, with buildings on the sides. People work, cook, sunbathe, talk to their friends on the patio – actually, live half inside and half outside. Swimming pools can be found in many of them. People copy the idea of patio all over the country, but not everyone can afford their own swimming pool in their own backyard.

Farmers in the South and Midwest are famous for large farmhouses – “ranches”. They are not wooden any more. New ranches have concrete walls, big glass windows and air conditioning to keep them cool.

The older cities ( Boston, New York, San Francisco) have a lot of old “brownstone” apartment houses in inner cities. American suburban houses have large backyards and no fences between the houses, only one floor in “ranch” or “bungalow” style and no stairs. There are especially good to start a family and to raise children, to make friends with people in the neighborhood.

6)

Eco tourism projects from around the globe.

A) Sinking a warship

A group in England is planning to sink a retired warship in order to use it as an artificial diving reef. They plan to sink the ship off the Cornish coast and hope the project will generate ten million pounds a year for the local economy by attracting diving enthusiasts. It is believed that the reef will encourage eco-tourism through diving, as well as help protect fish stock and marine life in general. The sunken ship would attract divers from across the Europe and there will be facilities for able-bodied and disabled divers. The group is appealing to similar organizations in the hope that they will help them, not only financially but also by sharing their knowledge on such projects. The scheme would be the first for Britain. Other countries including America and Australia already have artificial reefs created from redundant ships, and the response from diving enthusiasts has so far proved amazing.

B) Moving up-market

Goa’s Anjuna beach is the place which symbolizes the carefree hippie lifestyle. It is a place where low budget tourists go when they have run out of money. At the weekly market, travelers try to sell their cameras, cassettes, guitars and even their clothes. However, it may soon all be over because the local authorities have announced that they want to discourage tourists who visit the area on shoestring budgets. Local residents do not entirely agree. Although they would like to see better-off tourists in Goa, they do not think it to wise to turn away the budgets travellers. Tourist organizations want to concentrate on eco-tourism and plan to organize jungle safaris because they believe such projects will attract up-market travellers. Both the residents and the travel organizations feel that is not sensible to snub the tourists they already have in an attempt to attract wealthier visitors.

C) Inca cable car

The Inca people built Machu Picchu high up in the mountains because the area was so remote. Now these pristine mountains will be changed forever by Swiss engineering. A Swiss company plans to build a cable car to lift visitors 500m up into the mountains. This means that travellers will no longer have to trek for days along the Inca Trail to sample the magic of Machu Picchu. Opponents to the scheme argue that the cable car will be visible from the site’s famous Sun Temple. There is also a wider concern that big business tourism will benefit from the scheme, while local inhabitants who earn little money from tourism will not. UNESCO would like to see the development of eco-tourism rather than mass tourism in the area. The Peruvian government on the other hand supports the cable car scheme, saying that it will allow it to go ahead, and it will see that the character of Machu Picchu is preserved.