It is a wonderful morning, as I write this: hot, but without being too hot.Outside my window, I can see the sunniest sky of the year reflected in a huge natural expand of water.It is the kind of sun that makes you well aware of summer's temporary nature a reminder that if I am ever to go around to book this year's holiday, time is running out.
It is now close to four years since I last took a holiday.This is because I have come to the conclusion, over the course of my life, that I am not very good at it.You might say this sounds like saying you are not very good at drinking tea or listening to music.What could possibly be difficult about the natural act of putting your working life on hold for a couple of weeks and going somewhere to do nothing?
So what is my problem? On the suce, I'm probably a bit of homebody.And I just find the pressure of being on holiday too severe: it always feels like having a gun held to my head and being forced to have fun.Somehow, packing a carefully itemized(详细列举的)list of possessions and meeting a scheduled flight has none of the excitement of suddenly deciding to take a day off and driving somewhere for the fun of it.
Thankfully, I am not alone. This summer, most of my friends have decided not to have a break. And a recent survey highlighted the downside(负面)of holidays, with the results showing that nearly two thirds of people found that the calming effects of a holiday wore off within 24 hours, as stress levels returned to normal.And this year's the Idler magazine published its hook, Awful Holidays.Here you will find a list of the five most ecologically-damaging vacations it's possible to take, along with 50 horrible holidays experiences voted for on the idler website. Over the last decade, The Idler has become well known for promoting the idea of an easy, lazy life.The leisure(休闲)industry might seem an unlikely target of its criticism, but Dan Kienan, the book ' s editor, says that he was flooded with entries from readers for his list of awful holidays.
小题1:According to the first paragraph we can know that the writer.A.has a strong desire to book a holidayB.wishes that the weather would changeC.finds it is too late to enjoy the sunshineD.realizes it's time to decide whether to go on a holiday小题2:The reason why the writer dislikes going on holidays is that.A.it usually costs too much moneyB.he is tired of preparations too much for holidaysC.it is far less enjoyable than breaks planned in advanceD.he feels embarrassed when other people are having fun but he isn't小题3:We can learn from the survey that.A.most people pretend to enjoy their holidayB.all people fail to relax while they are on holidayC.a lot of people feel that the benefits of going on holidays are limitedD.many people have made the same decision as the writer and most of his friends小题4:The writer takes the book of Awful Holidays as an example to.A.damage the reputation of the magazineB.prove the idea of living an easy, lazy life to be wrongC.indicate that his dislike of holidays is widely sharedD.focus entirely on bad personal experiences of holidays