The Greatest Pleasure in Travel Investment Review estimates that 260 million people worldwide are employed in some facet of the travel industry. Annual (1) of all businesses associated with travel amounts to 12 trillion dollars. If the travel industry were a country, it would be the world’s second largest economy, according to the World Bank. Close behind the USA, travel’s economy would be (2) equivalent to the combined economies of Germany, Russia, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Obviously, much travel is done for business, government, and other non-tourism reasons, but the subset of travelers called “tourists” recorded 940 million ar in 2010 according to the World Tourism Organization. I (3) for three or four of those 940 million ar each year. If asked what I love so much about travel, I used to say it was the lakes, the mountains, the (4) little villages, the sophisticated cities, and so on. It was what was in the guidebooks, the physical things that set one place off from another. Now that I have more miles behind me than I care to acknowledge, I am more (5) to say the greatest pleasure in travel is getting to know something about the people who inhabit these strange and wonderful places. Many of their customs are different from our own. They may eat differently, dress differently, and think differently about politics and religion and a hundred other things. But being fellow members of the human species, there are (6) a lot of things that are the same. I remember the first time I jokingly referred to Nathalie Margan as my French daughter when introducing her to one of our early Luberon Experience groups (普罗旺斯鲁伯隆旅行团). Nathalie is an extremely (7) young woman who is now the winemaker at the winery that’s been owned by her family for over 200 years. She responded by placing an arm around my shoulder and with a huge smile saying “and this is my American father”. We aren’t really family, we are friends, and if she really were my French daughter, I would be very proud of her and her (8) . And it’s been a great pleasure for me to watch her grow into her new role during the past six years. Talking with a Frenchman or an Italian or a German about family and work has a familiar ring. Hearing them laugh at some politician or complain about taxes and government gives me the sense that we have more in common than we have that separates us. They get up in the morning, fight through (9) traffic in Munich or Marseille as well as it does in Boston or New York. They labor at jobs that may be fulfilling or simply labor to get through the day. Family, community, health and happiness are usual topics of conversation. Ultimately, we’re all “in the same boat”, so if we all rowed together, we’d not only get “there” quicker, we’d get there together. I’ve always thought that travel provides a wonderful education, but now I’m beginning to see travel as the best way to bring different peoples and cultures together for the benefit of all. It’s the (10) form of diplomacy and international relations. A, cozy B constantly C apt D talented E exhausted F discount G amusements H revenue I account J avenue K invariably L ultimate M convenient N accomplishments O roughly