The Operation of International Airlines
International airlines have rediscovered the business traveler, the man or woman who regularly jets from country to country as part of the job. This does not necessarily mean that airlines ever abandoned their business travelers. Instead, companies like Lufthansa and Swissair 1 would right argue that they have always catered best for the executive class passengers. But many airlines could be accused of concentrating too heavily in the recent past on attracting passengers by volume, often at the expense of the regular traveler. Too often, they have seemed geared for quantity rather than quality.
Operating a major airline is essentially a matter of finding the right mix of passengers. The airlines need to fill up the back end of their wide-bodied jets with low fare passengers, without forgetting that the front end should be filled with people who pay substantially more for their tickets.
It is no coincidence that the two major airline bankruptcies were among the companies specializing in cheap flights. But low fares require consistently full aircraft to make flights economically viable, and in the recent recession the volume of traffic has not grown. Equally the large number of airlines jostling for the available passengers has created a huge excess of capacity. The net result of excess capacity and cut-throat competition driving down fares had been to push some airlines into collapse and leave many others hovering on the brink 2.
Against this grim background, it is no surprise that airlines are turning increasingly towards the business travelers to improve their rates of return, They have invested much time and effort to establish exactly what the executive demands for sitting apart from the tourists.
High on the list of priorities is punctuality; an executive"s time is money. In-flight service is another area where the airlines are jostling for the executive"s attention. The free drinks and headsets and better food are all part of the lure.
Another development has been the accent of seating arrangements. Regular travelers have become well versed in the debate about seat pitch--the amount of room between each passenger. And first-class passengers are now offered sleeperette seats, which, for long journeys, make it possible to snatch a proper night"s sleep. Sleeperettes have proved so popular that they will soon become universal in the front end of most aircraft.
The airlines are also trying to improve things on the ground. Executive lounges are commonplace and intended to make the inevitable waiting between flights a little more bearable. Luggage handling is being improved. Regrettably, there is little the airlines can do to speed up the boring immigration and Customs process, which manages to upset and frustrate passengers of all classes in every continent.
Although it is the airlines" intention to attract executive passengers from their rivals, the airlines themselves would nonetheless like to change one bad habit of this kind of traveler--the expensive habit of booking a flight and then failing to turn up. The practice is particularly widespread in Europe, where businessmen frequently book return journeys home one on several flights.
词汇:
coincidence [kəu"insidəns] n. 巧合
jostle ["dӡɔsl] v. 争抢
cut-throat ["kʌtθrəʊt] adj. 你死我活的
headset ["hedset] 头戴式耳机
accent ["æksənt] n. 强调,重视
versed [və:st] adj.熟练的,精通的
pitch [pit∫] n. 空间,位置
sleeperette [͵sli:pə"ret] n. 可卧座位
注释:
1.Lufthansa and Swissair:(德国)汉莎航空公司和瑞士航空公司
2-…push some airlines into collapse and leave many others hovering on the brink.……迫使一些航空公司倒闭,把许多别的公司推到倒闭的边缘。
Which of the following is a bad habit of the executive passengers that frustrates the airlines?
A:They do not book their seats in advance B:They do not sit on the seats they are supposed to take C:They do not travel on the flight they have booked D:They do not pay in advance for the seats they book
We should () a good study habit of taking notes in class.
A:develop B:improve C:make D:remain
In the nineteenth century Charles Dickens, the English novelist, wrote excitedly (1) a stage-coach, pulled along by a team of horses, that could (2) more than twenty miles of road within sixty minutes. To us in the twentieth century in (3) man is able to move and to communicate with such rapidity, the (4) of the stage-coach seems no speed at all. Aeroplanes fly many hundreds of miles in an hour; express trains (5) four times the speed of the stage-coach; and even without (6) we can, by wireless or telegraph, communicate within seconds with people on (7) side of the’ globe. The (8) of these increased speeds are numerous. Business (9) say, from Europe to America or to the Far East can save much time. (10) a journey that would once have taken weeks, it (11) now, by air, only twenty-four hours. Fruit, vegetables and other goods that would decay (12) a long, slow journey can now be safely sent to far-distant places. Members of one family (13) each other by vast distances can have conversations with each other by telephone (14)if they were all sitting in the same room.
Not ail the effects of speed, however, are (15) People who are in the habit of using a motor car (16) they want to move half a mile become physically lazy and lose the (17) of enjoying a vigorous walk. Those who travel through a country at eighty miles a hour do not see much of the life of that country, of its people and animals and plants, as they flash (18) They become so anxious about moving quickly from one place to another that they are (19) able to relax and enjoy a (20) journey.
A:speed B:journey C:habit D:power
Smoking, ______ is a bad habit, is, however, popular.
A:that B:which C:it D:though
Thousands of years ago, ten of our very distant ancestors were hungry. They went out and picked berries or dug up roots to eat. Four of them chose poisonous food and died. The remaining six noticed that their food was safe to eat. They told their children, who, in turn, passed the message on to their descendants. In this way, habit became a vital factor in the survival of mankind: if you ate the right plant, you lived; if you wanted to make your own experiments, you would probably die.
The importance of habit on the survival of the human species is an interesting matter. Even today, most of us hesitate when we are invited to eat a new type of food or drink something we have not tasted before. Even if the food or drink is offered by a friend, we are usually not at all anxious to experiment and accept the offer.
When you get up tomorrow morning, notice which shoe or sock you put on first. Then notice which one you put on first on other days. You may discover that you tend to put on one shoe or sock first every day, and that if you are right-handed, you usually deal with your left shoe or sock first. If you try to change this habit, you may find it uncomfortable or annoying, and you will soon return to your old habit.
When it comes to other matters, we often follow a fixed pattern. We sleep in one or two favorite ways. We often follow familiar routes even when they are not the shortest or best. We often wear a watch on the same wrist even when there is no real reason for doing so. In hundreds of other ways, we show that we are creatures of habit, following fixed patterns of behavior. This characteristic can help us to survive but it can be a barrier to progress too. We must be alert and not let a beneficial factor become a harmful one.
A:Habit—A Barrier to Progress B:The Survival of Mankind C:Various Patterns of Human Behavior D:We Are Creatures of Habit
Thousands of years ago, ten of our very distant ancestors were hungry. They went out and picked berries or dug up roots to eat. Four of them chose poisonous food and died. The remaining six noticed that their food was safe to eat. They told their children, who, in turn, passed the message on to their descendants. In this way, habit became a vital factor in the survival of mankind: if you ate the right plant, you lived; if you wanted to make your own experiments, you would probably die.
The importance of habit on the survival of the human species is an interesting matter. Even today, most of us hesitate when we are invited to eat a new type of food or drink something we have not tasted before. Even if the food or drink is offered by a friend, we are usually not at all anxious to experiment and accept the offer.
When you get up tomorrow morning, notice which shoe or sock you put on first. Then notice which one you put on first on other days. You may discover that you tend to put on one shoe or sock first every day, and that if you are right-handed, you usually deal with your left shoe or sock first. If you try to change this habit, you may find it uncomfortable or annoying, and you will soon return to your old habit.
When it comes to other matters, we often follow a fixed pattern. We sleep in one or two favorite ways. We often follow familiar routes even when they are not the shortest or best. We often wear a watch on the same wrist even when there is no real reason for doing so. In hundreds of other ways, we show that we are creatures of habit, following fixed patterns of behavior. This characteristic can help us to survive but it can be a barrier to progress too. We must be alert and not let a beneficial factor become a harmful one.
A:it is difficult to change a habit B:habit can be changed easily C:shoes and socks are essential in our daily life D:everyone puts on shoes and socks in the morning whether he is right-handed or left-handed
Thousands of years ago, ten of our very distant ancestors were hungry. They went out and picked berries or dug up roots to eat. Four of them chose poisonous food and died. The remaining six noticed that their food was safe to eat. They told their children, who, in turn, passed the message on to their descendants. In this way, habit became a vital factor in the survival of mankind: if you ate the right plant, you lived; if you wanted to make your own experiments, you would probably die.
The importance of habit on the survival of the human species is an interesting matter. Even today, most of us hesitate when we are invited to eat a new type of food or drink something we have not tasted before. Even if the food or drink is offered by a friend, we are usually not at all anxious to experiment and accept the offer.
When you get up tomorrow morning, notice which shoe or sock you put on first. Then notice which one you put on first on other days. You may discover that you tend to put on one shoe or sock first every day, and that if you are right-handed, you usually deal with your left shoe or sock first. If you try to change this habit, you may find it uncomfortable or annoying, and you will soon return to your old habit.
When it comes to other matters, we often follow a fixed pattern. We sleep in one or two favorite ways. We often follow familiar routes even when they are not the shortest or best. We often wear a watch on the same wrist even when there is no real reason for doing so. In hundreds of other ways, we show that we are creatures of habit, following fixed patterns of behavior. This characteristic can help us to survive but it can be a barrier to progress too. We must be alert and not let a beneficial factor become a harmful one.
A:habit can never become a harmful factor B:people develop all their habits with good reasons C:habit will always help people to make progress D:people often behave in fixed patterns
It is true that ______ you get into a bad habit, you will find it not easy to give it up.
A:because B:since C:once D:as
Going to bed early and getting up early ______ a good habit.
A:is B:are C:were D:was
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