Private jets receive ridiculous tax relief that hurt the environment

The blue jeans and T-shirts of the global elite are no more comfortable than those worn by the middle class. They drink the same coffee and carry the same smartphones. But a(n) ________ is growing between the rich and the rest when they fly. Ordinary folk ________ sleeplessly into cheap seats. The elite stretch out Hat, taking naps. This would be no one else’s business but for two things. First, private jets are horribly polluting. Second, they are often and ________ subsidized (补贴).

Private airlines were ________ hard by the global financial crisis, when both companies and individuals sought to reduce expenses. But now private jets are booming again, partly because new booking services and shared-ownership schemes are cutting the cost of going private and ________ busy executives away from first— and business-class seats on regular flights. But the boom is also a result of tax relief, which is even more ________ than those offered to ordinary airlines. America’s rules are ________ still. Its tax reform allowed individuals and companies to avoid paying 100% of the costs of a new or used private jet against their federal taxes, creating extraordinarily cheap jet purchases.

Flying on a private jet can help ________ on time for those whose time is extraordinarily valuable. Since companies can avoid paying their corporate-tax bills by presenting how much these flights cost them, in some countries the use of a private jet is a tax-free ________ for executives. But a growing volume of research suggests that flying them ________ is often a waste of money for shareholders. The jets are often used to fly to places where corporate seniors are more likely to have holiday homes than business meetings. ________, users of such planes are more likely to commit deception: a careless attitude to other people’s money sometimes shades into complete criminality. The environmental effects of corporate jets are awful. The emissions for new supersonic business jets under development will be many times higher. Amazingly, these emissions are largely ________. Airlines are not covered by the Paris agreement to limit climate change, and most private jets are ________ from CORSIA, a carbon-offsetting (碳补偿) scheme involving most airlines.

All air travel is bad for the environment. The tax breaks for cooking the planet in this way cannot be ________. They should all be abandoned. Carbon emissions should be ________, not subsidised by the sleepless masses and the even less fortunate souls who never fly.

A lot of travelers who are going to new cities are often told to begin their trips by a bus tour. This thinking is that they can then go to the places that_______them. But that is wrong. What you see from the inside of a moving bus is_______and removed from the real sights, sounds, and smell outside. So the best way to experience any place is on foot and with absolutely no travel plan._______go wherever your feet and your interests_______you.

You will not only get to the_______sites that are on the bus tour—the museums, the monuments, city hall—but you will have seen much more. You will have_______the present life of the city.

But there is a problem: What if I got lost? No one ever gets_______lost in a major city. At first you can find your way back to a well-known place. If it frightens you to be “lost” , just find a taxi and go back to where you started ; however, the_______things can happen if you get lost. You can_______at a sidewalk cafe to sit and have a rest. You can ask the local people near you. And__________they don’t speak your language, your trip becomes more memorable because of the__________. Here are a few more ways to get the most out of your travel.

First, know before you go.__________a few hours before your trip learning about the history and culture of your destination.

Second, move around like a local. Use the subways and buses of the city you are__________. You will not only save money, but also learn how people really live.

Third, check the bulletin boards. Sometimes you can find advertisements for free concert, and__________fun activities on bulletin boards around universities.

So the next time you see a travel poster wishing you to have a bus tour, just save your money. Instead, wander__________I promise you a time you will remember with great pleasure.

“Look both ways before you cross the street! Look left, right and left again!” These classic childhood ______ lessons are passed on from generation to generation. Yet traffic accidents remain one of the most common ______ of injuries and deaths for children around the world.

Past studies have found that youngsters are less good at ______ road hazards than adults, but Anat Meir, a lecturer in industrial engineering and management at Ben-Gurion University of the Negeve and the Holon Institute of Technology in Israel, wanted to pinpoint exactly which behaviors lead to accidents, with the goal of finding ways to ______ them.

To do that without putting anyone in danger, she turned to virtual reality. In 2013 Meir and her colleagues simulated (模拟) 18 streets in Israel and used an eye-tracking device to study how 46 adults and children (ranging in age from seven to 13) evaluated when it was safe to cross. Children aged seven to nine, they found, exhibited the least ______ when crossing, typically deciding to step into the virtual road with little or no hesitation, even when their field of vision was restricted. “We had parents looking on who were like, ‘Wow, I cannot believe my child just crossed there!’” Meir says. “It caused them to ______ their child’s road-crossing abilities.” The older children did not perform much ______, though for different reasons. They often stayed on the curb (路缘) for an improper amount of time—a(n) ______ that they are less able to distinguish between safe and hazardous situations than adults—and in interviews did not express an understanding of how ______ such as car speed and field of vision affect crossing safety.

______ do seem to improve crossing success. In Meir’s most recent study, described in Accident Analysis & Prevention, two dozen seven-to nine-year-olds underwent 40 minutes of hazard-detection training. Afterward, Meir and her colleagues ______ trainees’ and control kids’ performances in the virtual road-crossing task. The children who ______ safety instructions were significantly better at crossing than the control subjects—to the point that their crossing skills were similar to those of adults.

Next, Meir and policy makers aim to figure out how to translate these findings into the ______ world. “These results are important because you cannot find solutions without a(n) ______ of the problem,” says Joseph Kearney, a professor of computer science at the University of Iowa. “Now it’s up to people with their feet on the ground to determine how they can develop ______ programs for children and for parents about good road-crossing habits.”