Millions of Americans take trips away from home throughout the year, planning weeks and even months ahead of time. But the latest trend in travel leaves all the planning to someone else, making it a surprise to the traveler.

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 Watch

Link to the original Click2Houston video and article: https://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/want-to-take-a-mystery-trip-new-travel-trend-grows-in-popularity

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Glossary

• synonymous – closely associated with or suggestive of something
• to cater to sth/sm – to provide people with something they want or need, especially something unusual or special
  
• clue – a fact or idea that serves to reveal something or solve a problem
  
• to wind up somewhere – arrive or end up in a specified state, situation, or place
  
• to be up for sth – to want to do something
  
• accommodation – a room, group of rooms, or building in which someone may live or stay
  

Watch and listen

Answer the questions below.

• What is the latest trend in travel? (00:10)
• What is part of the traveling experience? (00:25)
• What did Judy and Steve decide to do? (00:39)
• What two types of trips does PACK UP + GO offer? (00:55)
• How did Shanna’s trip start and where did she wind up? (01:10)
  
• Where have the Rubins just come back from? (01:58)
• Where has Shanna just returned from? (02:04)

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Practice Makes Perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words/expressions.

scavenger     craft     get away     breath     yearning     dine     headed     hell     survey

1. “I said, ‘What the ____ — why not?” said Steve Rubin, of Coral Springs, Florida.

2. When Rubin and his wife, Judy, decided to ___ ____ for a long weekend, they blindly put their travel plans in someone else’s hands.

3. They contacted Pack Up and Go, one of several companies catering to people who are ________ for a mystery trip.

4. Her trips started with emails suggesting what to pack, followed by an envelope full of clues to be opened one at a time, almost like a _________ hunt.

5. “You just do one amazing thing and then they drive you to another amazing thing and it’s so unexpected. It takes your ______ away because you can’t prepare or anticipate or plan what’s coming,”

6. On the day of the Rubins’ departure, they opened a Fed-Ex envelope telling them they were a) ______ to New Orleans, a destination chosen for them based on an extensive b) ______ filled out in advance.

7. “That survey will tell us any trips you’ve gone on recently or any you might have coming up, so we don’t repeat those, and then you tell us your interests — if you like _____ beer or museums or fine dining,” Rafson said.

8. The Rubins were fascinated to find a World War II museum and out-of-the-way places to ____ and listen to music.

Answers:

1. hell  2. get away  3. yearning  4. scavenger  5. breath  6a. headed  6b. survey  7. craft  8. dine

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with English subtitles

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