【本课讲解文本和要点】

The Showdown at the Window Seat

New tension is brewing between fliers who insist on keeping the shades down and those who demand keeping them up

• showdown: duel

• tension

• brew

Ø brewery/winery

Ø brew (coffee)

① Welcome to the latest airline passenger cabin conflict: Window shades up or down?

It’s bad enough that people jostle over armrests and fume over reclining seats. They have to tolerate limited legroom, tiny toilets and overhead-bin space jams.

But as more travelers bring screens onto planes and airlines offer more in-flight entertainment, throwing shade on open-window enthusiasts has become more common.

• cabin

Ø main cabin

Ø economy class/business class/first class

• jostle over

• fume over

• overhead-bin: overhead compartment

• jam

• in-flight entertainment

• throw shade on

② Airlines and travelers say the proliferation of individual devices has led to more pressure to stay dark. More narrow-body planes have joined wide-body jets in offering individual entertainment system screens on the backs of seats.

Many daytime flights cruise in cabin darkness to avoid glare and allow sleep. Some travelers say they have switched seating preference from aisle seats to window seats to control the shade — either up or down.

• narrow-body planesßà wide-body jets

• individual entertainment system screens

• cruise

• glare

• seating preference

③ “Since the passenger experience is expected to be largely self-managed, perhaps the lack of control of a major component of that experience — light — has become a more glaring issue,” says frequent flier Andrew Zaiser. His in-flight entertainment is looking out the window. On some daylight Boeing 787 trips, passengers report flight attendants routinely darken all windows electronically right after takeoff and cut off individual controls.

Federal Aviation Administration has no regulations on shades up or down, though many countries require windows in exit rows to be clear for takeoff and landing, when an accident could jam a closed shade and prevent passengers from seeing if they were opening an emergency door into fire.

• glaring

• frequent flier

• flight attendant

• takeoff

Ø taxi/takeoff/cruise/landing

• exit row

④ Members of the light brigade suggest that passengers who want to sleep should use eyeshades during daytime flights.

But those on the dark side counter that you can’t watch a movie with eyeshades on. If you need light, they say, you have one: your overhead reading light.

And those who like looking out the window retort that the view isn’t so interesting with the shade fully closed.

• brigade

• on the dark side

• counter

• overhead reading light

⑤ For some people, light is important to keep your body clock on a schedule and counter jet lag. And some travelers say if all shades are closed, the sardine can that is a coach cabin feels more unsettled, even claustrophobic.

And for many, watching the world go by makes the flight more enjoyable. Michael Hyman, a New Jersey-based sales rep for a global consulting firm, took United’s Island Hopper flight from Honolulu to Guam with stops at beautiful atolls and green water. He wanted to take pictures out the window. Another passenger watching a movie asked him to close the shade.

• body clock

• jet lag

• coach cabin

• -based

• sales rep

• consulting firm

• Island Hopper

• green water: turquoise

⑥ “One of my main motivations taking the Island Hopper was picture-taking,” Mr. Hyman says. He partially closed the shade as best he could, unhappily.

Light has become a bigger issue for fliers not only because of more screens but also because of more seats being packed into cabins, Mr. Hyman says. Dark cabins encourage sleep, and the more people sleep, the easier work becomes for flight attendants, he says.

The 787 has large windows to give passengers more view. Each window-seat passenger has a control and flight attendants have an override.

• pack

• override

⑦ Passengers say on many flights, especially daylight trips out of Asia to North America, flight attendants quickly darken the windows and lock out passenger control. They can give back control for a particular window to a passenger who asks.

Airlines say business travelers flying to the U.S. from Asia often want to sleep so they can be fresh when they land.

The airline has seen windowshade spats between passengers resolved with flight attendants arranging trades to move passengers into darkness or light. Nothing shade-related has escalated into serious conflict, spokesman Morgan Durrant says.

• business traveler

• trade