Reading and comprehension text:youth hostels

Public School, they say, is a good preparation for prison. I have (so far) eluded both institutions, but
youth hostels combine the worst bits of both.
In the mid-Sixties, your membership card was a passport to suffering and regimentation. Thirty years
on, becoming a YHA member costs 9. It buys you a nifty new credit card-sized pass and the right to
stay at thousands of hotels around Britain and in 60 countries all over the world.
The concept of low-cost accommodation for young travellers originated in Germany in 1929. The
idea of catering for wanderlust spread rapidly, and Britains first hostels opened the following year,
promising to help all, especially young people of limited means, to a greater knowledge, love and
care of the countryside.
The hotel trade did not feel immediately alarmed, not least because of the Youth Hostels
Associations rigorous and literal adherence to self-motivation.
Youth Hostels are for the use of the members who travel on foot, by bicycle or canoe; they are not
for members travelling by motorcar, motor-cycle or any power assisted vehicle.
The YHA is still a charity, but founder members might be shocked at the 1995 handbook, with its
promises of on-site car parking and wine with meals. Although you can still do things the hard way if
you wish, the things for which youth hostelling was famous (or infamous) are disappearing as quickly
as you can say en-suite facilities or a pint of bitter, please.
Rule 14 : Members are not permitted to bring intoxicants into the hostels premises.
In the mid-Sixties was too young to be bothered about the no-drinking rule, but by the time you
reach the maximum age limit in Bavaria (the one place which insists on youth - under 27 only), you
get fairly fed up with structures. The rules on alcohol, curfews and especially chores seemed
designed to deter the average traveller.
Every member is required to carry out duties as directed by the warden.
On my travels through Britains hostels, I have learnt useful skills such scouring an entire hostel
kitchens-worth of pots and pans, and scrubbing wet and muddy hostel floors (those damn
canoeists). So, like thousands of others, I made a beeline away from the kitchen sinks and outdoor
latrines as soon as the first new, easygoing backpackers hostels were established.
These developed first and fastest in Australia, offering travellers inexpensive beds without the bother.
Rules are only for inconsiderate people, says the sign in the kitchen of a hostel in Cairns.
The simple combination of cheapness and camaraderie spread quickly across the globe. Even
Moscow and St. Petersburg have hostels these days.
(from The Independent 18 February 1995)
QUESTIONS AND TASKS
1. What does the writer compare Youth Hostels to?
2. What does he imply by this comparison?
3. What do you get by becoming a member of the association?
4. Where did the idea of Youth Hostels come from?
5. What was the aim of the people who created this facility?
6. Who could stay at Youth Hostels in the past?
7. What changes have the regulations recently undergone?
8. What duties had to be carried out by guests?
9. Where did the new kind of hostels appear first?
10. Provide the article with a title