Volunteering is a great way to develop new skills, gain experience and connect with others. If you are interested in volunteering, here are some recommended opportunities.

Become a buddy to help young disabled people. You can decide how to spend your time together, whether in an art exhibition or a little concert, but remember to take care of him or her. We hope that you understand the importance of protecting people’s dignity, communicate with them patiently, and devote 3-4 hours every week to the project for at least six months.

We’re making an app to promote protection of our planet from climate change. We’re looking for someone who cares about the climate crisis and uses online design tools skilfully. If you are admitted, you will work at least 4 hours per week from home to help publicize green living, but you will learn a lot about marketing and brand building.

Your primary responsibility is to update structure data for The National Map using our mapping app. Structures include schools, hospitals, police stations, and other important public buildings. Since this is an ongoing remote computer-based activity, you can participate from anywhere you have reliable Internet access if it suits your schedule.

Make a change-making feature documentary with us. You will research, film, and bring to light some inspiring stories over the past 160 years. No prior skills are required, and you will receive professional camera training. You will work from day to night, so please get your body and mind prepared.

Musa Haidar holds a coconut (椰子) to his ear and shakes it from side to side. Its sound pleases the market trader, who puts the large brown fruit back on the pile at his market stand in the suburb of Zanzibar, a city on the East African Island.

His customers are less happy, however. A coconut going for 500 shillings a few years ago today sells for 1,500 shillings. That makes it more expensive to cook curries or other dishes using coconut milk. “The prices are not normal,” says Mr. Haidar. “Coconuts have become expensive for local people.”

Why have prices gone nuts? “People are chopping (砍), chopping,” he explains. A count in 2014 found just 3.4 million coconut trees, down from 5.7 million in the late 1990s. Since hungry Zanzibaris still demand creamy fish curries and beans baked in coconut milk, falling supply has led to higher prices. Coconuts from the mainland are pricier because of high transport costs.

The logging of coconut trees reflects the urbanization wave in Zanzibar and the rest of Africa where urban sprawl is the most striking feature, cities extending outwards rather than growing upwards. Because of that, when people move to a new land, they chop down the coconut trees to make space for their new homes.

Moreover, some houses and island hotels have furniture made from coconut wood. Emmanuel Elias, a woodworker, explains that it is cheaper than the imported one. By law farmers cannot chop down fruit-bearing trees for furniture; in practice it is hard to stop them. Even if they obey the rules, many do not plant new trees, since these take at least six years to produce fruits, and fifteen years to reach maximum production levels. State subsidies (补贴) for seeds have proved no match for urban population growth.

In his workshop, Mr. Elias dusts off a solid dressing table he is selling for 400,000 shillings. He points out that it is made of coconut wood. “This is the land of coconut trees,” he says. But for how much longer?

Field trips have now become a popular and well-established method of education. A field trip is a journey organized by schools or educational institutions to a place outside of the classroom.     16     Therefore, the activities during a field trip are often designed to provide them with hands-on experiences.

Field trips can be taken to a variety of destinations. The most popular ones include museums, factories, zoos and botanical gardens. Field trips can also involve visits to historical sites and other places of interest. Sometimes even an outing to a park nearby can make a good field trip.     17    

Field trips help improve academic performance. Participants in a field trip are engaged in various activities about a subject matter.     18     They could also pick up new knowledge through observation and interaction. Studies provide evidence that field trips can increase students’ test scores.

    19     During a field trip, students are exposed to interactive activities and novel experiences that are not often available in a classroom, which awakens their interest and helps them rediscover the joy in study. This may be particularly important for students who are struggling academically.

A field trip can be challenging to organize due to factors such as high costs and safety concerns.     20     Teachers regard this outing as a good way of helping students and developing a good relationship with them. Students, moreover, may remember the experience of the school field trip as a highlight of the school year.

Wu Lidi, a 48-year-old cleaning lady, was surprised by an exhibition of her paintings held by students at Nanjing University. The paintings _________ were Wu’s works on a blackboard in a student dormitory where she works. The themes of the works _________ from the colorful university campus to beautiful natural scenery.

During the exhibition named “A Cleaning Lady’s Spring,” many students left handwritten messages of _________ to Wu, including “Thank you for your blackboard paintings that have _________ me through four years of my youth.”

While Wu has never received professional training in painting, she has had a _________ for it since she was young. After becoming a cleaner in a dormitory at Nanjing University, she _________ to draw pictures on a blackboard, which _________ had only a few characters reading “Welcome Home.” The attempt became the starting point of Wu’s _________ journey of life and she has since become increasingly _________ to practising painting skills in her spare time.

As her __________ improved, the contents of her works on the blackboard changed from __________ objects to complex landscapes. Her talent and devotion have received much-deserved __________ from students of the university and she has become widely known as “a cleaning lady who could have become a(n) __________.”

Wu is grateful to the students who held the exhibition for her, saying it is their encouragement that keeps her __________ her hobby.

Wu’s story is a __________ that anyone can achieve greatness and inspire others, regardless of their background or position in life.