A vacation often means rest and relaxation, but more and more people are looking at traveling as an opportunity to help others and give back.
Don Germaise is a familiar face to many in Tampa Bay, but this former TV reporter’s life has changed a bit. “In the TV business you see the best and the worst the world has to offer, and at some point, it just occurred to me: I just need to do something to make the world a better place,” he explained.
He now travels the world, volunteering his time to help others. “Here’s the best part about a volunteer vacation. You’re not stuck at a hotel doing tours that everyone else does,” Germaise said. “You’re meeting regular people, living with regular people and helping regular people all over the world.”
Travel Writer Joe Miragliotta says that’s exactly why more people are spending time volunteering on vacation. “Travelers, especially millennials (千禧一代) like myself, are becoming more socially conscious when it comes to choosing where they go,” Miragliotta said. “They want to connect with the communities and causes they really care about.”
He recently took some time out of a trip to San Francisco to help out at a local farm. “Here, volunteers are growing healthy foods for the community, and they give it right back for free; and you know you can tend the vegetable gardens, help clean the orchard—lots of fun activities,” Miragliotta explained.
Volunteering doesn’t take up your entire vacation. You can do it for a few hours or even a few days. It’s all up to you. “With a kid...when you do something as simple as giving him or her a pencil when they never had a pencil for school, the look in their eyes is so unbelievable,” Germaise said. “It’s like they got an iPad for Christmas. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
1. What do vacations mean to Don Germaise?A.Having a rest and relaxing. | B.Getting an opportunity to travel. |
C.Meeting and helping regular people. | D.Reporting on what happens around the world. |
A.are becoming more socially conscious | B.find it fun to help in vegetable gardens |
C.enjoy taking care of the children around | D.are trying to learn more about other people |
A.It only takes travelers a few hours to do volunteering. |
B.Finding a way to help the people in need is not easy. |
C.It is impossible for the kids to get an iPad for Christmas. |
D.Making a small difference to people’s life is rewarding. |
A.Millennials pay more attention to society. |
B.Volunteer vacation is becoming a new trend. |
C.Two travelers shared their experiences abroad. |
D.Volunteers enjoy popularity among local people. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and what keeps their interest in the work.
Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to create various experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. Therefore, to select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract.
A few people also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation from an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future.
Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? After following 238 volunteers in Florida over a year, one study found that one of the most important factors influencing their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. The result leads to important practical advice – attention should be given to “training that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problems they do experience”.
Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. It was assumed that those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work. The assumption was supported by the result, which once again leads to concrete advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity...Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity.”
1. People volunteer mainly out of ________.A.academic requirements | B.social expectations |
C.financial rewards | D.internal needs |
A.Follow-up studies should last for one year. |
B.Strategy training is a must in research. |
C.Training to get volunteers prepared is necessary. |
D.Volunteers are provided with concrete advice. |
A.Individual differences in role identity. |
B.Publicly identifiable volunteer T-shirts. |
C.Role identity as a volunteer. |
D.Practical advice from researchers. |
A.How to Get People to Volunteer |
B.How to Study Volunteer Behaviors |
C.How to Keep Volunteers’ Interest |
D.How to Organize Volunteer Activities |
【推荐2】The elderly residents (居民) in care homes in London are being given hens to look after to stop them feeling lonely.
The project was dreamed up by a local charity (慈善组织) to reduce loneliness and improve elderly people’s wellbeing, It is also being used to help patients suffering dementia, a serious illness of the mind. Staff in care homes have reported a reduction in the use of medicine where hens are in use.
Among those taking part in the project is 80-year-old Ruth Xavier. She said: “I used to keep hens when I was younger and had to prepare their breakfast each morning before I went to school. ”
“I like the project a lot. I am down there in my wheelchair in the morning letting the hens out and down there again at night to see they’ve gone to bed.”
“It’s good to have a different focus. People have been bringing their children in to see the hens and residents come and sit outside to watch them. I’m enjoying the creative activities, and it feels great to have done something useful.”
There are now 700 elderly people looking after hens in 20 care homes in the North East, and the charity has been given financial support to roll it out countrywide.
Wendy Wilson, extra care manager at 60 Penfold Street, one of the first to embark on the project, said: “Residents really welcome the idea of the project and the creative sessions. We are looking forward to the benefits and fun the project can bring to people here.”
Lynn Lewis, director of Notting Hill Pathways, said: “We are happy to be taking part in the project. It will really help connect our residents through a shared interest and creative activities.”
1. What is the purpose of the project?A.To ensure harmony in care homes. |
B.To provide part-time jobs for the aged. |
C.To raise money for medical research. |
D.To promote the elderly people’s welfare. |
A.She has learned new life skills. |
B.She has gained a sense of achievement. |
C.She has recovered her memory. |
D.She has developed a strong personality. |
A.It is well received. |
B.It needs to be more creative. |
C.It is highly profitable. |
D.It takes ages to see the results. |
【推荐3】He is a 62-year-old superior court judge, but they are former addicts and criminals. All of them, however, are part of one team: the Skid Row Running Club in Los Angeles (L. A.).
Twice a week, before the sun comes up, Judge Craig Mitchell runs the mile from his office at the county courthouse to The Midnight Mission, a social services organization centered in Downtown’s Skid Row — the well-known area where the city’s largest homeless population lives.
At the organization, he meets a group of 30 to 40 people and together they run through East L. A. The group includes runners from all walks of life and all levels of athleticism. Some members are homeless or in recovery, and others are lawyers, social workers or students.
Mitchell developed the program in 2012 after a man he’d once sentenced to prison returned to thank him. “He was paroled (假释) to The Midnight Mission and decided to come back and said ‘Thank you, Judge Mitchell, for treating me like a human being.’ The president of the organization at the time asked me if there was something that I could do to contribute to the organization, and I thought of starting a running club. That was the inception,” Mitchell said.
Every year, Mitchell takes his most devoted Skid Row runners on a free trip to participate in an international marathon. “I come back to the courthouse after any run and check off who is there. And so, I know exactly who has been faithful to the running program and who just comes once in a while,” he said.
Mitchell says he’s seen some participants turn their lives around, attending college, securing full-time employment and possessing calmness. “Running is a way for the participants to build relationships,” he said. “You can be an amazing runner and benefit as much as our fast runners, because at the end of the day you’re going to be surrounded by people who really care about you and want to spend time with you. Everybody is welcome. We believe. We listen. We support.”
1. What can we learn about the Skid Row Running Club?A.It was set up to make a profit. |
B.It consists of all sorts of members. |
C.It’s failed to win popularity in L. A. |
D.It was designed mainly for court judges. |
A.Origin. | B.Standard. |
C.Contribution. | D.Distribution. |
A.To check their health. | B.To compare their speed. |
C.To award devoted runners. | D.To make sure of their presence. |
A.Running can highly educate criminals. |
B.We can gain admiration if we work hard. |
C.We can make a difference when we care. |
D.Running can help build a charity for the poor. |
【推荐1】In the near future, IoT (Internet of Things) will drive huge innovation (革新) in the way our food is grown. Plants will have a “voice”, not a human voice, but a voice based on data that can tell people, computers, and machines when, for example, they are thirsty, or need more sun, medicine, etc.
Take vertical (垂直的) farms, for example. Farming is moving indoors where the growth of plants can be monitored and controlled. The facilities are built vertically, so growing areas can be put in piles. This greatly reduces the amount of land needed for farming.
From an IoT point of view, vertical farms are connected in two ways. First, small sensors (传感器) in the soil or connected to plants tell a control system exactly how much light, water, and nutrients are needed to grow the healthiest crops. Sensors will also tell vertical farmers when crops are nearing their peak for harvesting at just the right time to make sure it’s still fresh when it reaches its final destination.
Second, vertical farms will be connected to other networks and information systems, including databases that track local demand. For example, local restaurants may input when they need fresh food supplies. And vertical farmers could get that information so they know which crops to grow in what quantities. This type of IoT system would have been unimaginable a generation ago.
Today, vertical farms are being experimented. Yet, the numbers point to a bright future for the industry, especially as the world’s population continues to grow. For example, Green Sense Farms in Chicago is able to harvest crops 26 times a year using 85 percent less energy, one-tenth the water, and no pesticides. A side benefit of lower energy use is lower CO2 output of two tons per month, with the added benefit of creating 46 pounds of oxygen every day.
1. What is the main idea of the text?A.Voice machines help plants speak up. |
B.Farmers are all turning to vertical farming. |
C.IoT has brought great innovation to our future life. |
D.Vertical farms driven by IoT are a future for agriculture. |
A.By recording farmers harvesting crops. |
B.By monitoring farmers working their fields. |
C.By analyzing information to preserve crops. |
D.By passing information on to a control system. |
A.expand the output of crops | B.match supply with demand |
C.determine the needs of farmers | D.move restaurants onto farms |
A.Negative. | B.Indifferent. | C.Optimistic. | D.Doubtful. |
【推荐2】Recently, researchers at the University of Toronto figured out a way with a quick video selfie to accurately measure blood pressure with your smartphone’s camera by developing a technology known as transdermal optical imaging (TOI)(透皮光学成像).
Cameras on smartphones can catch red light reflected from hemoglobin (血红素)under our skin, which permits TOI to visualize and measure blood flow changes. Researchers measured the blood pressure of 1,328 Canadian and Chinese adults by getting two-minute videos of their faces on an iPhone. “From the video got by the technology, you can see how the blood flows in different parts of the face and through this flow, you can get a lot of information,” said Kang Lee, lead author of the study.
Lee also helped create an app called Anura, which allows people to try out the TOI software for themselves, giving them the ability to record a 30-second video of their face and receive measurements for stress levels and resting heart rate. Lee said more research was needed to make sure that the measurements were as accurate as possible, explaining that the study didn’t test people with very dark or very fair skin.
“In order to improve our app to make it usable, particularly for people with hypertension (高血压),we need to collect a lot of data from them, which is very hard because a lot of them are already taking medicine,” Lee explained. “We cannot tell them not to take medicine, but from time to time, we get participants who don’t take medicine so we can get hypertensive people this way.”
The scientists said there were many potential applications of the technology, including providing health services for those who lived in remote areas.
1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?A.Information offered by TOI. | B.New findings on hypertension. |
C.How TOI is put into smart phones. | D.How the TOI technology works. |
A.Living a life free from stress. | B.Improving the heart function gradually. |
C.Accessing health services for free. | D.Knowing abnormal blood pressure earlier. |
A.Equipping phones with better cameras. |
B.Allowing phones to record longer videos. |
C.Collecting data from more diverse samples. |
D.Persuading participants not to take medicine. |
A.To predict future applications of TOI. |
B.To introduce TOI and an app related. |
C.To describe functions of cameras on phones. |
D.To evaluate the quality of an app called Anura. |
【推荐3】Whether you're a citizen, consumer or investor, it is fast becoming a key life skill to make out greenwashing, a word meaning a company claims that its products are environmentally friendly but actually not green at all. Misleading or not proved claims about benefits to climate can make it harder for people to make informed decisions. They can also weaken real efforts by companies to clean up their act and deal with the climate crisis.
The basic problem is a lack of clarity. Indeed, when it comes to spotting greenwashing, it can actually be more helpful to focus on the color grey—because it is the many grey areas that have helped make greenwashing appear in particular places. These grey areas might be around measurements, definitions, best practice, standards or regulations. Even the language we use is very imprecise, leaving lots of room for vagueness, confusion or complete cheating. For instance, what do words such as “green”, “sustainable” and “eco” even mean? You have no standards, measurements or definitions to judge by.
These problems are increasingly important when it comes to the greenwashing of investment products, such as pensions and investment funds. In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in consumer demand for funds that invest according to environmental, social and governance criteria, often referred to as ESG funds. According to the financial data provider Morningstar, the value of assets(资产) held in UK funds grew from £29bn at the beginning of 2017 to £71bn by the end of 2020.
With that much money at risk for high profits, misleading claims can effectively hamper the flow of money and resources into really green new plans and businesses, preventing global efforts from dealing with the climate emergency. “I describe it as the 'teenage years' of responsible investing, with a lot of experimentation, and a lot of people trying out new things.” says Ashley Hamilton Claxton.
1. Which of the following can be called greenwashing?A.A product that is claimed to benefit the climate. |
B.A product that can been washed in a green way. |
C.A product that is absolutely environmentally friendly. |
D.A product that is claimed to be green while not the case. |
A.The product's description is not clear. |
B.The language isn't grammatically right. |
C.There are no such words as “sustainable”. |
D.The company doesn't say it's “green” and “eco”. |
A.put | B.clarify | C.stop | D.divide |
A.Much money enables high profits |
B.Responsible investing is still at its early stage. |
C.More money is invested in real green businesses. |
D.A lot of people are unwilling to try out new things. |