美教会对周边社区影响的价值一托福阅读机经背景.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料 美教会对周边社区影响的价值一托福阅读机经背景   Religious congregations help the homeless, provide counseling, offer spiritual guidance and celebrate life cycle events. Churches and synagogues have played these roles for hundreds of generations. But for the first time, a new study has put an economic value on those contributions.  宗教聚会帮助无家可归者，提供咨询，在生老病死等人生大事上给予人们精神指导。千百来，教会一直在扮演这些角色。不过，一项新的研究首次给宗教聚会加上了经济价值。  After struggling with AIDS since the mid-80s, Dennis Wright met with a few support groups, but says he wanted something on a more spiritual level.  登尼斯. 莱特1980年代中期起跟艾滋病抗争之后，曾跟几个援助团体见面，不过他说，他需要一些更具有精神层面的东西。  I lost a partner when I came here, I was very much in need of a place, he says.  That’s when he joined the Hospitality Center at Saint Luke and the Epiphany Church in Philadelphia. The group offers faith-based comfort for people living with AIDS. There is no fee to participate, and Wright admits he never thought about the value of being part of that group.  于是，他加入了费城的圣卢克的亲善接待中心和主显教会。这个团体为艾滋病患者提供以信仰为基础的安慰。参加这个教会是免费的。莱特承认，他从未想过加入这个团体的价值。  A dollar value? I don’t know what I would put for that. I owe my life to the church.  “换算成美元的价值吗?我不知道怎样估算。教会救了我的命。”  Holy finance  But Ram Cnaan says he can put a price tag on goodwill and, in a study called Valuing Urban Congregations, he did.  不过，拉姆.克纳安表示，他能给善意标上一个价格。而且在一个叫作“给城市地区教会估价”的调研里，他这么做了。  If you ask yourself ‘What is the financial value of feeling good?’ it’s very hard to quantify because there is no understanding of what feeling good means and how to pay for it, says Cnaan, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania.  克纳安说：“如果你问自己感觉好值多少钱，这很难量化，因为感觉好意味着什么，没有一个定义，也没有人知道怎样花钱去买。”  He calculated the economic worth of a dozen places of worship around Philadelphia, including Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations. Everybody thinks of congregations as a place to worship and meet thei