任务型阅读专项训练四篇.docVIP

PAGE PAGE 7 任务型阅读专项训练四篇 1 Voluntourism, or volunteer tourism, is about killing two birds with one stone—traveling and volunteering. You get to visit new places, meet new people, learn new cultures and experience new things along with making a difference in the place you visit and in the lives of the people you meet. Voluntourists are people who are willing to spend their hard-earned money, vacation time and energy to serve the local community. Often, people choose voluntourism to use their skills for a worthy cause rather than the usual monetary gain. There are many benefits of voluntourism. From the individual point of view, voluntourism can make the tourists learn a large number of new things, get an opportunity to use skills for sustained services, get the satisfaction of making a difference in other people’s lives and find a new purpose for life. From the local community’s point of view, many types of productive services are received, and there is an increase in tourist income and also cross-cultural understanding and mutual respect are promoted. In addition, the local people get glimpses of better living conditions and are motivated to develop themselves. However, voluntourism can be as harmful as it is useful, if the voluntours and voluntourists are not well-organized. For example, voluntourists may fall ill because of less leisure and more work, or be not satisfied with their personal role due to wrong choice of project or high expectations. They even become pessimistic after witnessing the dark side of life. What’s worse, it can affect the local employment and markets negatively. Therefore, a lot of thought should be put into decisions of becoming a voluntourist. The first stage of going on a voluntour is knowing why you want to be a voluntourist and then finding a voluntour that will meet your purpose. Keep in mind that the place you would be going to is where real people with real needs and real emotions live. Your services are going to impact not only