2018年英语四级美文：Volunteers

1 Volunteers 2

It is impossible to find out exactly how many volunteers 3

are at work today in the United States. 4

Thirty-seven million or so 5

are known to belong to organizations like the Pink Ladies, 6

TravelersAid, or Big Brothers; 7

but those who work alone 8

or in small informal groups cannot be counted. 9

The total number of men and women 10

who give their time to help others 11

appears to be between fifty and sixty-eight million. 12

They do almost anything: 13

they sew, clean, scrub, paint, cook, repair things, 14

record books for the blind, amuse sick children in hospitals, 15

or escort senior citizens who do not want to go out alone. 16

They give their blood; they work in libraries and schools; 17

they translate documents for new citizens with a language problem 18

or raise money to support local symphony orchestras; 19

they answer the telephone calls of the desperate 20

who are thinking of killing themselves, 21

and who need a friendly ear.

22

Volunteers start community projects 23

too small to attract the attention of organized agencies, 24

or work at jobs for which no funds are available. 25

A handful of city folk will turn an empty lot into a playground 26

for the children of their neighborhood; 27

others decide to repair 28

and paint a few dilapidated houses in their street. 29

Somewhere else women cook and deliver two hot meals a day 30

to elderly people living alone, 31

and too sick or too tired to prepare their own food. 32

Another group calls lonely old people once a day