阅读理解Do you like travelling? Have you heard of volunteer travel? Do you know what volunteer travel means?
The main purpose of volunteer travel is to take part in service activities to help others. During the trip, volunteer travellers often provide services like teaching, cooking, animal caring, and cultural activities. The volunteers may get free or cheaper living places and meals because of their help.
It seems these long journeys could only be made possible in recent years by modern transport(交通). However, volunteer travel started in the 1960s, when Alec Dickson and his wife Mora from the UK founded Voluntary Service Overseas(VSO), an international volunteer organisation.
Traditionally, the volunteer activities take place in a foreign country. But now, more volunteer trips have taken place within the volunteers' own countries in recent years. Volunteer projects in the countryside are now attracting more visitors living in the cities as a break from the fast and tiring city life.
There are lots of advantages in volunteer travel. By doing voluntary work while travelling, travellers may make a real, positive influence on the world. The services volunteers provide can reduce the costs for the communities they serve. Another advantage of volunteer travel is that it helps people living in cities experience the life in the countryside. For those who are tired of city life but can't move to the countryside, volunteer travel can be a way. In this way, travellers can relax themselves from the busy lives, while the countryside can get a lot by receiving more customers for local tourism industries(行业).