阅读理解Do you like traveling? Have you heard of the volunteer travel? Do you know what the volunteer travel means?
The main purpose of the volunteer travel is to take part in service activities to help others. During the trip, volunteer travelers often provide service like teaching, cooking and animal caring. The volunteers may get free or discounted accommodation (住宿折扣), meals and laundry(洗衣), activities, or classes because of their help.
It seems that these long journeys could only be made possible in recent years by modern transport. However, the volunteer travel dates back to the 1960s, when Alec Dickson and his wife Mora from the UK founded Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international volunteer organization.
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 stressful city lives.
▲ By doing voluntary work while traveling, travelers may have a real and positive influence on the world. The service 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 lives in the countryside. For those who are tired of city lives but can't move to the countryside, volunteer travel can be a way. In this way, travelers can relax themselves from their busy lives, while the countryside can get a lot by receiving more customers for local tourism industries.
