City volunteers are happy hosts

考研网

英语阅读是考研英语的重头戏，怎么复习?怎么训练?建议同学们采取英语朗读的方法每天练习10-20分钟，快速提升英语的阅读能力和听力水平！
   
"City volunteers also contribute to the Olympic Games. I just want to do something for the Games because I am the host," explained Shen Li, who worked as a city volunteer at Shi Jingshan Amusement Park for three days.
She is one of the 400,000 city volunteers the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BCCOG) needs for non-Games services in areas outside the Games venues.
Shen Li (Right) distributes brochures to a tourist and his daughter.Shen, a sophomore at Beijing University of Technology said although her job was not directly for the Games and athletes, she still felt honored to wear an orange polo shirt with the Olympic volunteer logo and on the back in white letters it reads "Ask Me".
"When people see our shirts, some come to us if they need help," she explained, pointing to the volunteer logo on her chest.
She was with two other fellow volunteers and the three of them shared a service booth at the foot of the Ferris wheel at the amusement park. They started work at 9:30 am everyday by unfolding their huge dark blue umbrella and arranging their service booth - a job is not so easy for the three young women, but they manage to do it all by themselves.
    (From to right) Liu Jing, Shen Li and Li Ting pose with sign language for "volunteer"."We distribute brochures encouraging people to have good manners and a four-page tabloid-sized paper about Olympic volunteers everyday. And we help tourists when they have any problems and answer their questions related to the Beijing Olympics," Shen said.
Even though they wanted to help people, there weren't many tourists in the park on Monday morning. Shen was teaching the other two to make paper roses, with which they decorated their bulletin board that reads "Free Olympic brochures," as well as the weather report and giving tips on preventing heatstroke.
Shen suggested giving a paper rose to those who came to get an Olympic brochure. "It's a sweet idea as some people thought the roses were lovely," the university student said with a smile.
"The busiest time for us was this past weekend. There weren't enough of us to distribute things to people passing by. Some of them were so enthusiastic about the Games that they asked us how to apply to become volunteers or how to get to the venues," said the sophomore.
Liu Jing interrupted and agreed.
    Their self-made bulletin with weather report, warnings of heatstroke prevention and a copy of tabloid-sized paper about Olympic volunteers is in front of their booth.
"A middle-aged man asked me what he needed to do to qualify to become a volunteer and I told him in great detail. At last, he clenched his fist and exclaimed, 'I want to be a volunteer!' and we all laughed," recalled Liu, a high school graduate who will enter Beijing University of Technology this fall.
"To be a city volunteer, we brushed up on our English, read some material related to the Beijing Games and got familiar with the amusement park so that we can deal with most of the visitors'questions," Shen said.
The trio worked at the amusement park on a staggered schedule so that today was Shen's last day, and it was Liu's second, while Beijing Youth sophomore Li Ting began her three-day stint.
"Tomorrow Shen will leave and a new person will come, so I will be considered 'Number One'here as I will be the longest serving of the three," Liu joked.
The organizing group ordered lunch for them from a nearby Chinese fast food restaurant and they collected the food at the park gates.
"Yesterday, while I was waiting for the lunch to come, I met a lost boy," Shen remembered. "To my surprise, the boy was so smart that he knew I could help him. He used my cell phone to call his father and then I stayed with him until his father came."
"It is so great that we are recognized as people who can help," Shen exclaimed.
Li finished another paper rose and asked Shen to help her make it look better.
    The finished paper roses
"My father loves watching sports very much so he influences me a lot," Li said. "We watched the Athens Games and I was deeply impressed by the sweet smile of the pretty Greek volunteers. I want to be a smiling volunteer just like them," she said, holding her finished paper rose.
A man with his son approached their booth and Shen handed him a copy of the volunteer paper and a brochure, saying, "Please read this on the Olympic volunteers, thanks!" The man stood there to read the paper for a while, but his young son had already run towards the bumper cars.
"Adults, especially parents are interested in volunteer opportunities or things related to the Games and so they take our leaflets or ask us questions," Shen said. "Most children or young people our age aren't that curious so I have to stand directly in front of them to give them things."
"Most people were nice, even though some of them were not interested in us," Liu said. But they were embarrassed when a man complained that volunteers are not paid. "He said we are stupid to work here with no pay at all," Shen said, "We just told him we're doing this because we are hosts in the host city."
Nevertheless, they can also communicate to deaf people too. They know sign language for "the smile of the volunteers is the best name card for Beijing," the slogan for Beijing Olympic volunteers.
And as hosts, they will be out there smiling proudly and welcoming visitors to Beijing next year.
            听力和书面表达通常是我们学生的弱项，希望大家在英语朗读的方法下，并结合实际情况安排练习，不要一味模仿别人，要在练习过程中及时总结经验，包括时间安排等，让自己的考研英语水平得到一个很大的提升！