20101123 Why We Gave Away Our Home (2)

Why We Gave Away Our Home

First, we needed to figure out where our money would go, a process that took about a year. We narrowed down our areas of interest to three: water (over 1 billion people on the planet have no access to clean water), homelessness (as many as 3.5 million Americans a year live on the streets), and poverty (one in six people worldwide survives on about $1 a day). We watched videos, researched organizations, and interviewed heads of charities. We tested out what it was like to be hungry by doing hands-on activities like the 30-Hours Famine, a program run by the nonprofit World Vision.

We finally chose The Hunger Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that works with villagers in Africa, Asia and South America and helps them move from poverty to self-reliance. Our funds specially went to pay for building two centers – each containing a meeting place, a bank for microloans, a food-storage facility and a health clinic. Together, the hubs would serve more than 20 villages in eastern Ghana. To complete our year of change, we traveled to meet the villages and were blown away by their industriousness and warmth.

narrow down something 縮小範圍/選項

=> make something smaller and clearer by removing things that are less important

eg: There are so many sites in New York to visit, so we narrowed down our choices to the ones we can get to by subway.

=> New York有好多可以參觀的景點，我們縮小範圍，選擇地鐵可以到達的地點。

self-reliance n. 自力更生/不依靠别人

eg: Studying in a boarding school helps students develop self-reliance.

=> 在寄宿學校讀書可以幫助學生培養自立的精神

eg: The aim of the agricultural team is to help the villages to develop a sense of self-reliance.

=> 這支農業隊的目標是幫助村民培養自力更生的意識

industrious adj. 勤勞的

industriousness n. 勤奮/勤勞

=> work very hard

eg: The industriousness of Asians has helped many Asian countries to soar economically in the past ten years.

=> 亞洲人的勤奮幫助許多亞洲國家在過去十年内在經濟上有很大的成長

famine n. 饑餓

30-Hours Famine 飢餓30

microloan n. 微型貸款

Ghana n. 迦納

heads of charities

=> the leaders of the charities

//== Chat room ==//

as many as 3.5 million Americans a year live on the streets

on the street 在街上

=> on the sidewalk (US美國人的用法)

in the street 在街上

=> on the sidewalk (UK英國人的用法)

對美國人來說in the street是指在馬路當中，

為了避免混淆可以使用out on the street來表示在馬路當中

表達走在路上walk on the sidewalk 走來人行道上

out on the street來表示在馬路當中

walk on the sidewalk 走在人行道上

//== Grammar on the Go ==//

We traveled to meet the villages and were blown away by their industriousness and warmth.

=> We traveled to meet the villages and were strongly impressed by their industriousness and warmth.

blow away

=> carried away by certain force (通常一般的用法)

to be blown away

=> to strongly impress (本篇文章的用法)

eg: Selena was blown away by the dinner her boyfriend had prepared; she didn't expect him to cook so well.

eg: Thomas blew his classmates away when he appeared at the class reunion 200 pounds lighter.