Find volunteer opportunities on Australia's largest volunteer website：
Community Visitors Plan
Volunteer to visit and talk with a selected resident in an aged care facility in Sydney on a one- to-one basis, at least once a fortnight or a minimum of 20 visits per year. Your visit will help brighten the day of an elder member of your community and improve their quality of life through friendship and companionship.
Volunteer Non-Executive Director
Greater Whitsunday Alliance (GW3) is looking for a willing and experienced industry or community leader from the Whitsunday region who is passionate about the economic development of the greater Whitsunday region to join the GW3 board as volunteer, non-executive director.
Gallery Attendant
Your commitment to volunteering at the Museum is highly valued by Army Museum North Queensland, the Australian Army History Unit and the Australian Defence Force. The role of volunteers is important in enhancing Museum activities and providing programs and services that would not otherwise be available.
Red Cross Shop Summer Season Volunteer
Multiple volunteer positions available at Red Cross Shops across Metro Melbourne. Monday to Sunday (minimum of two four-hour shifts per week）from the start of December to February 29th. By joining the team you'll get the opportunity to provide customer service, create window and visual merchandising displays, sort donations, and help raise money for those in need.
Every morning I walk outside and bring in the morning newspaper. There was a time when every house on both sides of the street had a newspaper in the driveway. There was also a time when every house had a land- line telephone, but not anymore. Not for a long time.
My husband is less willing to accept the downward trend of printed-edition newspapers, as he has worked in newspapers since the age of 16. Even before that, he was what you would call an "independent publisher".
Recently, we were at a Chicago park with our grandchildren. My husband had a newspaper folded under his arm. He sat down and put the paper on the bench beside him. A young girl walked over, looked at the newspaper, picked it up and asked, "What' this?"
I thought he was going to faint. The color faded from his face. His eyes rolled back in his head and his legs were giving out. I rolled up his paper and waved it under his nose. The smells from the ink woke him up.
Some people simply love paper— the feel, the portability and the pleasure of piling them higher and higher until their wife cries, "Enough!" My husband was happy when he spent time with our youngest daughter and her husband. When they lived with us, they raced to pull the crossword puzzle from the paper every day. It's hard to do a crossword online. Pencil doesn't come off a computer screen as easily as you might think.
Now my husband will be very excited that I have found further proof that there may still be hope for the survival of print. I was chatting with a young mother who subscribes to the daily newspaper. I asked why she did something so conservatively. She looked shocked. "Because it's print!" she said. "I love print! When the paper didn't come one day, would you believe I called the main number to let them know and the lady said, 'Why don't you just subscribe to the online version?" She shook her head in disbelief.
My husband will be so thrilled that he might write this young woman into his will. I say we leave her all our piles of old newspapers.
With bushfires continuing to swallow different parts of Australia, a local zoo in New South Wales - the state which is the easiest to catch fire - has hit the headlines with a heartwarming story.
Right in the line of a bushfire, the keepers of Mogo Wildlife Park managed to protect all 200 animals from harm after they received evacuation orders, according to reports.
Netizens were quick to react on social media and praised the bravery of the zoo keeper and staffs, as they stayed and managed to protect animals from uncontrolled fires and even sheltered some at their own house.
The 40-year-old zoo keeper, Chad Staples, described the situation as the worst catastrophe, which felt like Armageddon (大决战) here. Luckily, his team had made a precise plan ahead of time by moving everything flammable from the area and the larger animals to safe places.
What's remarkable is that as the smaller ones needed extra shelter, Staples decided to take them to his own house.
"Right now in my house there are animals of all descriptions in all the different rooms. They are safe and protected … not a single animal lost," he said.
BBC news also mentioned that "there's a tiger to the back of the house."
Some media outlets highlighted the "heroic job" in their headlines. Online users also reacted with thumbs-up and were glad to see all the staff and animals coming through the horrific fire.
Located in the southern coast of New South Wales, Mogo Wildlife Park houses Australia's largest collection of primates, also including different and unique animals such as zebras, giraffes, rhinos and red pandas.
When the world responded to the COVID-19 epidemic with broad lockdown orders, home delivery services lacked the manpower to keep up with the explosion in demand. Stores and companies went on doing the hiring; in some areas, it was very hard to get goods delivered.
You know what might have made things a bit easier? Drones. (无人机) It has taken years for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow the use of unmanned aerial devices for commercial delivery. Over the course of a decade, we've gone from a complete ban to slow, heavily regulated, and restricted initial testing.
At the end of August 2020, the FAA finally gave Amazon approval for its Prime Air drone delivery fleet. It did that by classifying Amazon as an "air carrier" and making it obey some relatively recent regulations intended to facilitate drone deliveries.
The FAA's rules initially required that private drones remain in sight of the operator at all times. That simply won't work for delivery services. So in 2019, the agency introduced a special certification process that would allow approved pilots to operate drones across much longer distances.
Amazon will now be able to join Google in drone deliveries. The company revealed that its fleet can carry packages weighing up to 5 pounds and deliver them within a 15-mile range in less than 30 minutes. The FAA also recently granted the company Zipline, a temporary waiver(豁免) allowing it to deliver medical supplies in North Carolina. Zipline had been operating for some time in Africa. But the United States continues to fall behind both developed and developing nations in giving drone companies the freedom to test their services.
While Amazon still faces several technical problems and strict regulations, it's great that the government is giving it this new room to move. Too bad it took the feds this long to allow it, especially as the pandemic made drone deliveries not just an innovation, but something we could have used yesterday.
Why Do Movie Theaters Serve Popcorn?
The savory smell. The crunchy bite. The buttery finish. Americans will recognize the smell and flavor of their favorite movies snack anywhere. Why is it that we feast our taste buds on these crisp kernels (玉米) while our eyes focus on the big screen?
The main reason is the snacks price, convenience, and timing. Popcorn was cheap for sellers and for customers, and making it didn't require special equipment. That is how popcorn got introduced to the silver screen.
Popcorn does not refer to the popped kernel alone. It was originally grown in Central America and became popular in the U.S. in the mid-1800s. Compared with other snacks at the time, it was super easy to make, and it got easier in 1885 when the mobile steam-powered popcorn maker was invented. In the late 19th century a large number of independent popcorn suppliers became widely available,
Since popcorn was cheap to make, it was also cheap to buy, which increased the popularity of this treat during the Great Depression. The depression increased consumer spending on cheaper luxury items such as popcorn and movies, and the two industries teamed up. By the mid-1940s, however, movie theaters began to have their own concession stands (小卖部) in the lobby. The introduction of the popcorn-driven concession stand to movie theaters kept the movie theater industry running smoothly, and popcorn has been a basic movie-watching food ever since.
A. A few aspects made popcorn the typical movie snack.
B. They were like the great-great-grandfathers of food truck.
C. Therefore, movie theaters attracted more and more customers.
D. The secret of popcorn's pleasant taste lies in the special material.
E. It's also the name for the specific type of corn that is used to make the snack.
F. Theaters would allow a popcorn salesman to sell right outside for a daily fee.
G. Popcorn also got popular at a time when theaters badly needed an economic increase.
It was a hot, damp summer day. After I1my tank in the local gas station, I started to walk inside to pay. Just then I noticed two elderly2standing back from their car. There was a mixture of shock and3on their faces. I followed their4and saw what they saw: five yellow jackets were building a5around their gas cap. My eyes6. I shared the ladies' fear.
Yellow jackets had never been7to me. When I was a young boy, a friend of mine and I were8and playing in my backyard. I must have9on one of their hidden nests while running.10, both of us were being chased and stung over and over by the yellow jackets. We ran away11with great fear. My mom12ran a cold bath and put us both in it to ease the pain and itching（瘙痒）13giving us medicine to fight all the poison in our little bodies from the stings.
I knew I couldn't let fear stop me now. I14my back pocket for a paper towel I had there, tore out the nest and stepped on it while the15wasps (黄蜂) buzzed around me.16of the ladies thanked me excitedly. I smiled, and nervousness and fear were replaced with17.
In this life, you can't let the fear of being stung either physically or18keep you from doing what is right. We need to go19ourselves and love each other. Don't let the yellow jackets in your life20you back.
It isn't unusual for foreigners to experience some level of culture shock in China. The country is famed for (it) unique culture, and you will have no shortage of new things (explore) and learn about. China's fast development is likely to make the adjustment more (comfort) for most new arrivals.
The language barrier can be big challenge for foreigners. There are a few reasons for this. Apart Chinese Mandarin, hundreds of other dialects exist. In some rural areas, (disappointing), some people can't even speak Mandarin.
The second reason is even though young people learn English nowadays, the education system doesn't give them many (opportunity) to use it. This means that while many people can understand easy phrases, they're often quite shy when it comes to (speak).
People generally don't bother translating things into English outside big cities, where the biggest numbers of foreigners (find). As such, it's a good idea for foreigners to learn a few useful phrases in Chinese before arriving in the country.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
On Women's Day, my father and I planned to give my mother surprise, we did something specially for her. Know that she was always unwilling to buy herself anything, we decided to buy him a perfect gift. In the shop, the shop assistant introduced a beautiful necklace, what I thought was the very thing for my mother. However, we bought it without hesitations. The moment we take out the necklace, my mother was so surprising that she could not say a word. It's my great pleasure that my mother liked of the gift, and I hope my mother will be happy and healthy forever.
