英语博客：Make a difference day, October 23.

　　I received a flyer in the mail the other day. It rang a bell; I had seen something like it in previous years. It was the annual Make a Difference Day information sheet. From the title, you can tell that it is about getting involved in the community and making a positive difference. This event has grown since 1990, and is held the fourth Saturday of October. It started through USA Weekend and the 800 newspapers it serves. It is a day dedicated¹ to serving neighbors and the community, to meeting needs and offering support. There are thousands of people involved in organizing it. Just letting people know which needs exist is a big job. Nowadays with the internet, people can find out much quicker who needs what and where. Last year, over three million people got involved with local groups to help in many ways. As I glanced through the list of places to help in our little community, I counted at least thirty. However, there are other charitable groups that are not mentioned. In a large city, there must be hundreds of causes that people can help. Several of the groups here are set up to help poor and homeless people in the Winter. It is an awful prospect² to be caught in a freezing climate with nowhere to live. Free coats, blankets, and all sorts of basic essentials will be donated at various places. Also the shelters, such as the Salvation³ Army, will be cleaned, painted, and prepared for the Winter. Volunteers are asked to sign up ahead of time, sometimes bringing their own equipment, and then they will be assigned⁵ a job or two. The projects are not just charitable, though. People can choose to plant trees or flowers in public places, pick up litter along highways and roads, or even provide babysitting. It's not compulsory⁶; it's all about volunteering, doing a job, helping⁷. Of course, once you are out there, you begin to see other areas in the community that need help. That is probably why Make a Difference Day has grown each year. I've put it on the calendar, and will be deciding with my family what we can do to help in our town.
Grammar notes.
Related⁸ vocabulary: a flyer, to ring a bell, a prospect, to assign⁴.
1. We get all sorts of flyers in the mail, advertizing this and that.
2. Your name rings a bell; have I met you before?
3. Finally getting a promotion⁹ is a wonderful prospect.
4. He assigned us jobs. Mine was to clean up after the event.

1 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

2 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

3 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

4 assign   

vt.派，指派；分配，分派；指定或选定

参考例句：

• It is possible to assign an exact date to this building.这座建筑物的确切年代是可以确定的。
• It's difficult to assign any reason for the failure.失败的原因很难确定。

5 assigned   

adj.选定的；被布置的

参考例句：

• But read-only values are different,in that they are assigned at runtime.但是只读的值是不同的，因为它们是在运行时被赋值的。

6 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

9 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。