VOA慢速英语2015 年轻人应该在户外活动中学习领导技能

AS IT IS 2015-05-17 Young People Learn Leadership in the Great Outdoors 年轻人应该在户外活动中学习领导技能

The Cottonwood Institute is a nonprofit group that works with teenagers in the U.S. city of Denver, Colorado. It helps them learn about leadership while also learning about the environment.

Juliet Luna attends New Vista¹ High School. She says it is not difficult to persuade young people to go into the mountains and search for solutions to environmental problems.

“Getting kids out into the environment inspires them to protect it, because if you don’t know what you’re protecting, why would you bother?”

The Cottonwood Institute works with teachers to help them combine classroom studies with environmental projects.

A group of students choose an environmental problem to solve. Over six or 12 weeks, they look for answers and join with local environmentalists to make those solutions work. After the project ends, the students have a greater understanding of the environment.

Jaden Games is in his final year of high school.

“I’ve learned a lot about CCD, which is colony collapse² disorder³, which has to do with the disappearance⁴ of bees. I’ve also learned a lot about fracking and water pollution.”

Ford⁵ Church launched the Cottonwood Institute ten years ago. He says he wants young people to learn about the environment so that it will be healthy many years from now.

“The big thing that’s important for us is making sure that our students take care of the land that we’re exploring. In the city you might trash on the ground and it’s not a big deal and that’s a big deal to us ‘cause this is our playground -- this is our office so to speak -- and we really wanna take care of it.”

Jaden Games and his classmate Cassidy Lam say being involved with the project has shown them that one person can make a difference.

“It’s really good to learn about the ecology and learn about the issues that we cause on the environment and how we can work on that and try to fix that.”

“It just felt like all of the things that are happening to our planet that are negative feel so big and impossible for me to change; but while getting involved in this program I realized that it’s actually really easy to take it step-by-little-step.”

Last year, the Cottonwood Institute worked with 415 students. It guided them through almost 5,000 hours of projects, giving them a chance to explore life outside the classroom and make a difference in their community.

Words in This Story

inspire – v. to make (someone) want to do something; to give (someone) an idea about what to do or create

bother – v. to take the time to do something; to make an effort to do something

fracking – n. the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into underground rocks so as to be able to extract⁶ oil or gas

trash – n. things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown away

a big deal – idiom  a subject, situation or event which people think is important

1 vista   

n.远景，深景，展望，回想

参考例句：

• From my bedroom window I looked out on a crowded vista of hills and rooftops.我从卧室窗口望去，远处尽是连绵的山峦和屋顶。
• These uprisings come from desperation and a vista of a future without hope.发生这些暴动是因为人们被逼上了绝路，未来看不到一点儿希望。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

5 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

6 extract   

vt.取出，提取，获得，摘录；n.摘录，提出物

参考例句：

• The article was a choice extract from her writings.这篇文章是从她的著作中摘录出来的精粹。
• We can extract oil from olive.我们可以从橄榄中榨油。