VOA慢速英语--在新冠病毒危机中 人们找到帮助他人的意义

In April, as the new coronavirus was attacking New York City, Susan Jones learned her older brother had been diagnosed with a blood cancer.

Her brother's supervisor¹ at work launched a campaign to help with medical costs. The supervisor set up a GoFundMe page on social media for donors². Jones shared it on Facebook. What happened next shocked her.

Jones was sure her closest friends would support the campaign. She works for the American Ballet Theatre, which is based in New York. And many of her co-workers — some she did not know very well — made donations. Their gifts came at a time of economic difficulties in a struggling dance community.

Jones found herself asking: Would the reaction have been the same just two months earlier, before the public health crisis? She was almost sure it would not. Instead, she thinks the desire to help shows, along with simple kindness, how people are working to make a difference. At a time of helplessness, she says, helping³ others makes a mark on a world that seems to be overwhelming all of us.

"People everywhere are trying to keep control of their lives ... to preserve who they are," Jones told The Associated Press.

Laurie Santos is a psychology⁴ professor at Yale University in New Haven⁵, Connecticut. She also teaches the school's most popular class to date: "Psychology and the Good Life." Santos notes that lots of research shows helping others can often make us happier than spending that same time or money on ourselves.

"Taking time to do something nice for someone else," she says, "is a powerful strategy for improving our well-being⁶."

Damien Escobar is a violin player living in New York. He stopped working as a traveling musician because of the coronavirus. One recent day, he was going to a neighborhood drugstore when he saw a homeless man outside.

Escobar, who was once homeless himself, was about to give the man money until he recognized what the man was really seeking: a face mask. The man needed it so he could enter the store and buy water and supplies. Escobar also found that employees at a nearby parking garage were asking for extra masks.

"There was a huge need here," he said. He had already been getting protective equipment to emergency workers, raising $50,000 from a charity performance. Now he has turned to a new campaign, called "Masks for the Masses," to get masks to homeless individuals and poor families.

"I'm essentially⁷ unemployed⁸. I make my money on the road. If I weren't doing this, I'd probably be stuck at home battling ... depression," he says. "They say once you get ... into the world of someone else, your problems don't really exist anymore."

Catherine Lewis is an expert on the science of human behavior and the mind. She has often found people are happier when they can take action.

"In the work of trauma⁹, we know that people who have good outcomes are the people who are doing something," she says. "The hardest piece is when you are stuck, confined, frozen."

There are a growing number of examples of people helping people. However, that does not mean that traditional philanthropy is in good shape.

"Sure, individuals and some nonprofits are stepping forward to help," says Marcia Stepanek, a professor at Columbia University in New York. But for the most part, she says, recent studies of nonprofits show that donations are notably¹⁰ dropping because of donors' concerns about the economy as well as the job market.

Still, many individuals are finding, in the process of reaching out to others, not only satisfaction and purpose but also perhaps a way to claim their identity. That is how Susan Jones sees it. Friends and coworkers have donated nearly $6,000 to her brother's care.

She adds: "I'm feeling deeply touched to be on the receiving end of that."

I'm Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

diagnose(d) – v. to recognize a disease or illness in someone

overwhelm(ing) – v. to affect someone very strongly

preserve – v. to keep something in its original state or in good condition

strategy – n. a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time

mask – n. a covering for your face or for part of your face

parking garage – n. a building in which people usually pay to temporarily store their cars and trucks

trauma – n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time

confine(d) – v. to prevent someone or something from going beyond a given limit or area

philanthropy – n. the act of giving money and time to help make life better for other people

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1 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

2 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 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。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

6 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

9 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

10 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。