In this lesson you will ...

Compare attitudes toward

volunteering
Vocabulary & Expressions Grammar Item

(academic) requirement fascinating / fascinated Present and past participles as adjectives

like-minded satisfying (-ed vs. -ing) to describe feelings,
to hone (one’s) skills challenging / challenged  emotions, attitudes. For example: I find
volunteer work very rewarding. I am
community service rewarding / rewarded inspired by the people I work with.
medical school temporary shelter
(career) possibility learning disability
burned out (difficulty UK)
food bank to fall asleep
retiree (pensioner UK) to exploit (extension
to tutor activity)
tiring to take on (= to hire)
(extension activity)
frustrating
to miss the point
disturbed / disturbing (extension activity)
discouraged / discouraging to view (extension activity)
overwhelming

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Warm-up Compare attitudes toward volunteering

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Vocabulary & Expressions Compare attitudes toward volunteering

Why do people do volunteer work?

academic requirement for fun learn something new

do good get involved make a difference
do something different get work experience meet like-minded people
explore career fields keep active meet people
feel needed  to hone their skills share knowledge and skills

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Listening Compare attitudes toward volunteering

1• 2 • 3 • 4
Why did they decide to volunteer?

1. The retiree:

 
2. The college student:

 
3. The business professional:

 
4. The new resident:

Tip! retiree
pensioner 

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Grammar Compare attitudes toward volunteering

Interested or interesting?

I FEEL … THE WORK IS …

disturbed challenged disturbing challenging

frustrated fascinated frustrating fascinating
discouraged inspired discouraging inspiring
overwhelmed interested overwhelming interesting
tired satisfied tiring satisfying

– Are you satisfied with the work you do? – Why does Charlie look so discouraged?
– Yes, I do. I find it both interesting and – I think he finds his classes frustrating.
rewarding. He’s feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Your turn!

1. Adam: I work with people who need homes and find them temporary shelters. I find helping people
rewarding, but sometimes I see and hear things that upset me a lot.

2. Bea: I work with children who have learning difficulties. Sometimes, it feels like we aren’t
progressing at all. We often have to go over the same things again and again. But you know, these
children don’t give up—and that keeps me going, too.

3. Carl: As volunteers at the zoo, we do a lot of hard physical work. Sometimes, when I get home, I fall
asleep almost immediately. But I love animals, and could watch them all day long. It’s great when I
can share what I’ve learned with visitors.

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Grammar (continued) Compare attitudes toward volunteering

4. Dora: I tried volunteering on a development project abroad once, but unfortunately, I didn’t have a
very good experience. I hardly got any training. I didn’t speak the language, the culture was
completely new, and we were expected to work ten hours or more a day! Between that and
homesickness, it was just too much for me. I left after two weeks.

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Performance Compare attitudes toward volunteering

With your partner, discuss these volunteer opportunities.

 
The Children’s Museum is looking for Exhibit Volunteers. As an Exhibit Volunteer you would be
responsible for assisting children between 0–10 years of age with the museum’s activities. You will
interact with children, staff, and other volunteers to provide a fun learning experience for all visitors. We
would like volunteers to work at least twenty hours per month for a minimum of six months. Training is
provided.
 
Help the blind by raising a guide dog puppy! The Seeing Eyes Foundation is looking for volunteers to
care for its future guide dogs for people who have trouble seeing. These puppies have been selected to
take part in our guide dog training, but we need volunteers to look after them for the first 18 months of
their lives. Volunteers care for the puppies and teach them how to behave around people. We provide all
the support you need, including weekly training classes for the puppies and free veterinary care.
 
1. Who do you think these positions would be appropriate for? not appropriate for?

2. What do you think some of the cons and pros of each position might be?

3. Would you be interested in volunteering for one of these organizations? Why (not)?

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Performance (continued)
What do you think?
Community service shouldn’t be an
academic requirement for school
children. People volunteer because
they want to help. If we tell kids they
have to do it, won’t they be missing
the point?
My concern is that some
organizations view volunteers as free
employees. They take on volunteers
because either they’re too cheap to
 
actually pay someone to do the work,
or they get volunteers to do the work
no one else wants to do. That’s just
not right!
English 6 Complete
Compare attitudes toward volunteering
Although I think volunteering is a
great thing, I find it disturbing
when I see volunteers doing things
the government should be taking
care of. After all, isn’t that why we
pay taxes?
I’ve seen volunteer ads for
assistant pharmacists, secretaries,
teachers, nursing home aides …
the list goes on. These are real
jobs that someone could be doing
for a salary, not volunteer
positions.
©Berlitz Languages, Inc. Slide 8 of 14
Online Practice – Credits Compare attitudes toward volunteering

  ONLINE PRACTICE 

Unit Photo Credits (listed from beginning-to-end, left-to-right English 6 Complete

within this unit): iStockphoto, iStockphoto, iStockphoto, ©2020 Berlitz Languages, Inc. All rights reserved.
iStockphoto, Shutterstock

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Images Compare attitudes toward volunteering

English 6 Complete ©Berlitz Languages, Inc. Slide 10 of 14

Images Compare attitudes toward volunteering

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Images Compare attitudes toward volunteering

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Images Compare attitudes toward volunteering

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Images Compare attitudes toward volunteering

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