VOA标准英语2010年-Irene Zola Fights for Rights of the El

Founder¹ of grassroots volunteer group works to help the elderly live out their final years in dignity at home

Adam Phillips | New York 19 July 2010

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Morningside Village
Aging in Place
On a recent Saturday morning in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood, Irene Zola - tall with a long mane of silver hair - stands on a busy Broadway sidewalk.

She's handing out fliers to passersby², inviting³ them to consider volunteering with Morningside Village, a small group she started in 2009 to help sustain the very old in their own homes. 

 
VOA - A. Phillips
Irene Zola passes out fliers, hoping to interest neighborhood residents in becoming Morningside Village volunteers.

Doing her part

Zola says she has always been dedicated⁴ to doing her part to make the world a better place. 

As a young woman in the 1960s, she marched to end racial segregation⁵ in the South, and to stop America's military involvement in Vietnam. 

Today, she's focused on changing the way American society perceives and treats the elderly, whom she says are "literally⁶ invisible" in American culture. If they are portrayed⁷ at all, she says, they are mostly in pharmaceutical⁸ ads on the beach having fun.

"So we don't see people with twisted spines⁹ and drool coming out of their mouths and noses on Broadway. They're hidden in the nursing homes and they're not in the family home, as they are in other countries, and as they have been traditionally until modern times."

Elderly rights

Zola became aware of the indignities¹⁰ the elderly face just a few years ago.

Her mother, who was then in her 90s, broke several bones and later suffered a massive stroke. The family agreed to put her in a nursing home, assuming she'd be well cared for.

Zola went to check on her mother a few hours after she was admitted to the facility, and was shocked to find her in a dim room, moaning in pain on a bed soaked with urine, having waited hours for someone to help. Zola immediately started making arrangements to have her mother come live with her, but her mother died before that could happen.

"I didn't foresee what was going to happen. And so I decided¹¹ to do something for all the other people whose daughters and sons don't know better, and for those who don't have daughters and sons."

 
VOA - A. Phillips
Irene Zola with Dolores Saborido, age 97, a senior who receives help from Morningside Village.

Morningside Village

That is what Zola's Morningside Village is all about.

Its impact is felt by people like 97-year-old Dolores Saborido, who broke several bones in two falls. After a brief stay at a rehabilitation¹² center, she was sent home, bedridden, with only untrained help.

"Things looked black," says Saborido, until a friend introduced her to Irene Zola. "That was a wonderful discovery. And my life has been absolutely turned around since I met Irene. Thank God."  

After just one year, the Morningside Village roster¹³ has grown to 50 volunteers and 32 seniors. Zola says that because each senior's needs and each volunteer's strengths are unique, matches are carefully made.

 
Courtesy of Support Our Seniors
Irene Zola

"There are a few seniors who are very confused about their paperwork, [and] about paying their bills, for example. We have volunteers who do that. We have seniors who have had falls in the time we've known them, so we are looking around to assess their homes for safety and to find ways to create fall prevention."

Volunteers also prepare home-cooked foods and, because Morningside Village is a community, the chicken soup flows both ways, says Zola, who has gained about two kilograms just this year from all the meals she has been offered while visiting "her" elders.

"They love to feed us and show their gratitude¹⁴ that way and their appreciation¹⁵, and we love to eat with them."

Elder-care options

Zola says the need for alternative models of eldercare, such as Morningside Village, is becoming increasingly urgent given currents trends: an aging population, increasing longevity¹⁶, cuts in health care, decreasing government spending on the elderly, the distance of families from their old relatives and the fact that there are too few physicians specializing in the needs of the elderly.

"There is a tremendous looming¹⁷ crisis on the horizon. In fact, it is already with us and it's only going to get worse," she says."That's why Morningside Village is so important a model of what can be done in a community."

Morningside Village also benefits younger community members.

Volunteers speak about the satisfaction and joy of helping¹⁸ others, and partnerships¹⁹ with local universities and hospitals are strengthening neighborhood networks.

A high-end photography book depicting²⁰ the elderly in a positive light is in the works, and Morningside Village is creating an interactive²¹ website feature that will help communities around the country to create grassroots eldercare organizations of their own.
 

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 passersby   

n. 过路人(行人,经过者)

参考例句：

• He had terrorized Oxford Street,where passersby had seen only his footprints. 他曾使牛津街笼罩了一片恐怖气氛，因为那儿的行人只能看到他的脚印，看不到他的人。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• A person is marceling on a street, watching passersby passing. 街边烫发者打量着匆匆行人。

3 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

4 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。

5 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

9 spines   

n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊

参考例句：

• Porcupines use their spines to protect themselves. 豪猪用身上的刺毛来自卫。
• The cactus has spines. 仙人掌有刺。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 indignities   

n.侮辱，轻蔑( indignity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The soldiers who were captured suffered many indignities at the hands of the enemy. 被俘的士兵在敌人手中受尽侮辱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• What sort of indignities would he be forced to endure? 他会被迫忍受什么样的侮辱呢？ 来自辞典例句

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

13 roster   

n.值勤表，花名册

参考例句：

• The teacher checked the roster to see whom he would teach this year.老师查看花名册，想了解今年要教的学生。
• The next day he put himself first on the new roster for domestic chores.第二天，他把自己排在了新的家务值日表的第一位。

14 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

15 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

16 longevity   

n.长命；长寿

参考例句：

• Good habits promote longevity.良好的习惯能增长寿命。
• Human longevity runs in families.人类的长寿具有家族遗传性。

17 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

18 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。

19 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

20 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

21 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。