Question

Every morning at 6 am Alan Swallow gets out of bed, has breakfast and reads the paper. And for that he is an unsung hero.

When he reads The Southland Times in the morning, he reads it aloud and records if for people who are visually impaired(受损的).

The Blind Foundation provides its members with the Telephone Information Service(TIS) which has articles from more than 70 newspapers, radio and TV schedules, finance information, public and government notices and updates from the Blind Foundation. For 17 years Swallow has read the paper for the service. In the early days someone would head down to the local studio to record the news for the day and they had one chance to get it right. Nowadays, the news readers can work from home suing their phones.

The TIS service is available 365 days a year, and it could sometimes take him an hour to get through the local news items he had chosen. “It doesn’t take much effort, but it does take a commitment because people are relying on it.” He said.

The service had struggled for some time with volunteers because not many people knew about it. Swallow said, “It was fulfilling to know that people were benefiting from what he was doing.”

For Blind Foundation social function organiser Liz Anstice, the opportunity to give back to a foundation that had given much to her, was a nice aspect of the role. She has been involved with the foundation for five years after she became visually impaired. She said the biggest challenge was building the trust that people had in the local branch of the foundation.

Anstice reformed the social committee group and changed things so people did not get bored. The Christmas celebrations had been so well received members from the Blind Foundation in Balclutha were coming down for them. However, sometimes getting members to the events was a challenge because of a lack of volunteers available to transport them, she said. She was proud of being a finalist for the Volunteer Recognition Award.

1.How does Alan Swallow work for The Blind Foundation?

A. By writing newspaper articles.

B. By reading news for the blind.

C. By updating local news every day.

D. By collecting telephone information.

2.How does Alan Swallow feel about his work for the TIS service?

A. Time-consuming. B. Challenging. C. Satisfying. D. Struggling.

3.What’s the problem for getting members to the events according to Liz Anstice?

A. People’s distrust. B. Costs of transport.

C. Boredom of events. D. Shortage of volunteers.

4.What’s the best title for the text?

A. Blind Foundation Recognizes Its Unsung Heroes

B. Work for Telephone Information Service

C. Great Challenges to Blind Foundation

D. Blind Foundation: Reforms Going on

Answer 1