Will to make changes

It certainly takes a lot of effort to push through hard times. While the nation is fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic, citizens have to make changes in their daily lives. Some people decide to make small routine changes, while others offer all their time and energy to help others during this crisis.
共克时艰无疑需要许多努力。在举国奋力抗击新冠肺炎疫情之时，我国公民也在日常生活中做出了改变。一些人决定对日常生活进行小的调整，还有一些人在这次危机中贡献出自己所有的时间和精力来帮助他人。

Most people take their temperatures, wear masks, wash their hands often and don’t go out unless it’s necessary. One of the most painful changes was that many Chinese people didn’t get together to celebrate the Spring Festival, a tradition that dates back over 4,000 years.
大多数人都做到了量体温，戴口罩，勤洗手，如无必要不出门。最难的一大改变则是许多中国人今年放弃了4000多年来阖家团圆度春节的传统习俗。

Indeed, people have chosen to stay home to prevent further spread. The situation is quite unusual. Many schools and places of work have delayed their return date, although that didn’t stop employees and students from working and studying at home.
的确，人们选择了居家来阻止病毒进一步传播。这种情况相当少见。许多学校和单位都延迟了开学复工的时间，而是让员工和学生们在家工作学习。

February 17 was planned to be the first day of the new semester. On that day, many teachers began giving online lessons. Some schools even livestreamed the flag-raising ceremony. Bored at home, people began to learn new things to fill their newfound time, such as baking a cake or knitting a sweater.
2月17日原本是新学期开学的日子。当天，许多老师都开始上起了网课。一些学校还在网上进行了升旗仪式直播。在家闲来无聊的人们开始学起了烤蛋糕、织毛衣等新技能来消磨延长的假期时间。

Films such as Contagion from 2011 show the worst-case scenario after a worldwide epidemic. Fortunately, the situation in China couldn’t be more different than the movie. Rather than riots, violence and food shortage, everything has worked out rather well in China so far. Scientists isolated the first virus strain; more than 30,000 medical staff from outside Hubei rushed to help and thousands of construction workers came to build hospitals in Wuhan, Hubei province. Thousands of volunteers are working nonstop to help deliver supplies and assist the affected regions.
2011年的电影《传染病》等电影作品展现了全球性流行病过后最糟糕的情景。幸运的是，中国的情况和影片中的完全不同。目前中国的一切都井然有序，没有发生骚乱、暴力事件或者食物短缺。科学家们分离出了首株病毒毒株；三万多名医护人员驰援湖北，数千名建筑工人来到湖北武汉修建医院。数千名志愿者日以继夜地工作，帮忙运送物资支援疫区。

It’s not the first time people have come together during a natural disaster. When Hurricane Katrina hit the US in 2005, over 60,000 people, from both the affected communities and outside it, volunteered.
这并非是人们首次在自然灾害面前团结一致。2005年卡特里娜飓风重创美国时，灾区内外超过6万人都做起了志愿工作。

Sociologists once debated whether post-catastrophe volunteerism is common to see around the world. Indeed, more than 30 years of research – exploring disasters in Europe, Asia, and the Americas – confirmed that the need to help is universal wherever disaster strikes.
社会学家曾就世界各地是否普遍存在灾后志愿主义精神进行争论。经过30多年对欧洲、亚洲以及美洲的灾害研究，确实可以证明，不论灾害在何地发生，伸出援手的意愿都是普遍存在的。

“It’s a popular myth that when disasters strike, people fall into panic. In reality, we’re more likely to rush in to help others than run them over to save ourselves,” wrote US psychologist Kelly Caldwell in Pacific Standard. “It’s an exercise in mass healing.”
“很多人都误以为当灾难来袭时，人们会陷入恐慌。实际上，我们更有可能会冲上前去帮助他人，而非自救，”美国心理学家凯莉·考德威尔在《太平洋标准》中写道。“这是种集体治疗的行动。”

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高一781期