(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Facebook Birthday Feature Lets Users Raise Money for Charities
For her 35th birthday, Behnoush Babzani decided to hold a party.
She used her birthday to ask friends to donate money to a cause she cares about: helping people who need bone marrow transplants.
Babzani herself received bone marrow from her brother in a transplant operation.
"It's not that my body was making cancerous cells. It was that my body was making no cells," she said.
Turning to social media, Babzani published a picture of herself on Facebook's website. The photograph showed her as a hospital patient. Using a new program on Facebook, she asked her friends to help raise $350.
New way to raise money for causes
It has always been easy for Facebook users to send birthday messages to friends online. Now people are using the social networking site to turn birthday messages into donations for a favorite cause, such as a charitable group.
A year ago, the American company launched a new feature that has helped charities in the United States and around the world. In its first year, Facebook's birthday fundraiser feature raised more than $300 million for groups helping those in need. This success has caused some charities to rethink their methods for raising money.
However, the success of the Facebook birthday feature comes at a troubling time for the company. Social media users have begun to question how internet services connecting friends and family have also become tools for some to spread hate or influence foreign elections.
Recently, a U.S. Senate committee met with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, and Jack Dorsey, who heads Twitter.
Sandberg spoke about steps Facebook has taken to identify and remove messages that violate the company's terms of service.
"We were too slow to spot this, and too slow to act. That is on us," she told the lawmakers.
However, the birthday fundraiser feature shows the power of using social media for good, says Facebook spokeswoman Roya Winner.
"It gives people who are celebrating a birthday, a chance to turn that day into something that's bigger than themselves," she said.
Some of the charities receiving the largest donations are Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Alzheimer's Association and the American Cancer Society.
In the case of Behnoush Babzani, she raised more than $1,700 in donations to help pay for bone marrow transplants.
Rescuing sea lions
Two weeks before his 65th birthday, Stan Jensen received a message from Facebook asking if he wanted to use his birthday to ask people to donate to a cause.
Jensen, a retired sales worker, decided that he did. He turned to 1,400 Facebook friends to help raise money for the Marine Mammal Center in Northern California, where he cares for injured sea lions. He works as a volunteer there once a week.
Jensen raised $2,300.
He said that much money was more than he could have dreamed for, and he let his friends know they made a difference.
"You've bought a ton of fish," he told them. "You are feeding all the animals we have on site for several days."
His birthday is coming up again, and the sea lions are always hungry. He's perfecting his pitch: "I know I'm special to you, but I'd like just the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Just $5. Please."
I'm Phil Dierking.
重点解析
重点讲解：
1. care about 关心；在乎；在意；
The criticism that the English do not truly care about their children was often voiced.
常有人指责英国人并不真正关心自己的子女。
2. turn into (使)变成；(使)成为；
Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.
永远不要让你的坚持和激情变成固执和无知。
3. in need 贫困的；困难中的；
Remember that when both of you were in need, I was the one who loaned you money.
记住，在你们两个都有困难的时候，是我借钱给你们的。
4. a ton of 大量；许多；
It's not only the name of our company that will change. . . I expect that after this acquisition, there'll be a ton of things up in the air.
不但是我们公司的名字要改…我预计收购之后还会有一大堆的问题悬而未决。
参考译文
脸谱网生日募捐功能方便用户筹集善款
贝诺什·巴布扎尼决定举办派对庆祝自已的35岁生日。
她在生日这天号召朋友为她关心的慈善事业捐款，为需要骨髓移植的人提供帮助。
巴布扎尼本人通过移植手术移植了她哥哥的骨髓。
她说，“并不是我体内出现了癌细胞。而是我的身体不生产细胞。”
巴布扎尼将目光转向社交媒体，她在脸谱网上发布了一张自已的照片。照片是她在医院住院时拍的。她用脸谱网的新项目呼吁朋友帮助她筹集350美元。
为慈善事业筹集善款的新方式
脸谱网用户在网上给朋友发送生日祝福一向很容易。现在，人们利用这个社交网站将生日祝福转变为向喜爱的事业捐款，比如向慈善组织捐款。
一年前，美国公司脸谱网推出一项新功能，为美国和全世界的慈善机构提供帮助。脸谱网“生日募捐”功能在推出的第一年筹集了超过3亿美元善款，这些善款将提供给那些为有需要的人提供帮助的组织。这一成就令一些慈善机构开始重新思考他们筹集善款的方式。
但是，在“生日募捐”功能取得成功时，脸谱网正处于困难时期。社交媒体用户开始质问连接朋友和家人的互联网服务为何会成为某些人传播仇恨或干预外国选举的工具。
最近，美国参议院一个委员会与脸谱网首席运营官雪莉·桑德伯格和推特首席执行官杰克·多西进行了会谈。
桑德伯格表示，脸谱网已采取措施识别和移除那些违反脸谱网服务条款的信息。
她对议员表示，“我们发现的太晚了，行动也过于迟缓，这是我们的问题。”
但是，脸谱网发言人罗亚·韦纳表示，“生日募捐”功能显示出了利用社交媒体做善事的力量。
她表示，“这使庆生用户有机会将生日转变为更有意义的事情。”
接受捐赠最多的慈善机构包括圣裘德儿童研究医院、阿兹海默症协会和美国癌症学会。
贝诺什·巴布扎尼筹集到了超过1700美元善款，这笔捐款将用来支付骨髓移植手术的费用。
拯救海狮
斯坦·詹森在65岁生日前两周收到了脸谱网的消息，询问他是否愿意在生日当天号召人们为一项慈善事业捐款。
詹森是一名已退休的销售员，他决定号召人们捐款。他向脸谱网上的1400名朋友寻求帮助，号召他们为加州北部的海洋哺乳动物中心筹集善款，他在该中心照顾受伤的海狮。他每周去该中心做一次志愿者。
詹森筹集到了2300美元善款。
他说，最后筹集到的善款比他梦想的要多，而且他还让朋友们知道他们发挥了作用。
他对他们说，“你们的善款使中心得以购买大量的鱼。你们的善款为中心所有动物提供了数天的食物。”
詹森今年的生日就快到了，而海狮总是处于饥饿状态。他计划完善他的筹款：“我知道我对你们来说是特别的，而我只需要一杯星巴克咖啡的善款。只需要你们捐款5美元。拜托。”
菲尔·德尔金报道。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
