Images of Prince William cleaning lavatories in Chile during his gap year have given a new angle to volunteer work and environmental projects. Many more gap-year travellers, who once would simply have trailed around the bars of Australia or the beaches of Thailand, are now signing up for projects such as 5 ditch-digging in rural Africa, bridge-building in South America or teaching in India. 'Applications are at their highest level for five years,' says Ollie Mack, of Raleigh International, an organisation which runs rnany volunteer projects. Another factor that has contributed to the rise in volunteer work is the increased number of companies offering this type of experience. 'People used to worry that they would be dropped in the middle of Africa and left there to get on with it,' says Tom Griffiths, founder of the website gapyear.com. 'But now there are a lot of responsible companies with brochures and websites.'

About 10,000 people take part in environmental projects each year, but the fashion for 'travelling to do good' needs to be focused to be effective. 'People need to be committed and understand what it entai1s and what responsibilities they and the project have,' says Nick Hartley, operations manager at Student Partnerships Worldwide (SPW). 'Some people think they can go in, do the odd bit of teaching and then head off backpacking. This type of attitude contributes nothing to the local community.'
In an attempt to set standards for overseas projects, 20 established volunteer organisations have set up the Year Out Group. 'As the market increases, there is the prospect of cowboys creeping in,' says Michael Amphret, founder of Quest, which has programmes in South America and Africa. The market may be increasing, but numbers remain srnall. Quest takes 130 volunteers to South America each year and 250 to Africa; SPW takes 250 to sites in Asia and Africa. The cost of the trips rnay a1so keep volunteers away -three months away can cost as much as f.3,000,- a daunting amount for many students to raise.

The work is hard and the funding hard to find, so what is the motivation for volunteering? 'It sounds clichéd, but I just wanted to help people. A year abroad in one place means really getting to know the people and becoming involved in the community,' says Aidan Silver, 16, from Wales. Helping people is not the only benefit, as another volunteer explained, 'I really enjoyed it and think I matured a lot'. Living and working away from home clearly helps young people to become more independent. And, of course, volunteer work looks good on the CV -employers look favourably on candidates who have done this kind of trip. 'Five years ago, employers would ask if you took a gap year, and be impressed if you said yes,' says Tom Griffiths. 'Now they ask what you did in your gap year.' Backpacking and bar jobs are no longer good enough

Part one: reading comprehension

Answer the following questions according to the information in the text.

1. How is the way many people spend their gap year changing?
2. What benefits of gapyears are mentioned?
3. Why has the Year Out Group been formed?

Choose the best answer.
4. How has the way gap year travellers spend their year-off changed?
a) Many of them now go to Africa.
b) A lot of them prefer to work in companies now.
c) They tend to prefer voluntary work rather than just long holidays.

5. Which of the following statements about voluntary work is correct ?
a) A lot of people now do gap-year voluntary work.
b) The number of people doing gap-year voluntary workis increasing.
c) Voluntary work is well paid.

Part two: vocabulary

Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: lavatory, gap, to increase, brochure

Part three: writing (300 words)
Describe what you would do if you could take a gap year before going to university