2011年8月22日星期一

Learning Words, Donating Ric

Over the last nine months, though, the cost to secure food aid has increased fifty-five percent. Jennifer Parmelee says this is the biggest crisis the World Food Program has faced in its forty-five year history.

She says creative projects like FreeRice are badly needed right now.

"Does FreeRice make any money from this?" That is one of the frequently asked questions on the site. "No, it does not. FreeRice runs the site at no profit," says the answer.

Jennifer Parmelee is a World Food Program spokeswoman in Washington. She says cash donations help the agency to buy food locally and transport it quickly to where it is needed.

Words are presented with four choices of answers. Players click on the one that best defines the word. If they answer correctly, they get a harder word. If they choose wrong, they get an easier word. Spoken pronunciations are also provided.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Internet businessman John Breen created FreeRice. Since October, five hundred seventy metric tons of rice have been donated, enough to feed about a million and a half people for one day.

Advertisers whose names appear with links at the bottom of the game pay for the rice. Individuals can also become sponsors.


And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about the world food crisis, and to get transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to 51voa.com.  I'm Steve Ember.

Currently, the FreeRice game has fifty-five levels of difficulty. Players rarely get past level forty-eight.




2008-4-27

For example, with donations from the site, rice for Nepal was recently bought in the area at half the world market price. Bangladesh, Cambodia and Uganda also have received food through FreeRice.

The site began in October. It says thirty billion grains of rice have been donated so far. The United Nations World Food Program does not really get rice. The donations are given in the form of money.

The game is said to be especially popular with college students and young people who visit social networking sites.

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