填空题
It has become an American tradition that those who attain great wealth return some of it to the public through philanthropy. An early example of this was the generosity of Amos Lawrence of Massachusetts, a wealthy merchant who in the 1830s and afterwards contributed much money for famine relief in Ireland. He also donated generously to educational and other humanitarian causes.
In the early years of the twentieth century several men who had amassed vast 36 likewise became great philanthropists. Andrew Carnegie, an exceptionally energetic man, 37 has begun working twelve hours a day when he was only fourteen years old, 38 one of the world"s richest men by pioneering in the steel 39 . After his retirement in 1900 he devoted his time and his wealth to the 40 of free public libraries. He also set up foundations for medical research and 41 world peace. Carnegie"s belief, as he expressed it in an essay, was 42 the wealthy person must "consider all surplus revenues 43 come to him simply as "trust funds" which is strictly bound as a matter of 44 to administer in the manner best calculated to produce the most 45 results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere 46 and agent for his poorer brethren."
John D. Rockefeller, who also began as a poor boy, became 47 rich through oil refineries and other enterprises. In his 48 age, in the early 1900"s, he began to donate millions for beneficial 49 . The various Rockefeller Foundations support research as well as 50 causes in the United States and in other parts of the world. Rockefeller funds are now fighting hunger through the so-called "green revolution," whereby new agricultural techniques have greatly multiplied the yield of food crops in Mexico, India, Pakistan, and parts of Africa.
Through the Ford Foundation, and based on automobile profits, Henry Ford Ⅱ donated $500 million in 1950 to universities and hospitals for improving education and health. This likewise became a world-famous foundation, whose activities have spread far and wide. Some of this money was effectively spend fight cholera and typhus in far-off Nepal.