People across the world use Airnbn to offer their homes to travelers usually for a nightly fee. The home-sharing service provides some people a way to make extra money while they work other jobs.

The company announced recently that one of its most popular professions among American Airbnb hosts is teaching. The information came from an Airbnb study to find out what industries its American hosts work in. the study found that almost 10 percent of U.S. Airbnb hosts in 2017 identified themselves as teachers or in the field of education. The home-sharing service estimated it has about 45,000 active teacher hosts in America. In addition, the study says there are an estimated 75,000 other hosts living in households with a teacher.

American teacher hosts earned more than $160 million dollars from Airbnb in 2017, the company said. That includes about $54 million earned during the summer alone. The average amount earned by teacher hosts individually was $6,500 in 2017. The study did not provide data from hosts about why they choose to become part of Airbnb. But the company noted that many teachers in America face difficult economic situations. Airbnb says additional earnings from hosting can help.

The U.S. Department of Education reported this year that 94 percent of public school teachers said they had spent their own money on some classroom supplies in the 2015-2016 school year. It also reported that the average pay for public school teachers in 2015-2016 was lower than in the 1990-1991 school year when the inflation rate was considered. Some states had even higher rates of teacher hosts than Airbnb’s estimated national average.

Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty told The Atlantic magazine that the home-sharing industry was not a total solution for the current problems facing many teachers. But he said he thought Airbnb could be an “important tool” to help teachers make extra money and give them “the respect and dignity” they had earned.

The report on the number of teacher hosts comes as Airbnb continues to face opposition by activists and officials in some areas. U.S. critics of the company say the service is driving up rental market prices in several cities. Elected officials in some areas have proposed or approved rules to limit the influence of the service. Hotel companies have also protested that the business presents unfair competition.

Martin Strel is a long-distance swimmer, best known for swimming the entire length of various rivers. He was born in Slovenia in 1954. He taught himself to swim when he was 6 and became a professional marathon swimmer in 1978. Martin holds Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube River, the Mississippi River, the Yangtze River and the Amazon River.

Of all his achievements, the greatest is his Amazon River swim. The Amazon is known as the largest, longest and most dangerous river in the world. Several long-distance swimmers had attempted to swim it, but all failed. Martin decided to risk his life and make history. He wanted to show the world that people can achieve their dreams and goals with hard work and persistence (毅力).

On April 7, 2007, Martin Strel completed his Amazon River swim all the way from Atalaya (Peru) to the Atlantic Ocean at Belem (Brazil). He struggled with the river for 66 days and totally swam 3,274 miles. He became a worldwide hero.

Many people still cannot believe what he has done so far, so that's why they sometimes describe him as “Fishman”, “Human Fish” or even “The Craziest Man in the World.”

In 2009, American filmmakers produced a documentary called Big River Man. And the book, The Man Who Swam the Amazon, has been sold in many countries worldwide. It's an inspirational story of perseverance and passion.

Martin Strel does not make much money from swimming. Instead, he swims to teach people about the importance of keeping water clean.

Martin has always been looking for the challenges of the impossible. At present, he is training for a new challenge -— swimming the Grand Canyon.

Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next to ours was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there and whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing (缝纫) and reading.

After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “Why doesn’t that woman clean her window? It really looks terrible.”

One morning I decided to clean my apartment, including cleaning the window. Late in the afternoon I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly seen. Her window was clean!

Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.

That was quite an important lesson for me. From then on, whenever I want to judge (判断) someone, I ask myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I can see others’ world more clearly.