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The value to society of satellite meteorology is immense. In terms of lives saved and infrastructure damage that's avoided, the returns on investment run into billions annually.卫星气象学的社会价值是巨大的。就卫星气象学挽救的生命和因其免遭破坏的基础设施而言，每年相关投资的回报可达数十亿美元。Europe's new Meteosat will replace technology that is now more than 20 years old. National forecasting agencies like the UK Met Office and Meteo France will see a big jump in the amount of data they receive. One of the major innovations on the new Meteosat is the inclusion of a camera to detect lightning.欧洲的新气象卫星 “Meteosat” 将取代已有20多年历史的技术。英国气象局和法国气象局等国家天气预报机构收到的数据量将大幅增加。新气象卫星 “Meteosat” 的主要创新之一是安装了一个探测闪电的摄像头。The agencies believe this will be a boon to what they call nowcasting – the ability to track and forewarn of imminent hazardous events. That's because lightning is a tracer for violent wind gusts, heavy rain and hail.这些气象机构认为，新卫星的运用将有利于所谓的 “临近预报”，即追踪并预警即将发生的危险天气事件的能力。这是因为新卫星可以通过观测闪电来追踪狂风、大雨和冰雹。词汇表meteorology 气象学immense 巨大的infrastructure 基础设施forecasting 预报innovations 创新boon 有用的物品nowcasting 临近预报forewarn 预先警告imminent 临近的，即将发生的hazardous 危险的tracer 用于追踪某物的事物

The average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of very small plastic known as nanoplastics, a recent study says.最近的一项研究表明，每升瓶装水中平均含有近 25 万个看不见的非常小的塑料，即纳米塑料。Researchers found the nanoplastics with a microscope using dual lasers.研究人员用双激光显微镜发现了纳米塑料。Scientists long figured there were lots of these very small plastic pieces. But until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations, they never knew how many or what kind.科学家们长期以来一直认为有很多这样的非常小的塑料碎片。 但在哥伦比亚大学和罗格斯大学的研究人员进行计算之前，他们永远不知道有多少或是什么种类。Looking at five samples each of three common bottled water brands, researchers found particle levels ranged from 110,000 to 400,000 per liter. The average was around 240,000, the study said. The research appeared recently in the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.研究人员对三个常见瓶装水品牌各五个样本进行了观察，发现颗粒物含量在每升 110,000 至 400,000 个之间。 研究称，平均人数约为 240,000 人。 这项研究最近发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。Nanoparticles are particles that are less than a micron in size. In comparison, a human hair is about 83 microns wide.纳米颗粒是尺寸小于一微米的颗粒。 相比之下，人类头发的宽度约为 83 微米。Previous studies have looked at slightly bigger microplastics that range from 5 millimeters, which could be seen by human eyes, to one micron. About 10 to 100 times more nanoplastics than microplastics were discovered in bottled water, the study found.之前的研究关注的是稍大的微塑料，范围从人眼可见的 5 毫米到 1 微米。 研究发现，瓶装水中发现的纳米塑料比微塑料多约 10 至 100 倍。Much of the plastic seems to be coming from the bottle and the filtration system to clean the water itself, said the study’s lead writer Naixin Qian of Columbia University.该研究的主要作者、哥伦比亚大学的钱乃新表示，大部分塑料似乎来自瓶子和过滤系统，以净化水本身。She would not name the three brands because researchers want more samples and they want to study more brands. Still, she said they were common and bought at a Walmart, a popular store in the U.S.她不会说出这三个品牌的名字，因为研究人员想要更多样本，他们想要研究更多品牌。 不过，她说它们很常见，是在美国一家受欢迎的沃尔玛商店购买的。Researchers still cannot answer the big question: Are those nanoplastic pieces harmful to health?研究人员仍然无法回答这个大问题：这些纳米塑料碎片对健康有害吗？“That’s currently under review. We don’t know if it’s dangerous or how dangerous,” said study co-writer Phoebe Stapleton of Rutgers University. “We do know that they are getting into the tissues (of mammals, including people) … and the current research is looking at what they’re doing in the cells.”“目前正在审查中。 我们不知道它是否危险或有多危险，”研究报告的合著者、罗格斯大学的菲比·斯特普尔顿说。 “我们确实知道它们正在进入（哺乳动物，包括人类）的组织……目前的研究正在研究它们在细胞中的作用。”The International Bottled Water Association said in a statement: “There currently is both a lack of standardized (measuring) methods and no scientific” agreement on the possible health effects of nano- and microplastic particles. The statement added, “Therefore, media reports about these particles in drinking water do nothing more than unnecessarily scare consumers.”国际瓶装水协会在一份声明中表示：“目前，对于纳米和微塑料颗粒可能对健康的影响，既缺乏标准化（测量）方法，也没有科学的”共识。 声明补充说，“因此，媒体关于饮用水中这些颗粒的报道只不过是不必要地吓唬消费者。”The American Chemistry Council, which represents plastics manufacturers, declined to immediately comment.代表塑料制造商的美国化学理事会拒绝立即发表评论。The Associated Press spoke with four co-writers of the study. All of them said they would cut back on their bottled water use.美联社采访了该研究的四位合著者。 他们所有人都表示将减少瓶装水的使用。Columbia chemist Wei Min said he has reduced his bottled water use by half. Stapleton said she now depends more on filtered water at home in New Jersey.哥伦比亚化学家魏敏表示，他已将瓶装水的使用量减少了一半。 斯泰普尔顿说，她现在更多地依赖新泽西州家里的过滤水。But study co-author Beizhan Yan, a Columbia environmental chemist who increased his tap water usage, pointed out that filters themselves can be a problem by introducing plastics.但该研究的合著者、哥伦比亚环境化学家严北战（Beizhan Yan）增加了自来水的使用量，他指出，引入塑料后过滤器本身可能会成为一个问题。“There’s just no win,” Stapleton said.“根本没有胜利，”斯台普顿说。

Cameroon has begun the world’s first major malaria vaccine program for children.喀麦隆已启动世界上第一个针对儿童的大型疟疾疫苗计划。The campaign launched Monday in the Central African nation. Health officials called the effort a major step in the fight against the disease across Africa. The continent accounts for about 95 percent of the world’s malaria deaths.该活动周一在这个中非国家发起。 卫生官员称这一努力是整个非洲抗击这种疾病的重要一步。 非洲大陆约占世界疟疾死亡人数的 95%。The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the disease, which is spread through mosquitos, kills more than 600,000 people a year. Most of the deaths involve young children.世界卫生组织 (WHO) 估计，这种通过蚊子传播的疾病每年导致超过 60 万人死亡。 大多数死亡涉及幼儿。The vaccine, called RTS.S, was developed by British drug company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). It is meant to work with other preventive measures, such as the use of bed nets, to fight the disease.该疫苗名为RTS.S，由英国制药公司葛兰素史克（GSK）开发。 它旨在与其他预防措施（例如使用蚊帐）一起对抗这种疾病。Cameroon is the first country to offer vaccine injections through a routine program after successful tests, or trials, were carried out in Ghana and Kenya. Cameroon hopes to vaccinate about 250,000 children this year and next.在加纳和肯尼亚进行成功的测试或试验后，喀麦隆成为第一个通过常规计划提供疫苗注射的国家。 喀麦隆希望今明两年为约25万名儿童接种疫苗。The international vaccine alliance called Gavi has said 19 other countries aim to launch their own campaigns this year. About 6.6 million children in those countries are to receive malaria vaccinations in 2024 and 2025.名为 Gavi 的国际疫苗联盟表示，其他 19 个国家计划在今年发起自己的疫苗接种运动。 2024 年和 2025 年，这些国家约有 660 万儿童将接受疟疾疫苗接种。"For a long time, we have been waiting for a day like this," said Mohammed Abdulaziz. He is with the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Abdulaziz spoke during a joint news briefing with the WHO, Gavi and other organizations.穆罕默德·阿卜杜勒阿齐兹说：“很长一段时间以来，我们一直在等待这样的一天。” 他在非洲疾病控制和预防中心工作。 阿卜杜勒阿齐兹在与世界卫生组织、全球免疫联盟和其他组织举行的联合新闻发布会上发表了讲话。Cameroon is using one of two recently approved malaria vaccines, called Mosquirix. When the WHO approved the vaccine two years ago, officials admitted it was not perfect. But they noted its use could sharply reduce severe infections and hospitalizations.喀麦隆正在使用最近批准的两种疟疾疫苗之一，称为 Mosquirix。 当世界卫生组织两年前批准该疫苗时，官员们承认它并不完美。 但他们指出，它的使用可以大幅减少严重感染和住院治疗。The GSK-produced shot is only about 30 percent effective. It requires four shots, or doses. Tests have shown the vaccine’s protection begins to weaken after several months. GSK has said it can only produce about 15 million doses of Mosquirix a year.葛兰素史克生产的注射剂只有约 30% 的效率。 它需要四次注射或剂量。 测试表明疫苗的保护作用在几个月后开始减弱。 GSK 表示，每年只能生产约 1500 万剂 Mosquirix。Some experts believe a second malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University and approved by the WHO in October may be a better solution. That vaccine, called R21, is less costly and only requires three doses.一些专家认为，由牛津大学开发并于 10 月获得世界卫生组织批准的第二种疟疾疫苗可能是更好的解决方案。 这种疫苗称为 R21，成本较低，并且只需要三剂。

The social media site X has blocked some searches for Taylor Swift in reaction to an online spread of pornographic deepfake images of the singer.社交媒体网站 X 屏蔽了泰勒·斯威夫特 (Taylor Swift) 的一些搜索，以应对网上传播泰勒·斯威夫特 (Taylor Swift) 的色情深度伪造图片的情况。A “deepfake” is an image, sound recording, or video created to make it appear that people in it are saying or doing things that they did not say or do.“深度伪造”是一种图像、录音或视频，其目的是让其中的人看起来在说或做他们没有说过或做过的事情。Attempts to search for her name without quotation marks on the site Monday resulted in a failuremessage. It asked users to retry their search. “Don’t fret — it’s not your fault,” also appeared.周一试图在网站上搜索不带引号的她的名字，结果出现一条失败消息。 它要求用户重试搜索。 “别担心——这不是你的错，”还出现了。However, putting quotation marks around her name permitted posts to show where her name appeared.然而，在她的名字两边加上引号可以让帖子显示她的名字出现的位置。The images of Swift began spreading widely on X last week. She is now the most famous victim of a danger that technology companies and anti-abuse groups have struggled to fix.斯威夫特的图片上周开始在 X 上广泛传播。 她现在是科技公司和反滥用组织一直在努力解决的危险中最著名的受害者。“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue,” Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, said in a statement.X 业务运营主管 Joe Benarroch 在一份声明中表示：“这是一项临时行动，我们会非常谨慎地采取行动，因为我们在这个问题上优先考虑安全。”After the images began spreading, the singer’s loyal fan base, called “Swifties,” quickly came to her defense. They launched a protective movement and flooded the site with more positive images of the singer. They used the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift on their posts. Some said they were reporting accounts that were sharing the deepfakes.这些照片开始传播后，这位歌手的忠实粉丝群“Swifties”很快就为她辩护。 他们发起了一场保护运动，并在网站上发布了更多这位歌手的正面图片。 他们在帖子上使用了#ProtectTaylorSwift 标签。 一些人表示，他们正在举报分享深度假货的账户。The deepfake-search group Reality Defender said it followed many posts of pornographic material of Swift. Many of the posts were found on X, formerly known as Twitter. Some images also made their way to Facebook and other social media sites.深度造假搜索组织 Reality Defender 表示，它关注了斯威夫特的许多色情材料帖子。 许多帖子都是在 X（以前称为 Twitter）上找到的。 一些图片还出现在 Facebook 和其他社交媒体网站上。The researchers found at least 20 different images created by artificial intelligence (AI).研究人员发现了至少 20 张由人工智能 (AI) 创建的不同图像。Researchers have said the number of pornographic deepfakes has grown in the past few years. The increase continues as the technology used to produce such images has become more available and easier to use.研究人员表示，过去几年，色情深度伪造的数量有所增加。 随着用于生成此类图像的技术变得更加可用且更易于使用，这种增长仍在继续。In 2019, a report released by the AI company DeepTrace Labs showed these images were mainly weaponized against women. Most of the victims, it said, were Hollywood actors and South Korean singers.2019年，人工智能公司DeepTrace Labs发布的一份报告显示，这些图像主要针对女性。 据称，大多数受害者是好莱坞演员和韩国歌手。

Japan’s space agency says a spacecraft that landed on the moon earlier this month has regained power and is continuing its mission.日本宇宙航空研究开发机构表示，本月早些时候登陆月球的航天器已恢复动力并继续执行任务。Officials from the Japan Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Monday they had successfully reestablished communication with the SLIM moon explorer.日本研究开发机构 (JAXA) 的官员周一表示，他们已成功与 SLIM 月球探测器重新建立了联系。SLIM touched down on the moon on January 20. But the spacecraft landed the wrong way up. Its solar equipment was unable to see the sun. JAXA said SLIM was likely able to regain power because of a change in the sun’s direction.SLIM 于 1 月 20 日登陆月球。但飞船着陆方向错误。 它的太阳能设备看不到太阳。 JAXA表示，由于太阳方向的变化，SLIM很可能能够重新获得电力。After the landing, JAXA used the spacecraft’s battery power to gather as much data as possible about the touchdown and the surrounding area. The power was then turned off to wait for the sun to rise higher in the lunar sky.着陆后，日本宇宙航空研究开发机构利用航天器的电池电源收集尽可能多的有关着陆和周围区域的数据。 然后关闭电源，等待太阳在月球天空中升得更高。Mission officials have said the explorer landed within 55 meters of its target near the lunar equator. It also landed in between two craters in an area covered in volcanic rock. JAXA said these results demonstrated progress in what it calls “pinpoint” landing technology.任务官员表示，探测器在月球赤道附近着陆，距离目标不到 55 米。 它还降落在火山岩覆盖的区域的两个陨石坑之间。 JAXA表示，这些结果证明了所谓的“精确”着陆技术的进展。Past moon missions generally aimed to hit flat areas at least 10 kilometers wide. But the ability to land on very exact targets is expected to help support future space vehicles traveling to the moon and other places.过去的月球任务通常旨在撞击至少 10 公里宽的平坦区域。 但降落在非常精确的目标上的能力预计将有助于支持未来前往月球和其他地方的太空飞行器。The main purpose of the mission was to test the possibility that spacecraft can land on very specific targets. But SLIM is also capturing images and released two small explorers. The explorers are designed to examine mineral-rich rocks and collect data on the moon’s development.此次任务的主要目的是测试航天器降落在特定目标上的可能性。 但SLIM也在捕捉图像并释放了两个小型探索者。 这些探测器的目的是检查富含矿物质的岩石并收集有关月球发展的数据。JAXA has not named a specific date for when SLIM will end its operations on the moon. But the agency has said in the past that the lander was not designed to survive a lunar night. The next lunar night begins on Thursday.JAXA 尚未指定 SLIM 结束月球运行的具体日期。 但该机构过去曾表示，着陆器的设计不能适应月球之夜。 下一个阴历之夜从星期四开始。The mission made Japan the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the surface of the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.这次任务使日本成为继美国、苏联、中国和印度之后世界上第五个成功登陆月球表面的国家。

Gene treatments are being credited with permitting several children born with deafness to hear again.基因治疗被认为使一些先天性耳聋的儿童能够再次听到声音。Gene therapy is a medical treatment that aims to change a few of a patient’s genes to cure a genetic disease.基因疗法是一种旨在改变患者的一些基因以治愈遗传性疾病的医疗方法。A small study recently published in The Lancet reported improvements in the hearing in five of six children who were treated in China.《柳叶刀》最近发表的一项小型研究报告称，在中国接受治疗的六名儿童中，有五名的听力得到了改善。Around the same time, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the U.S. eastern state of Pennsylvania announced similar improvements in an 11-year-old boy treated there. And earlier, Chinese researchers published a study showing similar improvements in two other children.大约在同一时间，美国东部宾夕法尼亚州费城儿童医院宣布，该医院治疗的一名 11 岁男孩也出现了类似的症状。 早些时候，中国研究人员发表的一项研究显示，另外两名儿童也有类似的改善。The experimental methods, or therapies, target only one rare condition. But scientists say similar treatments could someday help many more children with other kinds of deafness caused by genes.实验方法或疗法仅针对一种罕见的情况。 但科学家表示，类似的治疗有一天可以帮助更多患有由基因引起的其他类型耳聋的儿童。Around the world, 34 million children have deafness or hearing loss. And information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says genes are responsible for up to 60 percent of cases.全世界有 3400 万儿童耳聋或听力损失。 美国疾病控制与预防中心的信息显示，高达 60% 的病例是由基因造成的。Deafness caused by genes is passed down from parents to children. It is called hereditary deafness. It is the latest condition scientists are targeting with gene therapy. Gene therapy is already approved to treat illnesses such as sickle cell disease and severe hemophilia.由基因引起的耳聋会从父母遗传给孩子。 这被称为遗传性耳聋。 这是科学家们通过基因疗法针对的最新病症。 基因疗法已被批准用于治疗镰状细胞病和严重血友病等疾病。Children with hereditary deafness often get a device called a cochlear implant that helps them hear sound.患有遗传性耳聋的儿童通常会使用一种称为人工耳蜗的装置来帮助他们听到声音。“No treatment could reverse hearing loss…That’s why we were always trying to develop a therapy,” said Zheng-Yi Chen of Boston’s Mass Eye and Ear, a treatment center for eye and ear problems. He is a writer of the study published in The Lancet. “We couldn’t be more happy or excited about the results.”“没有任何治疗方法可以逆转听力损失……这就是为什么我们一直在努力开发一种治疗方法，”波士顿眼耳问题治疗中心的陈正毅说。 他是发表在《柳叶刀》上的研究报告的作者。 “我们对结果感到非常高兴或兴奋。”

A large U.S. study found no evidence that taking Ozempic or Wegovy is tied to an increase in suicidal thoughts, researchers reported recently.研究人员最近报告称，美国的一项大型研究发现，没有证据表明服用 Ozempic 或 Wegovy 与自杀念头增加有关。Both Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and the obesity treatment Wegovy have the same active ingredient, semaglutide.用于治疗 2 型糖尿病的 Ozempic 和治疗肥胖症的 Wegovy 都具有相同的活性成分：索马鲁肽。The analysis included electronic medical record data from more than 1.8 million patients. Researchers actually found a lower risk of new and recurring suicidal thoughts in those taking semaglutide compared to those using other medications for weight loss or diabetes.该分析包括超过 180 万名患者的电子病历数据。 研究人员实际上发现，与使用其他减肥或糖尿病药物的患者相比，服用索马鲁肽的患者出现新的和反复自杀想法的风险较低。Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, which were designed to treat type 2 diabetes. In addition to helping control blood sugar levels, the drugs produce a feeling of fullness.索马鲁肽属于一类被称为 GLP-1 激动剂的药物，旨在治疗 2 型糖尿病。 除了帮助控制血糖水平外，这些药物还能产生饱腹感。Concerns over reports of suicidal ideation connected with semaglutide led to an investigation by the European Medicines Agency. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has listed suicidal ideation as a possible safety concern for GLP-1 drugs.由于对与索马鲁肽有关的自杀意念报道的担忧，欧洲药品管理局展开了调查。 美国食品和药物管理局 (FDA) 已将自杀意念列为 GLP-1 药物可能存在的安全问题。A Reuters examination last year found that the FDA had received 265 reports of suicidal thoughts or behavior in patients taking semaglutide or similar medicines since 2010. Thirty-six of those reports describe a death by suicide or suspected suicide.路透社去年的一项调查发现，自 2010 年以来，FDA 已收到 265 份关于服用索马鲁肽或类似药物的患者出现自杀想法或行为的报告。其中 36 份报告描述了自杀或疑似自杀死亡的情况。Such events do not prove a connection between a drug and a side effect. But they can signal to officials a need to study a specific risk.此类事件并不能证明药物与副作用之间存在联系。 但他们可以向官员发出信号，要求他们研究特定的风险。The study appeared online in the journal Nature. It was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The researchers examined data on 240,258 U.S. patients prescribed Wegovy or other medications for weight loss and nearly 1.6 million with type 2 diabetes prescribed Ozempic or other treatments.该研究在线发表在《自然》杂志上。 它由美国国立卫生研究院资助。 研究人员检查了 240,258 名美国患者服用 Wegovy 或其他减肥药物以及近 160 万 2 型糖尿病患者服用 Ozempic 或其他治疗药物的数据。Researchers compared nearly 53,000 Wegovy patients to the same number of closely matched users of other weight-loss drugs.研究人员将近 53,000 名 Wegovy 患者与同等数量的其他减肥药使用者进行了比较。They found that during the first six months of use, first-time suicidal thoughts were reported by 0.11 percent of Wegovy users. That is compared to 0.43 percent of users of other drugs that do not belong to the same class as semaglutide.他们发现，在使用 Wegovy 的前六个月内，0.11% 的 Wegovy 用户报告了首次自杀念头。 相比之下，使用与索马鲁肽不属于同一类别的其他药物的比例为 0.43%。After taking other risk factors into consideration, the risk of first-time suicidal thoughts was 73 percent lower with Wegovy, the researchers said.研究人员表示，在考虑其他风险因素后，使用 Wegovy 后首次自杀念头的风险降低了 73%。No patient in the Wegovy group reported a suicide attempt, compared to 14 users of the other drugs, the report said.报告称，与其他药物的 14 名使用者相比，Wegovy 组中没有患者报告有自杀企图。Among patients with a history of suicidal thoughts, the risk of recurring suicidal thoughts was 56 percent lower with Wegovy than other weight-loss medicines.在有自杀念头史的患者中，使用 Wegovy 后再次出现自杀念头的风险比其他减肥药物低 56%。Similar patterns were seen for use of Ozempic compared with other diabetes drugs.与其他糖尿病药物相比，Ozempic 的使用也出现了类似的情况。The findings were consistent no matter the patients’ sex, age, or ethnicity for both semaglutide types, the researchers found.研究人员发现，无论患者的性别、年龄或种族如何，两种索马鲁肽类型的研究结果都是一致的。Such a study cannot prove that GLP-1 agonists do not increase the risk of suicidal ideation. But the findings may reduce concerns.此类研究无法证明 GLP-1 激动剂不会增加自杀意念的风险。 但研究结果可能会减少担忧。The researchers were unable to assess the statistical significance of differences in actual suicide attempts. The researchers noted that suicide attempts are "critically different from suicidal ideations."研究人员无法评估实际自杀企图差异的统计显着性。 研究人员指出，自杀企图“与自杀意念截然不同”。Pamela Davis is a professor at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Ohio. She was one of the writers of the study. She said the growth in popularity of Ozempic makes it very important “to understand all its potential complications.”帕梅拉·戴维斯是俄亥俄州凯斯西储医学院的教授。 她是该研究的作者之一。 她说，Ozempic 越来越受欢迎，因此“了解其所有潜在并发症”变得非常重要。Suggestions that the drug may cause suicidal thoughts are not supported by “this very large and diverse population in the U.S.,” Davis added.戴维斯补充说，“美国人口众多且多样化”并不支持这种药物可能导致自杀念头的说法。

The researchers from Sorbonne Paris Nord University say they were surprised by how efficient and reliable the ants were in sniffing out cancer. 70 ants belonging to the species known as Formica fusca were exposed to urine samples from mice with and without cancerous cells.来自巴黎第十三大学（又称 “索邦-巴黎北大学”）的研究人员表示，他们对蚂蚁能如此高效并可靠地 “嗅出” 癌症感到惊讶。70只属于 “丝光褐林蚁” 品种的蚂蚁接触了来自有癌细胞和无癌细胞的老鼠的尿液样本。The study showed they were quickly able to tell the difference between the urine odour of healthy mice and that of tumour-bearing mice, because they'd learnt to associate the smell with a treat.研究显示，这些蚂蚁很快就能分辨出健康老鼠和带肿瘤老鼠的尿液气味之间的区别，因为它们学会了将尿液中癌细胞的气味与甜味食物联系起来。Scientists now want to see if the insects can do the same for humans. They say ants are a good option because they learn fast and are not expensive to keep.科学家们现在想研究蚂蚁能否通过人类尿液中的气味变化识别癌症。他们说，蚂蚁是一个很好的选择，因为它们学习速度快，饲养成本也不高。词汇表sniffing out 嗅出，闻出exposed 使暴露，使接触urine 尿液cancerous 癌的，癌症的tumour-bearing 带肿瘤的associate 将（两种事物）联系起来

Rob  Finn? …Hello Finn?芬恩?...你好芬恩？Finn Oh sorry Rob, you caught me napping. It's that time of day when I need to nod off – or in other words, fall asleep.芬恩: 哦，对不起，罗布，你发现我在打瞌睡。 一天中的这个时候我需要打瞌睡，或者换句话说，需要入睡。Rob Well, sleeping on the job – or sleeping at work - is no bad thing – and I hope today's programme will wake you up to the idea that sleeping in the workplace might be a good thing.罗布: 好吧，在工作中睡觉——或者说在工作中睡觉——并不是坏事——我希望今天的节目能让你意识到，在工作场所睡觉可能是一件好事。Finn Oh really! That's good to hear. I would have thought that sleeping at work was against the rules.芬恩: 哦真的吗！ 听起来还不错。 我本以为在工作时睡觉是违反规定的。Rob: Not in every office, Finn, and I'll tell you why soon as well as explaining some sleep-related vocabulary. But now you're wide awake, how about a question?罗布: 芬恩，并非每个办公室都如此，我会尽快告诉你原因，并解释一些与睡眠相关的词汇。 但现在你已经完全清醒了，有个问题怎么样？Finn OK, let's hear it.芬恩：好，让我们来听一下。Rob When the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was in power, she did her job with very little sleep. Do you know how many hours of sleep she is said to have had each night?罗布: 当英国前首相玛格丽特·撒切尔掌权时，她几乎不睡觉就完成工作。 你知道她每晚睡几个小时吗？a)    Three hours 三小时b)    Four hours 四小时c)    Five hours 五小时Finn I always thought she got by, she managed her job, with just four hours of sleep a night.芬恩: 我一直以为她能过得很好，她能完成自己的工作，每晚只睡四个小时。Rob Not much, is it? We'll find out if you are right or wrong later. I'm not sure if she chose not to sleep for long or she just wasn't able to sleep for long. Someone who can't sleep is called an insomniac.  罗布: 不多，是吗？ 我们稍后会知道你是对还是错。 我不确定她是否选择不睡太久，或者她只是无法睡太久。 无法入睡的人被称为失眠症患者。Finn And I'm certainly not an insomniac. I enjoy sleeping all night and some of the day too. And Rob, you said napping during the day is a good thing?芬恩: 我当然不是一个失眠症患者。 我喜欢整夜睡觉，白天也喜欢睡觉。 罗布，你说白天小睡是件好事吗？Rob It's always nice to have a short sleep – or what I call 40 winks – during the day, but when you're at work this can be a problem.  In some companies, like Google and the Huffington Post, workplace naps are positively encouraged. They're seen as a way to make staff more productive.罗布: 白天短暂的睡眠（或者我所说的 40 次眨眼）总是好的，但当你在工作时，这可能会成为一个问题。 在谷歌和《赫芬顿邮报》等一些公司，积极鼓励在工作场所小睡。 它们被视为提高员工工作效率的一种方式。Finn So you mean they work harder and are more creative because a power-nap – a quick sleep – makes workers feel refreshed and more alert. I like the sound of this!芬恩: 所以你的意思是说，他们工作更努力，更有创造力，因为小睡——快速睡眠——让员工感到精神焕发、更加警觉。 我喜欢这个声音！Rob An Australian health writer called Thea O'Connor, is a founder of a campaign called Nap Now which is trying to make sleeping at work more acceptable.  She calls herself a 'naptivist'! Let's hear from her now. What does she say is stopping us from doing this?罗布: 澳大利亚健康作家西娅·奥康纳 (Thea O'Connor) 是一项名为“Nap Now”的运动的创始人，该运动旨在让人们更容易接受在工作时睡觉。 她称自己为“Naptist”！ 现在让我们听听她的消息。 她说了什么阻止我们这样做？I think that our culture is a bit crazy not to embrace it, and one of the reasons we don't is our attitude, you know it's quite counter-cultural to do nothing in order to get ahead. I just really see that it's time to disrupt the prevailing work ethic which is all about work longer and harder.我认为我们的文化不接受它有点疯狂，我们不接受它的原因之一是我们的态度，你知道为了取得成功而不采取任何行动是相当反文化的。 我真的认为是时候打破普遍的工作观念了，这种工作观念就是工作时间更长、更努力。Finn: Right, so she wants us to embrace – to accept – the idea of a workplace power-nap. But it is our attitude – the way we think about work – that stops society from accepting this.芬恩: 是的，所以她希望我们接受——接受——工作场所小睡的想法。 但正是我们的态度——我们思考工作的方式——阻止了社会接受这一点。Rob Yes, she explains that it is counter-cultural – so going against the normal way of thinking – to actually do nothing and have a snooze.罗布: 是的，她解释说，实际上什么都不做，打个盹是反文化的——因此违背了正常的思维方式。Finn That's why she is trying to change – or disrupt – our current work ethic of working longer and harder. She believes this doesn't necessarily bring better results. But Rob, is this idea just a fad – something that's popular for a short while?芬恩: 这就是为什么她试图改变——或者说颠覆——我们目前工作时间更长、更努力的工作理念。 她认为这并不一定会带来更好的结果。 但是罗布，这个想法只是一种时尚——只是流行了一时的东西吗？Rob Maybe, but research has certainly shown that good quantity and quality of sleep is important for our wellbeing. A few years ago research by the East of England Development Agency found 30% of people have their best ideas in bed compared to just 11% who have them at their desk. It called for companies to install beds in the workplace.罗布: 也许吧，但研究确实表明，良好的睡眠时间和质量对我们的健康很重要。 几年前，英格兰东部发展署的一项研究发现，30% 的人将自己最好的想法放在床上，而只有 11% 的人把这些想法放在办公桌上。 它呼吁公司在工作场所安装床。Finn Well, there aren't any in our office yet Rob. I think putting beds or areas for naps in the office would help us workers feel more able to rest and recharge our minds.芬恩: 好吧，我们办公室还没有人，罗布。 我认为在办公室里放置床或小憩区可以帮助我们的员工感觉更容易休息和恢复精力。Rob An alternative idea would be to change our working hours. The UK's Sleep Council claims the nine-to-five w

Finn Thank you! Thank you sound effects! Thank you, Neil! Is this all for me? I feel like quite a celebrity!               芬恩 谢谢你！ 谢谢音效！ 谢谢你，尼尔！ 这一切都是为了我吗？ 我感觉自己真是个名人啊！Neil Yes, a celebrity – someone famous - particularly someone in show business, that's the world of entertainment, theatre and film. Today we're talking about fame, and teaching you some related vocabulary.尼尔 是的，名人——著名的人——尤其是演艺界的人，这就是娱乐、戏剧和电影的世界。 今天我们谈论的是名气，并教给大家一些相关的词汇。Finn Yes. Some celebrities are famous for their talent, which means by their ability to do something well, like singing, acting or telling jokes …芬恩 是的。 有些名人因其才华而闻名，这意味着他们有能力做好某件事，例如唱歌、表演或讲笑话……Neil And others are famous for… well, for being famous or being associated with someone who is. The names Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian come to mind: wealthy women with their own TV shows. But, talking about celebrity, let me ask you a question.尼尔 其他人则因……嗯，因出名或与出名的人有联系而出名。 我想到了帕丽斯·希尔顿和金·卡戴珊这两个名字：拥有自己的电视节目的富有女性。 但是，说到名人，让我问你一个问题。Finn Actually Neil, only if you play that lovely applause again.  Go on Neil!芬恩 事实上，尼尔，只要你再次响起那可爱的掌声。 尼尔加油！Neil I knew you would love this. Right. Here it goes.尼尔 我知道你会喜欢这个。 正确的。 就这样吧。Finn Yes! Anyway, Neil... I can give you my autograph later…芬恩 是的！ 不管怎样，尼尔……我稍后可以给你签名……Neil You mean signature? An autograph is the signature of a famous person, Finn. Fans collect these and things like photographs.尼尔 你说签名？ 亲笔签名是名人芬恩的签名。 粉丝们收集这些东西以及照片之类的东西。Finn Yes, we call things like those memorabilia.芬恩 是的，我们称这些东西为纪念品。Neil For example, Michael Jackson's leather glove with shiny crystals - it became very famous in the 1980s when he presented his moonwalk to the world. How much was it sold for at auction in 2009? Was it: 尼尔 例如，迈克尔·杰克逊 (Michael Jackson) 的带有闪亮水晶的皮手套 - 在 20 世纪 80 年代，当他向全世界展示他的太空步时，它就变得非常出名。 2009年的拍卖会上，它卖了多少钱？ 是：a) US$ 150,000b) US$ 250,000 orc)US$ 350,000Finn I think Michael Jackson has some big fans in the world so I'll say c) US$ 350,000.芬恩 我认为迈克尔·杰克逊在世界上有一些忠实的粉丝，所以我会说 c) 350,000 美元。Neil Okay. I'll give you the answer at the end of the programme.尼尔 好的。 我会在节目结束时给你答案。Finn So the idea of celebrity seems very modern in some ways – does it have a long history?芬恩 因此，名人的观念在某些方面似乎非常现代——它有悠久的历史吗？Neil Well, Lord Byron, a very famous English poet born in 1788, is considered by some experts to be the world's first modern-style celebrity. Let's hear Dr Corin Throsby, English Literature researcher at Cambridge University.尼尔 那么，拜伦勋爵，一位非常著名的英国诗人，出生于1788年，被一些专家认为是世界上第一位现代风格的名人。 让我们来听听剑桥大学英语文学研究员 Corin Throsby 博士的看法。Finn Why was Byron a celebrity?芬恩 拜伦为何成为名人？Neil Listen out for the noun she uses in the first sentence meaning a product, or something for sale.尼尔 仔细听她在第一句中使用的名词，意思是产品或待售物品。If we think of celebrity as the moment where someone's personality becomes a commodity. So, for Byron the fact that he was popular on this scale that had never been achieved before because his career had coincided with mass printing. But something more than that, that there was a sort of a secondary industry of Byron stuff, you know, that there were Byron neck ties, people wanted to look like Byron. There was this mass of people that loved him. He could no longer control his image. I think that's what separates celebrity from the fame that had preceded that.如果我们将名人视为某人的个性成为商品的时刻。 因此，对于拜伦来说，他的受欢迎程度是前所未有的，因为他的职业生涯恰逢大规模印刷。 但更重要的是，有一种拜伦的东西的第二产业，你知道，有拜伦的领带，人们想要看起来像拜伦。 有这么多人爱他。 他已经无法控制自己的形象了。 我认为这就是名人与之前的名气的区别。Finn So the noun was 'a commodity'. She said that when someone's personality becomes a product, that's when they turn into a celebrity. 芬恩 所以这个名词是“商品”。 她说，当一个人的个性成为一种产品时，他就成为了名人。Neil She talked of fame so big you can't control your own image – that's your reputation, the way other people think about you and imagine you. Someone interesting in this respect is Justin Bieber.尼尔 她谈到名气太大了，你无法控制自己的形象——这就是你的声誉，别人对你的看法和想象。 贾斯汀·比伯（Justin Bieber）在这方面很有趣。Finn Yeah. Are you a fan, Neil?是的，你是他的一个粉丝?Neil I'm a massive fan of Justin Bieber. I love him.尼尔 我是贾斯汀·比伯的超级粉丝。 我爱他。Finn I believe you.芬恩 我相信你。Neil He's a big name and he's always in the newspapers. His fans are called 'Beliebers'…尼尔 他是个大人物，总是出现在报纸上。 他的粉丝被称为“Beliebers”……Finn and Byron's fans were called 'Byron maniacs'. That's the name his wife gave his adoring fans. Though she wasn't too happy about them.  芬恩 拜伦的粉丝被称为“拜伦狂人”。 这是他的妻子给他崇拜的粉丝起的名字。 虽然她对他们不太高兴。Neil Yes. Byron's life was full of scandals, actions which cause shock and disapproval among people.尼尔 是的。 拜伦的一生充满了丑闻，其行为引起了人们的震惊和不满。Finn And for Byron it was mainly his love life. He had affairs with men and women. 芬恩 对于拜伦来说，这主要是他的爱情生活。 他与男人和女人发生过关系。Neil For Justin Bieber it's about his behaviour. He was accused of d

The first few months of 2023 were pretty unexceptional in terms of global temperatures. That changed in July when the world began a remarkable and almost unbroken streak of daily air temperature records.2023年头几个月的全球气温并无值得关注之处。但从7月起，这一情况发生了变化：全球平均气温几乎连续打破了往年同日的纪录，令人震惊。More than 200 days set new daily global temperature records, according to BBC analysis of the data from the EU climate organisation Copernicus. Two days in November were more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That is another first and there's unlikely to be any respite this year. The Met Office said today there's a good chance 2024 will be even hotter than 2023. 根据英国广播公司对欧盟气候监测机构哥白尼气候变化服务局的数据分析，创下新的日全球平均气温纪录的天数超过了200天。11月有两天的气温比工业化前水平高出了2摄氏度多，这是首次出现如此高的升幅，且升温趋势在今年不太有可能缓和。英国气象局今日表示，2024年很有可能会比2023年更热。 词汇表unexceptional 普通的，平常无奇的in terms of 从…方面，就…而言remarkable 引人注目的，惊人的unbroken streak 连续的一段时间air temperature 气温pre-industrial levels 工业化前水平a first 首次respite 缓和，暂缓

Cotton or plastic: which kind of bag is better for the environment? Many of us would naturally say that the cotton bag is best, but that might only be true if you use that bag thousands of times. Surprised? Keep listening and we'll explain. 棉质或塑料：哪种袋子更环保？ 我们中的许多人自然会说棉质袋子是最好的，但只有当您使用该袋子数千次时，这才可能是正确的。 惊讶吗？ 继续听，我们会解释。 There is no doubt that plastic is damaging for the environment in many ways. Producing it can cause toxins to be released into the atmosphere. It's used in great quantities and often disposed of after a single use, meaning even more then needs to be produced. Thrown-away plastic can sit in landfill sites for centuries, or alternatively can contaminate the sea causing harm to wildlife and breaking down into polluting microplastics. 毫无疑问，塑料在很多方面对环境造成损害。 生产它会导致毒素释放到大气中。 它的使用量很大，并且通常在使用一次后就被丢弃，这意味着需要生产更多的东西。 丢弃的塑料可能会在垃圾填埋场存放几个世纪，或者可能污染海洋，对野生动物造成伤害并分解成污染性的微塑料。Because of these factors, many people are looking for ways to reduce their plastic use. However, the picture is not straightforward. Let's return to our cotton bag. It's certainly more biodegradable than plastic, but this might be where the advantages end. The industrial production of cotton requires far more energy, along with water and pesticides. As the bags are heavier, transporting them will lead to higher carbon emissions. An article from Columbia University suggests that cotton shopping bags need to be used over 7,000 times before they are more sustainable than plastic ones. 由于这些因素，许多人正在寻找减少塑料使用的方法。 然而，情况并不简单。 让我们回到我们的棉布袋。 它肯定比塑料更容易生物降解，但这可能就是它的优势所在。 棉花的工业生产需要更多的能源、水和农药。 由于袋子较重，运输时会导致更高的碳排放。 哥伦比亚大学的一篇文章表明，棉质购物袋需要使用 7,000 次以上才能比塑料购物袋更具可持续性。It's not just about shopping bags. Lightweight plastic components in cars and planes help reduce fuel use and emissions. If we didn't use so much plastic in clothing and footwear, the amount of land, water and chemicals that would be needed to produce enough natural textiles and leather would be enormous. Researchers have been looking to see if carbon could be sequestered during the production of plastics, reducing the amount in the atmosphere. 这不仅仅是购物袋。 汽车和飞机中的轻质塑料部件有助于减少燃料使用和排放。 如果我们不在服装和鞋类中使用如此多的塑料，那么生产足够的天然纺织品和皮革所需的土地、水和化学品将是巨大的。 研究人员一直在寻找是否可以在塑料生产过程中封存碳，从而减少大气中的碳含量。 One other characteristic of plastic might actually be the key to this issue. The fact that plastic lasts for centuries is what causes much of the environmental harm, but it also means it can be used to make items that can be re-used again and again. The problem is that we often don't. Plastic can cause serious harm to the environment, and efforts to throw less of it away can reduce this. Re-using it more could be one way to achieve this. 塑料的另一个特性实际上可能是解决这个问题的关键。 塑料可以使用几个世纪的事实是造成大部分环境危害的原因，但这也意味着它可以用来制造可以一次又一次重复使用的物品。 问题是我们常常不这样做。 塑料会对环境造成严重危害，努力减少塑料垃圾的丢弃可以减少这种危害。 更多地重复使用它可能是实现这一目标的一种方法。 词汇表environment 自然环境toxin 毒素atmosphere 大气dispose of 扔掉，处理thrown-away 丢弃的landfill 垃圾填埋场contaminate 污染，毒害microplastic 微塑料biodegradable 可降解的carbon emission 碳排放sustainable 可持续的，不破坏环境的plastic components 塑料零件textile 纺织物sequester 封存harm 危害

It is early morning on a sunny spring day in April. Heathrow Airport, London, is busy, as usual. Hundreds of people are arriving, leaving, or waiting for planes. In the departure Lounge of Terminal One, a man is sitting reading a newspaper. 这是四月一个阳光明媚的春日清晨。伦敦希思罗机场一如既往地繁忙。数百人正在抵达、离开或等待飞机。在一号航站楼的候机室里，一名男子正坐着看报纸。He doesn't like airports. There are too many people, and he is always nervous when he flies. He looks at his watch impatiently. Then he hears the announcement over the loudspeakers.他不喜欢机场。人太多了，坐飞机的时候他总是紧张。他不耐烦地看了看手表。然后他通过扩音器听到了公告。'British Airways announces the departure of Flight BE570 for Istanbul. Will passengers please proceed to Gate 16 for boarding.' Tom Smith picks up his suitcase and walks towards Gate 16. 英国航空宣布 BE570 航班飞往伊斯坦布尔。请旅客前往16号登机口登机。汤姆·史密斯拿起行李箱，朝 16 号登机口走去。Twenty minutes later, the plane is preparing to leave. It moves slowly across the airport to runway number two. Tom is sitting looking out of the window. The plane suddenly moves forward, races down the runway and rises into the air.二十分钟后，飞机准备起飞。它缓慢地穿过机场到达二号跑道。汤姆坐在那儿看着窗外。飞机突然向前移动，冲下跑道，升到空中。Tom looks down at the houses and roads far below, and smiles. London is behind him. Now he is on his way to Istanbul. Tom relaxed and took a letter from his pocket. Resat Bey Apt 11-3, Kamerot Sokak, Ayazpasa, Istanbul.汤姆低头看着下面远处的房屋和道路，微笑着。伦敦在他身后。现在他正在前往伊斯坦布尔的路上。汤姆放松下来，从口袋里拿出一封信。 Resat Bey Apt 11-3, Kamerot Sokak, 阿亚兹帕夏, 伊斯坦布尔。My dear Tom, Thank you for your letter. I am so happy that you can come and visit me for a holiday. Life here in Istanbul is very interesting. I am enjoying my work, but I miss you very much. It will be wonderful to see you again. I'm sure we will have a very nice holiday. Spring is here, and the weather is beautiful. I have to work on Monday 14th of April, the day you arrive. So I can't come to the airport to meet you, but you can take a taxi from the Air Terminal to Taksim Square.我亲爱的汤姆，谢谢你的来信。我很高兴你能来看我度假。伊斯坦布尔的生活非常有趣。我很享受我的工作，但我非常想念你。再次见到你真是太好了。我相信我们会度过一个非常愉快的假期。春天来了，气候宜人。我必须在 4 月 14 日星期一上班，也就是你到达的那天。所以我不能来机场接你，但你可以从航站楼乘出租车到塔克西姆广场。That's in the centre of the new part of the city. There's a big hotel called the Park Hotel near the square. I'll meet you there at 5 O'clock. We'll meet in the American Bar. The view over the city is beautiful. I can't wait to see you again, Tom. I have so much to tell you. So remember, the Park Hotel, Taksim Sqaure, 5 O'clock. See you on the 14th. Love, Angela.那是在城市新区的中心。广场附近有一家大酒店，叫公园酒店。我五点钟在那里见你。我们将在美国酒吧见面。城市的景色很美丽。我迫不及待地想再次见到你，汤姆。我有很多话要告诉你。所以请记住，公园酒店，塔克西姆广场，5 点钟。 14 号见。爱你，安吉拉。Tom sat for a moment, looking at his fiance's letter. Then he put it in his pocket. He looked down the green fields of France, as the plane continued its journey across Europe. 'Have you been to Istanbul before?' said a voice. It was the young man in the next seat. 'No, I haven't,' said Tome. 'Have you?'The man smiled. 'My home is in Istanbul. I'm studying in London at the moment. I'm going home for a holiday.' 'Really?' said Tom. 'Where are you studying?' 'At London University.' The two men sat talking, as the stewardesses began serving lunch.汤姆坐了一会儿，看着未婚夫的信。然后他把它放进口袋里。当飞机继续穿越欧洲的旅程时，他俯视着法国的绿色田野。 “你以前去过伊斯坦布尔吗？”一个声音说道。正是邻座的年轻人。 “不，我没有，”托梅说。 '你？'The young man told Tom his name was Kemal. His parents had a shop in Istanbul. 'Are you meeting someone in Istanbul?' Kemal asked. 'My fiance,' said Tom. 'She's working in Istanbul.' 'That's interesting. How long has she been there?' 年轻人告诉汤姆他的名字叫凯末尔。他的父母在伊斯坦布尔有一家商店。 “你在伊斯坦布尔见某人吗？”凯末尔问道。 “我的未婚夫，”汤姆说。 “她在伊斯坦布尔工作。” '那很有意思。她在那里多久了？She went to Istanbul two months ago. She works for a small company which is starting to export to England. She's making all the arrangements.' 'Exporting always seems so difficult,' said Kemal. 'It seems difficult,' Tom agreed. 'But that's Angela's job. She's an expert in importing and exporting. Her father has an import/export agency in London and she has worked for him for some years. She's almost completed her work in Istanbul now. The company has already started to send goods to England. She'll be coming back to London soon.'两个月前她去了伊斯坦布尔。她在一家小公司工作，该公司开始向英国出口。她正在做所有的安排。 “出口似乎总是那么困难，”凯末尔说。 “这似乎很难，”汤姆同意道。 “但那是安吉拉的工作。”她是进出口方面的专家。她的父亲在伦敦有一家进出口机构，她已经为他工作了几年。她现在几乎完成了在伊斯坦布尔的工作。该公司已经开始向英国发送货物。她很快就会回到伦敦。

At first look, the playground at the Children's Guild-Transformation Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, looks like any other. It has swings, slides, and places for children to climb and crawl. 乍一看，马里兰州巴尔的摩儿童协会转型学院的游乐场与其他游乐场没什么两样。里面有秋千、滑梯，还有供孩子们攀爬和爬行的地方。But the playground is not just a place for fun. It is also a place where students can learn, grow and gain independence. Everything — from the kind of surface it sits on, to the color of its sitting areas, to the placement of the surrounding fence — is specifically designed for kids with autism. 但游乐场不仅仅是一个玩耍的地方。它也是学生学习、成长和获得独立的地方。从它所处的表面类型，到休息区的颜色，再到周围围栏的位置，一切都是专门为自闭症儿童设计的。 Mark Rapaport is the managing director of autism services at the Transformation Academy. He told VOA Learning English the school accepts students aged 5 to 21 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are lower-functioning. 马克·拉帕波特 (Mark Rapaport) 是转型学院自闭症服务部的总经理。他告诉美国之音学习英语，学校招收 5 至 21 岁患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 且功能较低的学生。 “None of our kids will ever drive,” Rapaport said. “None of our kids will ever live fully independently ... None of our kids graduate high school.” “我们的孩子都不会开车，”拉帕波特说。“我们的孩子都不会完全独立生活......我们的孩子都没有高中毕业。”Rapaport said the goal of Transformation Academy is to make the students as independent as possible in an effort to help them prepare for adult life. The school aims to provide help with developing communication and social skills, as well as practical abilities like cleaning or cooking. 拉帕波特说，转型学院的目标是让学生尽可能独立，帮助他们为成年生活做好准备。学校旨在帮助培养沟通和社交技能，以及清洁或烹饪等实践能力。 “And learning through play is a big deal,” Rapaport said. “The classroom is great. But it's [things like play] that’s at the heart of the mission, which is building independence and getting them to be able to go into the adult world.” “通过玩耍学习是一件大事，”拉帕波特说。“教室很棒。但[像玩耍这样的事情]才是我们使命的核心，即建立独立性并让他们能够进入成人世界。” The playground, designed by Maryland company Sparks@Play, using structures manufactured by Landscape Structures, Inc., took months to develop, said Dan Hack. He works for Sparks@Play and helped lead the playground’s design. Hack said he and others spent weeks getting to know the students and understanding their needs before any building was started. The design process involved physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other specialists. The $500,000 project was funded with support from the state of Maryland and the nonprofit Orokawa Foundation. Dan Hack 表示，该游乐场由马里兰州 Sparks@Play 公司设计，采用 Landscape Structures, Inc. 制造的结构，花了数月时间开发。他在 Sparks@Play 工作并帮助领导游乐场的设计。哈克说，在任何建筑动工之前，他和其他人花了数周时间来了解学生并了解他们的需求。设计过程涉及物理治疗师、职业治疗师和其他专家。这个耗资 50 万美元的项目得到了马里兰州和非营利组织 Orokawa 基金会的支持。 Parts of the playground that seem small are very important for children with autism and other disabilities. The surrounding fence extends into a wooded area to make it seem more open. And the ground under the play areas is made of soft, but solid materials to support students using wheelchairs or crutches. 操场上看似很小的部分对于患有自闭症和其他残疾的儿童来说非常重要。周围的栅栏延伸到树木繁茂的区域，使其看起来更加开放。游乐区下方的地面由柔软但坚固的材料制成，可以支撑使用轮椅或拐杖的学生。 Instead of just one slide, there are two sitting side-by-side. That way, parents or teachers with older, larger students can go down the slide together with the kids. A spinning structure called the We-Go-Round has a place for kids with wheelchairs so they can also have fun. 不是只有一张幻灯片，而是两张并排的幻灯片。这样，有年龄较大、体型较大的学生的家长或老师就可以和孩子们一起滑下滑梯。一个名为 We-Go-Round 的旋转结构为坐轮椅的孩子提供了一个地方，这样他们也可以玩得开心。 The playground’s designers say a number of sensory elements are also included to help the students. Children with autism often have Sensory Processing Disorder, which makes them very sensitive to certain sounds or textures. 游乐场的设计师表示，其中还包括一些感官元素来帮助学生。自闭症儿童通常患有感觉处理障碍，这使他们对某些声音或纹理非常敏感。 The benches on the outside of the playground look simple from far away, but are “one of our most inclusive sensory” elements, Hack said. They have many different colors that bring about feelings of calm and curiosity. They are also made with smooth material that can be felt and moved. The academy's Rapaport said if a child starts to feel uneasy, they can sit down and feel the bench, which can help them relax. 哈克说，操场外面的长凳从远处看很简单，但它们是“我们最具包容性的感官”元素之一。它们有许多不同的颜色，带来平静和好奇的感觉。它们也由可以触摸和移动的光滑材料制成。该学院的拉帕波特说，如果孩子开始感到不安，他们可以坐下来感受长凳，这可以帮助他们放松。 There are also musical bells and large xylophones that produce calming sounds. An enclosed structure provides a place of peace and quiet if a student needs a break from play. 还有音乐铃和大型木琴，可以发出平静的声音。如果学生需要在玩耍中休息一下，封闭式结构可以提供一个安静的场所。

Okay, I think we should roll out of the window if we're gonna try and escape. Let's, let's get out of this apartment or this house completely.好吧，我想如果我们想逃跑的话就应该滚出窗外。让我们，让我们彻底离开这个公寓或者这个房子。So, I'm going to choose that as an option. The window is shut okay. Why did it give me that as an option when the window is shut?  Anyway, Let's, let's carry on, okay. You know what I'm gonna stay still, just blend in and see what happens.所以，我将选择它作为一个选项。窗户关着就好。为什么当窗口关闭时它给我这个选项？无论如何，让我们继续吧，好吧。你知道我会保持静止，只是融入其中，看看会发生什么。It says you were half right, Someone comes but they cut you up and turn you into lemon juice. Bad luck, oh, right, I suppose that means I'm dead already, already dead. But cut you up, cut you into pieces and then turn me into lemon juice.它说你只对了一半，有人来了，但他们把你切成了柠檬汁。运气不好，哦，对了，我想这意味着我已经死了，已经死了。但是把你切碎，把你切成碎片，然后把我变成柠檬汁。All right, let's try again. I think we know now,  then what the right option is to, to, to it's, to roll off the counter. Let's roll off, roll off of the counter or roll off the counter. It says you roll onto the floor. Thank God.好吧，我们再试一次。我想我们现在知道，正确的选择是什么，从柜台上滚下来。让我们滚下来，滚下柜台或滚下柜台。它说你滚到地板上。感谢上帝。It was a soft landing before you have time to wonder why someone would use carpet in a kitchen. You hear footsteps, okay. So we rolled off the counter onto the floor but we didn't splat on the floor. Apparently, it was a soft landing because for some reason there's carpet on the floor. So, apparently, land on the floor, huh , carpet on the floor and then suddenly we hear footsteps.在您有时间思考为什么有人会在厨房里使用地毯之前，这是一个软着陆。你听到脚步声了，好吧。所以我们从柜台上滚到地板上，但我们没有摔在地板上。显然，这是一次软着陆，因为出于某种原因，地板上铺着地毯。所以，显然，落在地板上，嗯，地毯落在地板上，然后突然我们听到脚步声。so someone is coming. Why would there be carpet in the kitchen?I don't know, maybe, this is, maybe, this is in England where there's carpet everywhere. Although to be honest, I've never ever heard of carpet in a kitchen, but um, okay.所以有人来了。厨房为什么要铺地毯？我不知道，也许，这是，也许，这是在英国，到处都是地毯。虽然说实话，我从来没有听说过厨房里有地毯，但是嗯，好吧。So someone is coming, what shall we do? Shall we roll to cover? Try to blend in or roll away? So it's a roll to cover. That means you roll to a place where you can hide behind something. 有人来了，我们该怎么办？我们要滚过去掩护吗？尝试融入还是滚开？所以这是一个需要覆盖的卷。这意味着你滚到一个可以躲在某物后面的地方。That's cover, try to blend in, just blend in is just be unnoticeable.If you blend in, it's just like you become part of the background. So no one can really notice you, you just, you don't stand out.那是掩护，试着融入进去，融入进去就不会被注意到。如果你融入进去，就好像你变成了背景的一部分。所以没有人能真正注意到你，你只是，你不引人注目。You just blend in, so we can try and blend in although I don't know how we could blend in as a lemon on the floor of a kitchen or we roll away. So you basically hide just stay still or roll away. I think if we, if we, try to blend in. That's not going to work, this person is going to probably find us and cut us up and turn us into lemon juice again.你只是融入其中，所以我们可以尝试融入，尽管我不知道我们如何才能像厨房地板上的柠檬一样融入，或者我们滚开。所以你基本上躲起来，保持不动或滚开。我想，如果我们，如果我们，试图融入其中。那是行不通的，这个人可能会找到我们，把我们切碎，然后再次把我们变成柠檬汁。So I'm not doing that, are we going to roll to cover or just simply roll away? I think if we roll away, it's going to be too obvious, the person's going to be like, huh, they're going to see a lemon just rolling away and surely then will be noticed.所以我不会那样做，我们是要滚到掩护还是干脆滚走？我认为如果我们滚开，那就太明显了，人们会说，嗯，他们会看到一个柠檬滚开，然后肯定会被注意到。So I'm going to roll to cover, let's hide. You roll under a kitchen counter. As a human enters the room, he looks around locates a cutting board and starts preparing a fruit salad. uh, oh, you could leave while they are distracted or you could try to stop this fruit Massacre before it starts.所以我要翻身去掩护，让我们躲起来。你滚到厨房柜台下。当一个人进入房间时，他环顾四周，找到一块切菜板，然后开始准备水果沙拉。呃，哦，你可以趁他们分心的时候离开，或者你可以在这场水果大屠杀开始之前尝试阻止。Okay, so what are we going to do? So the guy is about to chop up some of our friends, some other fruits. So what are we going to do? Roll out, roll out of the room or try and stop this guy from chopping up our friends?好吧，那么我们要做什么？那家伙正准备切碎我们的一些朋友，还有其他一些水果。那么我们要做什么呢？滚出去，滚出房间，还是试图阻止这个家伙砍伤我们的朋友？Well,as a lemon I wonder what we could do, maybe we could squeeze some juice into his eyes, but I don't know what else we could do. I think we should probably escape while we can, so I'm going to roll out, roll out of the room as you leave the kitchen.好吧，作为一个柠檬，我想知道我们能做什么，也许我们可以挤一些果汁到他的眼睛里，但我不知道我们还能做什么。我想我们应该尽可能地逃跑，所以当你离开厨房时，我要滚出房间。You hear the tortured screams of the other fruit being diced finely, oh God. Horrific, so the other fruits are being diced if you dice fruit. You turn it into little cubes, you dice some onions, for example, or dice some carrots or dice some fruit for a fruit salad. 你听到其他水果被精细切丁时发出的痛苦尖叫声，天哪。太可怕了，所以如果你把水果切成丁，其他水果也会被切成丁。你把它切成小方块，例如，将一些洋葱切成丁，或者将一些胡萝卜切成丁，或者将一些水果切成丁来制作水果沙拉。Cut it into little cubes. So, oh, God! Our friends are being massacred back in the kitchen. Uh, You feel guilt for a brief second.把它切成小方块。所以，天啊！我们的朋友在厨房里被屠

About seven years ago, I got an invitation to attend a dinner party at my cousin's house.I have a pretty large family and I had never actually seen this particular cousin before.I had only ever spoken to him on the phone.大约七年前，我收到邀请参加我表弟家的晚宴。我有一个相当大的家庭，我以前从未真正见过这个表弟。我只和他通过电话。I was surprised that his family unexpectedly invited me over, but I was curious to finally meet them. The invitation had an address that I didn't know and the GPS was unfamiliar with it too. It was in one of those areas where Google Maps doesn't work properly because of poor phone reception.我很惊讶他的家人竟然邀请我过来，但我很好奇终于能见到他们了。 邀请函上有一个我不知道的地址，GPS 也不熟悉它。 这是谷歌地图因电话信号不佳而无法正常工作的地区之一。So I had to use an old-fashioned paper map. I marked the location on the map, tried to get a sense of where I was headed, and set off in my car. As I was driving, I started to notice how far I'd travelled into the countryside, away from civilization.所以我不得不使用老式的纸质地图。 我在地图上标记了位置，试图了解自己要去的地方，然后开车出发。 当我开车的时候，我开始注意到我已经进入了远离文明社会的乡村。I saw trees, farms and fields passing by. Just trees, farms, and fields, and more trees, more farms and more fields. "Where the hell am I going?" I thought to myself. I'd never ventured out so far in that direction before.我看到树木、农场和田野经过。 只有树木、农场和田野，还有更多的树木、更多的农场和更多的田野。 “我到底要去哪里？” 我心想。 我以前从未在这个方向上冒险过这么远。I drove for quite a long time, trying to locate the address I had marked on the map. The thing is, in this area, a lot of the roads don't have names, or the names aren't clearly marked by road signs. I just had to try to match the layout of the streets, to the layout I could see on the map.我开了很长时间的车，试图找到我在地图上标记的地址。 问题是，在这个地区，很多道路没有名称，或者路标上没有清楚地标出名称。 我只需要尝试将街道的布局与我在地图上看到的布局相匹配。I finally found a place at a location that looked like the one I had noted on my map.I was pretty sure this was pretty sure that this was the right spot. so I parked and got out of the car. Approaching the house, I noticed how dull and dreary it looked. 我终于在一个看起来像我在地图上标注的位置的地方找到了一个地方。我非常确定这是正确的地点。 所以我停车并下了车。 走近房子，我发现它看起来多么沉闷和沉闷。It was completely covered in leaves, branches and overgrown trees. "This can't be it." I said to myself. But as soon as I walked onto the rocky driveway my aunt and uncle came out to greet me. They seemed excited and welcoming.它完全被树叶、树枝和杂草丛生的树木覆盖。 “不可能是这样。” 我对自己说。 但当我走进岩石车道时，我的姨妈和叔叔出来迎接我。 他们看起来很兴奋，也很热情。"Hello! Hello! Come in! Come in!" they said, beckoning me inside. Walking into the house, I asked where my cousin was.  Answering immediately one of them said, "Oh, he just went to run a few errands. He should be back later."“喂！喂！请进！请进！” 他们一边说，一边示意我进去。 走进屋子，我问表弟在哪里。 其中一人立即接话：“哦，他只是出去办点事，应该一会儿就回来了。”I waited in their kitchen and we spent a couple of hours talking about my mother and my family.  My aunt made a delicious homemade pot roast that I finished off in minutes. After dinner we played an enduring game of Uno. It was surprisingly fun and competitive. My aunt in particular seemed delighted to be playing.我在他们的厨房里等着，我们花了几个小时谈论我的母亲和我的家人。 我阿姨做了一道美味的自制炖肉，我几分钟就吃完了。 晚餐后，我们玩了一场持久的乌诺游戏。 这是令人惊讶的有趣和有竞争力的。 我姨妈似乎特别高兴能玩。When we finished the game of Uno. It was almost dark and there was still no sign of my cousin. My aunt and uncle assured me that he'd be back anytime soon. Despite what they said, I decided that I had to leave.当我们完成《Uno》游戏时。 天已经快黑了，仍然没有表弟的踪影。 我的姑妈和叔叔向我保证他很快就会回来。 不管他们怎么说，我还是决定必须离开。It was almost dark outside and I knew it would be a nightmare to find my way out of this dreadful place after sunset, with no streetlights or road signs. As my GPS just wasn't working, I asked my aunt and uncle the most efficient way to get to the highway. They gave me a puzzled look.外面几乎天黑了，我知道日落后要找到离开这个没有路灯或路标的可怕地方的路将是一场噩梦。 由于我的 GPS 坏了，我向叔叔阿姨询问了到达高速公路最有效的路线。 他们向我投去疑惑的表情。"But, we thought you were staying the night?" they said. I told them I couldn't because I had work the next day and couldn't afford to miss another day. "It's much better if you leave tomorrow morning. Trust us. You'll get lost" they said. I shrugged it off and told them not to worry, "Don't worry. I've got a pretty good sense of direction. I could find my way out of the Sahara desert." I told them.“但是，我们以为你会留下来过夜？” 他们说。 我告诉他们我不能，因为我第二天还有工作，不能再错过一天。 “如果你明天早上离开会好得多。相信我们。你会迷路的”他们说。 我耸耸肩，告诉他们不要担心，“别担心，我的方向感很好，我能找到离开撒哈拉沙漠的路。” 我告诉了他们。Looking aggravated, they strongly advised me to stay the night for my own sake. Their body language was weird too as they became more serious and insistent. My uncle stood shaking his head, and my aunt began to move about the place, picking up a set of keys to unlock what I assume was a spare bedroom.他们看起来很恼怒，强烈建议我为了自己好就留下来过夜。 他们的肢体语言也很奇怪，他们变得更加严肃和坚持。 我叔叔站在那里摇着头，我姑妈开始在这个地方走动，拿起一套钥匙打开我认为是一间备用卧室的门。At this point I was getting annoyed and irritable. I sighed, "Fine, I'll stay the night then, but I have to get up very early for work." I said. Both of them seemed strangely ecstatic that I was staying the night. As soon as they went out of the room to get bed sheets and pillows, I ran out of the door, got in my car and hastily pulled away.此时我感到恼怒和烦躁。 我叹了口气，“好吧，那

The American space agency NASA is preparing to test a new supersonic airplane that could help establish a new generation of superfast aircraft. 美国宇航局美国宇航局正准备测试一种新型超音速飞机，这可能有助于建立新一代超高速飞机。 The new aircraft is called X-59, and it was built in partnership with American defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The experimental plane is part of a NASA project, or mission, called Quesst. 这架新飞机被称为 X-59，是与美国国防承包商洛克希德·马丁公司合作建造的。这架实验飞机是 NASA 名为 Quest 的项目或任务的一部分。 The mission aims to collect data in the United States on the level of noise produced by supersonic travel. Supersonic describes a vehicle that travels faster than the speed of sound: about 1,235 kilometers an hour. 该任务的目的是在美国收集有关超音速旅行产生的噪音水平的数据。Supersonic 描述了一种行驶速度超过音速的车辆：每小时约 1,235 公里。 The data Quesst gathers could lead U.S. officials to change rules that currently ban supersonic flights over land. NASA says the X-59 was developed to reduce the loudness of the sonic boom it produces when breaking the sound barrier to very low levels heard on the ground. Quest 收集的数据可能会导致美国官员改变目前禁止超音速陆地飞行的规则。NASA 表示，X-59 的开发目的是为了将突破音障时产生的音爆音量降低到地面上能听到的非常低的水平。 A few U.S. companies are exploring ways to restart supersonic passenger travel for the first time since 2003. That is the year the Concorde aircraft stopped flying. The Concorde was the world’s first supersonic passenger jet. It was operated jointly by Britain and France. 一些美国公司正在探索自 2003 年以来首次重启超音速客运旅行的方法。那一年协和式飞机停止飞行。协和式飞机是世界上第一架超音速客机。它是由英国和法国联合经营的。The Concorde flew at speeds more than twice the speed of sound, British Airways explained. This meant it could travel from London to New York in about three-and-a-half hours. The same flight took about eight hours with normal passenger jets. 英国航空公司解释说，协和式飞机的飞行速度是音速的两倍以上。这意味着它可以在大约三个半小时内从伦敦飞往纽约。使用普通客机执行同一航班大约需要八个小时。 The new supersonic planes being developed make less noise and use less fuel than the Concorde. But manufacturers are under pressure from environmental groups and airports to meet the same noise and carbon emission limits as traditional planes.正在开发的新型超音速飞机比协和式飞机噪音更低，使用的燃料也更少。但制造商面临着来自环保组织和机场的压力，要求其达到与传统飞机相同的噪音和碳排放限制。 NASA and Lockheed Martin recently showed off the X-59 plane during an event in Palmdale, California. 美国宇航局和洛克希德·马丁公司最近在加利福尼亚州帕姆代尔举行的一次活动中展示了 X-59 飞机。 At the ceremony, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy called the development of the supersonic aircraft a “major accomplishment.” She noted that members of the NASA and Lockheed Martin teams had worked hard to take the X-59 from an idea to reality “in just a few years.” 在仪式上，美国宇航局副局长帕姆·梅尔罗伊称超音速飞机的开发是一项“重大成就”。她指出，NASA 和洛克希德·马丁公司团队的成员经过艰苦努力，“在短短几年内”将 X-59 从一个想法变成了现实。Melroy added her hope that the X-59 “will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time.” 梅尔罗伊补充说，她希望 X-59“将有助于改变我们的旅行方式，让我们在更短的时间内更加紧密地联系在一起。” The aircraft measures 30 meters long and nine meters wide. NASA said in a press release that the X-59 is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound, or about 1,500 kilometers per hour. The aircraft’s design, shape and technologies will permit it to reach high speeds while producing “a quieter sonic thump,” the agency explained. 该飞机长 30 米，宽 9 米。NASA在一份新闻稿中表示，X-59预计将以1.4倍音速飞行，即每小时约1500公里。该机构解释说，该飞机的设计、形状和技术将使其能够达到高速，同时产生“更安静的声音重击”。 The X-59 has not yet completed a test flight. But NASA officials have said they expect that to happen sometime this year. The team will be carrying out other tests in the coming months, including instrument experiments, fast engine runs and ground testing. X-59尚未完成试飞。但美国宇航局官员表示，他们预计这将在今年某个时候发生。该团队将在未来几个月内进行其他测试，包括仪器实验、发动机快速运行和地面测试。 Once the aircraft has been cleared to fly, it will be deployed to several cities across the U.S. to collect data on the sounds the plane produces and how people on the ground react to the noise. 一旦飞机获准飞行，它将被部署到美国多个城市，以收集有关飞机产生的声音以及地面上的人们对噪音如何反应的数据。 

Just outside of Cardiff, archaeologists have unearthed a cemetery they think is about 1,500 years old.就在卡迪夫城外，考古学家们发现了一座墓地，他们认为这座墓地大约有1500年的历史。The graves contain well-preserved skeletons, giving an insight into a medieval community. Worn teeth on some of the bodies, for example, suggest people crafting with leather or textiles, pulling these materials through their front teeth as they worked.这座墓地中的坟墓里埋有保存完好的骨骼，让人们得以深入了解中世纪的社区群体。例如，一些遗骸上被磨损的牙齿表明人们曾使用皮革或纺织品进行手工制作，并且在工作时用门牙拉扯这些材料。There have also been some unusual discoveries – shards of glass from France, pottery from North Africa and tiny pegs, possibly for some sort of gaming board. It suggests people were coming to the cemetery to meet up – eating and drinking amidst the graves.考古学家们也收获了一些不寻常的发现——来自法国的玻璃碎片、来自北非的陶器和可能用于某种游戏板上的游戏钉。这表明当时人们可能是在墓地聚会吃喝。The team hopes further research and DNA analysis will reveal more about who these people were.该考古团队希望进一步的研究和 DNA 分析能揭示更多关于埋葬在这里的人的信息。词汇表archaeologists 考古学家unearthed 出土的，被发现cemetery 墓地graves 坟墓worn 磨损的crafting 手工制作shards 碎片pegs 钉gaming board 游戏棋盘meet up 聚会，会面

Of all the creatures on the planet, the narwhal is one of the strangest looking. It's a whale which has a large protruding tusk coming out of its head; that's how it got its nickname, the unicorn of the sea. They live in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Canada, Russia and East Greenland. However, experts say some populations of narwhal could be extinct by 2025, and it's all because of noise pollution. 在地球上的所有生物中，独角鲸是长相最奇怪的一种。这是一头鲸鱼，头上长着一根巨大的、突出的獠牙。这就是它的绰号“海上独角兽”的由来。它们生活在加拿大、俄罗斯和东格陵兰海岸附近的北冰洋。然而，专家表示，到 2025 年，一些独角鲸种群可能会灭绝，而这一切都是因为噪音污染。 Narwhals rely on echolocation, which they use to find food and navigate their surroundings. The animal produces a sound wave which bounces off an object. They pick this reflected sound up through their lower jaw, and information on features like size and speed passes to their ears. 独角鲸依靠回声定位来寻找食物和导航周围环境。动物产生一种从物体上反射回来的声波。它们通过下颌拾取反射的声音，并将有关尺寸和速度等特征的信息传递到它们的耳朵。 However, increase in human marine activity, as well as climate change, has resulted in the Arctic Ocean becoming noisier, which means it's more difficult for narwhals to rely on sound. Susanna Blackwell, who studies the effects of underwater noise on marine animals, told the BBC that there is noisier activity in the Arctic Ocean than ever because, as sea ice melts, new navigation routes are opening. And while icebergs breaking and creaking have been part of the ocean soundscape for hundreds of years, man-made noise is much harder for animals to adapt to, particularly as these changes are so sudden. 然而，人类海洋活动的增加以及气候变化导致北冰洋变得更加嘈杂，这意味着独角鲸更难以依赖声音。研究水下噪音对海洋动物影响的苏珊娜·布莱克韦尔（Susanna Blackwell）告诉英国广播公司（BBC），北冰洋的噪音活动比以往任何时候都更加激烈，因为随着海冰融化，新的航行路线正在开辟。虽然冰山破裂和吱吱作响数百年来一直是海洋声景的一部分，但人造噪音对动物来说更难以适应，特别是因为这些变化是如此突然。 Research published in Science Advances in 2023 recorded the reactions of narwhals to the simulated noises of oil expeditions made by a patrol vessel. The scientists tagged and tracked the creatures and found that, on hearing these sounds, they ended deep dives and stopped clicking, the echolocation signal they use for finding food underwater. This is the same reaction narwhals have to orcas, who hunt them, meaning human-made noise could trigger the creature's 'threat button'. 2023 年《科学进展》上发表的研究记录了独角鲸对巡逻船模拟石油探险噪音的反应。科学家们对这些生物进行了标记和追踪，结果发现，当它们听到这些声音时，它们就会停止深潜并停止滴答声，这是它们用来在水下寻找食物的回声定位信号。这与独角鲸对猎杀它们的逆戟鲸的反应相同，这意味着人为噪音可能会触发该生物的“威胁按钮”。 So, what can we do? Charlotte Findlay, a postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University, says "noise is actually quite easy to solve. We need to either turn it off or turn it down." 所以，我们能做些什么？奥胡斯大学博士后研究员夏洛特·芬德利表示：“噪音实际上很容易解决。我们需要要么将其关闭，要么将其调低。” 词汇表narwhal 一角鲸protruding 突出的，鼓出来的tusk （动物的）长牙unicorn of the sea 海洋独角兽extinct 灭绝的echolocation （动物的）回声定位bounce off 从…反弹lower jaw 下颌骨marine activity 海洋活动marine animals 海洋动物navigation route 航线soundscape 声景adapt to 适应tag 标记，给动物植入定位芯片track 跟踪deep dive 深潜click （鲸鱼等动物）发出短而尖的声音orca 虎鲸hunt 捕猎

The average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of very small plastic known as nanoplastics, a recent study says. 最近的一项研究表明，每升瓶装水中平均含有近 25 万个看不见的非常小的塑料，即纳米塑料。 Researchers found the nanoplastics with a microscope using dual lasers. 研究人员用双激光显微镜发现了纳米塑料。 Scientists long figured there were lots of these very small plastic pieces. But until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations, they never knew how many or what kind. 科学家们长期以来一直认为有很多这样的非常小的塑料碎片。 但在哥伦比亚大学和罗格斯大学的研究人员进行计算之前，他们永远不知道有多少或是什么种类。 Looking at five samples each of three common bottled water brands, researchers found particle levels ranged from 110,000 to 400,000 per liter. The average was around 240,000, the study said. The research appeared recently in the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 研究人员对三个常见瓶装水品牌各五个样本进行了观察，发现颗粒物含量在每升 110,000 至 400,000 个之间。 研究称，平均人数约为 240,000 人。 这项研究最近发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。 Nanoparticles are particles that are less than a micron in size. In comparison, a human hair is about 83 microns wide. 纳米颗粒是尺寸小于一微米的颗粒。 相比之下，人类头发的宽度约为 83 微米。 Previous studies have looked at slightly bigger microplastics that range from 5 millimeters, which could be seen by human eyes, to one micron. About 10 to 100 times more nanoplastics than microplastics were discovered in bottled water, the study found. 之前的研究关注的是稍大的微塑料，范围从人眼可见的 5 毫米到 1 微米。 研究发现，瓶装水中发现的纳米塑料比微塑料多约 10 至 100 倍。Much of the plastic seems to be coming from the bottle and the filtration system to clean the water itself, said the study’s lead writer Naixin Qian of Columbia University. 该研究的主要作者、哥伦比亚大学的钱乃新表示，大部分塑料似乎来自瓶子和过滤系统，以净化水本身。 She would not name the three brands because researchers want more samples and they want to study more brands. Still, she said they were common and bought at a Walmart, a popular store in the U.S. 她不会说出这三个品牌的名字，因为研究人员想要更多样本，他们想要研究更多品牌。 不过，她说它们很常见，是在美国一家受欢迎的沃尔玛商店购买的。 Researchers still cannot answer the big question: Are those nanoplastic pieces harmful to health? 研究人员仍然无法回答这个大问题：这些纳米塑料碎片对健康有害吗？ “That’s currently under review. We don’t know if it’s dangerous or how dangerous,” said study co-writer Phoebe Stapleton of Rutgers University. “We do know that they are getting into the tissues (of mammals, including people) … and the current research is looking at what they’re doing in the cells.” “目前正在审查中。 我们不知道它是否危险或有多危险，”研究报告的合著者、罗格斯大学的菲比·斯特普尔顿说。 “我们确实知道它们正在进入（哺乳动物，包括人类）的组织……目前的研究正在研究它们在细胞中的作用。” The International Bottled Water Association said in a statement: “There currently is both a lack of standardized (measuring) methods and no scientific” agreement on the possible health effects of nano- and microplastic particles. The statement added, “Therefore, media reports about these particles in drinking water do nothing more than unnecessarily scare consumers.” 国际瓶装水协会在一份声明中表示：“目前，对于纳米和微塑料颗粒可能对健康的影响，既缺乏标准化（测量）方法，也没有科学的”共识。 声明补充说，“因此，媒体关于饮用水中这些颗粒的报道只不过是不必要地吓唬消费者。” The American Chemistry Council, which represents plastics manufacturers, declined to immediately comment. 代表塑料制造商的美国化学理事会拒绝立即发表评论。 The Associated Press spoke with four co-writers of the study. All of them said they would cut back on their bottled water use. 美联社采访了该研究的四位合著者。 他们所有人都表示将减少瓶装水的使用。 Columbia chemist Wei Min said he has reduced his bottled water use by half. Stapleton said she now depends more on filtered water at home in New Jersey. 哥伦比亚化学家魏敏表示，他已将瓶装水的使用量减少了一半。 斯泰普尔顿说，她现在更多地依赖新泽西州家里的过滤水。 But study co-author Beizhan Yan, a Columbia environmental chemist who increased his tap water usage, pointed out that filters themselves can be a problem by introducing plastics. 但该研究的合著者、哥伦比亚环境化学家严北战（Beizhan Yan）增加了自来水的使用量，他指出，引入塑料后过滤器本身可能会成为一个问题。 “There’s just no win,” Stapleton said. “根本没有胜利，”斯台普顿说。 

Guinness World Records said on Tuesday that it has suspended and was re-examining its “world’s oldest dog” record. The publishing company had given the record to a Portuguese dog named Bobi, which died in October of last year. 吉尼斯世界纪录周二表示，已暂停并正在重新审查其“世界上最古老的狗”记录。出版公司将这张唱片交给了一只名叫波比的葡萄牙狗，这只狗于去年十月去世。 The move follows criticism from veterinarians who raised doubts about the dog’s age. 此举是在兽医对这只狗的年龄提出质疑的批评之后做出的。Bobi was a kind of dog called a Rafeiro do Alentejo. He spent his life in a village in Portugal. Guinness World Records said the animal lived for 32 years and 165 days. It broke a record held since 1939 by an Australian cattle-dog that died at 29 years and five months. 博比是一种名叫拉菲罗·杜·阿连特茹（Rafeiro do Alentejo）的狗。他在葡萄牙的一个村庄度过了一生。吉尼斯世界纪录称，这只动物活了32年零165天。它打破了澳大利亚牧牛犬自 1939 年以来保持的纪录，该牧牛犬在 29 岁零 5 个月时死亡。 Bobi was declared the world’s oldest dog in February. 今年二月，博比被宣布为世界上最古老的狗。Rafeiro do Alentejo are traditionally used to watch sheep. They have a normal life expectancy of 12 to 14 years. Rafeiro do Alentejo 传统上用于观看羊群。他们的正常预期寿命为 12 至 14 年。Guinness World Records (GWR) said the review into Bobi’s record was ongoing. The company added that it would re-examine evidence, seek new evidence, and reach out to experts and those linked to the application. 吉尼斯世界纪录（GWR）表示，对博比记录的审查正在进行中。该公司补充说，它将重新审查证据，寻求新证据，并联系专家和与该申请相关的人员。 "While our review is ongoing, we have decided to temporarily pause applications on both the record titles for oldest dog living and (oldest dog) ever until all of our findings are in place and have been communicated," the spokesperson said. 该发言人表示：“虽然我们的审查仍在进行中，但我们已决定暂时停止申请最长寿的狗和（最长寿的狗）纪录，直到我们的所有调查结果到位并已传达为止。” Bobi's owner, Leonel Costa, said in a statement on Tuesday that after his dog's death, "an elite within the veterinary world...tried to give people the idea that Bobi's life story was not true." 博比的主人莱昂内尔·科斯塔周二在一份声明中表示，在他的狗死后，“兽医界的精英......试图让人们相信博比的生活故事不是真的。”Costa said some veterinarians were unhappy because he said Bobi’s long life came from the dog eating “human food,” which he said was often suggested by those in the field. 科斯塔说，一些兽医对此感到不满，因为他说博比的长寿来自于狗吃“人类食物”，他说这也是业内人士经常提出的建议。 "Everything would be different if we had said he (Bobi) ate pet food,” Costa said, adding that all requirements requested by the GWR were met. 科斯塔说：“如果我们说他（鲍比）吃了宠物食品，一切都会不同。”他补充说，GWR 要求的所有要求都得到满足。 Costa said GWR has not reached out to him. 科斯塔表示，GWR 尚未联系他。 No action has yet been taken about any record holders, the publisher said. It added that any action would be decided by the review’s outcome. 该出版商表示，尚未对任何记录保持者采取任何行动。它补充说，任何行动都将根据审查结果决定。Before his death, Bobi still loved walks but had become calmer, Costa told Reuters. His hair, or fur, was thinning, his eyesight had worsened, and he needed to rest more than in earlier years. 科斯塔告诉路透社，博比去世前仍然喜欢散步，但变得更加平静。他的头发越来越稀疏，视力也越来越差，而且比早年需要更多的休息。

Today we talk about the process of learning to do something. 今天我们谈论学习做某事的过程。 For example, if you want to play a musical instrument, you need to learn how. You must take small steps. You learn how to hold or sit at the instrument. You learn how to read notes and how to play basic chords. Then you progress to short, easy songs. 例如，如果你想演奏一种乐器，你需要学习如何演奏。你必须采取小步骤。您将学习如何握住或坐在乐器前。您将学习如何阅读音符以及如何弹奏基本和弦。然后你会继续练习简短、轻松的歌曲。 In other words, you need to take baby steps. 换句话说，你需要采取小步骤。 Babies can look funny when they are learning to walk. Their steps are unsure; their knees do not quite bend fully. They do not walk straight and often fall down. The more they walk, the steadier they get on their feet. Soon their unsteady baby steps lead to a smoother, often speedy, gait. 婴儿学习走路时可能看起来很有趣。他们的脚步是不确定的；他们的膝盖没有完全弯曲。他们走路不直，经常摔倒。他们走得越多，脚步就越稳。很快，他们不稳定的婴儿步就变得更加平稳，通常是快速的步态。 We often use the term to describe how to reach a complex goal. Small baby steps can lead to the bigger goal. 我们经常使用这个术语来描述如何实现复杂的目标。小小的进步可以带来更大的目标。We will often use the term to suggest that someone slow down and be patient. 我们经常使用这个术语来建议某人放慢速度并保持耐心。 A similar English expression goes, “You have to walk before you can run.” 类似的英语表达是：“你必须先走，然后才能跑。” Let’s listen as two friends use these idioms. 让我们听听两个朋友如何使用这些习语。 A: Hey, how are your piano lessons going?你的钢琴课上得怎么样?B: Slowly. I want to play a real song. But my teacher has me working on these same set of chords over and over again! They are difficult and boring at the same time. 学得很慢，我想真正弹一首歌曲。但我的老师老是让我重复谈同一系列的炫律。既难又很无聊。A: I’ve been playing piano for years, and chords are important. They are the foundations of music. You need to know how to walk before you can run. 我弹钢琴多年，和弦很重要。它们是音乐的基础。在跑步之前，您需要知道如何走路。B: I know, I know! But I also MUST be able to play a song by next month. 我知道我知道！但我也必须能够在下个月之前播放一首歌。A: Why are you in such a hurry? Learning music requires patience. Take baby steps! 你为什么这么急？学习音乐需要耐心。采取婴儿步骤！B: Please no more advice! I told a friend I could play the piano. And now she wants me to play at her children’s birthday party. 请不要再多指教了！我告诉一个朋友我会弹钢琴。现在她想让我在她孩子们的生日聚会上玩。A: Oh, in that case. I have other advice for you. 如果那样的话，我有其它的建议给你。B: What’s that? 什么建议?A: You reap what your sow. 种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆。B: Thanks a lot. … Hey what are you doing next month…?多谢，你下个月准备做什么?

An ancient species of great ape likely disappeared hundreds of thousands of years ago when climate change put their favorite fruits out of reach during dry seasons, scientists recently reported.科学家最近报告说，一种古老的类人猿物种可能在数十万年前就消失了，因为气候变化使它们在旱季无法获得最喜爱的水果。The species is known as Gigantopithecus blacki. It once lived in southern China. It stood 3 meters tall and weighed up to 295 kilograms. It represents the largest great ape known to scientists.该物种被称为黑巨猿。 它曾经生活在中国南方。 它高3米，重295公斤。 它代表了科学家已知的最大的类人猿。“It’s just a massive animal – just really, really big,” said Renaud Joannes-Boyau. He is a researcher at Australia’s Southern Cross University. He helped write the study, which recently appeared in the publication Nature.“它只是一种巨大的动物——非常非常大，”雷诺·乔安妮-博约说。 他是澳大利亚南十字星大学的研究员。 他帮助撰写了这项研究，该研究最近发表在《自然》杂志上。But its size may also have been a weakness. Joannes-Boyau said, “When food starts to be scarce, it’s so big it can’t climb trees to explore new food sources.”但其规模也可能是一个弱点。 乔安妮斯-博约说：“当食物开始短缺时，它就太大了，无法爬上树去探索新的食物来源。”The huge apes likely looked similar to the modern orangutan. It survived for around 2 million years in the forested land of China’s Guangxiarea. They ate plants that included fruits and flowers --- until the environment began to change.这些巨大的猿类看起来很可能与现代猩猩相似。 它在中国广西地区的林地里生存了大约200万年。 他们吃植物，包括水果和花朵——直到环境开始改变。Starting about 600,000 years ago, Guangxi’s forests began producing fewer fruits. The area was experiencing more periods of dry weather. Researchers examined pollen and sediment found in underground areas called caves to learn more about the changes and their effects.大约从60万年前开始，广西的森林开始产出较少的水果。 该地区正经历更多时期的干旱天气。 研究人员检查了在称为洞穴的地下区域发现的花粉和沉积物，以更多地了解这些变化及其影响。The giant apes did not disappear quickly, the researchers say. They likely went extinct sometime between 215,000 and 295,000 years ago.研究人员表示，巨猿并没有很快消失。 它们可能在 215,000 至 295,000 年前的某个时间灭绝。As the climate changed, smaller apes may have been able to climb trees to search for different food. But the researchers found that the giant apes ate more food that provided less nutrients. That less nutritious food included tree bark and thin grasses called reeds.随着气候变化，较小的猿类可能能够爬树寻找不同的食物。 但研究人员发现，巨猿吃的食物较多，但提供的营养较少。 营养较差的食物包括树皮和称为芦苇的稀草。“When the forest changed, there was not enough food preferred by the species,” said Zhang Yingqi of China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. He helped write the study.中国古脊椎动物与古人类研究所的张英奇说：“当森林发生变化时，该物种所喜欢的食物就不够了。” 他帮助撰写了这项研究。Most of what scientists know about the extinct great apes comes from studying their remains, or fossils. The fossilized bones they studied included teeth and four large lower jaw bones. All of the fossils were found in southern China. No complete skeletons have been found.科学家对已灭绝类人猿的了解大部分来自于对它们遗骸或化石的研究。 他们研究的骨骼化石包括牙齿和四块大的下颌骨。 所有化石都是在中国南方发现的。 尚未发现完整的骨骼。Between around 2 million and 22 million years ago, many species of great apes lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia, fossil records show. Today, only gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and humans remain.化石记录显示，大约 200 万至 2200 万年前，许多种类的类人猿生活在非洲、欧洲和亚洲。 如今，只剩下大猩猩、黑猩猩、倭黑猩猩、猩猩和人类。

The scientists carried out years of genetic research to conclude there are seven species of what are called Hylomys, a furry subgroup of hedgehogs. 科学家们进行了多年的基因研究，得出了这一结论：共有七个刺猬物种被称为 “毛猬属”，“毛猬属” 是一种毛茸茸的刺猬的亚组。 Work was carried out on Borneo in Malaysia, and in museum collections where specimens were reassessed. 开展这项研究的地点是马来西亚的婆罗洲和一些博物馆，科学家们重新评估了这些博物馆收藏的刺猬标本。 The team found key differences in the mammals' genetic codes and in their shape, especially their heads and their extremely sharp teeth. One researcher remarked that if they were bigger animals, these hedgehogs would be pretty scary. 研究小组发现这些哺乳动物的基因密码和身体部位的形状存在关键差异，尤其是它们的头部和锋利的牙齿的区别。一位研究人员表示，如果它们体型更大的话，这些刺猬会非常可怕。 The scientists hope their work will draw attention to the importance of the hedgehogs’ rainforest habitat which is being badly denuded.科学家们希望他们的工作能引起人们对刺猬栖息地热带雨林生态系统的关注，因为那里正受到严重威胁。 词汇表genetic 基因的，遗传学的species 物种furry 毛茸茸的subgroup 亚组，次群reassess 重新评估mammals 哺乳动物habitat 栖息地denuded 受到威胁的

What's the oldest meal you've eaten? Maybe you've had leftovers from a few days ago. They probably still tasted good. But what if it wasn't a few days ago, what if you ate a 60-day old stew? Or a 49-year-old beef noodle soup? 你吃过最古老的一餐是什么？也许你已经吃了几天前的剩菜了。它们的味道可能还是不错的。但如果不是几天前，如果你吃了60天的炖菜怎么办？还是49年的牛肉面？ Perpetual stew is a dish that is never taken off the heat; it's never finished. As portions are served, new ingredients are put in the pot to replace them. One day's stew becomes the basis of the following days' meals. There have been some famous examples. This year, Annie Rauwerda's 60-day stew became a social media sensation. One Bangkok restaurant claims to have been cooking its beef noodle soup since the 1970s. It has been suggested that perpetual stew was a tradition in Medieval Europe when the effort required to start a fire meant that they were left to burn all day, and a pot of stew was always simmering away on top of it. One New York Times article tells us about a stew in Normandy that was kept cooking for 300 years. 永久炖菜是一道永远不会离开火源的菜肴；它永远不会完成。上菜时，锅中会放入新的食材来替换它们。一天的炖菜成为第二天膳食的基础。有一些著名的例子。今年，Annie Rauwerda 的 60 天炖菜引起了社交媒体的轰动。曼谷的一家餐厅声称自 20 世纪 70 年代以来就开始烹制牛肉面汤。有人认为，永久炖菜是中世纪欧洲的一种传统，当时生火所需的努力意味着它们要燃烧一整天，而一锅炖菜总是在上面慢慢地煮着。《纽约时报》的一篇文章向我们讲述了诺曼底的一种炖菜，它已经烹饪了 300 年。 This tradition may date back to the Middle Ages, but thankfully, our understanding of food hygiene has developed since then. In a world where food is often thrown away once it reaches its use-by date, many people have asked how safe perpetual stew can actually be. Experts are divided, some maintain that as long as the stew is kept bubbling away at a temperature too high for pathogens to survive, it should be safe. Others suggest that meat can become dangerous if it's left in the stew for too long. Concerns have also been raised that some vegetables, such as potatoes, or those containing nitrates, could become more toxic the more they are reheated. 这一传统可以追溯到中世纪，但值得庆幸的是，我们对食品卫生的理解从那时起就已经发展起来。在当今世界，食物一旦过了保质期就会被扔掉，许多人都在问永久炖菜实际上有多安全。专家们意见不一，一些人认为，只要炖菜的温度保持在足以让病原体无法生存的温度下冒泡，它就应该是安全的。其他人则认为，如果肉在炖菜中放置时间过长，就会变得危险。人们还担心一些蔬菜，如土豆或含有硝酸盐的蔬菜，加热次数越多，毒性可能会更大。Advocates of slow cooking believe that the best food takes time, but even they may be surprised by a months or years-old perpetual stew.慢煮的倡导者相信最好的食物需要时间，但即使是他们也可能会对长达数月或数年的永久炖菜感到惊讶。 词汇表leftovers 剩饭，剩菜stew 炖菜beef noodle soup 牛肉汤面dish （一道）菜take off the heat 将…从灶上挪开，离火portion （食物的）一份ingredient 食材，原料pot 锅simmer 炖，煨food hygiene 食品卫生use-by date 保质期bubble 沸腾，咕嘟冒泡pathogen 病原体nitrate 硝酸盐toxic 有毒的reheat 重新加热（食物）slow cooking 慢炖

The World Health Organization (WHO) says holiday gatherings and the spread of a new COVID-19 variant led to increased hospitalizations and deaths last month. 世界卫生组织 (WHO) 表示，假日聚会和新的 COVID-19 变种的传播导致上个月住院和死亡人数增加。WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December. He added that hospitalizations during the month jumped 42 percent in nearly 50 countries. 世卫组织总干事谭德塞周三表示，12 月份报告有近 1 万人死亡。他补充说，本月近 50 个国家的住院人数猛增了 42%。 Tedros said, “Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable." 谭德塞表示，“虽然每月1万人的死亡人数远低于疫情高峰期，但这种可预防的死亡人数是不可接受的。” Tedros said it was “certain” that cases of COVID-19 were increasing in other places that have not been reporting case numbers. 谭德塞表示，“可以肯定”，在其他尚未报告病例数的地方，COVID-19 病例正在增加。 Tedros said the JN.1 variant is now the most common in the world. Since it is an Omicron variant, current vaccines should still provide some protection. Health officials in the U.S. say there is no evidence that JN.1 causes more severe disease than recent variants. 谭德塞表示，JN.1 变种目前是世界上最常见的变种。由于它是 Omicron 变种，目前的疫苗仍应提供一些保护。美国卫生官员表示，没有证据表明 JN.1 会导致比最近的变种更严重的疾病。 In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there have been at least 110,000 hospitalizations and 6,500 deaths from the flu since October. 在美国，疾病控制与预防中心 (CDC) 报告称，自 10 月份以来，已有至少 11 万人因流感住院治疗，6,500 人死亡。 The agency added that COVID-19 illnesses were not increasing as quickly flu illnesses. Still, COVID-19 is putting more people in the hospital than the flu. 该机构补充说，COVID-19 疾病的增长速度没有流感疾病那么快。尽管如此，新冠肺炎 (COVID-19) 导致住院的人数仍多于流感。 Maria Van Kerkhove is the technical lead at WHO for COVID-19. She said there is an increase in respiratory diseases around the world due to COVID-19, flu and pneumonia. Maria Van Kerkhove 是世界卫生组织 COVID-19 技术负责人。她说，由于 COVID-19、流感和肺炎，世界各地的呼吸道疾病有所增加。 “We expect those trends to continue into January through the winter months in the northern hemisphere,” Van Kerkhove said. She added there have also been increases in COVID-19 in the southern hemisphere, where it is now summer. 范科霍夫说：“我们预计这些趋势将持续到北半球的一月到冬季。” 她补充说，现在正值夏季的南半球，COVID-19 病例也有所增加。 WHO officials suggest that people get vaccinated, wear face coverings, and make sure air can move in and out of indoor areas. 世卫组织官员建议人们接种疫苗、戴口罩并确保空气可以进出室内区域。 Michael Ryan is the head of emergencies at the WHO. He said, “The vaccines may not stop you from being infected, but the vaccines are certainly reducing significantly your chance of being hospitalized or dying.” 迈克尔·瑞安（Michael Ryan）是世界卫生组织紧急情况负责人。他说：“疫苗可能无法阻止你被感染，但疫苗肯定会大大降低你住院或死亡的机会。” 

A report from the World Economic Forum says misinformation and disinformation are the most severe risks facing the world over the next two years. 世界经济论坛的一份报告称，错误信息和虚假信息是未来两年世界面临的最严重风险。The group released its latest Global Risks Report Wednesday. 该组织周三发布了最新的全球风险报告。 The report said artificial intelligence (AI) can increase false or misleading information and is an immediate risk to the worldwide economy. The World Economic Forum (WEF) report warned that bad information threatens to weaken democracy and polarize groups of people. 报告称，人工智能（AI）可能会增加虚假或误导性信息，对全球经济构成直接风险。世界经济论坛（WEF）报告警告说，不良信息可能会削弱民主并使人群两极分化。 The report is based on a survey of nearly 1,500 experts, industry leaders, and politicians. It is being released before the yearly WEF meeting in the vacation town of Davos, Switzerland. 该报告基于对近 1,500 名专家、行业领袖和政治家的调查。该报告将于在瑞士度假胜地达沃斯举行的年度世界经济论坛会议之前发布。 The writers are concerned that the fast progress of AI technology like ChatGPT might mean that groups can be manipulated by people without any specialized skills. 作者担心，像 ChatGPT 这样的人工智能技术的快速进步可能意味着群体可能会被没有任何专业技能的人操纵。 AI will be discussed next week at the Davos meeting. Technology company leaders including OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Microsoft head Satya Nadella, and industry experts like Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, are expected to attend.下周的达沃斯会议将讨论人工智能。OpenAI 首席执行官 Sam Altman、微软首席执行官 Satya Nadella 等科技公司领导人以及 Meta 首席人工智能科学家 Yann LeCun 等行业专家预计将出席。 The report says misinformation and disinformation that is created using AI is becoming a risk just as billions of people in several countries are going to vote this year and next year. Those countries include the United States, Britain, Indonesia, India, Mexico, and Pakistan. 该报告称，随着一些国家的数十亿人将于今年和明年投票，使用人工智能创建的错误信息和虚假信息正在成为一种风险。这些国家包括美国、英国、印度尼西亚、印度、墨西哥和巴基斯坦。 Carolina Klint is a risk expert at Marsh, whose parent company Marsh McLennan co-wrote the report with Zurich Insurance Group. She said people can use AI to make deepfakes and to really affect large groups “…which really drives misinformation.” 卡罗莱纳·克林特 (Carolina Klint) 是达信 (Marsh) 的风险专家，其母公司达信·麦克伦南 (Marsh McLennan) 与苏黎世保险集团 (Zurich Insurance Group) 共同撰写了这份报告。她说，人们可以使用人工智能来制作深度伪造品并真正影响大群体，“……这确实会导致错误信息。” Deepfakes are videos that contain realistic images which are false and show people doing and saying things that never happened. Deepfakes 是包含真实图像的视频，这些图像是虚假的，显示人们在做和说从未发生过的事情。 “Societies could become further polarized” as people find it harder to tell what is true, she said. False information also could be used to fuel questions about whether governments are elected fairly. Klint said, that “… means that democratic processes could be eroded, and it would also drive societal polarization even further.” 她说，“社会可能会变得更加两极分化”，因为人们很难辨别真相。虚假信息还可能被用来引发人们对政府选举是否公平的质疑。克林特说，“……意味着民主进程可能会受到侵蚀，而且还会进一步推动社会两极分化。” The rise of AI brings other risks, she said. It could give power to harmful actors by making it easier to carry out online attacks. 她说，人工智能的兴起带来了其他风险。它可以让实施在线攻击变得更加容易，从而为有害行为者提供权力。 Klint said with AI, a person does not need to be intelligent to become a harmful actor. 克林特说，有了人工智能，一个人不需要聪明就能成为一个有害的演员。 It can even affect data that is taken from the internet to develop other AI systems. She said this is difficult to correct and could result in further bias in AI systems. 它甚至可以影响从互联网获取的用于开发其他人工智能系统的数据。她说这很难纠正，并可能导致人工智能系统进一步出现偏差。 The report said extreme weather is the second most worrying short term risk. 报告称，极端天气是第二大令人担忧的短期风险。The report also said that, over the next 10 years, extreme weather events were more important than misinformation and disinformation. Weather was followed by environmental risks that include changes to the Earth’s systems; loss of wildlife and collapse of natural systems; and shortages of natural resources. 报告还称，未来10年，极端天气事件比错误信息和虚假信息更重要。天气之后是环境风险，包括地球系统的变化；野生动物的丧失和自然系统的崩溃；和自然资源短缺。 

Spain’s Royal Tapestry Factory has been providing clothes, called carpets for the floor and tapestries for the wall, for palaces and public buildings for more than 300 years. 西班牙皇家挂毯工厂 300 多年来一直为宫殿和公共建筑提供服装，称为地板地毯和墙壁挂毯。Found on a quiet street in Spain’s capital Madrid, its artisans combine long-held knowledge of the work with new methods to create cloth-based products. 它位于西班牙首都马德里一条安静的街道上，工匠们将长期掌握的工作知识与新方法相结合，创造出以布料为基础的产品。 The factory was opened in 1721 by Spain’s King Felipe V. He brought in Catholic artisans from Flanders, an area found in today’s Belgium, to get it started. At the time, the area had been under Spanish control. 该工厂于 1721 年由西班牙国王费利佩五世 (Felipe V) 开设。他从佛兰德斯（位于今天的比利时境内）引进了天主教工匠来创办工厂。 当时，该地区已处于西班牙控制之下。 Cloth like wool can be found in all colors in the factory. And tools like bobbins and spinning wheels are everywhere in the factory. Some of the original wooden machines are still in use. 像羊毛这样的布料在工厂里可以找到各种颜色的。 工厂里到处都是线轴、纺车等工具。 一些原始的木制机器仍在使用。 Alejandro Klecker de Elizalde is the factory’s general director. “Here the only products we work with are silk, wool, jute, cotton, linen,” he said. “And these small leftovers that we create, the water from the dyes, or the small pieces of wool, everything is recycled, everything has a double, a second use.”Alejandro Klecker de Elizalde 是工厂的总经理。 “我们在这里合作的唯一产品是丝绸、羊毛、黄麻、棉花、亚麻，”他说。 “我们制造的这些小剩余物，染料中的水，或者小块羊毛，一切都被回收，一切都有双重用途。”The factory also brings old pieces that have been damaged through time back to good condition. And it keeps some of the most important cloth and material records in Europe. 工厂还将随着时间的推移而损坏的旧件恢复到良好状态。 它保留了欧洲一些最重要的布料和材料记录。 Now, 70 percent of its buyers are individuals from Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. 现在，70% 的买家是来自拉丁美洲、欧洲和中东的个人。 The factory recently received one of its biggest orders, 32 tapestries for the Palace of Dresden in Germany. The order is worth more than 1 million dollars and it will provide work for up to five years, Klecker de Elizalde said. 该工厂最近收到了最大的订单之一，即为德国德累斯顿宫制作 32 幅挂毯。 Klecker de Elizalde 表示，该订单价值超过 100 万美元，并将提供长达五年的工作。 In 2018, the factory finished a tapestry for a Lebanese buyer based on the work Sabra and Shatila Massacre by Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi. The cloth shows the 1982-83 violence by Christian Phalangist militia in Palestinian refugee camps that were guarded by Israeli troops. 2018年，工厂为黎巴嫩买家根据伊拉克艺术家迪亚·阿扎维的作品《萨布拉和沙蒂拉大屠杀》完成了一幅挂毯。 布料展示了 1982-83 年基督教长枪党民兵在以色列军队守卫的巴勒斯坦难民营中的暴力行为。 Creating a tapestry is a difficult process that takes several weeks or months of work for each square meter. 制作挂毯是一个困难的过程，每平方米需要花费数周或数月的时间。 A tapestry begins with “cartoons,” or drawings on paper that are later copied onto a system of material called warps which are then woven over. 挂毯以“卡通”或纸上的图画开始，然后将其复制到称为经纱的材料系统上，然后将其编织起来。 One of the factory’s well-known cartoonists was master painter Francisco Goya, who began working there in 1780. Some of the tapestries he designed are now found in the nearby Prado Museum and Madrid’s Royal Collections Gallery. 画家大师弗朗西斯科·戈雅 (Francisco Goya) 是该工厂的一位著名漫画家，他于 1780 年开始在这里工作。他设计的一些挂毯现在陈列在附近的普拉多博物馆和马德里皇家收藏画廊中。

A man in Italy might regain the use of his hand after having a new kind of medical operation. 意大利的一名男子在接受新型医疗手术后可能会重新使用自己的手。 Doctors in northern Italy said the surgery used a nerve from the man’s partly amputated leg to repair a damaged nerve in his hand. His hand became paralyzed after a severe driving accident. 意大利北部的医生表示，手术使用了该男子部分截肢腿的神经来修复手部受损的神经。一次严重的车祸后，他的手瘫痪了。 Surgeons at Turin City Hospital took part of the man's sciatic nerve from his leg. That is the nerve which helps control movement in the foot. The doctors transferred part of the man’s sciatic nerve to his brachial plexus. That is a network of nerves connecting the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm, and hand. 都灵市医院的外科医生从该男子的腿上切除了部分坐骨神经。这是帮助控制足部运动的神经。医生将这名男子的部分坐骨神经转移到臂丛神经。这是连接脊髓与肩膀、手臂和手的神经网络。 "It’s the first time that someone [has transferred] a component of the sciatic nerve to the brachial plexus," said Paolo Titolo. He was one of the surgeons who performed the operation. He recently spoke with Reuters news agency. “这是第一次有人将坐骨神经的一个组成部分转移到臂丛神经，”保罗·蒂托洛说。他是进行手术的外科医生之一。他最近接受了路透社的采访。The patient is Marcello Gaviglio, a 55-year-old healthcare worker. He had half of his left leg amputated after he was hit by a motorbike five months ago. The accident happened while he was travelling to work on his small, motorized bike called a moped. 患者是 55 岁的医护人员马塞洛·加维利奥 (Marcello Gaviglio)。五个月前，他被摩托车撞倒，左腿半截被截肢。事故发生在他骑着他的小型机动自行车（轻便摩托车）去上班时。 He suffered serious injuries to his brachial plexus as well as his leg. The damage to his upper body left him unable to use both of his hands. 他的臂丛神经和腿部都受到了严重伤害。他上半身的损伤使他无法使用双手。 Because the part of the sciatic nerve that controlled his left foot was no longer needed, it could be transferred to the shoulder area. On December 21, doctors carried out the operation. They hope it will give him the ability to use his left hand. 因为控制左脚的那部分坐骨神经不再需要，可以转移到肩部区域。12月21日，医生进行了手术。他们希望这能让他能够使用左手。 Gaviglio will need about five months of special care after the operation. For now, he is still unable to move the hand at all. 手术后加维利奥将需要大约五个月的特殊护理。目前，他的手还根本无法动弹。 Nerve transfer surgery is not new. But normally it does not involve moving a nerve that controls the foot to an area that controls the hand. For that reason, doctors involved in the operation are calling it “pioneering.” 神经转移手术并不新鲜。但通常它不涉及将控制脚的神经移动到控制手的区域。因此，参与该手术的医生称其为“开创性”。 "We think this is pioneering surgery because if it works it means that the brain plasticity can control … other parts of the body that we didn't expect,” Titolo said. He added that the surgery opens new fields in nerve studies. 蒂托洛说：“我们认为这是开创性的手术，因为如果它有效，就意味着大脑可塑性可以控制……我们没有预料到的身体其他部位。”他补充说，这项手术开辟了神经研究的新领域。 The aim is to restore "some grasp function" to the hand. That means the ability to hold objects. Titolo explained that this can help the other hand to do things. 目的是恢复手的“某些抓握功能”。这意味着持有物体的能力。蒂托洛解释说，这可以帮助另一只手做事。 The operation was the result of four years of research. It was published in the medical journal Injury. 该手术是四年研究的结果。它发表在医学杂志《Injury》上。 Gaviglio, the patient, said he had given little thought to the pioneering part of the operation. He said he just felt that there was a chance for a good result. He said he thought about depending on a “team of very good doctors” and being able to move his hand again “a little bit.” 患者加维利奥表示，他几乎没有考虑过手术的开创性部分。他说他只是觉得有机会取得好成绩。他说，他考虑过依靠“非常好的医生团队”，并能够再次“稍微”活动一下自己的手。 

Copernicus, the European climate agency, says 2023 broke records for global warmth. 欧洲气候机构哥白尼表示，2023 年全球变暖打破了记录。 The average temperature for the year was 1.48 degrees Celsius above the world’s pre-industrial temperature. 年平均气温比世界工业化前气温高1.48摄氏度。 World climate experts agree that an average increase up to 1.5 degrees or higher could lead to extreme climate disasters. They set the 1.5 degree Celsius mark at a 2015 climate conference in Paris. 世界气候专家一致认为，平均气温升高1.5度或更高可能会导致极端气候灾难。他们在 2015 年巴黎气候会议上设定了 1.5 摄氏度的目标。 However, January 2024 is measuring so warm that it is likely to average at or beyond the 1.5 mark for the month, says Samantha Burgess. She is Deputy Director of Copernicus. Scientists have repeatedly said an average of 1.5 degrees of warming over as much as thirty years would violate the limit. 然而，萨曼莎·伯吉斯 (Samantha Burgess) 表示，2024 年 1 月的气温非常温暖，该月的平均气温可能会达到或超过 1.5。她是哥白尼的副主任。科学家们一再表示，三十年内平均升温 1.5 度就违反了极限。 The 1.5 degree goal “has to be (kept) alive because lives are at risk and choices have to be made,” Burgess said. 伯吉斯说，1.5 度的目标“必须（保持）有效，因为生命处于危险之中，必须做出选择”。 The record heat made life difficult and sometimes deadly in Europe, North America and China, among other places. Climate scientists say heat is not the only problem related to temperature rise. They say severe weather events such as heavy rains that cause flooding, along with wildfires and extreme dry conditions are connected to the rising temperatures. 创纪录的高温使欧洲、北美和中国等地的生活变得困难，有时甚至致命。气候科学家表示，热量并不是与气温上升相关的唯一问题。他们表示，暴雨导致洪水、野火和极端干旱等恶劣天气事件与气温上升有关。For the first time, nations meeting on climate late in 2023 agreed that the world needs to move away from polluting fossil fuels.2023 年末召开的气候会议首次一致认为，世界需要摆脱污染性化石燃料。Copernicus said the average temperature in 2023 was one-sixth of a degree Celsius above the past record, set in 2016. The average temperature was 14.98 degrees Celsius. 哥白尼表示，2023年的平均气温比2016年创下的历史纪录高出六分之一摄氏度。平均气温为14.98摄氏度。 “It was record-breaking for seven months. We had the warmest June, July, August, September, October, November, December,” Burgess said. “It wasn’t just a season or a month that was exceptional. It was exceptional for over half the year.” “这打破了七个月的记录。我们经历了最温暖的六月、七月、八月、九月、十月、十一月、十二月，”伯吉斯说。“这不仅仅是一个赛季或一个月的特殊。这半年多的时间里都是异常的。” Malte Meinshausen is a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He says about 1.3 degrees Celsius of the warming comes from greenhouse gases, with another 0.1 degrees from usual weather conditions such as El Nino. Malte Meinshausen 是澳大利亚墨尔本大学的气候科学家。他表示，温室气体导致气温升高约 1.3 摄氏度，另外 0.1 摄氏度则来自厄尔尼诺等常见天气条件。Copernicus records only go back to 1940. Other organizations will announce climate reports for 2023 on Friday. The groups include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. and Great Britain’s Meteorological Office. 哥白尼的记录只能追溯到 1940 年。其他组织将于周五公布 2023 年气候报告。这些组织包括美国国家海洋和大气管理局和英国气象局。 While some national weather offices only have records going back to the 1940s, many scientists agree that this is the warmest period for the Earth in over 100,000 years. 虽然一些国家气象局的记录只能追溯到 20 世纪 40 年代，但许多科学家一致认为，这是地球 10 万多年来最温暖的时期。 Copernicus said there were two and nearly three days in 2023 where the world’s average temperature was at least 2 degrees above that of the pre-industrial period. In addition, for more than half the year, the world average temperature was 1.5 degrees warmer than in the mid-1800s. 哥白尼表示，2023年有两天和近三天世界平均气温比工业化前时期至少高出2度。此外，在半年多的时间里，世界平均气温比1800年代中期升高了1.5度。

Coloring books are common objects of play and learning for children around the world. In recent years, coloring books for adults have grown popular too. 涂色书是世界各地儿童玩耍和学习的常见对象。 近年来，成人涂色书也越来越流行。 Children usually color with wax sticks called crayons. But, you can also use color markers, pens, and pencils. 孩子们通常使用称为蜡笔的蜡棒来着色。 但是，您也可以使用彩色记号笔、钢笔和铅笔。 Adding color to black and white images is fun and often calming. You just choose a color and fill in the space created by the lines. In fact, children are often taught to stay inside the lines when they color. 为黑白图像添加颜色很有趣，而且常常令人平静。 您只需选择一种颜色并填充线条创建的空间即可。 事实上，孩子们经常被教导在涂色时要留在线条内。 Apparently, this idea does not come naturally. Child development experts say very young children begin by scribbling on a coloring page. They do not pay attention to the lines of the picture. The result is a colorful but often messy looking picture. 显然，这个想法并不是自然产生的。 儿童发展专家表示，年幼的孩子首先会在彩页上乱涂乱画。 他们不注意画面的线条。 结果是一幅色彩缤纷但通常看起来很混乱的图片。 Then between the ages of two and five they start coloring inside the lines. This progression shows an improvement in many skills: fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, space and object awareness, and more. 然后在两岁到五岁之间，他们开始在线条内着色。 这一进展表明许多技能都得到了提高：精细运动技能、手眼协调能力、空间和物体意识等等。 Many children are taught to color inside the lines. As a result, many adults do the same. This makes this finished artwork look more organized and proper because you followed the images’ guide lines. 许多孩子被教导在线条内着色。 结果，许多成年人也这样做。 这使得这件完成的艺术品看起来更有条理、更合适，因为你遵循了图像的指导线。 That is why the expression coloring inside the lines means to think or act within generally accepted guidelines. If you color inside the lines, you follow the rules. You stay in the lines or you play by the book (not the coloring book … but the rule book). 这就是为什么线条内的表达颜色意味着在普遍接受的指导方针内思考或行动。 如果你在线条内着色，你就遵守了规则。 你要么排队，要么按书本行事（不是着色书……而是规则书）。 We can also say you stick to the script. A script contains the spoken words performers must say out-loud in a play, movie, or show. Sticking to the script means you do not change the lines you are given. 我们也可以说你坚持剧本。 剧本包含表演者在戏剧、电影或表演中必须大声说出的台词。 坚持剧本意味着你不会改变给你的台词。 Such people can also be said to toe the line. That expression comes from foot racing. 这样的人也可以说是听话的。 这个表达方式来自于赛跑。On the other hand, people who color outside the lines do not follow rules. They are rebels. Rebels reject rules. They color outside the lines and think outside the box. Instead of sticking to the script they go off script. They improvise. 另一方面，那些越界着色的人则不遵守规则。 他们是叛逆者。 叛乱分子拒绝规则。 他们跳出界限，跳出框框思考。 他们没有坚持剧本，而是脱离了剧本。 他们即兴发挥。  Just as with rule-followers, we have just as many word phrases and expressions for rule-breakers. They break new ground. They are ground-breakers. They buck traditions. Used as a verb this way, “buck” means to oppose or resist. 就像遵守规则的人一样，我们也有同样多的针对规则破坏者的短语和表达方式。 他们开辟了新天地。 他们是开拓者。 他们打破传统。 作为动词，“buck”的意思是反对或抵抗。 Next time you want describe these two kinds of people you will have plenty of expressions to choose from! 下次你要描述这两种人时，你会有很多表达方式可供选择！ 

Chinese lawmakers recently entered a fierce online debate on whether fireworks should be used to celebrate the Lunar New year this February. They said a total ban on fireworks in the country credited with inventing the noisemakers would be hard to enforce. 中国立法者最近在网上就今年二月是否应该使用烟花爆竹庆祝农历新年展开了激烈的辩论。 他们表示，在这个被认为发明了噪音发生器的国家全面禁止燃放烟花爆竹将很难执行。 Lawmakers said air pollution prevention and fire safety laws have led to "differences in understanding" of the ban on fireworks. However, it was never a total ban. 议员们表示，空气污染防治和消防安全法导致了对烟花禁令的“理解上的分歧”。 然而，这从来都不是全面禁止。 In 2017, official data showed 444 cities had banned fireworks. Since then, some of the cities have loosened the bans. They permit fireworks at certain times of the year and at special places.2017年，官方数据显示444个城市禁止燃放烟花爆竹。 此后，一些城市放松了禁令。 他们允许在一年中的某些时间和特殊地点燃放烟花。 This month, however, many counties made announcements banning fireworks, restarting discussion on the ban. 然而本月，多县发布禁放烟花爆竹的公告，重启有关禁放烟花爆竹的讨论。 "We've the right to fireworks," wrote a user of Weibo, a popular Chinese online discussion service. “我们有放烟花的权利，”中国流行的在线讨论服务微博的一位用户写道。Chinese folklore says the earliest fireworks were invented 2,000 years ago to drive away the "nian.” The nian, the story goes, was a monster that hunted people and animals before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival. 中国民间传说，最早的烟花是在2000年前发明的，目的是驱走“年”。 传说中的“年”是一种在农历新年或春节前猎杀人和动物的怪物。Since then, fireworks came to be used to celebrate other events. This January, after three years of COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, some people ignored bans - and officials - and set off firecrackers. 从那时起，烟花开始被用来庆祝其他活动。 今年一月，在解除了三年的 COVID-19 限制后，一些人无视禁令和官员，燃放鞭炮。 Some Chinese say the fireworks bans were necessary to protect the environment. 一些中国人表示，为了保护环境，禁止燃放烟花爆竹是必要的。 An online opinion study by the official Beijing Youth Daily found that over 80 percent of people supported fireworks during Spring Festival. The festival is the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar. 官方《北京青年报》的一项在线民意调查发现，超过80%的人支持春节期间燃放烟花爆竹。 这个节日是中国历法上最重要的节日。 Some also said the ban was ironic after the United Nations recently named the Spring Festival an official holiday, a move supported by Chinese officials. 一些人还表示，联合国最近将春节定为法定假日，此举得到了中国官员的支持，这一禁令具有讽刺意味。 "The Spring Festival belongs to the world, but China's is almost gone," wrote another Weibo user. 另一位微博用户写道：“春节是全世界的，但中国的已经快没了。” Southern Hunan province is a worldwide supplier of fireworks. Its exports totaled $579 million from January to November, state media reported. That number is far greater than domestic sales. 湘南省是世界烟花爆竹的产地。 据官方媒体报道，今年 1 月至 11 月，其出口总额为 5.79 亿美元。 这个数字远远大于国内销量。

Imagine a field of ice more than twice the area of Greater London, but as thick as its skyscrapers are tall. This is A23a, current title holder of the world's biggest iceberg. 想象一下，一片冰原的面积是大伦敦面积的两倍多，而它的厚度却只有伦敦摩天大楼的高度那么厚。这就是 A23a 冰山，目前世界上最大的冰山。 Scientists have used radar pulses from a European Space Agency satellite to essentially take a tape measure to the colossus. The researchers from the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling say the berg has lost quite a bit of mass since breaking away from the Antarctic coast in 1986, but it still tips the scales at 950 billion tonnes. 科学家以欧洲航天局的一颗卫星发出的雷达脉冲为测量尺，对这座庞然大物进行了测量。英国极地观测和建模中心的研究人员表示，自1986年脱离南极海岸以来，这座冰山已经失去了大量的冰，但现在仍重达9500亿吨。 As A23a moves north and warms in the coming weeks, its melt rate will accelerate, and it'll be dumping more fresh water into the ocean daily than is consumed by the entire UK population. 在未来几周，随着 A23a 向北移动并逐渐处于更温暖的环境中，它的融化速度将会加快，融化造成其每天向海洋倾入的淡水量将比英国总人口每天消耗的还要多。 词汇表skyscrapers 摩天大楼title holder 冠军头衔保持者radar pulses 雷达脉冲tape measure 卷尺colossus 庞然大物berg 冰山mass （物理）质量breaking away 脱离tips the scales at 达到…重量dumping 排放，倾入

It's the end of one year and the start of another. You've probably been considering New Year's resolutions and you may have decided to take up something new for the year ahead. Perhaps, like Debbie Gustig, you could start ballet classes. At the age of 53, Debbie stepped into the dance studio, where, for a while, it feels like 'the outside world is on pause'. 这是一年的结束，也是另一年的开始。您可能一直在考虑新年决心，并决定为来年做一些新的事情。也许，你可以像黛比·古斯蒂格一样，开始芭蕾舞课程。53岁的黛比走进了舞蹈室，有一段时间，她感觉“外面的世界暂停了”。 Hobbies are a way for us to keep busy and take our minds off the realities of work and life. People crave time to pursue interests that are valuable and satisfying. Humans have indulged in pastimes since the beginning of time, from drawing on cave walls to playing video games. Some hobbies involve collecting things. That means acquiring, possibly cataloguing, and then displaying or storing something precious, whether that be stamps, antiques or comic books. 兴趣爱好是我们保持忙碌、摆脱工作和生活现实的一种方式。人们渴望时间去追求有价值和令人满意的兴趣。人类自古以来就沉迷于消遣，从在洞穴墙壁上画画到玩电子游戏。有些爱好涉及收集东西。这意味着获取、可能编目，然后展示或存储一些珍贵的东西，无论是邮票、古董还是漫画书。 Linda de Ruiter turned her hobby into a job. She is a yarn maker and now the owner of a small business. After helping out a friend with a stand at a craft market, she realised she wanted a stand for herself. She told the BBC she always thought yarn making would just be 'a glorified hobby' for her, but she's glad to have been proven wrong and says she is "having a ball". 琳达·德鲁伊特 (Linda de Ruiter) 将她的爱好变成了工作。她是一名纱线制造商，现在是一家小企业的老板。在工艺品市场帮助朋友摆摊后，她意识到自己想要一个摊位。她告诉英国广播公司，她一直认为纱线制作对她来说只是“一种光荣的爱好”，但她很高兴事实证明她错了，并说她“玩得很开心”。 People often pursue hobbies as a way of de-stressing. In Canada, axe throwing is on the rise. In fact, there is even an axe-throwing league with branches across the country and more than 1,500 members. League founder Matt Wilson told the BBC that it's "a zen sort of experience because it's really not about power, but there is definitely something cathartic about the activity". 人们常常将追求爱好作为缓解压力的一种方式。在加拿大，扔斧头活动正在兴起。事实上，甚至还有一个扔斧头联盟，其分支机构遍布全国，成员超过1500人。联盟创始人马特·威尔逊 (Matt Wilson) 告诉 BBC，这是“一种禅宗体验，因为它实际上与权力无关，但这项活动绝对具有宣泄作用”。 So, ballet, collecting stamps, yarn making, axe throwing? What will you pursue in the new year? 那么，芭蕾、集邮、纱线制作、扔斧头？新的一年你会追求什么？ 词汇表resolution 决心take up 开始（工作，活动）ballet 芭蕾舞take someone's mind off 转移某人的注意力，让某人暂时忘记忧虑之事pursue 追求indulge in 沉溺于pastime 休闲娱乐，消遣collect 收集，收藏acquire 购得，获取catalogue 记录，分类display 展示，陈列store 储存，储藏yarn maker 纺纱人stand （零售）摊位a glorified hobby 一个被美化的爱好，一个听起来比实际上更有意思的爱好have a ball 极为享受，非常尽兴de-stress 解压axe throwing （休闲运动）扔斧头zen 令人放松的cathartic 宣泄情绪的

Bahara Rustam is 13 years old. She took her last class at Bibi Razia School in Kabul, Afghanistan, on December 11 knowing it was the end of her education. Under Afghan law, she is unlikely to ever step foot in a classroom again. 巴哈拉·鲁斯塔姆 13 岁。 12 月 11 日，她在阿富汗喀布尔的 Bibi Razia 学校上了最后一堂课，她知道这就是她学业的结束。 根据阿富汗法律，她不太可能再次踏入教室。In September 2021, the country’s ruling Taliban announced that females would be barred from education after sixth grade, or about age 13. The government said it was acting in line with Islamic religious law. 2021 年 9 月，该国执政的塔利班宣布，六年级或 13 岁左右的女性将被禁止接受教育。政府表示，其行为符合伊斯兰宗教法。 The United States and NATO troops had withdrawn from Afghanistan a month earlier, after 20 years of war. 经过20年的战争，美国和北约军队一个月前从阿富汗撤军。 In December 2022, the restrictive measure was expanded to include university education. 2022年12月，限制措施扩大到大学教育。 The international community has continued to condemn the Taliban for the actions. Countries have warned the Taliban that it its actions will bar it from gaining international recognition as a lawful government. 国际社会继续谴责塔利班的行动。 各国警告塔利班，其行为将使其无法获得国际社会承认为合法政府。 Last week, United Nations special diplomat for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva appeared before the UN Security Council. She said she worried that a generation of Afghan girls is falling behind with each day that passes. 上周，联合国阿富汗问题特别外交官罗扎·奥通巴耶娃出席联合国安理会会议。 她说，她担心一代阿富汗女孩正在一天天落后。 An Afghan Education Ministry said last week that girls of all ages are permitted to study in religious schools called madrassas. They have traditionally been boys-only. 阿富汗教育部上周表示，所有年龄段的女孩都可以在称为宗教学校的宗教学校学习。 传统上，他们只招收男孩。 The UN is trying to confirm the ministry’s statement. But Otunbayeva said it was unclear if that education system included wider study of non-religious subjects. 联合国正在试图证实该部门的声明。 但奥通巴耶娃表示，目前尚不清楚该教育体系是否包括更广泛的非宗教科目学习。 For now, Bahara is holding onto her education and looks over school books at home. “Graduating (from sixth grade) means we are going to seventh grade,” she said. “But all of our classmates cried and we were very disappointed,” she added. 目前，巴哈拉仍在继续学业，并在家查看课本。 “（从六年级）毕业意味着我们将升入七年级，”她说。 “但我们所有的同学都哭了，我们非常失望，”她补充道。 There was no graduation ceremony for the girls at Bibi Razia School. Bibi Razia 学校没有为女孩们举办毕业典礼。 In another part of Kabul, 13-year old Setayesh Sahibzada wonders what the future holds for her. She is sad she cannot go to school anymore to follow her dreams. 在喀布尔的另一个地方，13 岁的塞塔耶什·萨希布扎达 (Setayesh Sahibzada) 想知道自己的未来会怎样。 她很遗憾无法再去上学去追寻自己的梦想。 “I can’t stand on my own two feet,” she said. “I wanted to be a teacher. But now I can’t study, I can’t go to school.” “我无法用自己的两只脚站立，”她说。 “我想成为一名老师。 但现在我无法学习，无法上学。” Researcher Muhammad Saleem Paigir warned that banning women and girls from education would be disastrous for Afghanistan. “We understand that illiterate people can never be free and prosperous,” he said. 研究员穆罕默德·萨利姆·派吉尔警告说，禁止妇女和女童接受教育对阿富汗来说将是灾难性的。 “我们明白，文盲永远不可能获得自由和繁荣，”他说。 The Taliban have banned women from many public spaces and most jobs, all but keeping women inside their homes. 塔利班禁止妇女参与许多公共场所和大多数工作，几乎将妇女留在家中。

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says “The period from birth to eight years old is one of remarkable brain development for children.” The organization adds that it represents an important time for their development and education. 联合国教育、科学及文化组织（教科文组织）表示：“从出生到八岁是儿童大脑发育的黄金时期。” 该组织补充说，这对于他们的发展和教育来说是一个重要的时期。 The U.S. National Institutes of Health says that supporting children’s early learning can lead to higher test scores and a better chance of staying in school and going to college. Studies even suggest early learning can lead to fewer teen pregnancies, improved mental health, and a longer life. 美国国立卫生研究院表示，支持儿童的早期学习可以带来更高的考试成绩以及更好的留在学校和上大学的机会。 研究甚至表明，早期学习可以减少青少年怀孕、改善心理健康并延长寿命。The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is made up of 38 democracies with market-based economies. The organization aims to build better policies for better lives. 经济合作与发展组织 (OECD) 由 38 个实行市场经济的民主国家组成。 该组织旨在制定更好的政策以改善生活。 In a recent education study, the OECD found that most of its member countries provide care or education for children under 5. In countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Spain and Britain, at least 95 percent of 3-year-olds are enrolled in an early education program. 在最近的一项教育研究中，经合组织发现，其大多数成员国为 5 岁以下儿童提供保育或教育。在比利时、丹麦、法国、匈牙利、冰岛、以色列、挪威、西班牙和英国等国家，至少 95% 的 3 岁儿童参加了早期教育计划。 However, within OECD countries, there can be a large difference in enrollment. In the United States, for example, 80 percent of 3 to 5-year-olds in the capital city of Washington, D.C. are enrolled in early education programs. That is compared to 46 percent in the western state of North Dakota. 然而，在经合组织国家内部，入学率可能存在很大差异。 例如，在美国首都华盛顿特区，80% 的 3 至 5 岁儿童都参加了早期教育项目。 相比之下，西部北达科他州的这一比例为 46%。 The differences also exist in European countries like Greece, Lithuania, and Switzerland. Places with higher rates of women in the workforce usually have higher rates of enrollment for children under 3. 这种差异也存在于希腊、立陶宛和瑞士等欧洲国家。 女性劳动力比例较高的地方通常 3 岁以下儿童的入学率也较高。During the pandemic, the U.S. government provided an additional $24 billion to help child care programs nationwide. The funding finally ended last October. 疫情期间，美国政府额外提供了 240 亿美元来帮助全国的儿童保育项目。 这笔资金最终于去年十月结束。 The Century Foundation is a research organization in New York City. It estimates that one-third of the programs could close as a result. That affects more than 2.2 million children. The organization says that child care is important for the economy at large since child care permits parents to stay at work. 世纪基金会是纽约市的一个研究组织。 据估计，三分之一的项目可能因此而关闭。 这影响了超过 220 万儿童。 该组织表示，儿童保育对整个经济很重要，因为儿童保育可以让父母继续工作。 Around the world, governments invest little in early childhood education, UNESCO says. About 6.6 percent of education budgets are put toward early education programs, 2 percent in poor countries. That is well below the target of 10 percent by 2030 suggested by the children's organization UNICEF. 联合国教科文组织表示，世界各地政府对幼儿教育的投资很少。 大约 6.6% 的教育预算用于早期教育项目，贫困国家为 2%。 这远低于儿童组织联合国儿童基金会建议的到 2030 年达到 10% 的目标。 In the U.S., parents can choose to put their children at age 5 in kindergarten or a child care program. 在美国，父母可以选择将孩子 5 岁送入幼儿园或托儿所。 Kindergarten enrollment has dropped since the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerned about the virus or wanting to avoid online school, hundreds of thousands of families delayed the start of school for their young children. 自 COVID-19 大流行以来，幼儿园入学人数有所下降。 由于担心病毒或想要避免在线学校，数十万家庭推迟了幼儿的入学时间。The Associated Press found that kindergarten enrollment remained down 5.2 percent in the 2022-2023 school year compared with the 2019-2020 school year. 美联社发现，与 2019-2020 学年相比，2022-2023 学年幼儿园入学率仍下降 5.2%。 Deborah Stipek is a former head of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. She said kindergarten is where children learn to follow directions, learn good behavior, and get used to learning. Stipek said missing that year of school can put kids at a disadvantage. 黛博拉·斯蒂佩克 (Deborah Stipek) 是斯坦福大学教育研究生院前院长。 她说，幼儿园是孩子们学习听从指示、学习良好行为、习惯学习的地方。 斯蒂佩克说，缺课一年会让孩子们处于不利地位。 Last year, Aylah went to a children’s program that met mainly outdoors instead of enrolling in kindergarten in the state of California. Aylah now has to adjust to being inside a classroom and learning the right way to hold a pencil. 去年，艾拉没有进入加利福尼亚州的幼儿园，而是参加了一个主要在户外举行的儿童项目。 艾拉现在必须适应在教室里并学习正确的握笔方式。 “It’s harder. Way, way harder,” Aylah said of the new way she learned to hold a pencil. “这更难了。 太难了，”艾拉谈到她学会握铅笔的新方法时说道。 Still, her mother Hannah Levy says it was the right decision to skip kindergarten. She wanted Aylah to enjoy being a child. There is plenty of time, she reasoned, for her daughter to develop study skills. 尽管如此，她的母亲汉娜·利维表示，跳过幼儿园是正确的决定。 她希望艾拉享受当孩子的时光。 她认为，她的女儿有充足的时间来培养学习技能。

December 31, 2023, means the new year 2024 is nearly here! At this time of the year, many people set New Year’s resolutions. Many people want to make a change in life and others set a goal.2023年12月31日，意味着2024年新年即将到来！ 每年的这个时候，很多人都会制定新年计划。 许多人希望改变生活，而另一些人则设定了目标。So, today we talk about the word goal. You may know this word because you shout “gooaaal” when your team scores. It is exciting! It is also exciting when we reach our personal goals. 那么，今天我们就来说说目标这个词。 您可能知道这个词，因为当您的球队得分时您会大喊“gooaaal”。 太令人兴奋了！ 当我们实现个人目标时，这也是令人兴奋的。 A goal is something we want to reach. It is something we work toward. It is important to have goals in life and a plan to achieve them. A football player’s goal is to score a goal, and a goalie’s goal is to stop a … goal. 目标是我们想要达到的目标。 这是我们努力的方向。 拥有人生目标以及实现这些目标的计划非常重要。 足球运动员的目标是进球，守门员的目标是阻止……进球。 Let’s continue talking about sports. Many sports involve not only goals but also a goal line. A goal line gives the space on the field in which you can score or make a goal. 我们继续聊运动。 许多运动不仅涉及球门，还涉及球门线。 球门线提供了球场上您可以得分或进球的空间。 Let’s talk about American football for a minute. That sport involves tall goal posts. To make a point, a kicker can kick a football between the posts and score. Now, imagine if you are kicking that ball. You have the goal posts in your sights. You kick! It looks good! It looks like the ball is going to go between the posts. But then, at the last minute, someone moves the goal posts, and your ball does not go through. 让我们谈谈美式足球。 这项运动涉及高高的球门柱。 为了得分，踢球者可以将足球踢到门柱之间并得分。 现在，想象一下如果你正在踢那个球。 您的目标就是球门柱。 你踢！ 看上去不错！ 看起来球将穿过门柱之间。 但是，在最后一刻，有人移动了球门柱，你的球没有通过。 To move the goal posts as you are kicking the ball would not be fair. If someone moves the goal posts, they are changing the rules of the game or a situation to meet their own needs. 在踢球时移动球门柱是不公平的。 如果有人移动球门柱，他们就是在改变游戏规则或情况以满足自己的需要。 Let’s say you are building a house for someone. Both of you agree on a design, plan and price to build the house, and a date to complete the building. As the date of completion arrives, the soon-to-be owner wants to change the design of the house. She says that she wants the new design for the same price. 假设您正在为某人建造一座房子。 你们双方就建造房屋的设计、计划和价格以及竣工日期达成一致。 随着竣工日期的到来，即将成为业主的人想要改变房子的设计。 她说她想要同样价格的新设计。 You could say that she has moved the goal post! Or you could say that she has moved the goal line because some sports use a line and not a post. And some sports use both. 可以说她已经移动了门柱！ 或者你可以说她移动了球门线，因为有些运动使用的是线而不是门柱。 有些运动同时使用两者。 People who have the goal line or goal post moved on them may fall short of their goals. If you fall short of your goal you do not accomplish it. You do not succeed. 球门线或球门柱移动的人可能会达不到他们的目标。 如果你达不到你的目标，你就无法实现它。 你不会成功。 To reach your goals, it is a good idea to have a plan. Set out small steps you can do to reach your goals. And when you complete those small steps on your way to your end goal … make sure to celebrate! And make sure no one moves the goal line on you. 为了实现您的目标，制定计划是个好主意。 列出您可以采取的小步骤来实现您的目标。 当您完成实现最终目标的这些小步骤时……一定要庆祝！ 并确保没有人移动球门线来攻击你。 And that’s the end of this Words and Their Stories. Until next year … 这就是《言语及其故事》的结尾。 直到明年 … 

It is a small dog with a big “smile.” And it is ready to compete with 200 other kinds of dogs, known as breeds. 这是一只有着大大“微笑”的小狗。 它已经准备好与 200 种其他品种的狗竞争。Say hello to the Lancashire Heeler. 向兰开夏郡高跟鞋问好。 The American Kennel Club (AKC) announced Wednesday that the rare dog breed can now compete in thousands of dog shows across the United States. That includes the famous Westminster Kennel Club show. 美国养犬俱乐部（AKC）周三宣布，这种稀有犬种现在可以参加美国各地数千场犬展的比赛。 其中包括著名的威斯敏斯特养犬俱乐部表演。 The AKC describes the breed as “a medium to high energy dog.” The organization says the dogs are intelligent, friendly and quick to learn new tasks. They are happy, talkative and always ready for a walk. AKC 将该品种描述为“中等到高能量的狗”。 该组织表示，这些狗聪明、友善，能够快速学习新任务。 他们很快乐，健谈，随时准备散步。 Lancashire Heelers have long bodies and short coats of hair, or fur, in black and tan. The breed stands about 30 centimeters high and weighs up to 7.7 kilograms. Historically, they helped to drive farm animals and chase away rats. The breed can also perform several dog-related sports and activities. 兰开夏高跟鞋有长长的身体和黑色和棕褐色的短毛或毛皮。 该品种身高约30厘米，体重达7.7公斤。 从历史上看，他们帮助驱赶农场动物和赶走老鼠。 该品种还可以进行一些与狗相关的运动和活动。 “They’re gritty little dogs, and they’re very intelligent little dogs,” says Patricia Blankenship of Flora, Mississippi, who has bred them for many years. “It’s an enjoyable little breed to be around.” “它们是坚韧的小狗，而且非常聪明，”密西西比州弗洛拉市的帕特里夏·布兰肯希普 (Patricia Blankenship) 说道，她已经饲养了它们很多年。 “这是一个令人愉快的小品种。” The breed is often described as “courageous, happy, affectionate to owner.” And owners say they sometimes pull back their lips into a “smile.” 该品种通常被描述为“勇敢、快乐、对主人充满感情”。 业主们表示，他们有时会收起嘴唇，露出“微笑”。 Lancashire Heeler Club President Sheryl Bradbury says the breed “has to have a job” or stay active with its owners. It is also helpful for them to meet different people and dogs. 兰开夏郡海勒俱乐部主席谢丽尔·布拉德伯里表示，这个品种“必须有一份工作”，或者与主人保持活跃。 这对他们认识不同的人和狗也有帮助。 Lancashire Heelers have lived in Britain for hundreds of years, but they are now at risk of dying out as a breed. Britain’s Kennel Club has added an average of just 121 Lancashire heelers yearly to its registry in recent years. The AKC says only about 5,000 exist worldwide. 兰开夏高跟鞋在英国生活了数百年，但现在它们作为一个品种正面临灭绝的危险。 近年来，英国养犬俱乐部平均每年只增加 121 只兰开夏高跟犬。 AKC 表示全球仅存约 5,000 个。Founded in 1884, the AKC is the United States’ oldest purebred dog registry. It also organizes dog shows where 201 recognized breeds compete for the traditional “best in show.” To get recognized, a breed must have an official breeding standard and there must be at least 300 of the animals in at least 20 states. AKC 成立于 1884 年，是美国最古老的纯种狗登记处。 它还组织狗展，让 201 个公认的品种角逐传统的“最佳表演奖”。 要获得认可，某个品种必须有官方育种标准，并且至少 20 个州必须有至少 300 只该动物。 

Every day Juanita Mengel, a 67-year-old woman from the state of Ohio, wakes up and puts on her manufactured leg. The device is called a prosthetic. 来自俄亥俄州的 67 岁妇女胡安妮塔·门格尔每天醒来都会穿上她的人造腿。 该装置称为假肢。 Then, Mengel does the same for Lola-Pearl, her colorful five-year-old cat. Lola-Pearl is missing her back left leg. 然后，门格尔对她五岁的色彩斑斓的猫洛拉珀尔做了同样的事情。 洛拉·珀尔失去了她的左后腿。 Mengel has many cats. Most of them have disabilities. But Lola-Pearl is special. She is a therapy cat. And, she and Mengel are partners of a kind. They are among 200 therapy cat teams registered in the United States by the nonprofit group, Pet Partners. 门格尔有很多只猫。 他们大多数都有残疾。 但 Lola-Pearl 很特别。 她是一只治疗猫。 而且，她和门格尔是某种意义上的合作伙伴。 他们是非营利组织 Pet Partners 在美国注册的 200 个治疗猫团队之一。 The group helps humans and pets alike by setting them up into teams to provide animal-assisted intervention. The teams visit hospitals, nursing homes and schools and assist those in need. 该组织通过将人类和宠物分成小组来提供动物辅助干预，从而帮助人类和宠物。 这些团队走访医院、疗养院和学校，为有需要的人提供帮助。Taylor Chastain Griffin is national director of animal-assisted interventions at Pet Partners. She said, “A therapy animal is an animal who's been assessed based on their ability to meet new people and not just tolerate the interaction, but actively enjoy it.” 泰勒·查斯坦·格里芬 (Taylor Chastain Griffin) 是 Pet Partners 动物辅助干预部门的全国总监。 她说：“治疗动物是一种根据其结识新朋友的能力进行评估的动物，不仅能容忍互动，而且能积极享受互动。” Chastain Griffin is a researcher who studies the effects of therapy cats. She said there needs to be more research done in cat therapy. She said that there is a lot of research on other therapy animals like dogs, and many people are surprised to learn that cats can be therapy animals too. 查斯坦·格里芬是一位研究治疗猫效果的研究员。 她说需要对猫疗法进行更多研究。 她说，对于狗等其他治疗动物有很多研究，许多人惊讶地发现猫也可以成为治疗动物。 "They go into a setting and people are like, 'Whoa, there's a cat on a leash. What's happening? It kind of inspires people to connect in a way we haven't traditionally heard talked about in other therapy animal interventions,” Chastain Griffin said. “他们进入一个环境，人们会说，‘哇，有一只猫被皮带拴着。发生了什么事？这激发了人们以一种我们在其他动物干预治疗中从未听说过的方式进行联系，”查斯坦 格里芬说道。 Besides dogs and cats, Pet Partners registers seven other species as therapy animals, including horses, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, birds, mini pigs, and llamas and alpacas. 除了狗和猫之外，Pet Partners 还注册了其他七种动物作为治疗动物，包括马、兔子、老鼠、豚鼠、鸟类、迷你猪、美洲驼和羊驼。Mengel said Lola-Pearl showed signs that she would make a good therapy cat soon after the animal joined her family. Mengel took her new cat to a meeting for amputees. 门格尔说，洛拉·珀尔在加入她的家庭后不久就表现出迹象，表明她将成为一只优秀的治疗猫。 门格尔带着她的新猫去参加截肢者会议。 "She was so good with people I just knew she would be a good therapy cat. People really were attracted to her, too,” Mengel said. “她与人相处得很好，我知道她会成为一只很好的治疗猫。人们也真的被她吸引了，”门格尔说。 Recently people who attended a support group for amputees were able to meet Lola-Pearl. They petted her as she woke up from a rest. On the side of the cat carrier she rode in was a sign: “Therapy Cat” it read. 最近，参加截肢者支持小组的人们能够见到 Lola-Pearl。 当她从休息中醒来时，他们抚摸她。 她乘坐的猫笼一侧有一个牌子：“治疗猫”。Mengel was a traveling nurse when she was in a car accident that almost killed her. One of her legs could not be saved. 门格尔是一名旅行护士，当时她遭遇了一场差点丧命的车祸。 她的一条腿没能保住。Later, she connected with a friend in the state of Missouri who had a severely injured kitten. Her legs were twisted together. An animal medical specialist worked to repair the damage but, in the end, they had to remove one of the baby cat’s legs. 后来，她联系了密苏里州的一位朋友，他养了一只受了重伤的小猫。 她的双腿扭在一起。 一位动物医学专家努力修复损伤，但最终他们不得不切除小猫的一条腿。 That kitten was Lola-Pearl. 那只小猫就是洛拉·珀尔。 Mengel took Lola-Pearl as her cat after talking with her friend. Despite the difficulties Mengel has faced, she is thankful for Lola-Pearl and their work together. 门格尔在和她的朋友交谈后，把洛拉·珀尔当作她的猫。 尽管门格尔面临着困难，但她仍然感谢 Lola-Pearl 以及他们的共同努力。"It's a really rewarding experience," she said, "I get just as much out of it as the people that I visit." “这是一次非常有意义的经历，”她说，“我和我拜访的人一样从中受益匪浅。” 

Professor Kim Calders from Ghent University is laser-scanning what's said to be the UK's most scientifically studied forest: Wytham Wood in Oxfordshire. For their research, he and his colleagues scanned nearly a thousand trees, producing detailed three-dimensional maps from which they could work out the weight of each one.根特大学的金·考尔德斯教授正在用激光扫描据说是英国被研究最多的森林：牛津郡的威萨姆森林。在他们的研究中，考尔德斯教授及其同事扫描了近一千棵树，绘制了详细的三维地图，从中可计算出每棵树的重量。This revealed that an average patch of UK woodland is heavier than was estimated and therefore contains much more carbon – almost twice as much as previously thought. The scientists say their findings show the value of established, mature woodland for fighting climate change has been underestimated.计算得出，英国一块普通林地的重量比估计的要重，因此碳含量更高，几乎是之前估计的两倍。科学家们表示，他们的发现表明，生长已久的成熟林地在对抗气候变化方面的价值被低估了。词汇表laser-scanning 激光扫描scanned 扫描了three-dimensional 三维的patch 小块carbon 碳established（植物）生长已久的，长势良好的mature 成熟的underestimated 被低估的

For some, a natural diamond, created over billions of years, is what they have always wanted. But an award-winning British designer sees greater worth in jewelry made using laboratory-grown gems and metal from recycled cans. 对于一些人来说，经过数十亿年形成的天然钻石是他们一直想要的。 但一位屡获殊荣的英国设计师认为，使用实验室制造的宝石和回收罐中的金属制成的珠宝具有更大的价值。Recycling is a process that makes something new out of something that has been used before. 回收是一个将以前使用过的东西变成新东西的过程。 Anabela Chan, the jewelry designer, said she chose her materials after seeing what she said were poor working conditions in diamond mines. 珠宝设计师安娜贝拉·陈 (Anabela Chan) 表示，她在看到钻石矿的恶劣工作条件后选择了自己的材料。 "These are some of the most precious and valuable commodities in the world, that just didn't make any sense to me," she said in her store in Britain’s capital of London. “这些是世界上最珍贵、最有价值的商品，但对我来说毫无意义，”她在英国首都伦敦的商店里说道。Instead, her designs use lab-grown diamonds, recycled aluminum from cans, and pearls, 1:00 a kind of jewel found in animals, grown from regenerative farming. 相反，她的设计使用实验室培育的钻石、罐头回收铝和珍珠，1:00 一种在动物体内发现的宝石，通过再生农业种植。 Chan’s company did not give sales numbers but said it had seen strong demand since the COVID-19 pandemic. She won the “Game Changer” division at the British Luxury Awards in November. Chan 的公司没有提供销售数据，但表示自 COVID-19 大流行以来需求强劲。 她于 11 月荣获英国奢侈品奖“游戏规则改变者”奖。Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data studies the worldwide diamond industry. It found that the lab-grown jewelry market has seen yearly growth of 20 percent in recent years. That has driven worldwide profits to $15 billion. Edahn Golan 钻石研究与数据研究全球钻石行业。 研究发现，实验室培育的珠宝市场近年来每年增长 20%。 这使得全球利润达到 150 亿美元。 As more producers enter the market, selling prices for lab-grown diamonds have fallen. Companies are looking to stand themselves apart from competitors. They are doing so through their jewelry design. 随着越来越多的生产商进入市场，实验室制造钻石的售价有所下降。 公司正在寻求从竞争对手中脱颖而出。 他们通过珠宝设计来做到这一点。Pandora is a major seller of lab-grown diamonds. Joshua Braman, the head of diamonds at Pandora, said lab-grown gems could create a new area of interest for jewelry design. 潘多拉 (Pandora) 是实验室制造钻石的主要销售商。 潘多拉 (Pandora) 钻石主管约书亚·布拉曼 (Joshua Braman) 表示，实验室培育的宝石可以为珠宝设计创造一个新的兴趣领域。 Another point of difference is the effects it has on natural resources. 另一个区别是它对自然资源的影响。 Chan uses suppliers who use technology to capture carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere to make diamonds. Chan said, “so effectively taking something negative and turning it into something positive.” 陈所聘用的供应商使用技术来捕获二氧化碳，否则这些二氧化碳将被释放到大气中来制造钻石。 陈说：“如此有效地将消极的东西转化为积极的东西。” 

The American space agency NASA's human-like robot Valkyrie looks powerful. It stands 188 centimeters tall and weighs 136 kilograms. 美国航天局NASA的仿人机器人Valkyrie看起来很强大。 身高188厘米，体重136公斤。 Valkyrie is named after supernatural females in Norse mythology. The robot is being tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 瓦尔基里（Valkyrie）以北欧神话中的超自然女性命名。 该机器人正在德克萨斯州休斯顿的约翰逊航天中心进行测试。 The robot is designed to operate in "...damaged human-engineered environments," like areas hit by natural disasters, NASA said. 美国宇航局表示，该机器人设计用于“……受损的人为环境”，例如遭受自然灾害的地区。 But robots like Valkyrie could also work in space one day. 但像瓦尔基里这样的机器人有一天也可以在太空工作。Robots that look like humans, or humanoid robots, have a torso, head, two arms and two legs. Engineers believe that humanoid robots will be able to work similarly to humans and use the same tools and equipment. They just need the right software. 看起来像人类的机器人，或类人机器人，有躯干、头部、两条手臂和两条腿。 工程师们相信，人形机器人将能够像人类一样工作，并使用相同的工具和设备。 他们只需要合适的软件。 NASA Dexterous Robotics team leader Shaun Azimi said humanoid robots in space could do dangerous jobs. Such jobs include cleaning solar panels or dealing with equipment outside the spacecraft. As a result, human astronauts could pay more attention to exploration and discovery. 美国宇航局灵巧机器人团队负责人肖恩·阿齐米表示，太空中的人形机器人可能会从事危险的工作。 此类工作包括清洁太阳能电池板或处理航天器外部的设备。 因此，人类宇航员可以更加关注探索和发现。 "We're not trying to replace human crews, we're really just trying to take the dull, dirty and dangerous work off their plates to allow them to focus on those higher-level activities," Azimi said. 阿齐米说：“我们并不是要取代人类船员，我们只是想把枯燥、肮脏和危险的工作从他们的工作中解放出来，让他们能够专注于更高级别的活动。” NASA is partnering with robotics companies like Apptronik, which is based in Austin, Texas. The goal is to learn how humanoid robots developed for purposes on Earth could help the development of future humanoid robots meant for space. NASA 正在与总部位于德克萨斯州奥斯汀的 Apptronik 等机器人公司合作。 目标是了解为地球用途而开发的人形机器人如何帮助开发未来用于太空的人形机器人。 Apptronik is developing Apollo, a humanoid robot whose jobs on Earth will include working in warehouses and manufacturing plants. The robot can move packages and organize objects. Apptronik plans to start providing the humanoid robots to companies in early 2025.Apptronik 正在开发 Apollo，这是一种人形机器人，其在地球上的工作将包括在仓库和制造工厂工作。 机器人可以移动包裹并整理物品。 Apptronik 计划于 2025 年初开始向公司提供人形机器人。 Apptronik Chief Technology Officer Nick Paine said Apollo has strengths in comparison to humans. Apptronik 首席技术官尼克·潘恩 (Nick Paine) 表示，与人类相比，阿波罗具有优势。 "We're targeting having this system online 22 hours a day," Paine said. "This does have a swappable battery, so you can work for four hours, swap the battery and then keep going.” “我们的目标是让这个系统每天 22 小时在线，”潘恩说。 “它确实有一个可更换电池，所以你可以工作四个小时，更换电池然后继续工作。” Apptronik chief Jeff Cardenas said there are many possibilities as new software and development increase Apollo's abilities. Apptronik 首席执行官杰夫·卡德纳斯 (Jeff Cardenas) 表示，随着新软件和开发增强阿波罗的能力，有很多可能性。 "The approach is we're starting in the warehouse and on the manufacturing floor, but then it can move into retail...to delivery and out more into what we call unstructured spaces," Cardenas said. 卡德纳斯说：“我们的方法是从仓库和制造车间开始，然后可以进入零售……交付，并更多地进入我们所说的非结构化空间。” In years to come, those "unstructured" areas could include space, Azimi said. He said the robots are being designed so they can be easily changed to do many different jobs. 阿齐米说，未来几年，这些“非结构化”区域可能包括太空。 他说，这些机器人的设计使得它们可以很容易地改变以完成许多不同的工作。 "Robots like Apollo are designed with modularity in mind to be able to adapt to many applications," Azimi said. “像阿波罗这样的机器人在设计时就考虑到了模块化，能够适应许多应用，”阿齐米说。 Azimi added that NASA is aiming to find out what areas it needs to look into “to bring a terrestrial system into the space environment...” 阿齐米补充说，美国宇航局的目标是找出需要研究哪些领域，“将地面系统带入太空环境……” 

The two-metre-long skull of the pliosaur is exquisitely preserved. Its crocodile-like snout is filled with dozens of razor-sharp teeth, and huge holes in its jaws would have been packed out with muscle, giving it an incredibly powerful bite. 这只上龙的头骨化石长两米，保存得极为完好。它形似鳄鱼的口鼻上长满了几十颗锋利的牙齿，颌骨间的大洞里曾长满了肌肉，这给了它极其强大的咬合力。 Growing to more than twelve metres, about the same length as a double decker bus, this Jurassic beast would have terrorised the oceans, even feasting on other pliosaurs. 身长超过12米，相当于一辆双层巴士的长度，这只侏罗纪野兽曾在海洋里横行霸道，甚至以其它上龙为食。 The fossil was unearthed from the dark clays of Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset. Its excavation from a crumbling cliff face was followed by a BBC team for a documentary with Sir David Attenborough. 这块头骨化石从英格兰多塞特郡金默里奇湾的深色黏土中被取出。与大卫·爱登堡爵士一起合作拍摄相关题材纪录片的英国广播公司摄制组记录了这次在摇摇欲坠的悬崖表面上开展的挖掘工作。 But there may be more of this sea monster to come. The pliosaur's body is still thought to be embedded in the rock. The hope is that in time the rest of its skeleton will also be recovered. 未来可能还会有更多这只海洋怪兽的化石被人发现。因为人们认为这只上龙的身体还埋在岩石中，所以希望它的其余骨骼化石也能在不久的未来被找到。 词汇表exquisitely 极度地，精美完好地snout （一些动物突出的）口鼻部packed out 长满了terrorised （曾经）横行霸道unearthed 被取出crumbling 摇摇欲坠的embedded 嵌入…之中的

What motivates you to work or study harder? Is it the thought of success and all the amazing things that you can achieve, or is it the fear of failure and worry about all the things that can go wrong for you? Leaders, managers, and teachers have often used one of these ideas to inspire people to work harder and achieve more. But is one better than the other? 是什么促使你更加努力地工作或学习？ 是对成功的想法和你能实现的所有令人惊奇的事情，还是对失败的恐惧和担心所有可能给你带来麻烦的事情？ 领导者、管理者和教师经常使用这些想法之一来激励人们更加努力地工作并取得更多成就。 但其中一个比另一个更好吗？ A recent study looked at the effect of fear-based strategies on British secondary school students. As is so often the case, it's complicated. They found that if a test is seen as important, and students are optimistic that they can succeed, then the fear of failure can be used successfully by teachers to motivate these learners. However, if students are not confident, then fear-based approaches could trigger feelings of anxiety, which can in turn lead them to do worse on the test then they would have done otherwise. The study also found that if students are disengaged and don't care about the test in the first place, then, unsurprisingly, the fear of failure is not likely to motivate them. 最近的一项研究探讨了基于恐惧的策略对英国中学生的影响。 正如经常发生的情况一样，它很复杂。 他们发现，如果考试被认为很重要，并且学生对自己能够成功持乐观态度，那么教师就可以成功地利用对失败的恐惧来激励这些学习者。 然而，如果学生没有信心，那么基于恐惧的方法可能会引发焦虑感，这反过来又会导致他们在考试中表现更差。 研究还发现，如果学生一开始就没有参与度并且不关心考试，那么毫不奇怪，对失败的恐惧不太可能激励他们。 Entrepreneurs often run the risk of failure. It's a fact that most new companies will fail. But does this motivate or inhibit businesspeople? Again, it's not straightforward. The personal consequences of failure can be significant, and so founders may be motivated to work harder to avoid them. A study carried out on British and Canadian entrepreneurs found that fear of failure can improve problem solving, as people are motivated to anticipate and resolve potential issues. They may also be inspired to learn new things that will help their business or find mentors who can support them. However, the study also showed that it can lead to increased procrastination as people focus too much on what they personally fear, rather than what would be best for the business. If someone is less confident about their business idea, then they may find their decision-making negatively affected by their fears. 企业家常常面临失败的风险。 大多数新公司都会失败，这是事实。 但这会激励还是抑制商人呢？ 同样，这并不简单。 失败对个人造成的后果可能是严重的，因此创始人可能会更加努力地工作来避免失败。 对英国和加拿大企业家进行的一项研究发现，对失败的恐惧可以改善问题的解决，因为人们有动力去预测和解决潜在的问题。 他们也可能会受到启发去学习有助于他们业务的新事物或找到可以支持他们的导师。 然而，研究还表明，这可能会导致拖延加剧，因为人们过于关注他们个人担心的事情，而不是对企业最有利的事情。 如果某人对自己的商业想法缺乏信心，那么他们可能会发现自己的决策受到恐惧的负面影响。 Taken together, these studies show that fear-based motivation is complicated. It can drive confident people to do better, but it can also amplify our doubts and turn them into barriers. 总的来说，这些研究表明基于恐惧的动机是复杂的。 它可以驱使自信的人做得更好，但它也可以放大我们的疑虑，并将其变成障碍。词汇表motivate 激励achieve 做成，达到inspire 激励fear-based 基于恐惧的optimistic 乐观的confident 有信心的，有把握的trigger 引发anxiety 焦虑disengaged 不感兴趣的，不关心的run the risk 冒...的危险inhibit 约束，使...有顾虑consequence 结果，影响inspired 受到启发的mentor （工作中为经验较浅者提供帮助的）导师，指导人procrastination 拖延amplify 扩大，加深doubt 疑虑barrier 障碍，阻碍

Alessandra Zarelli works to keep the artwork of the Vatican Museums in good condition. She says, whenever she works on a masterpiece, she must calm her heart so her thinking can center on her work. Alessandra Zarelli 致力于保持梵蒂冈博物馆艺术品的良好状态。她说，每当创作杰作时，她必须让自己的心平静下来，这样她的思想才能集中在作品上。 Vatican City is a small country surrounded by the Italian capital, Rome. It is the headquarters and seat of government of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican Museums contain thousands of artworks hundreds of years old including paintings by Michelangelo. 梵蒂冈城是一个被意大利首都罗马包围的小国。它是罗马天主教会的总部和政府所在地。梵蒂冈博物馆藏有数千件具有数百年历史的艺术品，其中包括米开朗基罗的画作。 "The emotion of working on something like a Michelangelo is truly indescribable," said Zarelli. She helped repair one of his wall paintings in Vatican City’s Pauline Chapel. “创作米开朗基罗这样的作品的情感确实难以形容，”扎雷利说。她帮助修复了他在梵蒂冈城宝琳教堂的一幅壁画。 Michelangelo painted during the Renaissance period of European history during a growth of interest in science, art, and literature.米开朗基罗在欧洲历史文艺复兴时期进行绘画，当时人们对科学、艺术和文学的兴趣不断增长。 Zarelli is part of a special team at the Vatican Museums’ repair laboratory for paintings and wood pieces. 扎雷利是梵蒂冈博物馆绘画和木制品修复实验室特别团队的一员。 The team is responsible for looking after thousands of square meters of wall paintings, including the famous ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel. They also look after some 5,300 oil paintings and wooden statues. 该团队负责照管数千平方米的壁画，包括西斯廷教堂著名的天花板和墙壁。他们还保管着约 5,300 幅油画和木制雕像。The painting and wood lab is one of eight specialized groups in the museums. It permitted several news organizations, including Reuters, the chance to see its inner workings to mark its 100th anniversary. 绘画和木材实验室是博物馆的八个专业小组之一。它允许包括路透社在内的多家新闻机构有机会了解其内部运作，以纪念其成立 100 周年。 Care and repair methods change often and today’s workers often have to repair mistakes from care workers that came before them. They repair work from recent history to many centuries ago.护理和维修方法经常发生变化，今天的工人经常必须修复前任护理人员的错误。他们修复从近代历史到许多世纪前的作品。 Another problem, usually from the distant past, is that restorers were not technicians but artists in their own right. Francesca Persegati is chief restorer at the Vatican Museums. She said that some of those artists thought they could “improve” the original by adding their own work. 另一个问题，通常来自遥远的过去，是修复者不是技术人员，而是本身的艺术家。Francesca Persegati 是梵蒂冈博物馆的首席修复师。她说，其中一些艺术家认为他们可以通过添加自己的作品来“改进”原作。"It's important to be humble in this job, to respect the work but also to have a scientific background to understand the materials," she said. “在这份工作中保持谦虚、尊重工作很重要，但也要有科学背景来理解材料，”她说。 Before a painting even reaches the lab, another team carries out tests to see if paint or color has been added since the piece was first made. They also check it for possible other work below the surface. 在一幅画到达实验室之前，另一个团队会进行测试，看看自这件作品首次制作以来是否添加了油漆或颜色。他们还检查它是否有可能在地表以下进行其他工作。 In another part of the lab, Caterina Manisco was working on an 1895 painting called Madonna and Child Between St. Teresa and St. Francis. Italian Emma Richards was the artist. She painted for the rich and powerful, like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Such work was a rarity for women artists of the time. 在实验室的另一部分，卡特琳娜·马尼斯科 (Caterina Manisco) 正在创作一幅 1895 年的画作，名为《圣特蕾莎与圣弗朗西斯之间的麦当娜与圣婴》。意大利人艾玛·理查兹是艺术家。她为维多利亚女王和阿尔伯特亲王等富人和有权势的人画画。这样的作品对于当时的女性艺术家来说是罕见的。 "Because she was a woman, I somehow feel very close to her," said Manisco, an external restorer at the lab. “因为她是一名女性，所以我感觉和她很亲近，”实验室的外部修复师马尼斯科说。 To mark the 100th anniversary of the paintings and wood lab, the Vatican Museums are using special technology. It permits visitors to use their phones to connect with information about the artwork they are looking at. 为了纪念绘画和木材实验室诞生 100 周年，梵蒂冈博物馆正在使用特殊技术。它允许参观者使用手机连接有关他们正在观看的艺术品的信息。

The disease dengue is spreading across the Western Hemisphere in numbers not seen since record-keeping began in 1980. Experts are warning that rising temperatures and growing cities are increasing the rate of infection. 登革热正在西半球蔓延，其数量是自 1980 年有记录以来从未有过的。专家警告说，气温上升和城市扩张正在增加感染率。 More than 4 million cases have been reported throughout the Americas and the Caribbean so far this year, breaking a record set in 2019. Officials from the Bahamas to Brazil are warning of crowded health centers and new infections daily. Reports say there have been more than 2,000 deaths across the wide area. 今年迄今为止，美洲和加勒比地区已报告超过 400 万例病例，打破了 2019 年创下的纪录。从巴哈马到巴西，官员们都在警告卫生中心拥挤和每天新增感染病例。 报道称，该地区已有2000多人死亡。 Thais dos Santos is with the Pan American Health Organization, the area office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Americas. She said diseases like dengue, “provide us a really good sentinel of what is happening with climate change." Thais dos Santos 在泛美卫生组织工作，该组织是世界卫生组织 (WHO) 美洲地区办事处。 她说，像登革热这样的疾病“为我们提供了一个很好的哨兵，让我们了解气候变化正在发生的情况。” A lack of good sanitation and strong health systems have added to the rise in cases. But experts say droughts and floods linked to climate change are causing greater spread of the virus. That is because stored water and heavy rains appeal to mosquitoes. 缺乏良好的卫生设施和强大的卫生系统加剧了病例的增加。 但专家表示，与气候变化有关的干旱和洪水正在导致病毒更广泛的传播。 这是因为积水和大雨会吸引蚊子。 Dr. Gabriela Paz-Bailey is chief of the dengue branch for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Puerto Rico. She noted that higher temperatures also are expanding the mosquito's habitat and helping the virus develop faster inside the mosquito. That leads to higher viral loads and a higher chance of transmission. 加布里埃拉·帕斯·贝利 (Gabriela Paz-Bailey) 博士是美国疾病控制与预防中心波多黎各登革热分部的负责人。 她指出，较高的温度也扩大了蚊子的栖息地，并帮助病毒在蚊子体内更快地生长。 这会导致更高的病毒载量和更高的传播机会。 This year’s Northern Hemisphere summer was the hottest ever, with August about 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial period averages. And Copernicus, the European climate service, reported that 2023 is the second hottest year on record. 今年北半球的夏季是有史以来最热的，八月比工业化前时期的平均温度高约1.5摄氏度。 欧洲气候服务机构哥白尼报告称，2023 年是有记录以来第二热的一年。 Worldwide, more than 4.5 million cases of dengue had been reported as of early November. There have been more than 4,000 deaths reported in 80 countries. 截至 11 月初，全球报告了超过 450 万例登革热病例。 80 个国家报告了 4,000 多人死亡。 Countries like Bangladesh are seeing a record number of cases and deaths. The government in the South Asian country has reported more than 313,700 cases and more than 1,600 deaths. Most of the deaths happened within three days of hospitalization.孟加拉国等国家的病例和死亡人数创下历史新高。 这个南亚国家政府报告了超过 313,700 例病例和 1,600 多人死亡。 大多数死亡发生在住院三天内。 The mosquito that carries dengue also has been identified in 22 European countries, with local spread of the disease seen in France, Italy and Spain. In August, the central African country of Chad reported its first dengue outbreak in history. 22 个欧洲国家也发现了携带登革热的蚊子，法国、意大利和西班牙也出现了该疾病的局部传播。 8月，中非国家乍得报告了历史上首次爆发登革热疫情。Dengue affects some 129 countries, with roughly half the world’s population at risk, says the WHO. Infected female mosquitoes pass the virus when they feed on animals. The sickness can cause severe headaches, fever, vomiting, rash and other signs. While most infected people do not get symptoms, severe cases can lead to plasma leakage and death. 世界卫生组织表示，登革热影响约 129 个国家，世界上大约一半的人口面临风险。 受感染的雌性蚊子在捕食动物时会传播病毒。 这种疾病会导致严重头痛、发烧、呕吐、皮疹和其他症状。 虽然大多数感染者不会出现症状，但严重的情况下可能会导致血浆泄漏和死亡。 What is worse, experts say, repeated infections means a higher risk of developing severe dengue. 专家表示，更糟糕的是，反复感染意味着患严重登革热的风险更高。 The Caribbean also is battling an increase in cases. The area had reported a 15 percent increase in confirmed cases by early October compared with the same period last year, says the Caribbean Public Health Agency. 加勒比地区也正在与病例增加作斗争。 加勒比公共卫生局表示，截至 10 月初，该地区确诊病例与去年同期相比增加了 15%。 Officials on the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique declared an epidemic in August that is still ongoing. Martinique is reporting an average of 800 cases a week on the island of some 394,000 people. 法属加勒比海岛屿瓜德罗普岛和马提尼克岛的官员于八月宣布疫情仍在持续。 马提尼克岛约有 394,000 人，平均每周报告 800 例病例。Meanwhile, Jamaica and the Bahamas declared an outbreak in September followed by Barbados in October. 与此同时，牙买加和巴哈马于 9 月宣布疫情爆发，巴巴多斯于 10 月宣布疫情爆发。 Poor countries struggle the most with dengue. Bad sanitation creates a good reproduction environment for infected mosquitoes. Poor housing conditions leave people at greater risk of exposure to mosquitoes. Dengue outbreaks can crush already poor and overworked health systems. 贫穷国家与登革热的斗争最为严重。 不良的卫生条件为受感染的蚊子创造了良好的繁殖环境。 恶劣的住房条件使人们面临更大的接触蚊子的风险。 登革热疫情可能会摧毁本已贫困且过度劳累的卫生系统。 Jeremy Farra is chief scientist for the WHO. He said dengue is very difficult to treat partly because patients often delay in seeking medical care. The virus can progress so quickly, he said. Treating those with the

The earliest presidents who lived in the White House did not want the large outdoor areas that the monarchs of Europe might enjoy. 最早住在白宫的总统并不想要欧洲君主可能享受的大型户外区域。 Marta McDowell is writer of All the Presidents’ Gardens. She said, “You can understand that, given our democratic form of government.” But she said she thinks that a visit to the home of the British royal family, Buckingham Palace, caused President John Kennedy to expand the White House gardens. 玛塔·麦克道尔是《总统花园》的作者。 她说：“考虑到我们的民主政府形式，你可以理解这一点。” 但她表示，她认为约翰·肯尼迪总统在参观英国王室所在地白金汉宫后扩建了白宫花园。 From the start, presidents and their families influenced the 7.2 hectares of open space in the front and back of the White House differently. Their choices often showed their values and traditions of their day. 从一开始，总统及其家人就对白宫前后 7.2 公顷的开放空间产生了不同的影响。 他们的选择往往体现了他们所处时代的价值观和传统。 McDowell said that the White House is “really their home” while they are in office. She added that as long as they work with the historic plan of the gardens the National Park Service tries to meet the desires of the administration. The National Park Service oversees the gardens. 麦克道尔表示，在他们任职期间，白宫“确实是他们的家”。 她补充说，只要他们与花园的历史规划合作，国家公园管理局就会尽力满足政府的愿望。 国家公园管理局负责监管花园。John Quincy Adams, America’s sixth president, worked in the garden. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, took down glass structures called greenhouses that were first built by James Buchanan, the 15th president, in the 1850s. 美国第六任总统约翰·昆西·亚当斯曾在花园里工作。 第 26 任总统西奥多·罗斯福拆除了第 15 任总统詹姆斯·布坎南于 1850 年代首次建造的被称为温室的玻璃结构。 John Kennedy, the 35th president, redesigned one garden called the Rose Garden in the 1960s. First lady Michelle Obama, wife of the 44th president, built a food garden using plants and seeds from the home of Thomas Jefferson, the third president. Today, the garden has more than 50 kinds of vegetables. 第 35 任总统约翰·肯尼迪 (John Kennedy) 在 20 世纪 60 年代重新设计了一座名为玫瑰园的花园。 第 44 任总统的妻子第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马 (Michelle Obama) 使用第三任总统托马斯·杰斐逊 (Thomas Jefferson) 家中的植物和种子建造了一个食物花园。 如今，菜园里有50多种蔬菜。Pierre L’Enfant was the city planner and architect for America’s first president, George Washington. At first, he planned for a 30-hectare presidential garden. However, as a believer in small government, Jefferson reduced the White House grounds to just 2 hectares. The gardens were expanded to the current 7.2 hectares 皮埃尔·朗方 (Pierre L’Enfant) 是美国第一任总统乔治·华盛顿 (George Washington) 的城市规划师和建筑师。 起初，他规划了一个30公顷的总统花园。 然而，作为小政府的信奉者，杰斐逊将白宫的占地面积减少到只有 2 公顷。 花园扩大至目前的7.2公顷 Jefferson, like many Americans who had just freed themselves from a British monarch, was concerned about creating a new king. 杰斐逊像许多刚刚摆脱英国君主统治的美国人一样，担心创造一位新国王。“Avoid palaces and gardens of palaces,” William Thornton, a Washington city representative warned. “If you build a palace with gardens, I will find you a king.” “避开宫殿和宫殿花园，”华盛顿市代表威廉·桑顿警告说。 “如果你建造一座带花园的宫殿，我会给你找一个国王。” Over time, several different plants and flowers were planted at the White House. They include roses which have been around since at least Jefferson’s time. They also include peonies, wanted by first lady first lady Nancy Reagan of the 40th president, and Texas bluebells, asked for by first lady Laura Bush of the 43rd president.随着时间的推移，白宫种植了几种不同的植物和花卉。 其中包括至少从杰斐逊时代就已经存在的玫瑰。 其中还包括第 40 任总统的第一夫人南希·里根想要的牡丹，以及第 43 任总统的第一夫人劳拉·布什想要的德克萨斯风铃草。Oak and elm trees have also been on the White House grounds almost since the beginning. One tree, a chestnut oak southeast of the White House, might be the oldest tree on the grounds. The White House says it has been around since 1800. 白宫场地上几乎从一开始就种有橡树和榆树。 白宫东南部的一棵树是栗色橡树，可能是白宫内最古老的树。 白宫称它自 1800 年以来就已存在。McDowell says the White House gardens represent gardening tradition over time. First it followed designs in Europe, and then it was shaped by local traditions, the area, and the climate. 麦克道尔说，白宫花园代表了长期以来的园艺传统。 首先它遵循欧洲的设计，然后受到当地传统、地区和气候的影响。 But she said, “It’s not that they are always the leader. In fact, sometimes they’re following.” 但她说：“并不是说他们总是领导者。 事实上，有时他们会跟随。” The White house grounds were open to the public up until 1923. That was when Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, permanently closed them to unapproved visitors. 白宫场地一直向公众开放，直到 1923 年。当时，第 30 任总统卡尔文·柯立芝永久不对未经批准的游客开放。 These days, the White House Garden planned visits for the public are usually available for the public twice a year, one weekend in the spring and again in autumn. 如今，白宫花园计划每年向公众开放两次，春季一次，秋季一次。McDowell said, “They are full of tradition. They're full of beauty.”麦克道尔说：“他们充满了传统。 它们充满了美丽。” 

A new study adds to evidence that obesity is becoming more common in young children in America.一项新的研究进一步证明肥胖在美国幼儿中变得越来越普遍。 The study appeared in the medical publication Pediatrics. 该研究发表在医学出版物《儿科》上。 The findings are similar to other national data, which suggests around 2.5 percent of all preschool-aged children were severely obese during the same period. 研究结果与其他国家数据类似，表明同期所有学龄前儿童中约有 2.5% 患有严重肥胖。 One of the study’s writers, Heidi Blanck of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said “We were doing well and now we see this upward trend....We are dismayed at seeing these findings.” 该研究的作者之一、美国疾病控制与预防中心的海蒂·布兰克 (Heidi Blanck) 表示：“我们做得很好，现在我们看到了这种上升趋势……我们对这些发现感到沮丧。” Dismayed is a term that means very worried or disappointed. 沮丧这个词的意思是非常担心或失望。 The study looked at children ages 2 to 4 who took part in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. The program gives healthy foods and other services to preschool-aged children in low-income families. The children were weighed and measured. 该研究以参加妇女、婴儿和儿童 (WIC) 计划的 2 至 4 岁儿童为对象。 该计划为低收入家庭的学龄前儿童提供健康食品和其他服务。 对孩子们进行了称重和测量。 The researchers found that 2.1 percent of kids in the program were severely obese in 2010. Six years later, the rate had dropped to 1.8 percent. But by 2020, it was 2 percent. That amounts to about 33,000 of more than 1.6 million kids in the WIC program. 研究人员发现，2010 年该项目中有 2.1% 的儿童严重肥胖。六年后，这一比例下降至 1.8%。 但到 2020 年，这一比例已降至 2%。 这相当于参与 WIC 计划的超过 160 万儿童中的约 33,000 人。 The study showed major increases in 20 states. California’s was the highest at 2.8 percent. There also were large increases in some racial and ethnic groups. The highest rate, about 2.8 percent, was among Hispanic children. 该研究显示 20 个州出现大幅增长。 加利福尼亚州最高，为 2.8%。 一些种族和族裔群体的人数也大幅增加。 比例最高的是西班牙裔儿童，约为 2.8%。 Experts say severe obesity at a very early age is nearly irreversible – meaning the damage is nearly impossible to undo. 专家表示，很小的时候就严重肥胖几乎是不可逆转的，这意味着这种损害几乎无法挽回。 Severe obesity is strongly linked with health problems and an early death. 严重肥胖与健康问题和早逝密切相关。It is not clear why the increase occurred, Blanck said. 布兰克说，目前尚不清楚为什么会出现这种增加。 When WIC obesity rates dropped, some experts suggested 2009 policy changes might be responsible. Those changes took out juice from infant food packages, provided less saturated fat, and tried to make it easier for people to buy fruits and vegetables. 当 WIC 肥胖率下降时，一些专家认为 2009 年的政策变化可能是原因。 这些变化去掉了婴儿食品包装中的果汁，提供了更少的饱和脂肪，并试图让人们更容易购买水果和蔬菜。 The package has not changed. But “the daily hardships that families living in poverty are facing may be harder today than they were 10 years ago, and the slight increases in the WIC package just weren’t enough,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a Duke University childhood obesity researcher. 包没有改变。 但杜克大学儿童肥胖症研究员莎拉·阿姆斯特朗博士表示，“贫困家庭如今面临的日常困难可能比 10 年前更加困难，WIC 计划的小幅增加还不够。” 。 The researchers faced difficulties. The number of kids in WIC declined in the past ten years. And the study included 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic hit. At the time, fewer parents brought their children in to see doctors. That reduced the amount of complete information available. 研究人员面临着困难。 过去十年，WIC 的孩子数量有所下降。 该研究涵盖了 2020 年，即 COVID-19 大流行爆发的那一年。 当时，带孩子去看医生的家长越来越少。 这减少了可用的完整信息量。 Despite its limitations, it was a “very well done study,” said Deanna Hoelscher, a childhood obesity researcher at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. She added, “It gives you a hint of what’s going on.” UTHealth 休斯顿公共卫生学院的儿童肥胖研究人员迪安娜·霍尔舍 (Deanna Hoelscher) 表示，尽管存在局限性，但这仍然是一项“非常出色的研究”。 她补充道，“它可以让你了解正在发生的事情。” What has happened since 2020 is not yet known. Some small studies have suggested an increase in childhood obesity — especially during the pandemic. During the pandemic, kids were kept home from schools. Their eating and bedtime schedules were changed and physical activity decreased. 2020年以来发生了什么尚不清楚。 一些小型研究表明，儿童肥胖症有所增加，尤其是在大流行期间。 疫情期间，孩子们被留在家里不上学。 他们的饮食和就寝时间发生了变化，体力活动也减少了。 “We are thinking it’s going to get worse,” Hoelscher said.“我们认为情况会变得更糟，”霍尔舍说。 

Our solar system had a violent beginning. Worlds crashed into each other as they formed, disturbing their orbits and eventually leading to the planets of vastly different sizes that we know today. 我们所在的太阳系的初始环境充斥着剧烈运动。太阳系中的天体在相互碰撞中形成了各个星球，并扰乱了彼此的运行轨道，最终形成了我们今天所知的大小截然不同的行星。 But a hundred light years away, astronomers have discovered another solar system – one that was created in much calmer conditions without so many violent collisions. 但在100光年之外，天文学家在那里发现了另一个太阳系 —— 这个行星系统是在更平静的条件下形成的，没有发生过如此多的剧烈碰撞。 As a result, all six of its planets are of similar size, between two and three times the size of the Earth, and their orbits are in perfect sync with each other. It also has a bright star that makes it easier to study their atmospheres for signs of life.正因如此，这个行星系统中的六颗行星大小相仿，基本都是地球大小的两至三倍，而且这六颗行星是以一种完美的轨道共振方式在进行公转。新发现的行星系统中还有一颗明亮的恒星，这有助于人们研究这些行星的大气层以寻找生命迹象。 词汇表solar system 太阳系crashed into 碰撞，撞击到orbits （星球运行的）轨道vastly 非常地，大幅度地light years 光年astronomers 天文学家collisions 碰撞，相撞in sync 同步的atmospheres 大气层signs of life 生命迹象

More than half the world's population are city dwellers, and, by 2050, the United Nations predicts that seven in ten people will be. With that in mind, architects are having to consider how architecture influences our emotional wellbeing in urban settings. 世界上一半以上的人口是城市居民，联合国预测到 2050 年，这一比例将达到十分之七。 考虑到这一点，建筑师必须考虑建筑如何影响我们在城市环境中的情感健康。 According to Colin Ellard, a research psychologist at Waterloo University, Canada, there is a lot of evidence which shows "the profound impact that the design of buildings has on how we feel, how we treat one another, and our overall psychological well-being". A study from the University of Heidelberg concluded that people raised in the countryside are less likely to have mental disorders than those raised in the city. The city of Vancouver in Canada, which is surrounded by mountains and ocean, recognises this need to connect with nature. It has included protecting ocean and mountain views in its urban planning guidelines. For example, tall buildings are erected in strategic locations that don't block scenic views for downtown residents. 加拿大滑铁卢大学研究心理学家科林·埃拉德 (Colin Ellard) 表示，有大量证据表明“建筑设计对我们的感受、对待他人的方式以及整体心理健康产生深远影响” ”。 海德堡大学的一项研究得出结论，在农村长大的人比在城市长大的人患精神障碍的可能性更小。 加拿大温哥华市被群山和海洋包围，认识到这种与自然联系的需要。 它已将保护海景和山景纳入其城市规划指南中。 例如，高层建筑建在战略位置，不会遮挡市中心居民的风景。 The British designer Thomas Heatherwick wants to make architecture less soulless and boring. He told the Guardian newspaper, "We need to fearlessly demand interestingness… and make buildings that nourish our senses." He has written a new book, Humanise, where he lists seven characteristics of a boring building. These include being too flat and straight. He says lack of depth means light and shadow cannot play on surfaces, while straight lines are at odds with nature and make buildings monotonous. 英国设计师托马斯·赫斯维克希望让建筑不再缺乏灵魂和乏味。 他告诉《卫报》，“我们需要无所畏惧地要求有趣……并建造能够滋养我们感官的建筑。” 他写了一本新书《人性化》，其中列出了无聊建筑的七个特征。 这些包括太平和直。 他说，缺乏深度意味着光影无法在表面上发挥作用，而直线则与自然格格不入，使建筑变得单调。 However, making buildings interesting is not always easy, as architect Rafael Vinoly found out in 2013 when he created the 37-storey skyscraper known as the Walkie Talkie in London. The building was admired for its curved exterior walls covered in reflective glass. However, it acted like a magnifying glass and reflected light which melted nearby cars and almost set fire to a carpet. A screen had to be added to prevent the building causing further damage. 然而，让建筑变得有趣并不总是那么容易，正如建筑师拉斐尔·维诺利 (Rafael Vinoly) 在 2013 年建造伦敦被称为“对讲机”的 37 层摩天大楼时所发现的那样。 该建筑因其覆盖着反光玻璃的弧形外墙而受到赞赏。 然而，它就像放大镜一样，反射的光线融化了附近的汽车，几乎点燃了地毯。 必须添加一个屏幕以防止建筑物造成进一步的损坏。 So, for your own wellbeing, surround yourself with buildings that bring you joy, and ideally a view of nature. 因此，为了您自己的健康，请让自己周围充满能给您带来欢乐的建筑，最好还能欣赏到自然景观。dweller 居民architect 建筑师architecture 建筑物design 设计urban planning 城市规划erect 建造strategic 有策略的，经过悉心规划的downtown 市中心的resident 居民soulless 毫无生趣的interestingness 有趣之处，趣味性lack of depth 缺乏深度（此处指建筑表面缺乏起伏变化）surface （建筑的）表面line 线条monotonous 一成不变的，单调乏味的storey 楼层skyscraper 摩天大楼curved 曲面的，有弧线的exterior wall 建筑外墙screen 隔挡，挡板