Whether it's Cinderella, David and Goliath, or the Rocky movies, we all love an underdog story. The underdog in a situation is the person who seems least likely to win. Nevertheless, with some luck and plenty of hard work, the underdog sometimes ends up the winner. Sport is full of underdog stories, minor teams and sportspeople who play with courage and end up beating the superstars and multi-million pound clubs. But if you were given a choice between your team being the favourite to win or being the underdog, it's pretty obvious you'd want to be the favourite, right? Well yes, being the favourite gives a team confidence. But maybe the fact that no-one expects the underdog to win is actually an advantage which could help them to a surprise victory. In this programme, we'll be hearing about an underdog football club doing just that. One of the biggest underdog stories in sports history happened in the 2015-16 English football season when a little known club beat top clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool, overcoming odds of 5000-1 to win the Premier League. But which club? Was it a) Charlton Athletic, b) Leicester City or, c) Crystal Palace? I'll guess it was Crystal Palace. OK, Georgie, I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme. The English football Premier League is a good place to find underdogs. Each season the three best clubs in the second league are promoted up, while the three weakest Premier clubs are relegated down. One club that knows all about relegation is Luton Town FC. In 2009, Luton Town were relegated entirely from the English League. Slowly their fortunes improved however, and they've now become the first English team to progress from non-league to the Premier League. Here's Luton fan, Alex, talking about his team's chances to BBC Radio programme, Mental Muscle: But some of these elite Premier League clubs will look down their nose at us and just think we shouldn't be there, and we are there on merit and we've just gotta prove it this season. So we are the underdog, certainly financially, but on the pitch I don't think we will be. Alex thinks some of the rich Premier League clubs look down their noses at Luton. If you look down your nose at someone, you think you're better than them. But underdogs, Luton, have done better than expected, even beating some of the big clubs like Newcastle United. The question is how? Is there something about being the underdog that improves a team's chances of winning? To answer that, sports psychologist, Gillian Cook, spoke to BBC Radio programme, Mental Muscle: So, you can find that when the newly promoted team comes up they've got high confidence 'cause they just come from a season of winning - so they've got the belief that they can do it. But on the flip side it's just as important to look at the top dog's performance who… everyone expects them to win, they're playing the newly promoted team. So we might think of Man City who might be about to come up against Luton Town… So what we can see from that is what in psychology literature is known as choking, and that's when pressure gets to an individual or a team and they underperform. Clubs newly promoted to the Premier League are used to winning and start the season confidently. On the flip side, they have to play much stronger teams than before. The phrase, on the flip side, is used to show the opposite, less positive side of something. Of course it's not just the underdog playing, there are also top dogs, the most successful or powerful person or team. No-one expects underdogs to win and this gives them freedom to relax and play naturally. Top dogs, on the other hand, experience a lot of expectation, and this sometimes leads to choking, a sports term which describes the failure of a player to perform their best because of psychological pressure or social expectation. Choking causes teams and players to underperform, to perform worse than expected. It's also true that neutral fans - people watching a match when their team isn't playing - tend to support the underdog as well. In football, it's tough at the top! Neil. You asked me about the famous Premier League winning underdogs of the 2015-16 football season, and I guessed it was Crystal Palace… Which was… the wrong answer, I'm afraid, Georgie. In fact it was Leicester City, nicknamed the Foxes, who became the unexpected champions of the Premier League. recap: the underdog, the person in a competition or situation who seems least likely to win. If you look down your nose at someone, you think you are superior to them. The phrase, on the flip side, is used to show the opposite, less positive, or less popular side of something. The top dog is an informal way of saying the most successful or powerful person in a group. In sports, choking happens when a player or team fail to perform their best because of psychological pressure or social expectation. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Solar Eclipse: Huge crowds in USA, Canada and Mexico gather to watch｜Newsround People in the USA, Canada and Mexico were treated to a pretty incredible sight last night, a total solar eclipse. In the UK, there was a chance to see a partial one, but the wet weather and cloudy skies ruined it. Let's find out more. 昨晚，美国、加拿大和墨西哥的人们看到了一个惊人的景象——日全食。在英国，有机会看到一个日半食，但潮湿的天气和多云的天空破坏了它。我们关注更多。 This was the moment the sky went dark during the day. It was caused by a total solar eclipse. The spectacle happens when the Moon moves into the perfect position between the Earth and the Sun. The Moon causes a shadow and blocks the Sun's rays from reaching our planet. What made this eclipse so special was how many people were able to see it. Millions in the USA, Canada and Mexico got to see the spectacular sight and here's what some kids thought. 这是白天天空变黑的时刻。它是由日全食引起的。当月球移动到地球和太阳之间的完美位置时，就会出现这种奇观。月球会产生阴影，阻挡太阳光线到达我们的星球。这次日食之所以如此特别，是因为有多少人能看到它。美国、加拿大和墨西哥的数百万人看到了这一壮观的景象，下面是一些孩子的想法。 It was such an emotional time and I almost cried and it was like a painting in the sky. I thought it was like a clock, like the minute, hour and second hand all lined up. I felt like nervous, like... I felt like really impressed and I thought it was like super cool. Yes, I was so excited. I was just waiting and waiting and then today it finally came and I was so excited and it was just so beautiful. 那是一个如此激动人心的时刻，我几乎哭了，就像天空中的一幅画。我以为它就像一个时钟，就像分钟、小时和秒针都排成一排。我感到很紧张，就像......我感觉真的印象深刻，我觉得这太酷了。是的，我太兴奋了。我一直在等待，然后今天它终于来了，我非常兴奋，它是如此美丽。 It was super cool and I want to see another one. First, I had my glasses on. That's the important part and I was just eating Chips and laying down and drinking juice. What were you doing? I was like, woo! You were really excited? Yes. What about you? I was like speechless, like I was really quiet. I was like, wow. Yeah, me too. I was just looking at it just in awe. It was so amazing. We are Solary Clips! 超级酷，我想再看一个。首先，我戴上了眼镜。这是最重要的部分，我只是在吃薯片，躺下来喝果汁。你在干什么？我就想！你真的很兴奋吗？是的。那你呢？我说不出话来，好像我真的很安静。我就想，哇。我也是。我只是怀着敬畏的心情看着它。太神奇了。我们是太阳片段！ Experts say anyone spot on Earth should experience a total solar eclipse only once every 375 years. But tell that to some residents in the US state of Illinois who have now seen two in the past seven years. But for people in the UK, the eclipse was disappointing to say the least. Cloudy weather meant even the chance to see a partial eclipse wasn't clear viewing for anyone. But don't worry, the UK should get another partial eclipse next year. I'm afraid we will have to wait an awful lot longer until the next full eclipse spectacle over British shores. That won't be until the year 2090. 专家说，地球上任何一个地方每375年才会发生一次日全食。不过，对于一些伊利诺伊州的美国居民来说，他们在过去7年里已见过两次。但对于英国人来说，这次日食至少可以说是令人失望的。多云的天气意味着即使有机会看到日偏食对任何人来说都是不确定的。不过别担心，英国明年还会有一次日偏食。恐怕我们得再等一段时间直到下一次日全食在英国海岸上空出现。那得等到2090年。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How are you celebrating Eid? ｜Newsround Tonight marks the start of Eid, a celebration in the Muslim calendar to mark the end of Ramadan. 今晚标志着开斋节的开始，这是穆斯林历法中庆祝斋月结束的一个庆祝活动。 It's a chance for families to come together after a month of fasting. 这是一个月禁食后家人团聚的机会。 We caught up with some kids in Bradford to find out why this time of year is so important and how they'll be celebrating. 我们采访了布拉德福德的一些孩子，了解为什么每年的这个时候如此重要以及他们将如何庆祝。 Eid is a festival to celebrate after Ramadan so it's like a reward for all the fasting that we do there and it's like we can eat afterwards. 开斋节是斋月之后庆祝的节日，所以它就像是对我们在那里所做的所有禁食的奖励，就像我们可以在斋月之后吃饭一样。 Eid is special because you've got to spend time with your family and you've got a lot of food around you. 开斋节很特别，因为你必须与家人共度时光，而且你身边有很多食物。 To eat. 去吃。 Eid is important because it's a time of year where families get together and they get to spend time together. 开斋节很重要，因为这是一年中家人团聚、共度时光的时刻。 A normal day of Eid would probably be like first we'd go, so the men they normally go to the mosque and pray and then when they come home we have family over and we have like a sweet dish for like breakfast. 开斋节的正常一天可能是我们先去的，所以男人们通常会去清真寺祈祷，然后当他们回家时，我们会有家人过来,我们会吃一顿甜食作为早餐。 And all the little kids 还有所有的小孩子 They all get money for like eid money and by like all the elders so then when you're little you get like lots of money but then as you grow up you get less and less. 他们都像开斋节钱一样得到钱，就像所有的长辈一样，所以当你小的时候，你会得到很多钱，但随着你长大，你得到的钱越来越少。 On eid lunch or dinner the table usually has like some salad on there, some samosas on there, we have fruit there, we have rice on there, we have chicken on there, we have like anything like 在开斋节午餐或晚餐时，桌子上通常会有一些沙拉，一些萨莫萨三角饺，我们那里有水果，我们那里有米饭，我们那里有鸡肉，我们有类似的东西。 We call it in my culture pakoras, which is sort of like an onion kind of thing. 在我的文化中，我们称之为炸薯条，有点像洋葱之类的东西。 And we normally talk a lot and usually with my cousin I play games a lot. 我们通常会聊很多，通常我会和我的表弟一起玩游戏。 Sometimes I eat a bit too much on Eid but it only happens once a year. 有时我在开斋节吃得太多，但一年只发生一次。 I think Eid is probably my favourite time of year because it's like the time where everybody comes together, everybody's happy, everybody's celebrating and everybody's just together. 我认为开斋节可能是我一年中最喜欢的时间，因为它就像每个人聚集在一起、每个人都很高兴、每个人都在庆祝、每个人都在一起的时候。 My favourite part of Eid is where we get ready because during the month of Ramadan we don't usually look our best and when we get ready and get glammed up and have a party, we look good, the house looks good, the food looks good, everything about it looks good and it's just a really nice time. 开斋节我最喜欢的部分是我们做好准备，因为在斋月期间，我们通常不会看起来最好，当我们准备好并打扮得漂漂亮亮并举办派对时，我们看起来很好，房子看起来不错，食物看起来很好很好，一切看起来都很好，这真是一段美好的时光。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

04/10/24 The world this week--Business Disney saw off an epic proxy challenge from Nelson Peltz at its annual general meeting. Through Trian, his hedge fund, Mr Peltz was seeking two seats on the company's board to "restore the magic", claiming that poor management and box-office failures have contributed to the underperformance of Disney's share price. 迪士尼在年度股东大会上击退了纳尔逊·佩尔茨史诗般的代理权挑战。佩尔茨先生通过他的对冲基金 Trian，谋求在公司董事会中获得两个席位，以 "恢复魔力"，他声称管理不善和票房失败是导致迪斯尼股价表现不佳的原因。 But Bob Iger, the chief executive, fought an extensive campaign defending his turnaround strategy, which won the support of BlackRock, the Disney family and George Lucas, a film producer. Mr Peltz reportedly received just 31% of the vote for his claim to a seat. 但首席执行官鲍勃·艾格为自己的转型战略进行了广泛的辩护，这赢得了贝莱德、迪士尼家族和电影制片人乔治·卢卡斯的支持。据报道，佩尔茨仅获得31%的选票。 Tesla delivered 386,810 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of 8.5% year on year and its first quarterly decline on that basis since 2020. Investors, already rattled by slowing growth in the electric-vehicle industry, punished Tesla's stock. Figures from other carmakers were mixed. Ford and Hyundai reported a big rise in ev sales in America, and General Motors announced a sharp decline. 2024年第一季度，特斯拉在全球范围内交付了386,810辆汽车，同比下降8.5% ，这是自2020年以来的首次季度下降。由于电动汽车行业增长放缓，投资者已经感到不安，他们对特斯拉的股票进行了惩罚。其它汽车制造商的数据喜忧参半。福特和现代在美国的电动汽车销量大幅上升，而通用汽车则宣布销量大幅下降。 Despite the fall in deliveries, Tesla reclaimed its crown as the world's biggest seller of evs, after BYD sold just 300,000 pure-electric vehicles in the first quarter. That is far below the more than 526,000 that BYD shifted in the last three months of 2023, when it overtook Tesla in sales. 尽管交付量下降，但特斯拉重新夺回了全球最大电动汽车销售商的桂冠，此前比亚迪在第一季度仅售出30万辆纯电动汽车。这远低于比亚迪在2023年最后三个月超过特斯拉的52.6万辆汽车的销量。 Xiaomi entered China's fiercely competitive ev market when it started selling its new su7 four-door sedan, which has a lower-than-expected starting price of $30,000. The Chinese tech company is better known for its smartphones. It took nearly 90,000 orders for the car over 24 hours, though customers may have to wait up to seven months for a delivery. 小米进入竞争激烈的电动汽车市场，开始销售新款 su7四门轿车，起价低于预期的3万美元。这家中国科技公司更出名的是其智能手机。这款车在24小时内接到了近9万份订单，尽管客户可能要等上7个月才能交货。 America and Britain signed an accord to "build a common approach" on ensuring the safety of artificial intelligence, the first agreement of its kind in the world. Although America has far more ai startups, Britain is home to DeepMind, a developer of neural networks that is owned by Google. Britain opened its ai Safety Institute last November. America's parallel institute is still being organised. 美国和英国签署了一项协议，以“建立一种共同的方法”来确保人工智能的安全，这是世界上第一项此类协议。尽管美国有更多的人工智能初创公司，但英国是谷歌旗下神经网络开发商DeepMind的故乡。去年11月，英国开设了人工智能安全研究所。美国的平行研究所仍在组织中。 Microsoft decided to sell its Teams chat application separately from its Office 365 suites around the world. It unbundled the products in Europe last year to avert an antitrust fine from the European Commission. 微软决定在全球范围内将其Teams聊天应用程序与其Office 365套件分开销售。去年，为了避免欧盟委员会的反垄断罚款，该公司在欧洲对这些产品进行了拆分。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Where does chocolate come from and why is the cost of it going up? | Newsround Some of you might have noticed the price of chocolate is going up in shops, but why is this happening? Here's Degraft with more. Mmm, sweet, sweet chocolate. 有些人可能已经注意到商店里巧克力的价格正在上涨，但为什么会出现这种情况呢？下面是 Degraft 提供的更多信息。嗯，甜甜的巧克力 However, right now we're being warned it could be going up in price. But why? Well, to understand, you need to know a little bit about how chocolate is made. Do you know what this is? This is a type of fruit called cocoa, and it's where all chocolate is from. You can eat the flesh inside and, well... It feels very, like, gooey. Yeah, suck in on it. 然而，现在我们被警告说它可能会涨价。但是为什么呢？要理解这一点，你需要了解一点巧克力的制作方法。你看这是什么？这是一种叫做可可的水果，所有的巧克力都是从这里来的。你可以吃里面的肉...感觉非常，像，黏糊糊的。是啊，吸进去吃。 Inside the fruit are beans, or seeds like these, that are farmed and left out to dry in the heat. They're then roasted, broken down and turned into a liquid which is then used to make chocolate all over the world. Cocoa is grown in many places around the world near the equator. 水果里面是豆子，或者像这样的种子，经过种植，放在外面在高温下干燥。然后，它们被烘烤，分解，变成液体，然后用来制造世界各地的巧克力。世界上许多靠近赤道的地方都种植可可。 However, Ghana and the Ivory Coast are two of the world's biggest cocoa farmers, producing a lot of the world's chocolate supply. But why could chocolate here in the UK start getting more expensive? Well, one of the reasons is a change in the climate in areas like Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Hotter and drier weather makes it more difficult to grow cocoa, so it means there's less of it. 然而，加纳和象牙海岸是世界上最大的两个可可种植国，生产了世界上大量的巧克力供应。但是为什么英国的巧克力开始变得越来越贵呢？其中一个原因是像加纳和象牙海岸这样的地区的气候变化。炎热干燥的天气使得种植可可变得更加困难，所以这意味着可可的数量减少了。 I was in Ghana for Newsround in 2022, and it's a worry one of the farmers raised with me back then. Because of climate change, farmers incur losses. They continue to tend to the crop, but yields are reduced. Another reason is due to a disease that's spreading on cocoa farms, which is causing the plant itself to rot. The more disease there is, the less cocoa there is. And the less cocoa there is, the more expensive it is, because it's worth more. 2022年，我在加纳参加Newsround的工作，这是当时一位农民和我一起提出的担忧。由于气候变化，农民遭受损失。他们继续照料作物，但产量有所下降。另一个原因是一种在可可农场传播的疾病，这种疾病导致可可本身腐烂。疾病越多，可可就越少。可可越少越贵，因为物以稀为贵。 Farms sell their cocoa to chocolate companies. If cocoa is expensive to buy from farms, it could mean the companies raise their prices when they sell their chocolate to our shops. It doesn't mean the farmers in places like Ghana are getting rich, even if the price goes up. Because they're providing less cocoa, they may not see any extra money. All these things have an impact on the price of chocolate, from the bean all the way to the bar. 农场将他们可可卖给巧克力公司。如果从农场购买可可很贵，这可能意味着公司在向我们的商店出售巧克力时会提高价格。即使价格上涨了，这并不意味着加纳等地的农民变得富裕了。因为他们提供的可可更少了，他们可能得不到任何额外的钱。所有这些都会影响巧克力的价格，从咖啡豆到巧克力棒。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

David Attenborough series on how animals are coping with climate change | Newsround There are more than 6,000 species of mammals on Earth, and as our world changes, so must they. Sir David Attenborough's latest series captures new mammal behaviours caught on film for the first time as they adapt to a world dominated by us. 地球上有超过6000种哺乳动物，随着世界的变化，它们也被迫改变。 大卫·阿滕伯勒爵士的最新系列首次捕捉到了哺乳动物的新行为，因为它们适应了一个由我们主导的世界。 Humans have changed three quarters of the Earth's surface. We're changing the world in so many different ways and animals are having to adapt in real time. It's essentially evolution in action. We see otters making their way across roads in Singapore and polar bears heading inland to hunt reindeer as the sea ice melts. 人类已经改变了地球表面的四分之三。我们正在以多种不同的方式改变世界，动物必须实时适应。它本质上是进化在起作用。我们看到水獭穿过新加坡的道路，随着海冰融化，北极熊前往内陆猎杀驯鹿。 While there are some sad sights, there are also some success stories. Pig-tailed macaques in Malaysia have found a way to survive in a new habitat. They started coming into palm oil plantations, which were apparently devoid of life. But these palm oil plantations have been completely overrun by rats. And these pigtail macaques, now they're adapting to starting to eat rats. 虽然有一些悲伤的景象，也有一些成功的故事。马来西亚的猪尾猕猴找到了在新栖息地生存的方法。他们开始进入棕榈油种植园，那里显然没有生命。但是这些棕榈油种植园已经被老鼠完全占领了。这些长尾猕猴现在开始适应吃老鼠了。 As camera technology has improved, it now means the animals can be filmed at night time. In one episode we see the nocturnal life of a fennec fox filmed by moonlight. It's hoped through properly sharing our planet we can protect these amazing mammals in the future. 随着摄影技术的进步，这些动物现在可以在晚上拍摄了。在一集中，我们看到了一只芬内克狐在月光下的夜间生活。希望通过合适地分享我们的星球，我们可以在未来保护这些神奇的哺乳动物。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Do animals make jokes too? 动物也会像人类一样开玩笑？ Laughter is a universal language for humans to connect with each other and form social bonds. Even as babies, we giggle when our parents pull funny faces, and then gradually learn to make others laugh as we grow up. But, is it a uniquely human experience? Scientists have observed behaviours in animals that suggest that your pets might be secret jokesters… 笑是人类相互联系、形成社会纽带的通用语言。即使在婴儿时期，当父母扮鬼脸时，我们也会咯咯笑，然后随着我们的成长，我们逐渐学会了让别人笑。但是，这是一种独特的人类体验吗？科学家们观察到动物的行为表明，你的宠物可能是秘密的开玩笑者...... Have you ever seen dogs let people come close to their toy, and then playfully run away with it? Biologist Charles Darwin saw this as the dog's version of a practical joke. Marc Bekoff, biology professor at the University of Colorado, also observed dogs playfully teasing each other by approaching slowly and then quickly running away. His work concluded that dogs just want to have fun, and he's also said that animals may goof around as a way to cope with stress. 您见过狗狗让人靠近它们的玩具，然后玩耍着拿着玩具跑开吗？生物学家查尔斯-达尔文认为这是狗的恶作剧。科罗拉多大学生物学教授马克·贝科夫也观察到，狗在玩弄对方时会慢慢靠近，然后迅速跑开。他的研究结论是，狗只是想找点乐子，他还说，动物可能把打闹作为一种应对压力的方式。 In a 2024 study, Isabelle Laumer and colleagues watched four ape species interact with each other and observed 18 distinct teasing behaviours. They saw young apes sneak up behind an adult, poke them to surprise them and then wait and watch the response, behaviour similar to that shown by human children. So, a sense of humour may have appeared early in our evolutionary timeline. 在2024年的一项研究中，伊莎贝尔 · 劳默及其同事观察了四种类人猿之间的相互作用，并观察到了18种截然不同的挑逗行为。他们看到年轻的猩猩悄悄地走到一个成年猩猩的后面，戳它们来给它们一个惊喜，然后等待并观察它们的反应，行为类似于人类儿童表现出来的行为。所以，幽默感可能出现在我们进化时间线的早期。 What about laughing? While playing, dogs sometimes produce a breathy snort that could sound like laughter. Dolphins let out sounds of joy when play-fighting. Rats make a joyful squeak similar to a giggle when they are tickled, says Jeffrey Burgdorf, professor at Northwestern University. 那笑呢？狗在玩耍的时候，有时会发出像笑声一样的呼吸声。海豚在比赛时发出欢乐的声音。西北大学教授杰弗里•伯格多夫表示，当老鼠被挠痒痒时，它们会发出类似于咯咯笑的快乐叫声。 But, is a rat's giggle really a sign of a sense of humour? Are the apes in Laumer's study really joking around or just attention-seeking? What would be the evolutionary purpose of animals teasing and pranking? "In humans, humour can serve as like an ice-breaker, removing social barriers and strengthening relationships," says Laumer. "We don't know if it's the same in apes or other animals, but it's possible. 但是，老鼠的笑声真的是幽默感的表现吗？劳默研究中的猿类真的是在开玩笑，还是只是在寻求关注？动物戏弄和恶作剧的进化目的是什么？劳默说：“在人类身上，幽默可以起到破冰的作用，消除社会障碍，加强人际关系。我们不知道猿类或其他动物的情况是否相同，但这是可能的。” 词汇表 laughter 笑，笑声 giggle 咯咯地笑 pull a funny face 扮鬼脸 make (someone) laugh 逗（某人）笑 jokester 喜欢讲笑话或开玩笑的人 playfully 闹着玩地 practical joke 恶作剧 tease 戏弄，招惹 have fun 玩乐 goof around 瞎胡闹 sneak up 悄悄靠近 poke （用手指）戳 sense of humour 幽默感 play-fight 玩耍打闹 joyful 高兴的 tickle 挠痒痒，胳肢 joke around 闹着玩，开玩笑 prank 玩笑，恶作剧 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Many people love watching movies at the cinema or going to the theatre to see a play. But have you ever imagined what an art gallery would be like if you were blind, or how a deaf person might feel at a music concert? In the UK, The Equality Act of 2010 guaranteed the rights of disabled people to equal access to education, employment, and services, including music, theatre and the arts. Since then, the Disability Rights movement has worked hard to break down barriers for disabled artists and performers, and their audiences. In this programme, we'll be hearing from a musical composer whose work using 'new instruments' allows disabled musicians to express their lived experience through music. The phrase lived experience emphasises the unique experience of disabled people, plus the fact that this gives them knowledge and understanding that others do not have. And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. Great. But first I have a question for you, Georgie. Despite 2010's Equality Act, it's still difficult for disabled musicians and music fans in the UK to perform and see live music. A study by disabled musicians' group, Attitude is Everything, found that one third of music venues provided no disabled access information at all. But which London music venue was recently given a Gold award for accessibility for disabled musicians and audiences? Was it: a) The Royal Albert Hall, b) The Southbank Centre or, c) Brixton Academy? Hmmm, I'll guess it was The Royal Albert Hall. OK, Georgie, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Megan Steinberg is a music composer at Royal Northern College of Music, where she collaborates with Drake Music, a leading national organisation working in music disability and technology. Megan composes music to be played by 'new instruments'. Here she explains what a 'new instrument' is, to BBC Radio 3 programme, Arts & Ideas: So, they may have been mass-produced, or semi mass-produced, or they may have been designed and built by the musician themselves, just like a bespoke instrument for themselves. And they're designed to be accessible to maybe just that one individual performer, or maybe also to lots of different performers with disabilities or differences. Megan's new instruments are designed to be accessible, to be used by someone with a disability. More generally,the word accessible means enabling someone with a disability the opportunity to engage in the same interactions and enjoy the same experiences as people without a disability. New instruments are both electronic and acoustic. They might be mass-produced, that's when a factory makes a lot of the same thing, or bespoke, made specially for one person in particular. So, what are these new instruments like? Listen as Megan introduces the Rainbow Harp, a new instrument which was designed for harpist, Morwenna Louttit-Vermaat, to BBC Radio Programme, Arts &Ideas: And the Rainbow Harp is a harp that has colour-coded strings, and each string colour corresponds to a different pitch. So, Morwenna is dyslexic, and she really found that traditional black and white musical notation was quite an obstacle for her in learning and teaching music, so she and her husband made these harps and they're, like, really colourful, as she uses colour in music… Morwenna is dyslexic. She has dyslexia, a condition which makes it difficult for her to spell, read and write. So, when Morwenna's harp teacher wanted her to play from written down sheet music, her brain froze. And that's how the Rainbow Harp was invented. The strings of a Rainbow Harp are colour-coded: different colours are used to represent and separate out different strings and to produce different notes. It's a great idea, and an inclusive way for disabled musicians to share their talent with music fans across the UK. Which reminds me of my question, Georgie… Right, you asked me which London music venue was awarded top marks for making music accessible for disabled musicians and audiences. I guessed it was The Royal Albert Hall. So, was I right? Good guess, Georgie, but that was… the wrong answer, I'm afraid. The good news for all music fans living in London is that The Southbank Centre is accessible, ready and waiting! OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme starting with lived experience, the things that someone has experienced personally for themselves, rather than heard or read about. If something is accessible, it enables everyone to have equal opportunities and experiences, regardless of their abilities. To mass-produce something means to make many copies of it cheaply in a factory, whereas a bespoke product has been made specially for one person in particular. A dyslexic person has dyslexia, a condition making it difficult for them to spell, read or write. And finally, things which are colour-coded use different colours to represent different parts or functions ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

'Mental toughness is the secret to success' | BBC Ideas Some people say you have to be broken to be fixed again. My name is Asha Philip and I run. Athletics for me was just a bit of fun. It was something different and it was something new. Trampolining was my main sport and I loved it, and then I fell into double mini trampolining and then I became a world junior champion at it. 有些人说，你必须被打碎，才能被重塑。我叫阿莎 · 菲利普，我是一名田径运动员。运动对我来说只是一种乐趣。这是不同的东西，这是新的东西。蹦床是我的主要运动项目，我喜欢它，然后我喜欢上双迷你蹦床，并成为该项目的世界青年冠军。 I was at the World Championships in Quebec. I bounced up, but when I came down I didn't land right. I could just hear the crunch. I could just see my leg pointing in a different direction. Then I just remember grabbing my leg, and then just screaming and screaming. There was nothing holding my legs together. In a heartbeat, everything was just gone. Everything I worked hard for, had vanished. 我参加了魁北克的世界锦标赛。我蹦了起来，但当我下来时，我没有正确落地。我只能听到嘎吱的声音。我只能看到我的腿指向不同的方向。然后我只记得抓住我的腿，然后尖叫着，尖叫着。没有任何东西能把我的双腿并拢。一瞬间，一切都消失了。我为之奋斗的一切，都消失了。 Everyone told me I was a write-off. So how does a child, of age of seventeen, get back up? It felt like I had lost something. I had lost a part of me. I wanted to give up. And when you're at that point of just giving up, that's when you're meant to really turn your life around, and change. 每个人都说我没戏了。那么，一个十七岁的孩子如何重新站起来呢？感觉好像失去了什么。我失去了自己的一部分。我想放弃。当你到了要放弃的时候，你就应该改变自己的生活，改变自己。 It was my Mum who believed in me, and for that I believed in her. I really do question how I made it out. It was little by little. Coming in to do the rehab. Step by step you started to see improvement. The crutches went away, then I could walk, I was able to jog and then run. But then I had loads of injuries along the way. 是我妈妈相信我，因此我也相信她。我真的怀疑我是怎么做到的。这是一点一点的。进来做康复治疗。一步一步地，你开始看到改进。拐杖消失了，然后我就可以走路了，我可以慢跑，然后跑步。但后来我一路上受了很多伤。 The only thing standing between success and failure, is mental toughness. It's about being resilient. Being an athlete isn't like a normal job. The gym. Strengthening. The mind work. The fitness. For one shot. For eleven seconds. There are a lot of knockbacks. A lot. It's how you handle it. But it's also the most amazing release. I let out all my stresses, all my bad energy. 在成功和失败之间唯一的障碍就是精神上的坚韧。这是关于有弹性。做运动员不像一份正常的工作。健身房。加强。脑力工作。健身。只有一次机会。持续11秒。有很多挫折。很多。这就是你如何处理它。但这也是最令人惊叹的释放方式。我释放了所有的压力，所有的坏能量。 Every time I show up to train, I have the opportunity to learn more about myself, and how to run correctly. Some people train brilliantly, but in a race, they don't win. You need focus. You're in an arena of thousands of people, and you're on the start line with seven other women then you have a man holding a gun, and you have to learn to channel all this, and not panic. But there's so much going on. 每次我参加训练，我都有机会更多地了解自己，以及如何正确跑步。有些人训练得很出色，但在比赛中，他们并没有获胜。你需要集中注意力。你在一个有成千上万人的竞技场上，你和其他七个女人站在起跑线上，然后你有一个男人拿着枪，你必须学会引导这一切，不要恐慌。但事情太多了。 You've got your family in the crowd, everyone screaming, wanting you to do well, and obviously they're screaming for the girl alongside you. How do you put that all aside, and say, OK. I have to focus on myself, focus on my lane, focus on me. 你的家人在人群中，每个人都在尖叫，希望你做得好，显然他们也在为你旁边的女孩尖叫。你怎么能把这些都放在一边，然后说，好吧。我必须专注于自己，专注于我的赛道，专注于我自己。 There are sacrifices. There are lots of ways to have fun. Go after your goals, and balance it out the right way. In the end, it's about knowing what's important to you, and what makes you thrive. That's not just athletics. That's life. 会有牺牲。有很多种玩乐的方式。追求你的目标，并以正确的方式平衡它。归根结底，这是关于知道什么对你来说是重要的，什么让你茁壮成长。这不仅仅是体育运动。这就是生活。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

为什么上班要穿制服 Business Bartleby Corporate uniforms A quarter of the American workforce wears one. Why? 商业版块巴托比专栏公司制服四分之一的美国工作者需要穿制服，为什么 If you work in a white-collar job in an office and make your way there this week, it is unlikely that anyone will be able to guess exactly what you do from your clothes. That is not true for lots of the people you will interact with. 如果你在办公室做白领工作，并在本周前往办公室，那么不太可能有人能够从你的衣着猜到你做什么工作。对于你将打交道的许多人来说，情况并非如此。 The bus driver who gets you to your destination, the barista who makes your coffee and the people on reception who wish you "good morning" as you enter the building-they, and many others, are likely to be wearing some kind of corporate uniform. A poll of American workers conducted last summer by Gallup found that although most employees wear casual clothes-some smart, some really not-almost a quarter donned a uniform. 送你到目的地的公交车司机、为你煮咖啡的咖啡师，以及当你走进大楼时向你问好的前台，他们和其他许多人很可能都穿着某种公司制服。盖洛普去年夏天对美国工作者进行的一项民意调查发现，虽然大多数员工穿着休闲服--有些人穿得很时髦，有些很不时髦--但近四分之一的人会穿制服 For employers who require them, there are several arguments in favour of uniforms. They help ensure a level of professionalism in appearance. They project a brand identity, from the red coats of Virgin Atlantic crew to the "Browns" uniform of UPS delivery drivers. They may have useful job-specific features: chefs' jackets are double-breasted to protect against burns and can be reversed to hide stains. They send a clear signal to customers about whom they should approach with questions, avoiding those awkward "do you work here?" moments. 对于要求穿制服的雇主来说，有几个理由支持穿制服。制服有助于确保外表上的专业性。制服展现了一种品牌身份，从维珍航空机组人员的红色外套到UPS快递送货司机的棕色制服都是如此。制服可能有特定工作用途：厨师服是双排扣的，可以防止烫伤，还可以翻过来掩盖污渍。制服向顾客发出了明确的信号，告诉他们应该向谁提问，避免人们尴尬地去问“你在这里工作吗？” Those customers draw different conclusions if staff are in uniform, for good and bad. A study by Robert Smith of Tilburg University and his colleagues asked people to imagine being on the receiving end of poor service when picking up a pizza. They were then shown pictures of uniformed or non-uniformed employees; the person who had notionally treated them badly was circled. Participants were more likely to blame the company than the individual or the circumstances for a bad experience when a uniform was involved. If corporate clothing makes each worker seem more representative of their employers, the authors suggest that it may be a good idea not to give it to inexperienced workers. Uniforms can also affect the psychology of employees. In 2012 Hajo Adam, now of the University of Bath, and Adam Galinsky, now of Columbia Business School, coined the term "enclothed cognition" to describe the effect that specific clothes have on the way that people think and feel. Questions have been raised over the validity of enclothed cognition, but a new meta-analysis by Messrs Adam and Galinsky, along with Carl Blaine Horton of Columbia Business School, concludes that the phenomenon is real. In one study Guillaume Pech of Universite Libre de Bruxelles and Emilie Caspar of Ghent University gave participants the option to administer electric shocks to other people in return for money; those dressed up in Red Cross uniforms showed more empathy than those in normal outfits. Xuehua Wang of Asia Europe Business School and her co-authors found that formal clothes made people more likely to make healthy eating choices. According to a paper by Saaid Mendoza of Providence College and Elizabeth Parks-Stamm of University of Southern Maine, people who wore a police uniform during a video-game simulation designed to test reaction times were more likely than those in their own clothes to shoot unarmed targets. Clothes maketh the bang. The effects that uniforms have on workers will obviously vary. A uniform that confers a sense of professional identity-a doctor's white coat, say-is likely to be more motivating than one that does not. People will be happier to be a corporate billboard if they feel pride in their employer. Some work clothing looks good and some of it is a paean to polyester: you do not so much represent a brand as a fire hazard. Some uniforms are comfortable and some are not, with women usually getting the worst of it. Only in 2023 were female police officers in Britain issued with body armour made to suit their anatomy. The obvious objection to uniforms, at least from people who do not wear them, is that they suppress individuality and autonomy. But employees who do not have to wear a formal uniform often gravitate towards a costume anyway. Some coders seem to be under an unspoken obligation to wear T-shirts. The combination of shirt, trousers and Patagonia gilet is known as the "midtown uniform" for finance types in New York. Executives wear cultlike corporate lapel pins. Celebrity bosses build brands by wearing the same outfit day after day. You may not be required to don a uniform when you head off to work. You may nonetheless be wearing one ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Well, what exactly is a library? Have you ever thought about that? Well, somewhere with lots of books I suppose, where you go to read or study. A symbol of knowledge and learning, a place to keep warm in the winter, or somewhere to murder victims in a crime novel: libraries can be all of these things, and more. In this programme, we'll be looking into the hidden life of the library, including one of the most famous, the Great Library of Alexandria, founded in ancient Egypt in around 285 BCE. And as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary, and doing it all in a whisper so as not to disturb anyone! Glad to hear it! But before we get out our library cards, I have a question for you, Beth. Founded in 1973 in central London, the British Library is one of the largest libraries in the world, containing around 200 million books. But which of the following can be found on its shelves. Is it: a) the earliest known printing of the Bible? b) the first edition of The Times' newspaper from 1788? or, c) the original manuscripts of the Harry Potter books? I'll guess it's the first edition of the famous British newspaper, 'The Times'. OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer at the end of the programme. Libraries mean different things to different people, so who better to ask than someone who has written the book on it, literally. Professor Andrew Pettegree is the author of a new book, 'A Fragile History of the Library'. Here he explains what a library means to him to BBC Radio 3 programme, Art & Ideas: Well, in my view, a library is any collection of books which is deliberately put together by its owner or patron. So, in the 15th century a library can be 30 manuscripts painfully put together during the course of a lifetime, or it can be two shelves of paperbacks in your home. Andrew defines a library as any collection of books someone has intentionally built up. This could be as simple as a few paperbacks, cheap books with a cover made of thick paper. Today, books are available everywhere from supermarkets to train stations, but back in history that wasn't the case. In earlier centuries, printed books or manuscripts were rare and may have been painfully collected over many years. Andrew uses the adverb painfully, or painstakingly, to describe something which took a lot of care and effort to do. But paperback books and private collections are only part of the story. You may not believe it, but libraries are places of power! To find out why we have to go back in time to the ancient Egyptian port of Alexandria in the third century BCE. The Great Library of Alexandria held the largest collection of books in the ancient world. Founded in the city built by Alexander the Great, the library's mission was to bring together a copy of every book then in existence. According to history professor, Islam Issa, there were two reasons why the Great Library made Alexandria so powerful, as he explained to BBC Radio 3 programme, Art ; Ideas: The first is being in a location at the intersection of the continents and bringing a diverse set of people together to live in harmony, or relative harmony, can bring about economic prosperity. And the second is, quite simply, that knowledge equals power, and so the library is a form of soft power, it's a way of saying that Alexandria is an important centre of knowledge, a regional capital by being the guardians of knowledge… Alexandria was the meeting point of different cultures where different ideas and philosophies were exchanged. This atmosphere encouraged people to live in harmony, peacefully and cooperatively with each other. But the main reason for the Great Library's importance is that knowledge equals power, a saying meaning that the more someone knows, the more they will be able to control events. Alexandria became the capital of soft power, the use of political and cultural knowledge, rather than military power, to influence events. Now, maybe it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil? Sure, I asked you which famous text could be found in The British Library. I guessed it was the first edition of 'The Times' newspaper. So, was I right? That was… the correct answer! In the British Library you'll find the first copy of 'The Times', along with the first editions of many famous books. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme starting with shhh!, an exclamation used to ask someone to be quiet. A paperback is a type of book with a cover made of thick paper and sold relatively cheaply. Doing something painstakingly or painfully means doing it in a way showing that lots of care and effort has been taken. Harmony is a situation where people cooperate peacefully with each other. According to the expression, knowledge equals power, the more you know, the more you're able to control events. And finally, soft power involves using political or cultural means, rather than military power, to get what you want. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Culture Museums A different sort of art heist Museums are raising their ticket prices. How high can they go? "It's almost a moral duty that museums should be free," said Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). That was in 2002, when a ticket to MOMA cost $12 (around $19 in today's prices). In October MOMA started charging $30, the latest in a series of price rises. MOMA is not the only museum raising the cost of admission. The Metropolitan Museum in New York ended its longstanding "pay what you will" policy for out-of-town visitors in 2018 and raised general admission for them to $30 in 2022. Last summer the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim Museum all followed suit, bumping a standard ticket from $25 to $30. Museum staff complain of climbing costs and a case of "long covid". In America only a third of museums have met or surpassed pre-pandemic visitor numbers. Higher energy and labour costs have pushed up ticket prices in Europe, too. In January the Berlin State Museums, the Louvre and the Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel, raised the price of general-admission tickets by 20%, 29% and 17%, respectively. Prices have remained stable only in Asia and the Middle East, where museums are younger and state funding is especially generous. Ticket fees may seem high, particularly in destination cities where tourists are not likely to be dissuaded by spending a few more dollars. But "whatever museums charge, it is not covering their operating costs," says Javier Jimenez, a director at Lord Cultural Resources, a consulting firm. The Association of Art Museum Directors reported in 2018 that ticket sales accounted on average for just 7% of total revenue at American art museums. Memberships contributed another 7%. The remainder of budgets usually come from endowments, charitable donations, grants and retail operations. European museums are less reliant on admissions fees, because they are often heavily subsidised by governments. This can make it awkward to ask taxpayers to buy a pricey ticket and in effect pay twice. Many institutions choose to offer reductions for the young, pensioners and locals. All national institutions in Britain offer free admission, as do most state-run museums in China. (Exceptions are made for special exhibitions.) In America some 30% are free, including big public museums like those of the Smithsonian Institution and private ones such as the Getty Centre in Los Angeles. Some observers have repeated Mr Lowry's call for museums, especially the well-endowed, to stop charging for admission entirely. Ballooning prices go against museums' goal of sharing art with a more diverse public. They could also accelerate the already steep decline in the share of Americans attending museums and galleries: between 2017 and 2022 it shrunk by 26%. Declining public interest, particularly among young people, is a challenge for institutions that rely heavily on public support. Those who choose not to visit a museum today may be the people who vote against government subsidies or refuse to write personal cheques as patrons in a few years. Those who spend time inside museums' galleries are more likely to grasp their richness and want to invest their own riches in them. Yet significantly reducing costs may not actually do much to attract new audiences either. In both America and Europe, people say that price is just one of several factors when it comes to deciding what to do with their leisure time. If tickets were free, "people who typically come anyway might come more often. Otherwise, you're not really changing your demographic," says Michael Rushton, an economist at Indiana University who studies pricing in the arts. He compares museums to elite American universities: Harvard and Stanford could afford to make tuition free for all, but many wealthy students who do not need the gift would be among the biggest beneficiaries. As museums throughout the West debate what price is right, most are unlikely to conclude the answer is zero, "moral duty" or not ✔更多文本内容见公众号【琐简英语】回复“1”，进入【打卡交流群】