英音听力｜BBC & 经济学人等 - 节目列表

Digital memories might not last forever Having thousands of photos, songs and films available at our fingertips would have seemed amazing just a few decades ago, but how long will these files last for and be available? 就在几十年前，拥有数千张照片、歌曲和电影触手可及似乎令人惊叹，但这些文件能持续多久并可用? Could the digitalisation of cultural artefacts now be putting a time limit on our memories? 文物的数字化现在是否会对我们的记忆施加时间限制？ The materials that phones and computers are made of can decay over time, impacting the data that they store. 手机和电脑的制造材料会随着时间的推移而腐烂，影响它们存储的数据。 Images can still be seen in faded photographs, but when digital data degrades, it can quickly make it impossible to even open a file. 在褪色的照片中仍然可以看到图像，但是当数字数据退化时，它很快就会导致甚至无法打开文件。 Also, as formats and devices become obsolete, it may become impossible to read files from previous decades. 此外，随着格式和设备的过时，可能无法读取过去几十年的文件。 Storing information in the cloud can also present problems. 在云中存储信息也会带来问题。 Large companies can still lose data. 大公司仍然可能丢失数据。 In 2019, social media platform MySpace admitted losing more than 12 years' worth of users' music uploads. 2019 年，社交媒体平台 MySpace 承认丢失了超过 12 年的用户上传音乐。 The widespread use of streaming services for music, TV and film means that people no longer own the content that they watch and listen to, they just pay for the right to access it. 音乐、电视和电影流媒体服务的广泛使用意味着人们不再拥有他们观看和收听的内容，他们只需支付访问权即可。 If streaming companies decide to remove content, or go out of business, users will lose access. 如果流媒体公司决定删除内容或停业，用户将失去访问权限。 Licencing rather than buying content is an example of how our behaviour towards digital content has changed. 许可而不是购买内容是我们对数字内容的行为如何改变的一个例子。 Another example is that we take far more pictures than people did in the past. 另一个例子是我们拍摄的照片比过去的人们多得多。 This means that, added to the challenge of keeping our data safe, people have to consider what to preserve and what can be discarded. 这意味着，除了保护数据安全的挑战之外，人们还必须考虑保留哪些内容以及可以丢弃哪些内容。 So, what can we do? 所以，我们能做些什么？ Technology writer Jack Schofield said that "data doesn't really exist unless you have at least two copies of it", so it's important that we keep backup copies of what is important to us -probably more than one. 科技作家杰克·斯科菲尔德(Jack Schofifeld)表示，“除非拥有至少两份副本，否则数据并不真正存在”，因此，我们必须保留对我们重要的内容的备份副本（可能不止一份）。 Academic Paul Royster suggests that we should all take time to consider what content we personally believe is worth saving. 学者保罗·罗伊斯特建议，我们都应该花时间考虑我们个人认为值得保存的内容。 Perhaps the answer is just to avoid digital altogether. 也许答案就是完全避免数字化。 Science and Technology writer Chris Baranaiuk calls for a cultural movement towards buying analogue copies of cultural content. 科技作家克里斯·巴拉奈克（Chris Baranaiuk）呼吁发起一场购买文化内容模拟副本的文化运动。 词汇表 digitalisation 数字化 artefact 人工制品 material 材料 decay 腐蚀 data 数据 faded 褪色的 degrade 降质 format（计算机信息的）格式 obsolete 淘汰的，过时的 the cloud（网络）云 upload 上传的信息 streaming service 流媒体服务，在线收听或收看内容的服务 content 内容 go out of business 倒闭 licence 授予 preserve 保存，保留 discard 扔掉 backup copy 备份，备用副本 analogue （相对数字而言）实体的 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How the discovery of DNA changed the world and my life | BBC Ideas DNA contains the genetic code found in all known life on our planet. In each of nearly all of your roughly 30 trillion cells, there are 6.4 billion letters of DNA. It’s powerful stuff. If the DNA in all of your cells was used to store computer data, it could hold the equivalent of all the digital data we currently store on Earth. DNA包含在我们星球上所有已知生命中发现的遗传密码。在你大约30万亿个细胞中，几乎每个细胞都有64亿个DNA字母。这是很强大的东西。如果你所有细胞中的DNA都被用来存储计算机数据，它可以保存相当于我们目前存储在地球上的所有数字数据。 I’m Paul Nurse, and I’ve spent much of my working life thinking about DNA, in particular how it’s copied and distributed inside cells every time they divide. I was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work in 2001. Our understanding of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, has grown enormously since its discovery in the 19th century. 我是保罗 · 纳斯，我工作生涯的大部分时间都在思考 DNA 尤其是每次细胞分裂时它是如何在细胞内复制和分布的。我在2001年因为这项工作被授予诺贝尔奖。自从19世纪脱氧核糖核酸或 DNA 被发现以来，我们对它的了解有了很大的提高。 DNA was shown to be responsible for genetic inheritance in 1944. Then, in 1953, its structure was revealed using X-rays. And DNA turns out to be a stunningly elegant molecule. What you’re looking at is the original DNA model currently on display in the Science Museum in London. It shows two long chains of molecules spiralling around each other in a double helix, like a twisted ladder. The rungs are pairs of four chemicals marked as A, G, C and T. Determining the order of these chemicals – their sequence – is known as sequencing. Being able to describe the DNA sequence allows scientists to identify important differences between individuals. These unique differences have become the basis for what is known as our DNA fingerprint. The first-ever recorded DNA fingerprint was made in 1984 by my friend Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester. Using DNA taken from his technician Vicky Wilson, he described not only which parts of her DNA came from her mother and which from her father, but also the unique genetic code she possessed – one shared by no other human being. DNA fingerprints can prove identity, how we are related and more. DNA testing of hair, skin cells or blood found at crime scenes is now the gold standard for conviction – or exoneration – of suspects. It has revolutionised the criminal justice system. In 2000, the first draft human genome – all the DNA needed to build a human being – was unveiled. And with the ability to read genomes came new insights into how the human body works and how we evolve. Analysing DNA sequences has now reached the public in the form of commercial genetic testing by companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe. By sending a saliva sample – and a fee, of course – anyone can receive a report containing information such as where their ancestors were from and who they are related to. This ability to analyse DNA has had a personal consequence for me. It’s a twist of fate that although I have a long career in genetics, I never realised that my own family had a DNA secret. When I was in my 50s, I found out that the person I’d thought was my sister was, in fact, my mother. My parents – the people who raised me – were, in fact, my grandparents. For a long time, the identity of my father remained a mystery. But amazingly, now in my 70s, recently it was possible to identify him through DNA testing. Analysing DNA has also enabled scientists to do many extraordinary things, ranging from predicting genetic diseases to studying extinct members of the human family, like Neanderthals, and extinct animals like mammoths. A new frontier in genetics is CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that works like molecular scissors, enabling scientists to cut and paste fragments of DNA within cells. This means genetic diseases such as haemophilia, muscular dystrophy and cancers, in principle, might be “corrected” by editing the DNA of human embryos. This has the potential to improve many people’s lives, though more research is still required because like all new therapies, they have to be shown to be safe. There are also questions that need to be answered about making changes that can be passed on to future generations. But societies have navigated the challenges that come with new scientific technologies before. DNA is the stuff of life. It is inevitable that the more we research, the more we will understand about ourselves and the living world, and the more power we will have to change it. All this work with DNA will give insights into human development, allow us to study extinct species and help doctors to treat diseases like cancer with medicine better personalized for everyone’s unique genetic makeup. And we are also starting to make new genetic materials, creating new synthetic proteins that could be used, for example, to help break down pollutants or to reduce greenhouse gases. Seven decades after the structure of DNA was first revealed, the DNA revolution continues to be exciting. It shows no signs of slowing down. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Business Bartleby The six rules of fire drills Please display this somewhere in your office where no one will read it. Thank you. 消防演习的六条规则请把这个展示在你办公室的某个地方，没有人会读。谢谢。 Rule 1. The fire drill must never feel useful. It may be a proven way to help save people's lives, to say nothing of being a legal requirement in many workplaces. But it is important that people experience the exercise only as an inconvenience. The drill should take place when people are up against a deadline. It must not be timed to coincide with a long meeting, when it might come as a bit of a relief. Ideally, it should be pouring with rain. The drill can be counted a success only if enough people are rolling their eyes and muttering to themselves. (The sixth rule is essential to achieving this outcome, too.) Rule 2. Remember that the drill is not really a drill but an exercise in begrudging consensus. When the alarm sounds, people must never just get up and leave. They must first satisfy themselves that this is not a mistake. Someone might have pressed the wrong button; that voice might yet drone "This is a test" and for once people will feel grateful. They must then see other employees getting ready to leave. This stage involves people bobbing up and down at their desks like demented meerkats to see what their colleagues are doing. When it is clear that this is indeed a drill, people must then spend inordinate amounts of time deciding what things to take with them. What's the weather like? Should they take the laptop? Where did they put their reusable coffee flask? Should they pack a suitcase? The one thing they must not have as they leave is any sense of urgency. Rule 3. This stage of the drill is when the fire wardens must show themselves. Only the wardens can accelerate the speed of departure from the building. This secretive group is the Opus Dei of the office but with a bit less of the fervour or sense of menace. The fire wardens have often been in the role for years; no one knows how they got the job or how to apply. They hide in plain sight: there may well be sepia photos of their younger selves on the office wall, next to an even more obscure sect known only as the "first-aiders". The wardens reveal themselves during a drill by putting on high-visibility jackets, which instantly confer on them a mysterious authority. The cabal is never seen together at other times. Rule 4. The fire drill will produce a sense of belonging. That is because a drill will suddenly expose you to everyone who works in your building. In the normal course of events, you might briefly share a lift with people from other companies or other departments. You might glimpse their offices as the doors open and close and think how soulless they look. (They will think the same of yours.) But you never realise how outnumbered you are. In a drill, however, strangers surround you. Stairwells fill with people, most of them also weighed down by coats, laptops and reusable coffee flasks. They spiral down below you on the way out and form long queues by the lifts on the way back. You will suddenly feel grateful for the comfort of any recognisable face. You spot someone from legal you think may be called Keith and say hello. You have never given him any thought before; in this moment of grave non-peril he is like family. Rule 5. The assembly area is not so much a designated spot as a place of people's choosing within a ten-minute walk of your building. Your employer might have specified a place for employees to gather. They may have given it militaristic names like the "primary muster point" or the "tertiary evacuation zone". No one else will have the faintest idea where it is. A clump of people will mill about as close to the site of the notional blaze as possible. Another group will scatter in various directions in search of a coffee or an early lunch. If they walk purposefully enough, other people will assume they know where the assembly area is and follow them. As a result most of the office may accidentally end up at Starbucks. Rule 6. Confusingly also known as the first and second rules of fire drill, you must never talk about fire drill. At some point word will spread that the drill is over and people will start to drift back to the office. Once they have returned to their desks, everyone must act as though the whole thing never happened. There must never be any reference to how it went or whether any safety lessons were learned. The fire wardens must fold away their high-viz jackets and settle back into the shadows. The work you were doing must simply be picked up where it was left. You will not speak to Keith from legal again. But you do know not to use the lifts if there is a real emergency. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Culture Film franchises Atomic beast As a symbol of nuclear weapons, Godzilla has roared back to relevance. At the age of 70 some might think about retiring, if they have not done so already. Not Godzilla. Since the giant lizard made his screen debut in "Godzilla", a Japanese film released in 1954, he has crashed his way through nearly 40 movies. (Guinness World Records certifies Godzilla as the longest-running movie franchise.) Nor does he shows any sign of slowing down. In December "Godzilla Minus One", a Japanese film, became a box-office hit. "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" has recently hit cinemas, too. From his conception, Godzilla has symbolised the fears of his time. He was created from the wreckage of the second world war. Honda Ishiro, the writer-director of "Godzilla", was haunted by the bombing of Hiroshima, the aftermath of which he witnessed first-hand. "It was said that, for the next 72 years, not a single blade of grass would grow there-and that really stayed with me," he said. "Godzilla represents the frightfulness of nuclear weapons." In "Godzilla", after the monster destroys a village on Odo Island, researchers conclude that he was roused from his prehistoric slumber by hydrogen-bomb testing. The bomb's cloud still hung in the air: earlier in 1954 America had detonated powerful thermonuclear bombs on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The crew of a Japanese fishing boat was accidentally irradiated. "Godzilla" provides plenty of horror-film thrills, including scenes that have been endlessly imitated: people fleeing through narrow city streets and the monster crunching on train carriages. But it also reflects on Japan's war trauma. "I barely escaped the atomic bomb at Nagasaki," one woman says, "and now this!" Japan is isolated from major world powers and must face the monster alone. In the story's most interesting turn, a scientist has to decide whether to use a terrible new weapon to defeat this enemy. As the memory of nuclear destruction started to recede, Godzilla's meaning mutated. America has been producing its own Godzilla films since 1956, and Hollywood has often ignored the historical aspect of the beast's story in favour of pure action. In time Godzilla went from myth to meme. He became one of several characters in a franchise known as the "MonsterVerse". Recent instalments have brought supersize lizard and enormous ape together: "Godzilla x Kong" is a sequel to "Godzilla vs. Kong" (2021). The MonsterVerse has tended towards the absurd, but has also explored a theme implicit in the Godzilla story: the environment. In one movie Godzilla helps defeat eco-terrorists who want to unleash primitive monsters to rid Earth of the "infection" of mankind. In "Godzilla x Kong" the monster defends an untouched natural realm. In these films, released in an age of anxiety about the climate, Godzilla represents an ancient natural order that humans are wont to ruin. "Godzilla Minus One" is the best recent addition to the creature's canon: it even earned Godzilla his first Oscar in March, for Best Visual Effects. Yet the film is not just aesthetically impressive; it is as profound as the original, and in conversation with it. Set at the end of the second world war the film follows Shikishima Koichi, a timid kamikaze pilot. When he first encounters Godzilla, at a landing strip on Odo Island, he fails to act. He returns to Tokyo to find his parents have been killed in the bombing of the city. By the time Godzilla strikes again-the monster has gained strength from nuclear tests in the Pacific-Koichi has a makeshift family he must protect. He makes up for his wartime dishonour by defeating the reptile and, with it, the cult of death that was gripping Japan at the time. Today, as tensions rise between nuclear powers, Godzilla has regained some of his ominous symbolism. The Doomsday Clock, an estimate of the risk of global catastrophe by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, is set at 90 seconds from midnight-as close as it has ever been to Armageddon. As long as the clock keeps ticking, this monster will matter ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

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】