What is a deepfake? | How does it work, and what can it be used for? Hello everyone. My name is Ricky Bellato. This is the latest deepfake technology that I am showing you. Do you know what a deepfake is? This is not really me. I'm taking a closer look to find out what they are and why someone might want to make one. And this video is not real. First up, let's talk to the BBC's disinformation expert, Marianna Spring. 我叫瑞奇-贝拉托。这是我向大家展示的最新深度伪造技术。你们知道什么是深度伪造吗？这不是真的我。我正在仔细观察，看看它们到底是什么，以及为什么有人想要制作它们。这个视频不是真的。首先，我们来与BBC的虚假信息专家玛丽安娜·斯普林对话。 Thank you so much for chatting to Newsround. You are very busy trying to identify what's real and what isn't. What is a deepfake? Deepfakes are basically any kind of content. So that might be a picture, it might be a video, it might be an audio clip. That has been created using AI technology. And AI stands for artificial intelligence. So it's been created from scratch. It's fake. It's not real. But often these kinds of pictures, videos, clips can be really quite convincing. 非常感谢您接受Newsround的采访。您一直忙于辨别真假。什么是深度伪造？深度伪造基本上是指任何类型的内容。可能是一张图片，可能是一段视频，也可能是一段音频。这些内容都是利用人工智能技术创建的。AI 代表人工智能。所以它是从零开始创建的。它是假的。它不是真实的。但通常这类图片、视频和剪辑都很逼真。 I've come to the University of Southampton to speak to Dr Jennifer Williams. How easy is it to make deepfakes? Well it's becoming a lot easier than it used to be. Nowadays there's a lot of different open source online tools that you can get for free and all you need is an image and a bit of audio and you can create a deepfake. So you've created two deepfakes of me here. Can we listen to this one? Hello, everyone, and welcome. My name is Ricky Bellato. This is the latest deepfake technology that I am showing you. 我来到南安普顿大学是为了与詹妮弗·威廉姆斯博士交谈。制作深度伪造有多容易？好吧，它变得比以前容易得多。如今，您可以免费获得许多不同的开源在线工具，您只需要一张图像和一点音频，就可以创建一个深度伪造。所以你在这里创造了我的两个深度伪造。我们可以听这个吗？大家好，欢迎。我叫瑞奇·贝拉托。这是我向你展示的最新深度伪造技术。 So it sounds like me. I can see some of the movements on the face of repetitive, hasn't quite pronounced my name properly. But this is something that was created within a few minutes. It's actually quite good, isn't it? It used to be that we needed hours of your voice in order to create a clone. But nowadays, because the advances in artificial intelligence, we only need about 10 seconds. So how does it work? How do you turn a picture of me into a talking video that even sounds like me? So there's actually two parts to making a deepfake like this. One is dealing with the image of your face and the other is dealing with your voice. So why are there all these different triangles and squares on my face? So this shows how we're going to take your photo and make it come to life. The first thing we want to do is identify your facial landmarks. So this includes things like your eyebrows, your eyes, your nose and your mouth. The artificial intelligence system then generates all the different types of ways that your face can move left and right, up and down. And then it picks the best one to match the audio. This is not really me. So Ricky, I wanted to show you a deepfake of myself that I made using the same technology that we deepfaked you with. Okay, let's have a look. Hello, I am not Jennifer Williams and this video is not real. I mean, some videos don't look quite right. I mean, you sound like you, but you certainly look a bit strange, if you don't mind me saying, and you don't look like that in real life. What's going on here? So you saw the way my face had some glitches as I was turning my chin from left to right. And then the way my eyes are looking at the camera, this eye's looking at the camera, but this eye's not. And this video is not real. Why would someone want to create a deepfake? So it tends to be used in political situations often, so maybe it's a president or a prime minister or a mayor and they might be deepfaked so that they say something or do something that the people that don't like them would want them to be caught saying or doing. When it comes to world leaders saying things or doing things that they never said, that is a problem because we've got lots of elections, we've got lots of stuff going on all across the world and It can affect how people vote or what they decide when it comes to elections and just what people think about different political leaders based on something that's not true rather than the evidence and the facts. But there are also some benefits to deepfake tech. So if someone has lost their voice due to a disability, we might want to recreate their voice and we can give them their voice back using the same technology that creates deepfakes. And this video is not real. Creating a good deepfake is a complex and challenging process that often requires advanced technical skill. But free apps and websites are getting better all the time. The worry is that in the wrong hands, these videos could spread information that's not true and harmful. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Ozone hole: Why Antarctic wildlife is being 'sunburnt' 臭氧层空洞：为什么南极动植物被 “晒伤” 了？ The ozone layer is healing, but it'll take until about the end of the century to restore completely. In Antarctica, the ozone layer is broken down by chemical reactions in very cold, high atmospheric clouds. 臭氧层正在 “愈合”，但大约要到本世纪末才能完全恢复到之前的水平。在南极地区上空非常寒冷的高空大气云层的作用下，臭氧层被消耗，导致 “破洞”。 That loss of protective gas and resulting hole used to peak in September or October when plants and animals are tucked under winter snow and marine animals are protected by sea ice. But it's now lingering well into the Antarctic summer. 保护气体的流失和由此产生的 “破洞” 曾在9月或10月期间最为严重，不过那时动植物被冬雪覆盖，海洋动物也有海冰遮盖受到保护。但现在，臭氧层出现最大面积空洞这一现象已经持续到了南极的夏季。 Researchers say that's been driven in part by smoke from the Australian wildfires in 2019 and 2020, which were themselves fuelled by climate change. 研究人员们说，这在一定程度上是由 2019 年和 2020 年澳大利亚野火产生的烟雾造成的，而这两场野火本身就是气候变化的产物。 They found evidence of Antarctic plants putting more effort into synthesising protective sunscreen compounds and krill, marine crustaceans that are the foundation of the food chain in Antarctica, moving deeper into the ocean to avoid ultraviolet rays. While seals and penguins are covered by protective fur and feathers, the scientists say exposure to harmful rays could damage their eyesight. 他们发现有证据表明，南极植物正在把更多的能量用于合成起保护作用的防晒化合物，而磷虾，即南极洲食物链基层的海洋甲壳类动物，正在向海洋深处移动，以躲避紫外线照射。虽然海豹和企鹅的身上覆盖着起保护作用的皮毛和羽毛，但科学家们表示，阳光中的紫外线可能会损害它们的视力。 词汇表 peak 达到峰值，达到最高水平 tucked under 藏在…之下 lingering 迟迟不去的，停留 well into 直到…很久 synthesising 合成 krill 磷虾 crustaceans 甲壳动物 ultraviolet rays 紫外线 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How to work with someone you hate | BBC Ideas I remember once working with a woman who found it really frustrating that someone in her office loudly ate rice around lunchtime every day and her metal fork would constantly be hitting against the bowl. And she was so annoyed by it that she was actually going to go out and buy a wooden fork for this person. When you think we spend half our waking life at work if there's someone who really gets under your skin, it's crucial to cross that divide. 我记得有一次和一位女士共事，她发现办公室里有人每天午餐时间都大声地吃米饭，她的金属叉子会不停地敲打碗，这让她非常沮丧。她为此非常恼火，甚至打算出去给这个人买一把木叉子。想想看，我们有一半的时间是在工作中度过的，如果有人真的让你很不爽，那么跨越这个鸿沟是至关重要的。 We've probably all worked with people we don't like but really? You hate them, you actually hate them? That takes an enormous amount of energy and it makes little or no difference to them. If they've really done something totally illegal or horrendous, there's probably much better remedies for it. 我们可能都与自己不喜欢的人共事过，但真的吗？你讨厌他们，你真的讨厌他们？这需要耗费巨大的精力，而且对他们几乎没有任何影响。如果他们真的做了完全违法或令人发指的事情，可能会有更好的解决办法。 Tip 1: Face the problem 直面问题 Most of the time we find that people want to avoid having a conversation with the other person because they dislike them, but if you don't talk about it, it won't get better by itself. So some people try to put it off and develop coping mechanisms but it rarely makes the situation much better and soon it's years down the line and you're still in the same boat, hating this person. It doesn't have to be like this. A bit of short-term pain, i. e. a difficult but open and honest conversation with the person you dislike, can bring a long-term gain. 我们发现，大多数时候，人们因为不喜欢对方而想避免与对方对话，但如果你不谈论这个问题，情况就不会自己好转。因此，有些人试图拖延时间，建立应对机制，但这很少能让情况好转，很快几年过去了，你仍然面临同样的问题，讨厌这个人。其实不必这样。短期的痛苦，即与你讨厌的人进行一次艰难但坦诚的谈话，可以带来长期的收获。 Tip 2: Check your personal narrative 检查你的自我陈述 We get people telling us we're intimidating when we think we're really cuddly or telling us that we're shy when we consider ourselves thoughtful and serious. So think about what you give off to other people. Here's Ali. He's very bright. He's quite young, he's very highly educated. He's just got a great job so he's sent to a conference and because, as well as being bright, he's rather modest he decides that he'll keep quiet, pretty much, and he'll just observe what's going on and listen to people who are more experienced. 当我们认为自己很可爱时，别人却说我们很吓人；当我们认为自己很体贴、很严肃时，别人却说我们很害羞。所以，想想你给别人留下了什么印象吧。这是阿里。他非常聪明。他很年轻，受过高等教育。他刚找到一份很好的工作，所以被派去参加一个会议，因为他很聪明，也很谦虚，所以他决定保持沉默，他只是观察正在发生的事情，倾听那些更有经验的人的意见。 The people around him who have heard how bright he is and how well-educated see him being a bit restrained and a bit withheld and start to think, "He's a bit aloof." "He doesn't rate us." "He thinks he's too good for us." And so they start to freeze him out. We end up with a situation where everybody's misunderstanding each other and nobody is getting the benefit of their different abilities and experiences. 他身边的人听说他有多聪明，受过多好的教育，看到他有点克制，有点含蓄，开始认为，“他有点冷漠。”“他不评价我们。”“他觉得我们配不上他。”于是他们开始冷落他。我们最终会陷入这样一种境地：每个人都误解了彼此，没有人能从他们不同的能力和经验中获益。 Tip 3: Get their perspective. 理解他们的观点 Ask questions and seek to understand the other person's viewpoint. Then show them you've understood their viewpoint by summarising back to them what they have said — an incredibly powerful little tool for building rapport. Too often, people just try to persuade others of their case but if you show that you're open to listening to the other person and genuinely want to understand where they're coming from, you'll have a much more constructive conversation. 问问题，试图理解对方的观点。然后通过总结他们所说的话来表明你已经理解了他们的观点——这是建立融洽关系的一个非常强大的小工具。很多时候，人们只是试图说服别人相信他们的观点，但如果你表现出你愿意倾听对方的意见，并真诚地想了解他们的想法，你会进行更有建设性的对话。 I remember once in a mediation where one person shouted at the other "You're a pathological liar!" Now I don't have a problem with someone saying that if that's how they feel but I do actually with how it's worded. If you tell someone they're a liar, they'll automatically disagree. We all would. But if you calmly point out that on this occasion and this occasion they have lied to you, you can have a conversation about it without them getting as defensive. 我记得在一次调解中，一个人对另一个人大喊:“你是个病态的骗子!”我不介意有人这么说，如果这是他们的感受的话，但我对他们的措辞有意见。如果你说某人说谎，他们自然会不同意。我们都会如此。但如果你冷静地指出是在这种情况下，并在这种情况下，他们对你撒了谎，你就可以就此展开谈话，而不会让他们变得那么有戒心。 It's probably not personal. Remember that you don't have to learn to like the person that you're in conflict with — you just have to work with them. Be willing to challenge your assumptions and then learn from that. Welcome others' ideas and approaches. Be yourself, be open, be honest about your own strengths and contributions. The really great thing is if you're doing those things, not only does it diminish that feeling of dislike and make you better at working with people, but you might actually get to enjoy working with them. 这很可能不是针对你个人。记住，你不必学着去喜欢与你有冲突的人——你只需要与他们合作。要愿意推翻自己的臆断，然后从中学习。欢迎其他人的想法和方法。做你自己，敞开心扉，坦诚地对待自己的长处和贡献。最重要的是，如果你做到了这些，不仅会减少厌恶的感觉，使你更善于与人共事，而且你可能真的会喜欢上与人共事。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil. And I'm Beth. Phil, I'm going to start this episode with grapefruit - I've got some here - do you want some? Er, I'm not that keen on grapefruit - they're too bitter for me. Oh, that's a shame, because this episode is all about bitter food. It has actually been linked to a number of health benefits. So maybe you should take my grapefruit. 这一期我要从葡萄柚开始——我这里有一些——你想要一些吗？呃，我不太喜欢葡萄柚——它们对我来说太苦了。哦，那真是太可惜了，因为这一期都是关于苦味食物的。它实际上与许多健康益处有关。所以也许你应该吃我的葡萄柚。 I might not like it that much, but in this programme, we'll be finding out how bitter foods can benefit our health. And, of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary. That should give you a taste of what's coming up, but before that, if you want to learn vocabulary to talk about world events - search for our News Review podcast - we look at vocabulary about a major news story every week. But, back to this episode - I have a question for you, Phil. How many different basic flavours can humans taste? Is it: a) 4? b) 5? or, c) 6? Hmmm, I can think of bitter, sweet, salty and sour - so I'm going to go with four. I think we can taste 4 basic flavours. OK, Phil, I'll reveal the correct answer later. Leyla Kazim presents 'The Food Programme' on BBC Radio 4. Here she is talking about some of the possible benefits of bitter food. New research has found a remarkable link between bitter foods and our health. It seems they have an incredible ability to interact with our gut microbiome, suppress feelings of hunger, control glucose release and even counter chronic inflammation in the body. Could bitter be the answer at the tip of our tastebuds? Bitter foods can interact with our gut microbiome. A microbiome is a collection of microorganisms that can be found in a particular part of the body. It includes fungi, bacteria and viruses. Microorganisms in our gut play an important role in the digestive process - they are our gut microbiome. If we suppress something then we stop it from happening or operating. We heard that bitter foods can suppress hunger feelings. This means that they stop people feeling hungry. If we try to suppress a feeling, we are trying to stop it. Leyla asks if bitter foods are the answer at the tip of our tastebuds. Normally we'd say that something that we can't quite remember is on tip of our tongue. Here we have tastebuds, which are the receptors on our tongue and inside our mouths that can detect flavours, like bitterness. So, it seems that bitter foods could be very beneficial, but they are not always the easiest foods to love. In BBC Radio 4's 'The Food Programme', presenter Leyla Kazim spoke to chef Alexina Anatole, who points out that we might be consuming more bitter food than we realise: I think it's a real perception issue with it. I think people are exposed to bitters way more than they think they are, but there's this perception of bitter and negativity, both in terms of emotions and food, right? Bitterness is generally an undesirable trait, but there are so many very very mainstream bitter things. Such as? Chocolate, coffee, alcohol, any alcohol has a degree of bitterness to it. Alexina says that many people see bitterness as an undesirable trait. A trait is a characteristic, so an undesirable trait is a characteristic that people don't want. We often see bitterness as a bad thing. We also often use undesirable traits to refer to negative aspects of people's personalities. Alexina points out that there are a number of mainstream things that have a bitter flavour. If something is mainstream, then it means it's ordinary and part of what most people consume - she listed chocolate and coffee as mainstream things. The other mainstream thing mentioned was alcohol - we heard that it has a degree of bitterness. If something has a degree of something, then it has at least a small, but noticeable amount of it. OK, now I think it's time to hear to the answer to your question. Right, I asked how many basic flavours humans can taste. And I guessed it was four. Which, unfortunately was not the right answer. The answer is in fact five. The flavour that you missed is umami, which comes from a Japanese word and refers to a savoury flavour often found in grilled meats or broths. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with, microbiome, the collection of microorganisms found in a specific part of the body. Suppress means prevent from operating or happening. Tastebuds are the receptors found on in the tongue and in the mouth that sense flavours. An undesirable trait is a negative characteristic that we don't want. If something is mainstream, then it is something that most people would use. It's not unusual. And finally, a degree of something is a small, but noticeable amount of something. Once again, our six minutes are up! Remember to join us again next time for more topical discussion and useful vocabulary, here at 6 Minute English. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Culture World in a dish Coming in hot 文艺版块 盘中世界 热辣而来 How the once-derided chilli pepper revolutionised Chinese palates. 曾经受到嘲讽的辣椒如何彻底改变了中国人的口味。 Tianshui, a city tucked away in China's north-western hills, does not normally make headline news. But a fiery soup that owes its unique flavour to locally grown Gangu chillies has lit up the internet. Since March, the hashtag#TianshuiMalatang, referring to a popular type of street food, has racked up more than 140m views on Weibo, a social-media platform. Millions have flocked to the city to try it themselves. Increasingly the Chinese palette is craving spice. Last year Meituan, China's biggest food-delivery app, reported that nearly 80% of restaurants now offer spicy fare, a taste known as la in Chinese. 天水，一个位于中国西北山区的城市，通常不会成为头条新闻。但是，一种因当地种植的甘谷辣椒而具有独特风味的辣味汤点燃了互联网。自今年3月以来，在社交媒体平台新浪微博上，“天水麻辣烫”(指的是一种流行的街头小吃)话题标签已获得超过1.4亿浏览量。数百万人涌入这座城市亲自品尝。越来越多的中国味蕾渴望尝到辣味。中国最大的外卖app美团去年报告称，近八成的餐厅现在提供辣味饭菜，这种味道用中文表示为“辣”。 Look back a few hundred years, though, and chillies were nowhere to be found. Unlike ginger and Sichuan peppers, which are native to the region and widely used, chilli peppers were brought to China from the Americas by Portuguese and Dutch explorers only in the 16th century. At first, nobody ate them. For at least 50 years, they were grown as decorative plants, prized for their cheerfully bright colour and tiny white flowers, and occasionally used as medicinal herbs. 然而，回顾几百年前，辣椒无处可寻。生姜和花椒是本土植物，使用广泛，辣椒与它们不同，辣椒是在16世纪才由葡萄牙和荷兰探险家从美洲带到中国。起初，没有人吃辣椒，至少50年来，它们被当作装饰性植物种植，因其鲜艳的颜色和小巧的白色花朵而备受珍视，偶尔被用作草药。 During China's last imperial period, a stringent system that taxed salt forced peasants in Guizhou province to look for an alternative to the condiment. They chose chillies, which produce several crops a year and take up little land. From there, a new flavour was unlocked. The pepper steadily spread to other rural regions of China, but its pungent, overpowering flavour barred it from getting near the tables of imperial or upper-class families. 在中国最后一个皇朝时期，严格的盐税制度迫使费州省的农民寻找盐的替代品。他们选择了辣椒，辣椒一年可多次收获，而且只占用很少的土地。从此，一种新的味道被解锁。辣椒逐渐传播到中国其他农村地区，但它辛辣、强烈的味道使它无法接近皇室或上流家族的餐桌。 For a long time, la was used to describe vicious-natured people, and the few urbanites who enjoyed chillies did not trumpet their taste. But the Communist revolution revolutionised the kitchen. The chefs of nobles were out of favour, and their traditions discontinued. The new leader, Mao Zedong, was the son of a peasant and a fan of chillies. Mao made Russian envoys eat sweat-inducing dishes and laughed when they could not handle the heat. "You can't be a revolutionary if you don't eat chillies," he said. What was once a poor man's food became a symbol of China's working class. 在很长一段时间里，“辣”被用来形容心狠手辣的人，少数喜欢吃辣椒的城里人也不会宣扬他们的口味。但共产主义革命也带来了厨房的革命。贵族的厨师不再受欢迎，他们的传统也中断了。新的领导人毛主席是农民的儿子，也很爱吃辣椒。毛主席让苏联特使吃让人冒汗的菜肴，当他们受不了辣时，他笑了起来。“不能吃辣椒就是不能革命哩。”他说。曾经的穷人的食物变成了中国工人阶级的象征。 Industrialisation after Mao created the largest migration in human history. Hundreds of millions of migrants poured into big cities, bringing with them the spicy flavours of home. Chillies are now incorporated into street food, fine dining and snacks in regions with little tradition of heat. Cao Yu, a food writer and author of "The History of Eating La", argues that part of the chilli's charm also comes from its social function. "If we've had spicy food together, we've endured pain together," he says. "It's just like drinking, it brings us closer to one another. 毛主席之后的工业化创造了人类历史上最大规模的移民。数百万农民工涌入大城市，也带来了家乡的辣味。如今，在没有什么吃辣传统的地区，辣椒已进入街头小吃、精致餐饮和零食中。美食作家曹雨写了《中国食辣史》，他认为，辣椒的部分魅力来自它的社会功能。“如果我们一起吃了辛辣的食物，那么我们就一起忍受了痛苦，"他说，“这就像喝酒，吃辣让我们彼此更亲近。” ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Venice to charge day trippers to enter city 威尼斯向一日游游客收 “进城费” Venice is a fragile jewel faced with rising sea levels from climate change and mass tourism. Of the estimated 30 million visitors a year, around two thirds are day trippers, placing sites under huge strain. 威尼斯就像一颗脆弱的宝石，一方面面临着气候变化导致海平面上升的威胁，同时也需要应对大量游客带来的挑战。每年约有3000万名游客访问威尼斯，约三分之二是当天往返的一日游游客，这给威尼斯带来了游客大批涌入的巨大压力。 Now they'll have to pay €5 to enter the city in a trial scheme in place on specific days over the next few months. The aim, say the authorities, is to discourage crowds descending at certain times, adding that the plan, the first such one in the world, could be extended in duration and price. Critics say the ticket is a minimal cost that will not address Venice's fundamental problems. 现在一项试行方案规定，在未来几个月的特定旅游高峰日，一日游游客们必须支付5欧元才能进城观光。威尼斯官方表示，这样做的目的是阻止人群在特定日子大批涌入威尼斯，并补充说，作为世界上首个推行 “进城费” 的方案，试行收费的时间可能会延长，价格也可能会上调。反对 “进城费” 方案的人说，收费很低，无法解决威尼斯面临的根本问题。 Other cities facing similar overtourism challenges will be watching closely to see if it works. 其它面临类似客流量过大问题的城市将密切关注该试行方案，看它是否奏效。 词汇表 fragile 脆弱的 jewel 宝石，比喻威尼斯 “精美绝伦，独一无二” mass tourism （尤指游客数量多的）大众旅游 day trippers 一日游游客 trial scheme 试行方案 discourage 阻止，为…设置障碍 descending 涌入 critics 批评者，反对者 minimal cost 极低的费用 fundamental problems 根本问题 overtourism “过度旅游”，指游客数量过多 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

The perfect assistance dog 一只合格的协助犬应具备哪些能力？ Dogs are in high demand as pets. In fact, 36% of households in the UK own one, according to the UK Pet Food survey 2024. Our canine pals can be cute, cuddly and loyal friends. But, for many owners, dogs are much more than this – they are a lifeline. 作为宠物，狗很受欢迎。事实上，根据2024年英国宠物食品调查，36% 的英国家庭拥有宠物。我们的狗狗朋友可以是可爱的，惹人爱的和忠诚的朋友。但是，对于许多主人来说，狗远不止如此——他们是一条生命线。 Assistance dogs provide essential support, increased independence and companionship for disabled people and people with medical conditions – they have even saved lives. There are many different types of assistance dogs out there, from hearing dogs to autism dogs to guide dogs. But what makes the perfect assistance dog? 协助犬为残疾人和患有疾病的人提供必要的支持、增强的独立性和陪伴——它们甚至挽救了生命。协助犬有许多不同类型，从助听犬到自闭症犬再到导盲犬。但是什么造就了完美的协助犬呢？ Common assistance dog breeds are Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers and German shepherds. The most common guide dog in the UK is the golden retriever-Labrador cross, which, according to the Guide Dogs National Centre, has a 'combination of desirable traits'. Guide dogs need to be able to lead a blind or visually impaired person outside and inside, while avoiding distractions and recognising and avoiding obstacles such as changes in elevation, like tree roots, curbs and stairs. With that in mind, training puppies is essential. 常见的辅助犬种有拉布拉多寻回犬、金毛寻回犬和德国牧羊犬。英国最常见的导盲犬是金毛寻回犬-拉布拉多杂交犬，根据导盲犬国家中心的说法，它具有“理想特征的组合”。导盲犬需要能够带领盲人或视障人士进出，同时避免分心，识别并避免障碍物，如树根、路缘石和楼梯等海拔变化。考虑到这一点，训练小狗是至关重要的。 The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association trains puppies using positive reinforcement, rewarding good behaviour with food, praise and affection. When it comes to hearing dogs, a very important part of their training is sound awareness – alerting their deaf partner to sounds they would otherwise miss, for example a smoke alarm, an alarm clock or a crying baby. Katie Grundy, a puppy trainer at the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, teaches puppies targeting, a technique where the dogs touch a target, like a hand, with their nose for a treat. This teaches hearing dogs how to notify their partner when a sound goes off. 盲人导盲犬协会使用积极强化来训练幼犬，用食物、表扬和关爱来奖励良好的行为。当谈到助听犬时，他们训练的一个非常重要的部分是声音意识——提醒他们的聋人伴侣注意他们本来会错过的声音，例如烟雾报警器、闹钟或哭泣的婴儿。凯蒂·格伦迪是慈善机构“聋人助听犬”的幼犬训练师，她教小狗瞄准，这是一种让狗用鼻子触摸目标（相当于手）的技术。这教助听犬如何在声音响起时通知他们的伴侣。 At the end of training, not all pups qualify, but they are put up for adoption and, of course, make excellent lovable pets. 在训练结束时，并非所有幼犬都符合条件，但它们会被收养，当然，它们会成为非常可爱的宠物。 词汇表 lifeline 生命线 assistance dog 协助犬 independence 独立 companionship 陪伴，友谊 disabled 残疾的 medical condition 疾病 save lives 救命 hearing dog 助听犬 autism dog 协助自闭症人士的服务犬 guide dog 导盲犬 lead 引导 blind 失明的 visually impaired 视力受损的 obstacle 障碍 puppy 小狗 positive reinforcement 正向强化（奖励或积极回应良好行为的训练方法） sound awareness 声音感知 alert 提示，提醒 deaf 失聪的，听不见的 targeting （动物）通过碰触特定目标物得到奖励 treat 奖励或训练狗的食物，零食 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Eurovision 2024: What happened at the world's biggest song contest? In many ways it was classic Eurovision. Plenty of cheesy pop music, some shall we say quirkier sounds and of course a huge dramatic ballad or two. 从很多方面来说，这都是一场经典的欧洲歌唱大赛。有很多俗气的流行音乐，一些我们应该说怪异的声音，当然还有一两首戏剧性的民谣。 This year, the focus wasn't entirely on what happened on the stage, though. Several people protested over Israel's participation and didn't want them to be in the competition because of the Israeli government's actions in the war in Gaza. 不过，今年的焦点并不完全集中在舞台上发生的事情上。一些人抗议以色列的参与，因为以色列政府在加沙战争中的行动，他们不希望他们参加比赛。 The 20-year-old singer Eden Golan received a mixture of boos and cheers, but Israel's song performed well in the public vote, with many countries, including the UK, giving them top marks, 12 points. For the UK, it wasn't quite nil-poi, which means zero points, but Olly Alexander's song Dizzy was only saved from last place by the jury vote, finishing in 18th place out of 25 songs. 20岁的歌手Eden Golan受到了嘘声和欢呼声交织，但以色列的歌曲在公众投票中表现良好，包括英国在内的许多国家都给了他们12分的高分。对于英国来说，这并不完全是零分，这意味着零分，但是Olly Alexander的歌曲《 Dizzy 》只是从最后一名被评委投票保存下来，在25首歌曲中排名第18位。 But it was Switzerland's Nemo who claimed the 2024 title with the hip-hop-opera mash-up The Code. He's done it! Switzerland! Their win means Switzerland will host next year's competition. 但是，瑞士的尼莫（Nemo）凭借嘻哈与歌剧的混搭作品《The Code》夺得了 2024 年的冠军。他成功了！瑞士！他们的胜利意味着瑞士将主办明年的比赛。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Why subtitles matter 为什么字幕很重要？ Over half of American TV viewers now use subtitles whenever they watch TV, according to survey company YouGov. This trend is even more noticeable in viewers under 30. Subtitles have long been used to help people with hearing impairments or to allow people to watch films in a different language, but why has their use become so widespread? 根据调查公司 YouGov 的数据，超过一半的美国电视观众现在每次看电视都会使用字幕。这一趋势在30岁以下的观众中更为明显。长期以来，字幕一直被用来帮助有听力障碍的人，或者让人们观看不同语言的电影，但是为什么它们的使用如此广泛呢？ The reasons for this are both technical and social. Advances in digital sound production and microphones mean that actors can be more natural in their vocal performance, while at the same time audio directors are able to make more and more dramatic soundscapes. Combined with the much smaller speakers contained in modern TV sets, this can all make dialogue seem unintelligible. 造成这种情况的原因既有技术方面的，也有社会方面的。数字声音制作和麦克风的进步意味着演员的声音表演可以更加自然，同时音频导演可以制作出越来越戏剧化的声音场景。再加上现代电视机中更小的扬声器，所有这些都会让对话看起来难以理解。 Smartphones may play a role. We are used to subtitled social media videos that can be watched without headphones. Smartphones also allow us to watch film and TV in public places where they are not easily audible. Another social reason could be the increased appetite for programmes in other languages accessible through international streaming services. 智能手机可能起了一定作用。我们习惯了在社交媒体上观看有字幕的视频，甚至无需佩戴耳机。智能手机还允许我们在不易听到声音的公共场所观看电影和电视。另一个社会原因可能是人们对通过国际流媒体服务观看其他语言节目的需求增加了。 While some viewers may consider subtitles to be distracting, or worry about the potential for spoilers, they don't just help with unclear audio. A number of studies have suggested that subtitles could help people to increase their vocabulary and boost their listening skills in languages that they do not currently speak. 虽然一些观众可能会认为字幕会分散注意力，或者担心潜在的剧透，但字幕不仅能帮助解决音频不清晰的问题。许多研究表明，字幕可以帮助人们增加词汇量，提高他们目前不会说的语言的听力技能。 This may be particularly effective when subtitles are in the same language as the audio track of the programme. Same-language subtitles have also been shown to help young children develop their reading skills in their first language, to the point where campaigners have suggested enabling subtitles on all children's programmes by default. 当字幕与节目的音轨使用同一语言时，这可能特别有效。同语字幕也被证明有助于幼儿发展母语阅读技能，以至于相关活动人士建议在所有儿童节目中默认设置字幕。 词汇表 viewers 观众 hearing impairment 听觉障碍 digital sound production 数字声音制作 natural 自然的 vocal performance 声乐表演 audio director 音频导演 dramatic soundscape 戏剧化的声景 dialogue 对话 unintelligible 无法理解的 audible 听得见的，可以听到的 distracting 分散注意力的 spoiler 剧透 unclear 不清楚的 audio track 音轨 same-language subtitles 同语言字幕 enable 使…可能 ✔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 Gossip in the workplace 商业版块 巴托比专栏 职场八卦 Pssst! Want to read something about rumour and innuendo？ 那谁，想读点关于流言蜚语的文章吗？ Gossip is everywhere. On one estimate, from Megan Robbins and Alexander Karan of University of California, Riverside, people spend 52 minutes a day on average talking about other people. Gossip pervades the work place. You hear it in conversations among colleagues; you know who to go to for the latest round of it. You can tell when gossip is imminent: voices suddenly lower and there may well be some theatrical looking around to check that the target is not in earshot. 八卦无处不在。根据加州大学河滨分校的梅根·罗宾斯和亚历山大·卡兰的估计，人们平均每天花52分钟谈论别人。职场中到处都是八卦。你可以在同事之间的聊天中听到八卦，你知道要听最新鲜的八卦应该去找谁。你可以判断什么时候马上就要开始说八卦：声音突然变小，可能会夸张地环顾四周，确定八卦的对象不能听见。 Sometimes it is offered up explicitly, like a vol-au-vent at a drinks party:"Do you want to hear a bit of gossip?" And yes, you almost certainly do. Managers have grapevines, too. Scholars of gossip (what happens when these people all get together at a conference is a subject for future research) tend to describe it as informal exchanges of evaluative information about people who aren't there. 有时八卦是明确主动地提供给你，就像酒会上的酥皮馅饼小点心：“你想听点八卦吗？”当然想，你几乎肯定会听。经理们也会八卦。研究八卦的学者(这些人在会议上聚在一起会发生什么，这是未来可以研究的主题)倾向于把这种八卦描述为非正式地交换关于不在场的人的评估性信息 Those exchanges can be complimentary as well as critical. By that definition, bosses who do not gossip about employees may not be doing their job properly. Its ubiquity suggests that gossip must have some benefits. It is definitely a lot more entertaining to talk about colleagues, particularly if they've been seen furtively entering a hotel room together, than the latest set of quarterly numbers. 这些交换既可以是批评性的，也可以是赞扬性的。根据这一定义，不八卦员工的老板可能没有好好完成自己的工作。八卦的普遍性表明，八卦肯定有一些好处。谈论同事绝对比谈论最新的季度数据有意思得多，特别是当有人看到同事们偷偷摸摸地一起进入酒店房间的时候。 Evolutionary psychologists also reckon that gossip is helpful in instilling social norms. In their book "The Social Brain", Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey and Robin Dunbar point to the example of hunter-gatherer groups in southern Africa who use gossip to convey criticism of those who fail to share the spoils of successful hunts. 进化心理学家还认为，八卦有助于培养社会规范。在《社交大脑》一书中，特蕾西·卡米莱里、萨曼莎·罗基、罗宾·邓巴引用了非洲南部狩猎采集团体的例子，这些团体通过八卦来传达对那些不分享成功狩猎战利品的人的批评。 Similar behaviour is visible in the workplace. In a recent paper by Terence Dores Cruz of the University of Amsterdam and his co-authors, participants were asked whether they would share gossip about someone who was constantly slacking off and leaving others to do the work. People were more likely to pass that piece of information on to a person who was going to have to work with this good-for-nothing than to one who was not. The knowledge that reputations are partly forged through gossip can act as a deterrent to bad behaviour. But that reputational effect is also one reason to worry about gossip. For sometimes incentives emerge to spread inaccurate information about other people. Another experiment, conducted by Kim Peters and Miguel Fonseca of the University of Exeter, found, among other things, that lies cropped up twice as frequently when gossipers were told they were in competition with each other. A related problem is that people are drawn to negative gossip more than positive gossip. The news that Colin did a great job generating sales leads last month is not going to spread far and wide. But if they are juicy enough, even outright falsehoods will circulate. In 2021 the Ontario Superior Court in Canada awarded hefty damages to an employee at a volunteer fire department who had been fired by the local municipality on the basis of false rumours that she had engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour with firefighters. If gossip can cause distress to its targets, it can also be bad for the people sharing information. One of the oddities of gossip is that everyone does it and yet it is so often frowned upon. A recent paper by Maria Kakarika of Durham University Business School and her co-authors found that being seen as a gossipmonger is unlikely to help your career. Participants were given a scenario in which someone spread negative personal gossip about a colleague. They were not just disapproving; they also said they would be more likely to give the gossiper lower performance ratings and to recommend bonus reductions. What then should managers make of gossip? Getting rid of it entirely would require a police state, and in any case deprive the organisation of a potentially useful form of self-regulating behaviour. However, managers can dampen demand for it. If there is uncertainty around a big event like lay-offs or the appointment of a new boss, gossip will flourish. If people think they are being treated unfairly, then they will want to vent about it to co-workers. If workers have jobs that bore them rigid, they will alleviate the tedium with chit-chat. One cure for excess gossip is decent management. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Beth. In this programme, we'll be discussing the dinner table – but we're not interested in food. We're talking about… talking! A lot can happen around the dinner table – gossip, arguments. You might meet the love of your life on a blind dinner date or find out you're a great storyteller. Neil, when you were younger, did you eat with your family around a dinner table? We did! Eating at the table was an important ritual. It was something we did every day and, quite often, it was the only time we could get together and chat. I think there's something very comforting about eating good food and being with the people you're closest to and now I do the same with my own family. The kids are more likely to open up, talk more easily, about their day or something troubling them while we're eating. Well, the dinner table is a space that families across the world get together at to not only eat, but chat, and is often the only point in the day or week that the whole family gathers together. In this programme, we'll be discussing how people behave at the table, and, of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. But first I have a question for you, Beth. In 2016, a couple from Germany won the world record for the fastest time to set a dinner table. But, how long did it take them? Was it: a) 25 seconds b) 1 minute 5 seconds c) 2 minutes 5 seconds? Surely not 25 seconds! I'll guess 1 minute 5 seconds. OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Now, while eating with a group, you might feel that you need to act in a certain way because of the people around you. Philippa Perry, a psychotherapist and author, thinks we should try to be ourselves as much as possible, as she told BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain: In any group we find a role and, if we're only in one group, if we're only ever with our family, we might think, 'oh, I'm the funny one', 'he's the wise one'. We might think that's who we are. And then we go to another group and then we find, 'oh, I'm the wise one'. And I think if you feel like you're assigned a role in your family, I just think take that with a little bit of a pinch of salt. When you spend time with the same group of people, you might start to think of yourself as 'the funny one' or 'the wise one'. When we say 'the … one', we describe a person by using a particular and prominent characteristic they have. If you're very tall, you might be 'the tall one'. However, Philippa says we should take these labels with a pinch of salt – an idiom meaning you shouldn't believe or do everything you are told or that's expected of you. Now, over time, interactions at the dinner table have changed. In the past, children were sometimes seated on a different table to adults or told they should be seen and not heard, an old-fashioned phrase emphasising that children should be quiet and always on their best behaviour. Ambreia Meadows-Fernandez, a writer and founder of Free Black Motherhood, spoke about older generations' reactions to children asking awkward questions at the dinner table to BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain: So, it's a mixed bag. It's overwhelmingly positive, but I also know that it is kind of a bit of culture shock for them to hear my children ask what they ask because our children haven't really been raised with that line of demarcation between the adult table and the kid table. Ambreia says that the older generation's reactions to her children's questions at the table can be a mixed bag. A mixed bag is a situation that can have positive and negative aspects. She also says that it's a culture shock for them – a sense of feeling uncertain because you're in a different environment to usual. OK, Beth. I think it's time I revealed the answer to my question. I asked you what the world record is for the fastest time to set a dinner table. And I said it was 1 minute 5 seconds. And that was… the right answer! That's not very long, is it? OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this programme, starting with open up – a phrasal verb meaning speak more easily than usual, particularly about worries or problems. If someone is 'the funny one' or 'the wise one', they are labelled by that particular characteristic. To take something with a pinch of salt means you shouldn't believe everything you're told. Children should be seen and not heard is an old-fashioned phrase that means children should be quiet and behave well. A mixed bag means something has both positive and negative aspects. And finally, a culture shock is an uncertain feeling because you're in a new environment. Once again our six minutes are up. Join us again soon for more useful vocabulary, here at 6 Minute English! Goodbye for now! Bye ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

When it comes to disinformation, "social media took the cost of distribution to zero, and generative AI takes the cost of generation to zero," says Renee DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory. Large language models such as GPT-4 make it easy to produce misleading news articles or social-media posts in huge quantities. 斯坦福大学网络观察室的蕾妮·迪雷斯塔(Renee DiResta)表示，当谈到虚假信息时，“社交媒体将传播成本降至零，而生成式人工智能则将生成成本降至零”。GPT-4 等大语言模型很容易生成大量误导性新闻文章或社交媒体帖子。 And AI can produce more than text. Cloning a voice using AI used to require minutes, or even hours, of sample audio. Last year, however, researchers at Microsoft unveiled VALL-E, an AI model that is able to clone a person's voice from just a three-second clip of them speaking, and make it say any given text. 人工智能可以生成的不仅仅是文本。使用人工智能克隆声音过去需要几分钟甚至几小时的样本音频。然而，去年，微软的研究人员推出了VALL-E，这是一种人工智能模型，能够从一个人说话的三秒片段中克隆出他的声音，并让它说出任何给定的文本。 OpenAl, the American company behind GPT-4, has developed a similar tool, Voice Engine, which can convincingly clone any voice from a 15-second clip. It has not yet released it, recognising "serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year". GPT-4背后的美国公司OpenAl开发了一款类似的工具Voice Engine，它可以从15秒的音频片段中克隆任何语音，以假乱真。该模型尚未发布，因为OpenAI认识到“其存在严重风险，这在选举年尤其受到关注”。 Similarly, Sora, from OpenAl, can produce surprisingly realistic synthetic videos, in response to text prompts, of up to a minute in length. OpenAI has yet to release Sora to the public, partly on the ground that it could be used to create disinformation. 同样，来自OpenAl的Sora可以根据文本提示词生成逼真的合成视频，长度可达一分钟，令人叹为观止。OpenAI尚未公开发布Sora，部分原因是它可能被用来制造虚假信息。 As well as providing new ways to discredit or misrepresent politicians, AI tools also raise the spectre of personalised disinformation, generated to appeal to small groups (think soccer moms in a specific town). 除了提供抹黑或歪曲政客的新方法外，人工智能工具还引发了对个性化虚假信息的担忧，这些虚假信息是为了吸引小群体而产生的（想想某个城镇的足球妈妈）。 It may even be possible to "microtarget" individuals with disinformation, based on knowledge of their preferences, biases and concerns. Though all of this is worrying, it is worth remembering that not all aspects of the technology are negative. Al, it turns out, can be used for fighting disinformation as well as producing it. AI甚至可以根据个人的偏好、偏见和担忧，用虚假信息“微观定位”个人。所有这些都令人忧心忡忡，但值得记住的是，并非该技术的所有方面都是负面的。事实证明，人工智能可以用来打击虚假信息，也可以用来制造虚假信息。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】