New satellite to monitor solar storms The huge solar storm that hit Earth this month was described as the biggest in two decades. The Sun blasted intense radiation, billions of tonnes of matter and strong magnetic fields at our planet. 本月袭击地球的大型太阳风暴堪称近二十年来最大的一次。太阳向地球发射出强烈的辐射，释放出数十亿吨的物质和强磁场。 The coloured lights in the sky were spectacular, but the effects could've been much worse. Such storms can interrupt radio communications and even damage power grids, which is why the UK has been pushing its partners in the European Space Agency to build a new satellite to give earlier warnings. 这让天空中的色彩看上去十分壮观，但后果可能比想象的更严重。这种规模的太阳风暴可能会中断无线电通信，甚至会破坏电网。这就是为什么英国一直在敦促其在欧洲航天局的合作伙伴建造一颗新卫星以发出早期预警。 This spacecraft called 'Vigil' has now been ordered from Airbus UK. It'll be sent millions of miles away so it can see the side of the Sun that's about to rotate into view of the Earth. This'll give forecasters a further three to four days' notice of trouble that could be coming our way. 这艘名为 “Vigil（警戒）” 的航天器现已由空中客车英国公司接单制造。它将被送往数百万英里之外，以便能够看到太阳即将旋转面对地球的那一面。这将使天文预报人员能提前三到四天预知可能要发生的麻烦。 词汇表 solar storm 太阳风暴 blasted （爆炸）发射出 radiation 辐射 matter 物质 magnetic fields 磁场 interrupt 中断、干扰 power grids 电网 spacecraft 航天器 rotate 旋转 forecasters 预报人员 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

​How sponge cities could prevent floods Devastating floods are becoming more and more common around the world. The warming climate is leading to heavier rainfall, but could the way that cities are growing be making things worse? Could we design cities in a different way to reduce the risk of flooding? 毁灭性的洪水在世界各地越来越常见。气候变暖导致降雨量增加，但城市的发展方式是否会使情况变得更糟？我们能否以不同的方式设计城市，以降低洪水风险？ As cities expand, and more and more land is underneath concrete or paving, less water is absorbed and more needs to be channelled away by storm drains and sewerage systems. As they become overwhelmed by the volume of water, the risk of flash flooding increases. Could it be that we've been taking the wrong approach? 随着城市的扩张，越来越多的土地被混凝土或铺路覆盖，吸水能力下降，更多的水需要通过雨水渠和下水道系统排走。当雨水管道和下水道系统不堪水量重负时，山洪暴发的风险就会增加。这会不会是因为我们采取了错误的方法？ Chinese landscape architect Yu Kongjian certainly thinks so. In 2013, he proposed the concept of 'sponge cities', which are designed to soak up water – like a sponge – reducing the risk of sudden floods. Natural solutions are encouraged, using riverside parks and ponds to absorb floodwater. 中国景观设计师俞孔坚当然也这么认为。2013 年，他提出了“海绵城市”的概念。“海绵城市”的设计理念是像海绵一样吸收水分，从而降低突发洪水的风险。他鼓励采用自然解决方案，利用河滨公园和池塘吸收洪水。 Approaches inspired by this have been taken by cities across the world. Auckland, in New Zealand, was named the spongiest city in one study. It has replaced the concrete culverts around the Oakley creek stream with green banks and connected parks. This has reduced flooding in the nearby residential areas as well as the amount of associated contamination which used to be washed into the sea. 受此启发的方法已被世界各地的城市采用。在一项研究中，新西兰的奥克兰被评为“最海绵的城市”。它用绿色的河岸和相连的公园取代了奥克利溪流周围的混凝土暗渠。这减少了附近居民区的洪水，也减少了过去被冲入大海的相关污染物的数量。 Auckland has taken a natural approach, but a much more high-tech method can be seen in Amsterdam. The Dutch city has installed blue-green roofs on a number of buildings. These roofs have a layer of plants on the outside, and then layers underneath which collect and store rainwater. This water can be used by people in the building below to water plants or flush toilets. Sophisticated software can even tell the roofs to release water ahead of upcoming storms to maximise the system's ability to soak up rainwater. It can even identify which areas of the city are at most risk and tailor the response accordingly. 奥克兰采用的是自然方法，但在阿姆斯特丹可以看到更高科技的方法。荷兰阿姆斯特丹市在许多建筑物上安装了蓝绿色屋顶。这些屋顶外面种了一层植物，下面几层则收集和储存雨水。这些水可以被下面建筑中的人们用来浇灌植物或冲洗厕所。先进的软件甚至可以告诉屋顶在暴风雨来临之前提前放水，以最大限度地提高系统吸收雨水的能力。它甚至还能识别城市中哪些地区的风险最大，并据此调整应对措施。 Yu Kongjian describes the sponge city approach as using Tai Chi with nature instead of boxing. Questions have been raised as to whether a natural approach is sufficient when faced with increased rain fall globally. What remains to be seen is whether increased scale and combination with modern technology can help natural methods save many more people from flooding. 俞孔坚将海绵城市的做法描述为用太极与自然的结合，而非拳击。面对全球降雨量的增加，人们不禁要问，自然方法是否足够？增加规模和结合现代技术是否能助力自然方法拯救更多的人免遭洪灾，这仍有待观察。 词汇表 concrete 混凝土 paving 铺路的材料 channel away 疏导，排出 storm drain 雨水渠 sewerage system 下水道系统 overwhelmed 被淹没的 flash flooding 突发性洪水 landscape architect 景观设计师 soak up 吸收，吸掉（液体） absorb （逐渐）吸收 floodwater 内涝积水，洪水 culvert 地下排水管道 bank 堤岸 wash into 冲入 blue-green roof 种有绿色植物、有助于管理雨水的 “蓝绿色屋顶” ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Taylor Swift Eras Tour: Swifties react to 'amazing' Eras Tour concert in Edinburgh Hey Newsrounds, I'm Kyrie and I'm about to watch Taylor Swift! I live in Edinburgh and it's the first time that Taylor Swift has played a show here. Hi Newsrounds! I'm so excited. But first, let's rewind. 嘿，Newsrounds，我是凯里，我即将观看泰勒·斯威夫特的演出！我住在爱丁堡，这是泰勒·斯威夫特第一次在这里演出。嗨，Newsrounds！我太激动了，但首先，让我们倒带。 Hey, come in. To prepare for tonight, I've been camping outside Murrayfield Stadium, listening to her albums all day, trading bracelets with people. These are my favorite bracelets because this one's fearless, and my favorite album's fearless. And this one, I love this one so much because of all the beads, and this one's folklore. Anyway, it's nearly showtime, and I need to make sure I'm ready for it. 嘿，请进。为了准备今晚的演出，我一直在默里菲尔德体育场外露营，整天听她的专辑，和人们交换手镯。这些是我最喜欢的手镯，因为这个是《fearless》，我最喜欢的专辑《fearless》。还有这个，我非常喜欢这个，因为所有的珠子，还有这个的《folklore》。不管怎样，快到演出时间了，我得确保自己准备好了。 But before we head in, I'm speaking to another Swifty who's already been lucky enough to see the Eras Tour. Hey Nina, can you describe the Errors Tour in three words? Incredible, magical and loud. What was your favourite memory from the Eras Tour? Probably actually the very beginning, when you got revealed from this platform in the middle of the stage. It was just great. 但在我们开始之前，我正在与另一位霉粉交谈，她已经有幸观看了时代巡演。嘿，妮娜，你能用三个词来形容时代之旅吗？不可思议，神奇而响亮。在时代巡演中，你最喜欢的记忆是什么？可能实际上是最开始的时候，当你在舞台中间从这个平台上被揭示出来的时候。简直太棒了。 Let's hear what everyone else thought of the show. Did you have a good time? Yeah, it was amazing, I loved it. What was your favourite bit in the Aerostorm? Definitely when she started to sing Torture Poets Department, that's my favourite album. I really loved the reputation. When Taylor played piano. I like piano because I also play piano. Could you tell us a bit more about your bracelet? Yeah, so actually I've made quite a lot for tonight and I've made some lots for care homes too. So I've went to a couple this week and I'm going to some more next week. That's so cool. Would you like to trade bracelets? Of course. Fearless. Thank you so much. Fearless is my favourite album. 让我们听听大家对演出的看法。玩得开心吗？是的，非常棒，我很喜欢。你最喜欢 Aerostorm 的哪一段？肯定是她开始唱《Torture Poets Department》的时候，那是我最喜欢的专辑。我真的很喜欢《reputation》。泰勒弹钢琴的时候。我喜欢钢琴，因为我也弹钢琴。能跟我们说说你的手链吗？是的，实际上我为今晚做了很多，也为护理院做了很多。这周我去了几家，下周还要去几家。太酷了。你想交换手链吗？当然。《fearless》。非常感谢《fearless》是我最喜欢的专辑 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Culture Forgoing the single life 文化 放弃出单曲 Pop stars are all about albums Contradictory though it may seem in the streaming era. 流行巨星都在做专辑，这在流媒体时代，似乎有些矛盾。 To Billie Eilish, things like cassettes and CDS probably seem charmingly retro. Born in 2001, the musician was six years old when Spotify launched; today she is the fourth-most popular artist on the platform. Ms Eilish has only ever known 21st-century listening habits. And yet she has emerged as an unlikely champion of a time-worn format: the album. She declared that her new record, "Hit Me Hard and Soft", released in May, was a"cohesive" piece of work, "ideally listened to in its entirety from beginning to end". No singles were released in advance as amuse-bouches for famished fans. 对比莉·艾利什来说，像卡带和cd这样的东西似乎是迷人的复古。这位音乐家2001年出生，Spotify成立时他才6岁;如今，她是该平台上人气排名第四的艺人。艾利什女士只知道21世纪的倾听习惯。然而，她却出人意料地成为了一种过时形式的拥护者：专辑。她宣称她5月发行的新唱片《Hit Me Hard and Soft》是一部“有凝聚力”的作品，“从头到尾完整地听是理想的”。没有一首单曲是提前发布的，供饥渴的粉丝们一次听够。 She is not the only hitmaker emphasising the album rather than its component parts. Ariana Grande advertised "Eternal Sunshine", released in March, with just one single, stressing that she wanted listeners to "experience the album in full this time". Dua Lipa's debut album in 2017 was preceded by six singles; she scaled back for her latest record. And Taylor Swift has issued four successive sets of new material with no advance singles. Two of these were "surprise releases", announced just ahead of their arrival, which again emphasises the primacy of the album format. 她并不是唯一一个强调专辑而非其组成部分的热门人物。阿丽亚娜·格兰德为3月份发行的《Eternal Sunshine》做广告，只推出了一首单曲，强调她希望听众“这次能完整体验这张专辑”。杜阿·丽帕在2017年的首张专辑之前有六首单曲；而她的最新专辑则缩减了单曲数量。泰勒·斯威夫特已经连续发行了四张没有提前发行单曲的新专辑。其中两张是在他们将来之际宣布的“惊喜发行”，这再次强调了专辑形式的首要地位。 For decades after the birth of recorded music in the 1920s, the single was the only thing that mattered, mostly because it was the only thing there was: early gramophone records could hold just a few minutes of music on each side. As technology improved, playing times increased, and groups such as the Beatles came to see LPs ("long play") as statements of ambition. From the mid-1960s onwards, albums became something to be appreciated as complete works of art. In 1988 Prince released his "Lovesexy" album on CD as one continuous track, with the explicit goal of making it impossible to cherry-pick songs. 在20世纪20年代唱片音乐诞生后的几十年里，单曲是唯一重要的东西，主要是因为它是唯一的东西：早期的留声机唱片每侧只能容纳几分钟的音乐。随着技术的进步，播放时间的增加，披头士等团体开始将LP（“长时间播放”）视为野心的宣言。从 20 世纪 60 年代中期开始，专辑开始被当作完整的艺术品来欣赏。1988 年，王子将他的《Lovesexy》专辑制成一张连续的 CD 发行，其明确的目标是让人们无法挑选歌曲。 No doubt Ms Eilish and co want to prove their serious musical chops. Pop music is still often regarded as ephemeral, because it relies on catchy tracks that can dominate airwaves and charts. Singles account for around 65% of a hit rock album's total "consumption" (including streaming as well as physical purchases). For a pop album that figure rises to 85%. 毫无疑问，艾利什女士和她的团队想要证明他们的音乐实力。流行音乐通常仍被视为昙花一现，因为它依赖于朗朗上口的曲目，这些曲目可以在广播和排行榜上占据主导地位。在一张热门摇滚专辑的总 "消费"（包括流媒体和实体购买）中，单曲约占 65%。流行专辑的这一比例则高达 85%。 This crop of pop stars has discovered that a deluge can be better than a drip-feed. Stars can encourage fans to buy their record on vinyl and stream the album, too. .As a result, "The artist and their label partner earn twice," says Chris Cooke of CMU, a music-industry website. And, by releasing the songs all at once, artists enjoy the kind of chart dominance that sporadic singles do not provide. Ms Eilish currently has three tracks in the Billboard top 20. After the release of "The Tortured Poets Department", Ms Swift claimed the top 14 spots. Singles are still useful for pop's aspiring princesses, but not the queens. 这批流行明星发现，"大水漫灌 "比 "滴灌 "效果更好。明星们可以鼓励歌迷购买他们的黑胶唱片，也可以用流媒体播放专辑。音乐产业网站 CMU 的克里斯·库克说："这样一来，艺人和他们的唱片公司合作伙伴都能获得双倍收入。而且，通过一次性发行歌曲，艺术家们还能享受到零星单曲所无法提供的排行榜优势。艾莉什女士目前有三首歌曲进入了公告牌前 20 名。在《The Tortured Poets Department》发行后，斯威夫特女士占据了前 14 位。单曲对流行乐的有抱负的公主们仍然有用，但对女王们却没有用。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

The dangers of copying successful people We love successful people, and we love trying to learn from and copy them, to try and understand the qualities that fueled their success. Steve Jobs, for example. Many of his biographers highlight his passionate temper as being one of the factors in Apple's success. Or take Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, neither of whom finished university, a fact that has attracted a lot of admiration in the media. 我们喜欢成功的人，我们喜欢学习和模仿他们，试图理解他们成功的特质。比如史蒂夫·乔布斯。他的许多传记作者都强调他的激情是苹果公司成功的因素之一。再以比尔·盖茨和马克·扎克伯格为例，他们都没有完成大学学业，但这一事实却引起了媒体的广泛赞叹。 But trying to learn from and copy the successful can be dangerous, and it comes down to something called survivorship bias. One of the most famous examples of survivorship bias in action was during World War II, when a statistician named Abraham Wald was asked to study how best to protect airplanes from being shot down. At first, the approach of his research group had been to look at the planes coming back, see where they were hit the worst, and then reinforce those areas. 但是，试图学习和复制成功者可能是危险的，这就是所谓的幸存者偏差。在第二次世界大战期间，一位名叫亚伯拉罕·瓦尔德的统计学家被要求研究如何最好地保护飞机不被击落，这就是幸存者偏差最著名的实例之一。起初，他的研究小组的方法是观察返航的飞机，看看它们被击中最严重的地方，然后加固这些区域。 Wald, however, realised this approach missed the valuable part of the picture. The planes that were hit, but that hadn't made it back. The planes they were looking at were just the survivors. The bullet holes they were looking at actually indicated the areas a plane could be hit and keep flying. These were exactly the areas that didn't need reinforcing. In other words, if you don't want to be misled by survivorship bias, you have to look at the whole picture. 然而，瓦尔德意识到这种方法忽略了画面中最有价值的部分。也就是那些被击中但还没有返航的飞机。他们看到的飞机只是幸存者。他们看到的弹孔实际上是飞机被击中后仍能继续飞行的区域。这些正是不需要加固的区域。换句话说，如果你不想被幸存者偏差所误导，你就必须纵观全局。 Survivorship bias can turn up in lots of places. A gym will share examples of people who have successfully changed their body shape in a short amount of time, of time but won't discuss all the other people who gave up along the way. Or, a 40-year-old car that's still running will have people saying, don't make them like they used to, ignoring all the other cars from that period that broke down and had to be scrapped. 幸存者偏差可能出现在很多地方。健身房会分享那些在短时间内成功改变体型的人的例子，但不会讨论所有在此过程放弃的人。或者，对于一辆车龄达40年的汽车仍能行驶，人们会称赞，现在的车不像以前了，却忽略了和那辆车同时期所有其他坏掉的、不得不报废的车。 Even in science, there's currently a worry about how journals prefer to publish studies with significant results, with studies that fizzled out or showed insignificant results left unpublished. The result in all these examples is a skewed picture of the world. And it's the same with the examples we were looking at earlier. If you only look at people like Gates and Zuckerberg when it comes to higher education, you're ignoring all the other people that didn't go to university. And the data, if you include them, show that average earnings for this group are lower. While you don't have to finish university to earn a lot, if you look at the whole picture, it's clear it does help. 即使是在科学领域，目前也有一种担忧，即期刊偏好发表有重大成果的研究，而对那些失败的或结果不显著的研究则不予发表。所有这些例子的都导致了对世界的歪曲。我们之前看到的例子也是如此。从接受高等教育的角度看，如果你只看像盖茨和扎克伯格这样（没完成大学学业）的人，你就忽略了所有其他同样没上过大学的人。数据显示，算上的人后，这个群体的平均收入更低。虽然你不需要完成大学学业才能挣到很多钱，但是如果你从整体上来看，很明显学历这是有帮助的。 And what about those entrepreneurs with the temper that didn't succeed? It's the same with all the remarkable qualities successful people tend to talk about. Without looking at all the others who took big risks or had the courage to ignore conventional advice, we don't know if these qualities help or, another option, they're irrelevant. And the success of the people you're looking at is the result of other factors, or just dumb luck. 但那些缺乏成功特质的企业家呢？成功人士津津乐道的所有卓越品质也是如此。如果没看到那些冒巨大风险或敢于无视传统建议的人，我们不知道这些品质是否有用，或者，换句话说，它们是无关紧要的。你看到的这些人的成功是其他因素的结果，或者纯粹是运气好。 In his 2012 book, Michael Mavison describes a man inspired by a succession of dreams to believe he'd win the Spanish lottery if he could purchase a ticket number whose last two digits were 48. After getting hold of such a ticket, amazingly, turned out to be a winner. Later, when an interviewer asked why he'd picked that number, he said, I dreamed of the number 7 for 7 straight nights, and 7 times 7 is 48. 迈克尔·马维森在2012年的书中描述了一个男人，他在一连串睡梦的启发下，相信如果他能购买一个最后两位数为48的彩票号码，他就会中西班牙彩票。在拿到这样一张彩票后，他竟然真中奖了。后来，当采访者问他为什么选择这个数字时，他说：我连续 7 个晚上梦见数字 7，7 乘以 7 就是48。 Maybe success can be helped by a temper. Maybe a lack of higher education can give you an advantage. Maybe innumerate dreaming can make you rich. But until you consider the whole picture, you might want to think twice before trying to learn from successful. 也许某些特质可以帮助你取得成功。也许没有受过高等教育也会给你带来优势。也许天马行空的梦想能让你变得富有。但是，在你考虑到全局之前，在试图向成功者学习之前，你可能要三思而后行。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Too old to have a baby? Women today are having fewer babies. More women are delaying having children until their forties - the period of ten years in life between 40 and 49. And some women are giving birth in their fifties, their sixties, even their seventies! There are many reasons behind the trend for older mums including better access to education and careers. But there are also health risks to having children later in life, so in this programme we'll be asking: when are you too old to have a baby? And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. But first I have a question for you, Neil. In 2019, Mangayamma Yaramati gave birth to twins in the state of Andhra Pradesh, South India. But these were no ordinary twins because Mangayamma was the oldest recorded woman ever to give birth. So how old was the oldest ever mum when she gave birth. Was she: a) 53 years-old? b) 63 years old? or c) 73 years old? Hmm, I'm going to guess 63. OK, Neil, we'll find out the correct answer at the end of the programme. Professor of reproductive science at University College London, Joyce Harper, has been studying the trend of women choosing to have babies later in life. Here she shares her discoveries with BBC World Service programme, Global Story: Ten, twenty, thirty years ago, women were having children at a much younger age. Now it's become quite normal for women in their thirties, as we see with the world data, there's many countries where women have their first birth over the age of 30. But this is quite a new phenomena… that's why this term 'geriatric mother' unfortunately still lingers. Professor Harper uses the word phenomena to describe the trend for older mothers. Phenomena are unusual or significant facts and events that exist and are talked about. People often get this wrong, but the plural form is phenomena and the singular is phenomenon. The concept of older mothers is still quite a new phenomenon, and attitudes towards them are changing. Mothers over the age of 35 used to be called 'geriatric', a word many found offensive. Fortunately, this term is no longer used, but social disapproval of older mothers still lingers. If something lingers it continues to exist longer than usual or expected. Yes, in some cultures older mothers are still disapproved of. But wait a minute, Neil - it takes two to make a baby! What's the man's role in all this? Well, unlike women, whose ability to naturally get pregnant declines sharply in their forties, men's fertility lasts longer. Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger, famously had his eighth child with his 29-year-old partner at the age of 73. So, are older fathers more socially acceptable than older mothers? 'Yes' thinks Professor Harper, as she explained to BBC World Service's, Global Story: We do have a bit of a gender problem here because if this was a man in his sixties, seventies and even eighties, and he's fathered a child, most people would pat him on the back. But they'd probably pat him on the back because he's absolutely got a much younger partner. But if we've got a woman in her sixties, seventies or, God forbid, eighties having a child, then it does have a sort of shock reaction, and makes people feel uncomfortable. Professor Harper thinks that society is more accepting of older fathers than older mothers. A 70-year-old man can still father a child – he can make a woman pregnant who then gives birth, and most people would pat him on the back, an idiom meaning give someone praise or congratulations. On the other hand, says Professor Harper, God forbid a woman having a baby in her eighties! Here, the phrase God forbid! is used as a way of saying you hope something will not happen. There's another side to this story, though. In the west, young women from Gen Z, the generation born since the year 2000, are saying they won't have children at all. In more traditional countries meanwhile, a woman's role is as a mother, and many pray to God to be blessed with a child. Which is exactly what happened to Mangayamma Yaramati, the South Indian woman I asked you about in my question. In 2019, she became the oldest recorded woman ever to give birth. Right, and I guessed she was 63 years old at the time. Which was… the wrong answer I'm afraid. In fact she was even older – 73. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme, starting with the phrase in your forties, which describes the period of ten years in someone's life when they're aged between 40 and 49. Phenomena describes any significant facts or events that we know exist, and can be observed and discussed. If something lingers, it continues to exist longer than usual or expected. The verb to father means to make a woman pregnant who then gives birth to a child. The idiom pat someone on the back is used to describe giving someone praise, congratulations or encouragement. And finally, the expression God forbid! is a way of saying that you hope something will not happen. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

What can explain that eerie, unsettling feeling we sometimes get that we've experienced a new situation once before? It might just be the weirdest experience you'll ever have sober, but what exactly is deja vu? One thing it definitely is - is common. Two thirds of us have had it, with younger people, globetrotters and film fans likely to get it more frequently. 我们有时会有一种阴森恐怖、令人不安的感觉，觉得自己以前经历过某种新情况，这是怎么回事呢？这可能是你清醒时最奇怪的经历，但到底什么是“似曾相识”呢？有一点是肯定的，那就是它很常见。我们当中有三分之二的人都有过这种感觉，而年轻人、环球旅行者和电影迷可能会更频繁地出现这种感觉。 Because of its inherent weirdness, deja vu was long thought of alongside paranormal events like clairvoyance and reincarnation. In fact, it was parapsychologist Émile Boirac who first named the feeling in the 1870s, using the French for ‘already seen’. The focus on the uncanny has persisted, and in films like The Matrix, deja vu is a glitch in the computer simulation. 由于其固有的怪异性，“似曾相识”长期以来一直被认为是与千里眼和转世等超自然现象并存的现象。事实上，早在 19 世纪 70 年代，超心理学家埃米尔·博伊拉克就用法文“已见过”一词首次为这种感觉命名。 对这离奇现象的关注一直存在，在《黑客帝国》等电影中，“似曾相识”来自电脑模拟中的一个小故障。 So what’s actually going on? The truth is, no one is 100% sure, but psychologists have suggested dozens of possibilities combining theories of memory, perception and cognition. One is ‘divided perception’. Maybe our brains process a situation in a quick and shallow way before we become fully aware of it, and then we get a jolt of having seen it before. Another is ‘dual processing’. Incoming signals enter the temporal lobe from both hemispheres of the brain, one a millisecond later than the other. And it’s in this moment of delay that deja vu occurs. Others speculate that errors around the hippocampus, the ‘brain’s librarian’, are to blame. 那么究竟是怎么回事呢？事实上，没有人百分之百确定，但心理学家结合记忆、感知和认知理论，提出了几十种可能性。一种是“分裂感知”。也许我们的大脑在完全意识到某种情况之前，会以一种快速而浅显的方式对其进行处理，然后我们就会猛然意识到自己曾经见过这种情况。另一种是“双重处理”。输入信号从大脑的两个半球进入颞叶，其中一个比另一个晚一毫秒。就在这一延迟时刻，似曾相识的感觉出现了。还有人推测这是“大脑图书管理员”海马体周围的错误造成的。 The problem with studying deja vu is that neurologists can’t very well wait around for it to happen. One solution has been to look at people with temporal lobe damage. Many find that they get chronic deja vu. Another way to study deja vu is to induce it under lab conditions. In 2012, one study used virtual reality to immerse people in different 3D environments, some of which were very similar in layout. For instance, a doctor’s waiting room and an aquarium, with furniture arranged in the same configuration. People were more likely to report deja vu when they encountered environments that had a similar layout to previous, forgotten scenes - suggesting it’s a memory phenomenon. 研究“似曾相识”现象的问题在于，神经病学家不能坐等它发生。一种解决办法是观察颞叶受损的人。许多人发现他们会长期出现“似曾相识”的感觉。另一种研究“似曾相识”的方法是在实验室条件下进行诱导。2012年，一项研究利用虚拟现实技术让人们沉浸在不同的三维环境中，其中一些环境的布局非常相似。例如，一个医生的候诊室和一个水族馆，里面的家具摆放都是一样的。当人们遇到与之前被遗忘的场景布局相似的环境时，更容易产生“似曾相识”的感觉——这表明这是一种记忆现象。 A 2014 study had very different results. Those who took part were shown a series of words with a secret common theme - words like ‘bed’, ‘pillow’, ‘nap’, ‘dream’. The linking word - ‘sleep’ - never appeared. Viewers were asked to keep note of any words beginning with S. Those who took part were later asked if any words began with S, and sure enough they said no. But many also felt that they had been shown the word ‘sleep’. For two thirds of people, this confusion was tantamount to deja vu. 2014年的一项研究得出了截然不同的结果。研究人员向参与者展示了一系列具有秘密共同主题的单词，如 “床”、“枕头”、“午睡”、“梦 ”等。而关联词 “睡眠sleep ”却从未出现过。观看者被要求记下任何以 S开头的单词。后来，观看者被问及是否有以 S开头的单词，他们果然说没有。但许多人也认为他们看到了 “睡眠sleep”这个词。对三分之二的人来说，这种混淆就相当于是“似曾相识”的感觉。 Neurologists have used this method to scan the brain during deja vu. They found that rather than being a memory error in the hippocampus, deja vu involved the frontal areas of the brain, responsible for decision-making. This led some to suggest that deja vu is a sign your brain’s memory-checking mechanisms are actually working well. But if you’re looking for something a bit more ‘out there’ to explain deja vu, try ‘quantum entanglement’. Perhaps, through the mysterious affinity of subatomic particles, deja vu might actually be a window into a parallel universe, or else a blip in time. 神经学家已经用这种方法来扫描产生“似曾相识”感觉时的大脑。他们发现，“似曾相识”并不是海马区的记忆错误，而是与负责决策的大脑额叶区有关。这导致一些人认为，“似曾相识”是大脑记忆检查机制运行良好的标志。但如果你想找点更“极端”的方式来解释“似曾相识”，不妨试试“量子纠缠”。也许，通过亚原子粒子之间神秘的亲和力，似曾相识的感觉实际上可能是进入平行宇宙的一扇窗户，或者是时间的一个小插曲。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Fewer than 5,000 steps a day enough to boost health For years, thousands of us have been pounding the pavements, trying to reach that magic goal of 10,000 steps a day to stay fit and healthy, but new research has found that walking just half of that could also save lives. 多年来，成千上万的人不停地奔走，试图达到 “每天一万步” 这个被视为有奇妙功效的目标，从而保持身体健康，但一项新的研究发现，每天走路的步数只要达到这个数字的一半就有益于生命健康。 Researchers from the Medical University of Lodz in Poland and John Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US followed 227,000 people for seven years to complete their study. 为完成研究，波兰罗兹医科大学和美国约翰霍普金斯大学医学院的研究人员们对22.7万人进行了为期七年的跟踪调查。 What they found was that walking at least 2,300 steps a day was really good for the heart and blood vessels, and the more people walked, the more they reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. 他们发现，每天至少走2300步对心脏和血管都有很大的好处，而且走得越多，死于心血管疾病的风险就越低。 And every 1,000 steps above the 4,000 steps mark, brings down the risk of dying early by 15%. 调查还显示，当达到4000步的指标后，每多走1000步，过早死亡的风险就降低15%。 词汇表 pounding the pavements 走路 magic goal 被视为有奇妙功效的目标 complete 完成 blood vessels 血管 cardiovascular disease 心血管疾病 mark 目标，指标 brings down 降低 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Britain's April showers "Take your brolly, it's chucking it down!" The UK is famous for its rainy weather, and Brits LOVE to complain about it – particularly when the arrival of spring teases us with warmth and light, but with them come the 'April showers', lovingly shared by Britain, Ireland and some of coastal northern Europe. “带上你的雨伞，要下雨了！”英国的阴雨天气是出了名的，英国人最喜欢抱怨阴雨天气--尤其是当春天来临时，温暖和阳光向我们招手，但随之而来的是 "四月阵雨"，英国、爱尔兰和一些北欧沿海国家都喜欢下 "四月阵雨"。 What exactly are they, and why do they insist on coming every year? Meteorologists differentiate between rain and showers. The UK's national weather service, the Met Office, says that rain is precipitation brought by a weather front, is usually long-lasting, and stretches over large areas, whereas showers fall from individual clouds and are characterised by intermittent patterns. 它们究竟是什么，为什么每年都会出现？气象学家对雨和阵雨进行了区分。英国国家气象局表示，降雨是由天气锋面带来的降水，通常持续时间长，覆盖面积大，而阵雨则来自单个云层，具有间歇性的特点。 So, it can be sunny one minute, and the next you're getting caught in a large downpour, but then ten minutes later, you can put away your waterproof jacket and get your sunnies out! 所以，可能前一分钟还是阳光明媚，下一分钟你就被大雨困住了，但十分钟后，你就可以收起防水外套，拿出你的太阳镜了! So, what's responsible? Rob Thompson, meteorologist at the University of Reading, says that as the hot air rises, it forms the cumulus clouds that produce showers. These are then driven by the jet stream – strong winds that move northwards during spring – creating rather unsettled and unpredictable weather. Besides the drizzle, we're just as likely to experience snow as we are to feel sun as strong as that in late August! 那么，是什么造成的呢？雷丁大学的气象学家罗布·汤普森表示，随着热空气上升，它会形成积云，从而产生阵雨。然后，它们被急流（春季向北移动的强风）驱动，造成相当不稳定和不可预测的天气。除了下毛毛雨，我们还很有可能遇着下雪，就像我们在八月底感受到的阳光一样强烈！ With all this in mind, would it surprise you to hear that April is actually one of the driest months of the whole year? In 2021, data company Statista recorded 137.6mm of rainfall in January, compared to just 20.1mm in April, with similar results for the last four years. That's because while there are lots of rainy days in April, the showers are scattered, and there aren't as many of the long downpours we see in the winter months. 考虑到这一切，当你听说四月实际上是一年中最干燥的月份之一时，你会感到惊讶吗？2021年，数据公司Statista记录了1月份137.6毫米的降雨量，而4月份只有20.1毫米，过去四年的结果类似。这是因为虽然四月有很多雨天，但阵雨是分散的，没有我们在冬季看到的那么多长时间的倾盆大雨。 But, this is likely to change as the world warms up. Weather that causes flash floods is predicted to be four times as frequent in Britain by the 2070s, according to a study by Elizabeth Kendon and colleagues, published in Nature Communications. 但是，随着全球变暖，这种情况可能会改变。根据伊丽莎白·肯登及其同事发表在《自然通讯》上的一项研究，预计到21世纪70年代，英国突发性洪水的的天气频率将是现在的四倍。 There is a British proverb that goes "March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers". It is a reminder that, despite our complaints, April showers can be a symbol for renewal and new beginnings. So Brits, instead of complaining about the drizzly days, why not romanticise that pitter-patter sound that brings us the colourful spring bloom? 有一句英国谚语说:“三月的风和四月的雨带来五月的花。它提醒我们，尽管我们抱怨连连，但四月的阵雨可以象征着新生和新的开始。因此，英国人，与其抱怨阴雨连绵的日子，何不浪漫一下，那将为我们带来五彩缤纷的春暖花开的淅沥雨声？ 词汇表 brolly 雨伞 chuck it down 下瓢泼大雨 shower 阵雨 meteorologist 气象学家 precipitation 降水 weather front 气象 “锋” intermittent 断断续续的 downpour 暴雨，骤雨 waterproof 防水的 sunnies 太阳镜，墨镜 cumulus 积云 jet stream 急流，喷射气流 unsettled 变幻莫测的 drizzle 毛毛雨 rainfall 降雨（量） scattered 分散的，疏疏落落的 flash flood 突发性洪水 drizzly 下毛毛雨的 pitter-patter （下雨的）啪嗒啪嗒声 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Why are bees so important? They may be small, but these fluffy, often brightly-striped, tiny insects, are crucial to our planet. Not only can they make food like honey, but about a third of the world's food production depends on bees because they pollinate crops, that's when they transfer pollen from one plant to another. 它们可能很小，但这些毛茸茸的、通常有明亮条纹的微小昆虫，对我们的星球至关重要。蜜蜂不仅能制造像蜂蜜这样的食物，而且世界上大约三分之一的食物生产都依赖于它们，原因是它们给作物授粉，也就是说，蜜蜂把花粉从一种植物传递到另一种植物。 Well, here at the World Museum in Liverpool, there's a new immersive exhibition which brings together art and science to tell the tale of these creatures and show us how important they are to our lives. 在利物浦的世界博物馆，现在有一个新的沉浸式展览，它将艺术和科学结合在一起，来讲述这种生物的故事，并向我们展示它们对我们生活的重要性。 Inside, you're taken on a journey, first, through the meadow flower made of lots of see-through blocks which highlights the decline in bees habitats. Then, take a walk between the hive walls, the artist Wolfgang was inspired by the structure of a honeybee hive to create this room. And there are plenty of interactive elements to show how important these creatures are. 在展览里，你将开始一段旅程，首先，穿过由许多透明玻璃箱组成的草甸花，强调了蜜蜂栖息地的减少。然后，在蜂巢壁之间漫步，艺术家沃尔夫冈受到蜂巢结构的启发，创造了这个空间。这里有很多互动元素可以呈现这些生物的重要性。 I met Leanna, who is an entomologist, that's someone who studies insects, to find out more. Leanna, tell us why are bees so important? Bees are important pollinators of crops, they also pollinate our plants in the gardens and in the countryside, wild flowers. I'll say they're just amazing creatures, and without them, spring and summer just wouldn't be the same. 我遇到了利安娜，她是一名昆虫学家（研究昆虫的人），来了解更多知识。利安娜，给我们讲一下为什么蜜蜂如此重要吧。蜜蜂是农作物的重要传粉者，它们也为我们花园里和乡下的植物、野花授粉。我要称呼它们为“神奇的生物”，没有它们，春天和夏天就完全不一样了。 And why are bees in decline? It's a variety of factors, really. Pesticide use, habitat loss, so for example we've lost over 97% of our wild flowers across the UK in the past several decades, and yeah, this is just not great news for bees. 为什么蜜蜂在减少？其实有很多因素。杀虫剂的使用、栖息地的丧失，例如，在过去的几十年里，我们在英国失去了97%的野花丛，是的，这对蜜蜂来说不是好消息。 What can we do to help, you know, you're saying that the UK bees are in decline, what can we do to help them? So, even just planting some bee-friendly flowers in your garden can be a lifeline for hungry bees. If you don't have a large garden, just planting some wild flowers in a plant pot on a balcony or a window ledge, this all helps. 我们能做些什么，如你所说英国的蜜蜂在减少，我们能做些什么来帮助它们？即使只是在你的花园里种一些对蜜蜂友好的花，也可以成为饥饿的蜜蜂的生命线。如果你没有一个大花园，那就在阳台或窗台上的花盆里种一些野花，这些都很有帮助。 So can you tell me any interesting facts that we need to know about bees? So most people are probably aware of honeybees and maybe bumblebees that live in big social hives. But in fact, in the UK, we have over 270 different species of bee, and the vast majority of these are what we call "solitary bees". So, rather than living in a hive, they will live perhaps in the ground, or nest in walls, or in plant stems for example. 关于蜜蜂，你能给我讲讲我们需要知道的有趣知识吗？大多数人可能都知道蜜蜂和大黄蜂生活在大蜂巢里。但事实上，在英国，我们有超过270种不同的蜜蜂，其中绝大多数是我们所说的“独居蜂”。也就是说，它们不是住在蜂巢里，而是可能住在地面上，或者是在墙壁上、植物空茎内筑巢。 The exhibition is going to travel all around the world with the hope to show people how without these incredible creatures we could be in a sticky situation. 此次展览将在世界各地展出，希望能够向人们展示，如果没有这些不可思议的生物，我们将陷入多么困难的境地。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Culture Johnson Speak easy 文艺版块 约翰逊专栏 悄声说话 Technology is making it possible to clone voices and cause trouble. 科技能够克隆语音并制造麻烦。 Jennifer Destefano answered a call from a number she did not recognise. "Mom, I messed up," her daughter's voice told her, sobbing. "These bad men have me." A man proceeded to demand money, or he would drug her daughter and leave her in Mexico. But while she kept him on the phone, friends managed to reach her daughter, only to discover that she was, in fact, free and well on a skiing trip in Arizona. The voice used on the phone was a fake. 詹妮弗·德斯特法诺接了一个她不认识的号码打来的电话。“妈妈，我搞砸了，”女儿的声音抽泣着告诉她。“这些坏人抓住了我。”一名男子继续向她要钱，否则他就给她的女儿下药，把她留在墨西哥。但是，当她和他保持电话联系时，朋友们设法联系上了她的女儿，却发现她实际上没被绑架，并且在亚利桑那州滑雪旅行。电话里的声音是假的。 Ms DeStefano, still shaken, told this story to a US Senate subcommittee hearing on artificial intelligence in June. The dangers that voice-cloning technology pose are only now starting to be uttered aloud. In recent months, most of the attention paid to artificial intelligence (AI) has gone to so-called "large-language models" like ChatGPT, which churn out text. But voice cloning's implications will also be profound. 今年6月，德斯特法诺在美国参议院人工智能小组委员会听证会上讲述了这个故事。语音克隆技术带来的危险现在才开始被大声说出来。近几个月来，对人工智能 的大部分关注都集中在所谓的“大型语言模型”上，例如 ChatGPT，它们会大量生成文本。但语音克隆的影响也将是深远的。 A brief sample of a voice can be used to train an AI model, which can then speak any given text sounding like that person. Apple is expected to include the feature for iPhones in its new operating system, iOS 17, due to be released in September. It is advertised as helping people who may be in danger of losing their voice, for example to a degenerative disease such as ALS. For those eager to try voice cloning now, ElevenLabs, an AI startup, offers users the chance to create their own clones in minutes. The results are disturbingly accurate. When generating a playback, the system offers a slider that allows users to choose between variability and stability. Select more variability, and the audio will have a lifelike intonation, including pauses and stumbles like "er…" Choose "stability", and it will come across more like a calm and dispassionate newsreader. Taylor Jones, a linguist and consultant, took a careful look at the quality of ElevenLabs's clone of his voice in a YouTube video. Using statistical tests he showed that there were a few things off in "his" pronunciation of certain vowels. But a lower-tech test, a "conversation" with his own mother, fooled the woman who raised him. ("Don't you ever do that again," she warned.) Johnson repeated the experiment with his own mother, who did not miss a beat in replying to clone-Johnson. For several years, customers have been able to identify themselves over the phone to their bank and other companies using their voice. This was a security upgrade, not a danger. Not even a gifted mimic could fool the detection system. But the advent of cloning will force adaptation, for example by including voice as only one of several identification factors (and thus undercutting the convenience), in order to prevent fraud. Creative industries could face disruption too. Voice actors' skills, trained over a lifetime, can be ripped off in a matter of seconds. The Telegraph, a British broadsheet, recently reported on actors who had mistakenly signed away rights to their voices, making it possible to clone them for nothing. New contracts will be needed in future. But some actors may, in fact, find cloning congenial. Val Kilmer, who has lost much of his voice to throat cancer, was delighted to have his voice restored for "Top Gun: Maverick". Others may be spared heading to the studio for retakes. It is the middling professional, not the superstar, who is most threatened. Another industry that will have to come to grips with the rise of clones is journalism. On-the-sly recordings-such as Donald Trump's boast of grabbing women by a certain private body part-have long been the stuff of blockbuster scoops. Now who will trust a story based on an audio clip? Slightly easier to manage might be the false positives: recordings purporting to be someone but which are fakes. Sophisticated forensic techniques could be of use here, proving a clip to be AI, say, in a courtroom. The opposite problem-the false negatives-will arise when public figures deny authentic recordings. Proving that a clip is genuine is hard, perhaps even impossible. Journalists will need to show how they obtained and stored audio files-unless, as so often, they have promised a source anonymity. During his first presidential run, Mr Trump did more than anyone to popularise the term "fake news"-and that was well before voice cloning, deepfake videos, artificially generated images and the like were widespread. Now, ever more people caught up in wrongdoing will be tempted by the defence, "It wasn't me." Many people will have even more reason to believe them. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How positive thinking is harming your happiness Hello, I'm Darren Brown, and I think we could rethink our concepts of "happiness". I think we're sold an idea that we should be believing in ourselves and setting our goals and thinking positively. But the reality is that thinking positively can actually have quite a negative effect. "Optimism" as an idea doesn't serve us very well when things go badly. Seeing bad situations in a positive light and looking for the good — that's okay, that goes back to the Stoics. 大家好，我是达伦·布朗，我认为我们可以重新思考一下“幸福”的概念。我认为我们被灌输了这样一种观念：我们应该相信自己，设定目标，积极思考。但事实是，积极思考实际上会产生相当负面的影响。当事情变得糟糕时，“乐观”这个概念并不能很好地服务于我们。从积极的角度看待糟糕的情况，寻找好的一面——这是可以的，这可以追溯到斯多葛学派。 But when we're feeling like we've failed, that's the problem. And the problem with optimism is that it just tells us if things don't go right that we've failed, that we haven't believed in ourselves enough, and we should blame ourselves because there's nowhere else to go. And that's fundamentally where it's wrong — you need a system that works for you when things aren't going well, that's the real test of whether something holds up or not. 但是当我们觉得自己失败了，这就是问题所在。乐观主义的问题在于，它只是告诉我们，如果事情不顺利，我们失败了，我们对自己不够相信，我们应该鞭策自己，因为我们别无选择。从根本上说，这就是问题所在——当事情进展不顺利时，你需要一个适合你的机制，这是对某些事情是否能坚持下去的真正考验。 There was a psychologist called Daniel Kahneman, who came up with this idea of the "experiencing self" and the "remembering self". Like two sort of cells at work within us. The idea is that, for example, if you are given the choice between going on our roller coaster and having a fun afternoon at a theme park versus looking after a sick relative. Which one's going to make you happier? The chances are you'd think, "what I'll do, I'm gonna go on the theme park", so you're experiencing self is being catered to by the experience of, you know, happiness and excitement. But your remembering self, which is the other part of you, will look back on the experience looking after your sick relative actually as a more meaningful experience. So the chances are, you'll take with you more of a sense of happiness and satisfaction from doing that. 有一位心理学家叫丹尼尔·卡尼曼，他提出了“体验自我”和“记忆自我”的概念。就像我们体内有两种细胞在工作。这个观点认为，举例来说，如果让你在坐过山车、在主题公园度过一个愉快的下午，和照顾生病的亲人之间做出选择，哪一个会让你更开心？哪一个会让你更快乐？你很有可能会想：”我的选择是，我要去主题公园”，所以你的体验自我被幸福和兴奋的体验所满足。但你的记忆自我，也就是你的另一部分，会把照顾生病亲人的经历看作是更有意义的经历。所以很有可能，你会从中获得更多的幸福感和满足感。 So we have a terrible understanding what actually fulfills us. I think an interesting and thought experiment which was given by a stoic, a modern stoic called William Irvin, is imagine that you woke up one day and everybody had disappeared from the world. So they were still buildings and cars and everything, but there were no people, everyone had gone, is just you. What changes in terms of the sort of things that you require for yourself. 因此，我们对真正满足我们的东西有着可怕的理解。我认为一个有趣的、深思熟虑的实验是由一位名叫威廉·欧文的现代斯多葛派学者进行的，想象你有一天醒来，所有人都从这个世界上消失了。接着，建筑、汽车和一切都还在，但没有人了，所有人都走了，只剩下你。你对自己的要求发生了什么变化。改变的是你对自己的要求。 You wouldn't bother having a big, great big house to go and even you could live in any house. You could just go, and you know, walk in and live wherever you like, you'd probably find somewhere that was just comfortable and practical. You obviously wouldn't bother with fancy clothes. You wouldn't bother with so many things and then when you've really followed that thought through, it's amazing how much we acquire and want only to impress other people. Even if we don't feel without sort of person. So rather than just wanting things that we don't have, which you're probably not going to be very good for us anyway, shifting our desires so we want the things that we already have. 你不会费心去买一栋又大又大的房子，甚至你可以住在任何一栋房子里。你可以去，你知道，走进来，住在你喜欢的任何地方，你可能会找到一个舒适实用的地方。你显然不会为花哨的衣服而烦恼。你不会为这么多事情而烦恼，当你真的把这个想法贯彻到底时，令人惊讶的是，我们获得和想要的东西竟只是为了取悦别人。 Stoicism was born in a time of strife. There's lots of war and lots of reasons why you'd want to hang on to a feeling of tranquility. So what they said? Which is such phenomenally good advice, is, there are things in your life that you're in control of and then there are things in your life you are not in control of. The only things you are in control of, they said, and this is true, are your thoughts and your actions. That's it. Everything else and what other people do and what they think of you, and what goes on in their lives, and how well other people do their jobs, or do the things you work, whatever, everything else you have no control over. And you can actually decide that everything on that side of the line is fine. I find myself doing this a lot, that when something's really bothering and frustrating me, I just think, I know which side of the line is it on. Is it my thoughts and actions or is it something out there? But it has to be a real thought — what if it was fine, and has to drip in and really kind of drip into the soul and make sense. You have to feel it, it's no good just saying "I was fine, it's fine." That doesn't have any effect. It has to be a real thing, and it's a very helpful thought. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】