英音听力｜BBC & 经济学人等 - 节目列表

How learning to read changes lives Are you a big reader, Phil? Sure, I enjoy reading – and it's also a great way to pass the time on my daily commute to work. But reading isn't just a nice thing to do – it's an essential skill, something you need for everyday activities, whether that's finding out the news by reading a newspaper or buying groceries by reading the labels. And that's why I was shocked by a recent UN report estimating that around the world over 700 million adults are illiterate, which means they can't read or write. Wow! That's a huge number of people excluded from doing basic day-to-day things. So, what can be done to get more adults reading and writing? In this programme, we'll be hearing about projects in two very different countries trying to do just that. And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. But first I have a question for you, Phil. I mentioned a recent UN report on the high numbers of people unable to read and write, but illiteracy is not a new problem. Since 1967, the UN has been highlighting the importance of literacy, being able to read and write, with a day of celebration called International Literacy Day. But when does it take place? Is it: a) the 8th of March? b) the 8th of June? or, c) the 8th of September? I think International Literacy Day is on the 8th of September. OK, Phil, we'll find out if that's correct at the end of the programme. The biggest reason people grow up illiterate is not going to school, and that's especially true for people living in the coastal towns of Bangladesh. Because these towns flood regularly, families are always on the move, making it hard for children to get an education. The Friendship Project teaches reading and writing to groups of Bangladeshi women and girls. They also teach numeracy which means the ability to do basic maths like counting and adding up. Here one student, Rashida, explains the impact it's had on her to BBC World Service programme, People Fixing The World: My parents never sent me to school and I've suffered from not being able to read and write. My children were embarrassed that I was illiterate. I couldn't even do basic accounting. Until now, I've had to use my fingerprint as a signature as I was illiterate, but now I can sign my name because I can read and write thealphabet, and I'll also be able to keep an account of my expenses. No one can cheat me anymore. Before the Friendship Project, Rashida couldn't write her signature – her name written in her own handwriting. Instead, she had to use her fingerprint. Now, Rashida has learned the alphabet and also some basic maths, so she knows how much money she's spent, and how much she has left. This means no-one can cheat her, can trick or swindle her into taking her money. The Friendship Project is free, and so far over 11,000 adults have completed it. But it's not just developing countries that struggle with literacy. Our second project takes place much closer to home – the north of England, where charity Readeasy, matches adult learners with trained volunteers for one-to-one lessons. In the UK, one in six adults struggle with reading and writing, including Peter. Peter had hearing problems as a child, fell behind at school, and never learned to read. Here he is, talking with BBC World Service programme, People Fixing The World: Everyone takes for granted that you just open a letter and you read it. Before I met my wife, I used to have to knock on the neighbour's door: "Could you read this for me?" Can you imagine the embarrassment? I've tried college – twice. Nothing worked so as far as I'm concerned, I'm thick, I'm stupid, I'm just one of those people – it's never gonna work for me. And that was my life. Many of us take it for granted that everyone can read and write. If you take something for granted, you assume it's true without checking. Peter had to ask his neighbours to read his letters, something he found very embarrassing. He thought he was thick – stupid and unintelligent. Now, Peter says learning with Readeasy has changed his life. He's literate and is reading his way through the Harry Potter books. And he always celebrates International Literacy Day. Which reminds me of your question, Beth – when does the UN's International Literacy Day take place? I said it was on the 8th of September. And that was… the correct answer! OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this programme, starting with illiterate meaning unable to read and write. Numeracy is the ability to understand basic maths, count, and add up. Your signature is your name written in your own handwriting style. It shows that something has been written or agreed by you. To cheat someone means to trick or deceive them in order to get their money or valuables. If you take something for granted, you assume that it's true without checking up. And finally, the adjective thick is an informal word for stupid. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Why the Sun Is Incredible The Sun is just one of hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. In a way, there's nothing very special about it. It's a fairly ordinary star – not particularly large or bright by stellar standards. But it's very special to us. 太阳只是银河系数千亿颗恒星中的一颗。从某种意义上说，它并没有什么特别之处。它是一颗相当普通的恒星--按照恒星的标准，它并不是特别大，也不是特别亮。但它对我们来说却非常特别。 The Sun makes life on Earth possible. Cultures across the world, and throughout the ages, worshipped the Sun. In some ways, modern life has cut us off from the Sun. In the developed world, we spend 90% of our time indoors – and yet the Sun is still a powerful force underpinning our lives. The Sun affects our perception of beauty. When people talk of the "golden hour", that time just before the Sun sets, it's a real thing. 太阳使地球上的生命成为可能。古往今来，世界各地的文化都敬拜太阳。在某些方面，现代生活使我们与太阳隔绝。在发达国家，我们 90% 的时间都在室内度过，但太阳仍然是支撑我们生活的强大力量。太阳影响着我们对美的感知。当人们谈论“黄金时段”时，即太阳落山之前的时间，这是真实的。 The Sun isn't actually yellow or orange or even red; it's all the colours mixed together. When the Sun rises or sets in the sky, the shortwave colours – green, blue and violet – are scattered, leaving only the yellow and the red part of the spectrum, giving that amazing glow. When the sun is high in the sky, its blue waves bounce around – which is why the sky looks blue. And when you see a rainbow, that's the light from the Sun separated into all its magnificent colours. 太阳实际上不是黄色或橙色，甚至不是红色;而是所有颜色的混合。当太阳在天空中升起或落下时，短波颜色（绿色、蓝色和紫色）会散射，只留下光谱的黄色和红色部分，从而发出惊人的光芒。当太阳高悬于天空时，它的蓝波四处反射--这就是为什么天空看起来是蓝色的。而当你看到彩虹时，那是太阳的光被分离成了各种绚丽的色彩。 Although we talk of the Sun rising in the east and setting in the west, that's not quite true. It just seems that way to us. The Sun stays in the same place. It's the Earth that rotates on its axis. This movement of the Sun is deeply embedded in our biology. When sunlight enters the eye, it sends signals to a master clock in our brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This internal clock regulates everything, from when we sleep to how we digest a meal. Messing with this finely-tuned machine, when we work night shifts or fly across the world, can make us feel pretty rough. Even the bluish light from a mobile phone late at night is enough to disrupt and confuse our internal body clock. 虽然我们说太阳从东方升起，在西方落下，但这并不完全正确。在我们看来是这样的。太阳停留在原地。是地球绕着它的轴旋转。太阳的这种运动深深植根于我们的生物学中。当阳光进入眼睛时，它会向我们大脑中被称为视交叉上核的主时钟发送信号。这个生物钟调节着一切，从我们何时睡觉到我们如何消化一顿饭。当我们值夜班或在世界各地飞行时，摆弄这台微调过的机器会让我们感到很难受。即使是深夜手机发出的蓝光也足以扰乱和混淆我们体内的生物钟。 Being out of step with the Sun affects our mood and our ability to think clearly. And there's evidence that this kind of disruption can lead to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. We're living out of step with the Sun and some scientists say this could be causing a public health crisis. When the Sun is shining, studies have shown that we tip more generously and are more likely to splash out on luxury goods. And crime may go down, too. One study in the US found that when the clocks go forward for Daylight Savings Time, the number of robberies, rapes and murders went down around 50%. 与太阳轨迹脱节会影响我们的情绪和清晰思考的能力。有证据表明，这种干扰会导致肥胖、心脏病、糖尿病甚至癌症的发病率升高。我们的生活与太阳脱节，一些科学家说，这可能会导致公共健康危机。研究表明，当阳光明媚时，我们会更慷慨地给小费，更有可能在奢侈品上花钱。犯罪率也可能下降。美国的一项研究发现，当夏令时提前时，抢劫、强奸和谋杀的数量下降了约50%。 The Sun is a hell of a force to be reckoned with. Every hour, enough sunlight falls on the Earth to power the world for a year – a year. Deep in its core, at around 15 million degrees Celsius, the Sun is constantly fusing hydrogen together to make helium. These nuclear reactions release vast amounts of energy in the form of sunlight. If only we could work out how to harness this. But we are getting there. It's estimated that by 2022, 30% of our energy could come from renewables, with solar growing faster than anything else. 太阳是一股不可忽视的力量。每小时，落在地球上的阳光足够全世界使用一年--一年。太阳的核心深处，在大约 1500 万摄氏度的高温下，不断地将氢聚变成氦。这些核反应以太阳光的形式释放出大量能量。要是我们能研究出如何利用这些能量就好了。但我们正在努力。据估计，到 2022 年，我们 30% 的能源将来自可再生能源，其中太阳能的增长速度将超过其他任何能源。 The Sun is vast, dynamic and sometimes violent. Viewed up close, the Sun's surface looks like a raging sea of fire, with huge eruptions rising hundreds of thousands of kilometres into space. There are even earthquakes on the Sun – called sunquakes. And what happens on the Sun can impact us. The Sun sporadically blasts huge clouds of charged particles towards the Earth, potentially wreaking havoc on the technology that we all rely on. But 97% of people have never heard of solar storms. In 1859, a gigantic solar storm hit the Earth, creating auroras that covered the entire planet, knocking out the telegraph network and sending sparks flying from electrical equipment. The solar storm of 1859 is still the largest on record. But if a similar storm were to hit the Earth today, the consequences for our way of life could be devastating, knocking out electricity grids, satellite navigation and communications for days, weeks, or even months. No wonder people used to worship the sun. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

England's hedges would go around Earth ten times The researchers say if you joined up all the hedgerows in England, they would stretch almost ten times around the Earth. Their map, which is based on laser scanning hedges from the air rather than scaling up information from field surveys, gives a more complete picture of the quality and quantity of hedgerows across the country. 研究人员们说，如果你把英格兰所有的树篱连起来，得到的长度可以绕地球近十圈。研究人员使用的地图是基于从空中对树篱进行激光扫描绘制而成的，不是靠扩大实地调查得到的信息制成的，因此更全面地反映了英格兰各地树篱的质量及数量。 The South West boasts the most hedges, led by Cornwall. Excluding big urban areas such as London and Merseyside, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire are the counties with the least. 英格兰西南部拥有的树篱数量最多，其中康沃尔郡排在首位。除去伦敦、默西塞德等大城市地区，萨里郡、汉普郡和伯克郡拥有的树篱数量最少。 The scientists hope their new data will help restore a vital habitat for wildlife that also stores large amounts of carbon. Thousands of miles of hedgerows have been lost since the 1950s to intensive farming and development. And the government has set ambitious new targets to reverse this decline. 科学家们希望新数据将有助于使树篱恢复生机，它不仅是野生动物的重要栖息地，还能吸收并储存大量的碳。自20世纪50年代以来，由于集约型农业和土地开发，数千英里的树篱已经消失不见。为了扭转树篱数量减少的趋势，英国政府已定下一系列重大的生态保护新目标。 词汇表 joined up 连起来，连接 hedgerows （尤指田间或路边的）树篱 laser scanning 激光扫描 scaling up （按比例）扩大 field surveys 野外调查，实地考察 boasts 拥有（值得自豪的事物） counties 郡 restore 修复，使恢复 reverse 扭转 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Is time travel possible? If you could time travel, would you visit the past or the future? You could find your ancestors, descendants, or experience life when dinosaurs roamed your back garden. It sounds otherworldly, but scientists have looked into whether time travel is actually possible. 如果你能进行时间旅行，你会去过去还是未来？你可以找到自己的祖先和后代，或者体验恐龙在你家后花园漫步时的生活。这听起来很不可思议，但科学家们已经研究过时间旅行是否真的可能。 Albert Einstein's theory of relativity revolutionised understanding of space, time, mass and gravity. The key element of this theory is that time and space are linked together, and time doesn't flow at a constant rate, meaning it speeds up or slows down, depending on where you are. For example, when you travel at high speeds, time decreases, which means, according to NASA, astronauts in space age more slowly than those on Earth! So, if you wanted to travel to the future, you would need to move close to the speed of light. Then, while centuries pass on Earth, you'd experience a relatively short amount of time and could hypothetically return home, where it would be the future! 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的相对论彻底改变了人们对空间、时间、质量和引力的理解。这个理论的关键要素是时间和空间是联系在一起的，时间不会以恒定的速度流动，这意味着它会加速或减速，这取决于你在哪里。例如，当你高速旅行时，时间会减少，这意味着，根据美国国家航空航天局的说法，太空中的宇航员比地球上的宇航员衰老得慢！因此，如果你想穿越到未来，你需要以接近光速的速度移动。这样，虽然地球上的时间已经过去了几个世纪，但你所经历的时间却相对较短，假设你可以返回家园，那里就是未来！ Travelling backwards in time seems much more difficult. Theoretically, one way of going back is via a wormhole. That means, if space and time can be folded like paper, we could create a tunnel – a shortcut between points in time. The problem is that there is no evidence that wormholes exist. "It's been shown mathematically that they can exist, but whether they exist physically is something else," says Emma Osborne, anastrophysicist at the University of York. Also, theories show that wormholes would be so small that a person definitely couldn't fit through one, and they would have such an intense gravitational field that they would collapse very quickly. 时光倒流似乎要困难得多。从理论上讲，回到过去的一种方法是通过虫洞。也就是说，如果空间和时间可以像纸一样折叠起来，我们就可以创造出一条隧道--一条时间点之间的捷径。问题是，没有证据表明虫洞存在。约克大学的天体物理学家艾玛·奥斯本说：“数学上已经证明它们可以存在，但物理上是否存在却是另一回事。另外，理论显示，虫洞会非常小，一个人肯定穿不过去，而且虫洞的引力场非常强，会很快坍塌。 For now, it seems we'll have to be content with science fiction and using telescopes to look back in time rather than travelling through it. 现在看来，我们只能满足于科幻小说，用望远镜回望过去，而不是穿越时空。 词汇表 ancestor 祖先 descendant 后代 otherworldly 超脱尘俗的，非现实世界的 theory of relativity 相对论 mass 质量 gravity 重力，引力 flow （时间）流动，流逝 speed up 加速 slow down 减速 age 变老 the speed of light 光速 century 一百年，世纪 wormhole 蠕虫洞 shortcut 捷径，近路 astrophysicist 天体物理学家 gravitational field 引力场 collapse 崩塌，坍塌 science fiction 科幻小说 telescope 望远镜 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

US Elections｜ John Biden and Donald Trump The race for the White House is on. The US election is approaching and this time, it's a rematch. Adults in the United States will choose who they want to run their country in November. The current president Joe Biden, who's trying to stay in the job, or the guy who was president before him, Donald Trump. There are two main political parties in the US, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. 白宫争夺战一触即发。美国大选即将来临，这次是一场复赛。美国成年人将在 11 月选择他们希望谁来管理国家。是试图继续留任的现任总统乔·拜登，还是在他之前担任过总统的唐纳德·特朗普。美国有两大政党，民主党和共和党。 The Democrats' candidate is Joe Biden. He beat his Republican rival Donald Trump in the last election in 2020, becoming the 46th and current president of the United States. Joe Biden has a lot of political experience. He first became a senator more than 50 years ago in 1972, and was vice president of the United States for eight years before becoming president. 民主党的候选人是乔·拜登。在2020年的上一次选举中，他击败了共和党竞争对手唐纳德·特朗普，成为美国第46任也是现任总统。乔·拜登有很多政治经验。50多年前的1972年，他首次成为参议员，在成为总统之前，他曾担任美国副总统八年。 During his time in the job, he's had to deal with serious issues at home and around the world, including the cost of living crisis and conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Mr Biden has faced questions over his age and suitability as president. At 81, he is the oldest person ever to have the job. Along with Donald Trump, who is 78, the pair are the oldest presidential candidates in US election history. 在他任职期间，他不得不处理国内和世界各地的严重问题，包括生活成本危机以及乌克兰和加沙的冲突。拜登面临着年龄和是否适合担任总统的质疑。81岁的他是有史以来担任该职位年龄最大的人。与78岁的唐纳德·特朗普一起，两人是美国大选历史上年龄最大的总统候选人。 Republican candidate Donald Trump is a politician, businessman, and former reality TV star. He was U.S. president between 2017 and 2021. His supporters point to his background in business and say his policies are good for the U.S. economy. But Mr Trump has faced a number of controversies throughout his time as president and in this presidential campaign. Earlier this year he was found guilty of trying to influence the 2016 election by paying a woman, who was not his wife, to stay quiet about their relationship. 共和党总统候选人唐纳德 · 特朗普是一位政治家、商人和前电视真人秀明星。他在2017年至2021年间担任美国总统。他的支持者指出他的商业背景，并说他的政策对美国经济有利。但是特朗普先生在他担任总统期间以及在这次总统竞选中都面临着许多争议。今年早些时候，他因试图影响2016年大选而被判有罪，因为他付钱给一个女人（不是他的妻子），让她隐瞒他们之间的关系。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Culture Book review 文艺板块 书评 The enemy of the good The Perfection Trap. By Thomas Curran. 优秀之敌 完美的陷阱。作者：托马斯·柯伦 In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birth-Mark", a chemist called Aylmer marries a young woman, Georgiana, whose sole imperfection is a red blemish on her left cheek. He considers it a "fatal flaw"; she pleads with him to use his skills to remove it. Stumbling on his journal, however, Georgiana is astonished to find it is a catalogue of scientific mishaps. 在纳撒尼尔·霍桑的短篇小说《胎记》中，一位名叫艾尔默的化学家娶了一位名叫乔治亚娜的年轻女子为妻。她唯一的缺陷是左脸颊上的一个红色斑点。他认为这是一个“致命的缺陷”；她恳求他用他的化学技术把它去除。然而，乔治亚娜无意中发现了他的日记，惊讶地发现这是一本科学事故的目录。 Might his loathing of her birthmark stem from his professional disappointment? At length Aylmer concocts a potion that has the desired effect-and promptly kills her. Hawthorne's 180-year-old tale illustrates the perils of perfectionism. It is Thomas Curran's starting-point for a study of what he calls a "hidden epidemic". He thinks the obsessive pursuit of ever higher standards, rather than propelling achievement, is mainly a scourge. 他对她胎记的厌恶可能源于他对工作的失望吗？最后，艾尔默配制出了一种药水，达到了预期的（去斑）效果——但也迅速使她丧命。霍桑180年的故事说明了完美主义的危险。这是托马斯·柯伦研究他所谓的“隐性流行病”的起点。他认为，对更高标准的执着追求，与其说是成就的推动力，不如说是一种祸害。 A social psychologist at the London School of Economics, he describes himself as "a recovering perfectionist". Drawing on both academic research and his own experiences of "deficit thinking", he makes a vigorous case, albeit one occasionally marked by cliché (he sees his younger self as a "chin-stroking, cardigan-wearing intellectual"). 作为伦敦政治经济学院的社会心理学家，他（托马斯·柯伦）形容自己是“一个正在康复的完美主义者”。他利用学术研究和他自己的“赤字思维”经验，提出了一个有力的论据，尽管偶尔会带有陈词滥调的痕迹（他认为年轻的自己是一个“摸着下巴，穿着开衫的知识分子”）。 Mr Curran distinguishes between three sorts of perfectionism. The first, which looks inward, is the relentless self-scolding of the workaholic or punctilious student. A second version, directed towards others, is commonly found in bosses who have unrealistic expectations of their staff and decry their supposed failings (he cites Steve Jobs as an example). The third and most troublesome kind is the form imputed to society: "an all-encompassing belief that everybody, at all times, expects us to be perfect". Its victims tend to feel lonely; often they harm themselves and harbour thoughts of suicide. 柯伦将完美主义分为三种类型。第一种是向内看，是工作狂或一丝不苟的学生无休止的自我责备。第二种是针对他人的，通常出现在那些对员工抱有不切实际的期望，或谴责他们所谓的失败的老板身上（他以史蒂夫•乔布斯为例）。第三种，也是最麻烦的一种，是归咎于社会的形式:“一种无所不包的信念，认为每个人在任何时候都希望我们完美”。它的受害者往往感到孤独;他们经常伤害自己，并怀有自杀的念头。 Having noted the ways in which this pathology inflames vulnerabilities and erodes resilience, Mr Curran suggests some causes. These include a lack of job security, neurotic supervision by helicopter parents and the gaudy blandishments of advertising, which fuel consumption and anxiety. "The very fabric of this economy", he claims, "is woven from our discontent." Inevitably he blames social media, which inundate users with images of finely sculpted bodies, flawless outfits, ambrosial holidays and exquisite weddings. 在注意到这种病态想法会加剧脆弱性、侵蚀韧性后，柯伦提出了一些原因。这些因素包括缺乏工作保障，过度保护孩子的父母神经质的监督，以及广告的花言巧语，这些都助长了消费和焦虑。他声称:“这个经济体的结构是由我们的不满编织而成的。”他不可避免地把责任推给了社交媒体，因为社交媒体充斥着各种各样的照片，比如完美的身材、完美的服装、美妙的假期和精致的婚礼。 A less familiar culprit is Don Hamachek, an American psychologist, who in the 1970s coined the term "normal perfectionism", thereby legitimising morbid self-criticism, says Mr Curran. He even reproaches Barack Obama for enjoining young people to learn from their mistakes. Instead, he says, failures should be "allowed to simply wash through us as a joyous reminder of what it means to be a fallible human". 柯伦说，一个不太为人所知的问题起因是美国心理学家唐•哈马切克，他在20世纪70年代创造了“正常完美主义”一词，从而使病态的自我批评正当化。他甚至指责奥巴马嘱咐年轻人从错误中吸取教训。相反，他说，应该“允许失败冲刷我们的心灵，让我们欣喜地意识到，作为一个容易犯错的人意味着什么”。 The author's greatest odium, though, is directed at meritocracy. In this he draws on the thinking of Michael Sandel, a philosopher at Harvard. Especially in "The Tyranny of Merit" (published in 2020), Professor Sandel has argued that using education as a giant sorting machine creates a toxic obsession with credentials, dividing society into winners and losers and depleting the common good. Like other critics of meritocracy, Mr Curran has a point-until you consider the alternatives. Daily life, in his view, now resembles an endless tribunal. Young people suffer most from the constant scrutiny of scores and rankings. Decrying a fixation on economic growth, he applauds countries, such as Bhutan and New Zealand, where decision-makers take account of citizens' happiness. Mr Curran's preferred fix is a universal basic income, which he says would "extinguish the fire of perfectionism". Whatever its economic merits, his argument errs in treating perfectionism as a purely cultural phenomenon. Might it not also be a disposition embedded in the psyche? Tellingly, his guidance-"Keep going. Do not yield"; "Keep practising that acceptance of fortune and fate"-is couched in the language of the perfectionist's round-the-clock report card. 由于字数限制，部分翻译见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How is the wet weather impacting farming? Hi Newsround, I'm Matthew. And I'm Betty. This is our farm. We're going to show you around. This is the orchard, this is where we keep our pregnant cows. This cow is Pickle and we're going to be moving her over the lane into another field to get some fresh grass. Come on! In you go Pickles! 嗨，Newsround，我是马修。我是贝蒂。这是我们的农场。我们将带你四处看看。这是果园，这是我们养怀孕奶牛的地方。这头牛叫泡菜，我们要把它从小路移到另一块地里去获取新鲜的草。来吧！泡菜来了! After really wet weather all of this just goes completely soggy and then when it dries up again it's all this this mush. If I put my foot in that that's really squishy mud. And you can get your foot stuck. Yeah, you can get your foot stuck really easily. This mud, it makes getting cows into fields rather difficult because they can't get their udders dirty. If they get their udders dirty, that means we can lead to infection. 在非常潮湿的天气后，所有这些都变得完全湿透，然后当它再次变干时，就变成了这种软块。如果我把脚放进去，那真是软绵绵的泥。你的脚会被卡住。是的，你很容易被卡住。这种泥巴让奶牛很难下地，因为它们不能弄脏自己的乳房。如果它们把乳房弄脏了，那就意味着我们会导致感染。 Between October last year and March this year, the UK had the second wettest winter on record. One of the main reasons for more rain is climate change. New research has found that human-made climate change has made downpours 20% wetter, and it's having a big impact on farming in the UK. 从去年 10 月到今年 3 月，英国经历了有记录以来第二个最潮湿的冬天。雨水增多的主要原因之一是气候变化。新的研究发现，人为的气候变化使降雨量增加了 20%，这对英国的农业产生了很大影响。 It's impacting the cows because it means that they would have less grass. It also means that we have to spend more money on feeding them and putting food out. And when they do get to go outside with wet grass, it's less nutritious. This is the wheat field. As you can see, it should be like this well if anything more than this and this is what it is now. Because of the wet weather, it's all gone. When it rains, the water suffocates the plants and drags all of the nutrients away. If we can't grow anything then we can't make money and we can't sell our crop onto someone else so that they can turn it into flour to make Bread, biscuits, crackers, anything that requires wheat flour. 这会影响奶牛，因为这意味着它们的草会更少。这也意味着我们必须花更多的钱来喂养它们和提供食物。当它们真的到外面去时，草是湿的，营养就不那么丰富了。这是麦田。正如你所看到的，它本应是这样的，如果有什么比这更好的话，但这是它现在的样子。由于潮湿的天气，养分都流失了。 下雨时，水会使植物窒息，并带走所有养分。如果我们什么都种不出来，就无法赚钱，也无法把我们的作物卖给别人，让他们把作物变成面粉，用来做面包、饼干、薄脆饼干等任何需要小麦粉的东西。 As Matthew says, if these crops are affected, it will impact the food we eat. The National Farming Union say this could lead to some foods becoming harder to get or more expensive to buy in the shops. 正如马修所说，如果这些作物受到影响，就会影响我们吃的食物。全国农业联盟说，这可能导致一些食品变得更难以获得或以更昂贵的商店售卖。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Being in nature has benefits for our physical and mental health, so wouldn't it be good if instead of giving you a bottle of pills, your doctor recommended spending time in nature? That's an interesting idea, Neil. Being outdoors always makes me feel better, and in Japan there's even a word for it - shinrin-yoku – translated into English as forest bathing. Forest bathing is a type of relaxation that involves being calm and quiet amongst the trees and using all your senses to observe nature around you, whilst breathing deeply. It sounds wonderful, Beth! In this programme, we'll be hearing how one of the world's oldest building materials, wood, is being used in new ways to build a greener future. And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. Great, but first I have a question for you, Neil. Like many other countries, Britain used to be covered in trees. In Roman times, it's estimated that as much as 40% of the land was forest. Trees provided wood, the building material needed for many things including buildings, furniture, and ships. So how many trees do you think were needed to build the HMS Victory, So how many trees do you think were needed to build the HMS Victory, Nelson's famous ship at the Battle in 1805? Was it: a) 4,000 trees? b) 5,000 trees? or, c) 6,000 trees? Well, I have no idea. But I'll guess it was 5,000 trees. OK, Neil, I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme. Throughout history, buildings in Britain have been made of timber, trees that are grown so their wood can be used as a building material. But in modern times, this has mostly been done by man-made materials - brick, concrete and steel. One of those arguing for a return to wood is architect, Michael Ramage, talking here to BBC Radio 4 programme, Rare Earth: There is some compelling evidence to show that children in schools made of wood learn better… they have greater concentration, lower stress, lower heartbeats. And there's compelling evidence to show that patients in hospitals recover better in both rooms made of wood or other natural materials, and also in rooms that have views of nature out the window. Michael believes there is compelling evidence for the health benefits of wood. If something is compelling, it's so convincing that you believe it. As evidence, he gives examples - that wooden schools help children learn. But there's another compelling reason to build with wood – the carbon which wood captures helps combat climate change. It's why many governments around the world want to replace the carbon intensive production of concrete and steel with bio-based materials like wood. Here's architect, Michael Ramage, again, describing the possibilities of wooden buildings to BBC Radio 4's, Rare Earth: We look at the possibilities of building with wood and other materials we can grow – bamboo, hemp, flax… and how we can use them intelligently as replacements for steel and concrete in the world that we create around us. And we've looked at skyscrapers, we've looked at housing, we've looked at schools, and there's a whole range of buildings that we can build if we use wood well. Michael builds with natural materials which can be sustainably grown, including bamboo and hemp – a family of plants which are used to make many products such as rope and cloth. He thinks these natural, bio-based materials will work if they are used intelligently – in a clever, intelligent way. A good example of this is plywood, the first new material in construction since the invention of reinforced concrete 100 years ago. Tests prove that plywood made from layers of pine, which are laid crossways and then glued together, is as strong as steel. It's already been used to build skyscrapers, the very tall modern buildings you often see in cities – an 85 metre high skyscraper in Norway, and an even taller one, at 87 metres the world's tallest, in Milwaukee, USA. Strong, relaxing and eco-friendly – it seems that building with wood is good for the future as well as the past, which reminds me of my question, Neil. Yes, you asked me how many trees were used as timber for Nelson's famous warship, HMS Victory, and I guessed it was 5,000… Which was close, but the wrong answer, I'm afraid. It was even more, around 6,000 trees, most of which were oak, with some timbers over half a metre thick! OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme starting with forest bathing, being in nature and immersing your senses in the experience for its physical and mental health benefits. Timber is trees grown so the wood can be used for building houses. If an argument or evidence is compelling, it's strong, convincing and believable. The adverb intelligently means done in a way showing intelligence and skill. Hemp is a family of plants, some of which are used to make rope and strong cloth. And finally, a skyscraper is a very tall modern building, usually in a city. ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

What does it mean to be a feminist? The word feminism was coined in the 19th century by French philosopher and socialist Charles Fourier. But while feminists all seek equality between the sexes across political, social and cultural spheres, there is no one type of feminism. The author Rebecca West wrote in 1913 "I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat". “女权主义”一词是19世纪由法国哲学家和社会主义者查尔斯·傅立叶创造的。但是，尽管女权主义者都在政治、社会和文化领域寻求男女平等，但并不存在单一类型的女权主义。作家丽贝卡·韦斯特在 1913 年写道：“我自己从未能准确地了解什么是女权主义。我只知道，每当我表达不同于那些逆来顺受的可怜虫的观点时，人们就称我为女权主义者”。 The first wave of feminists fought for women to be able to vote and own property. Until these gains were made, largely in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women often needed male guardians to transact business on their behalf, which was particularly galling if your guardian was an idiot. 第一波女权主义者为妇女争取选举权和财产权。在取得这些成就之前，主要是在 19 世纪末和 20 世纪初，妇女往往需要男性监护人来代表她们处理事务，如果你的监护人是个白痴，那就尤其令人讨厌了。 In 1949 the brilliant French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir published The second sex. She argued that one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. This was good news for those who felt constrained by the expectation that women should be quiet and nice. Beauvoir's critics, and feminism's critics, have often said that anger is not very ladylike. This is no bad thing. Who wouldn't rather be a woman than a lady? 1949 年，杰出的法国哲学家西蒙娜·德·波伏娃出版了《第二性》一书。她认为，女人不是天生的，而是后天形成的。这对于那些认为女性应该文静乖巧的人来说是个好消息。波伏娃的批评者和女权主义的批评者经常说，愤怒者并不够淑女。可这并非坏事。相比淑女，大多数人更愿意成为女人。 Feminism has gradually shifted for women around the world to advocate many different kinds of change like equal pay and reproductive freedom. Most recently, social media has become a crucial tool for raising awareness and encouraging debate. Feminist campaigns to combat female genital mutilation, to acknowledge the contributions made by women in the past and to speak out against sexual abuse in all its forms have filtered into mainstream cultural discourse. 女权主义逐渐转向世界各地的女性，倡导许多不同类型的变革，如同工同酬和生育自由。最近，社交媒体已成为提高认识和鼓励辩论的重要工具。反对切割女性生殖器官、承认妇女过去所作贡献和大声疾呼反对一切形式的性虐待的女权主义运动已经渗透到主流文化话语中。 At the end of 2017, Time magazine named women who had broken their silence on sexual assaults as its Person of the Year. There is still a long way to go before men and women have full equality all over the world and resistance to this idea has not disappeared. Perhaps feminism boils down to the words of Dorothy Parker who once said: my idea is that all of us, men as well as women, whoever we are, should be considered as human beings. 2017年年底，《时代》杂志将对性侵事件发声的女性评为年度人物。要在全世界实现男女完全平等，还有很长的路要走，对这一理念的抵触情绪并未消失。也许女权主义可以归结为多萝西·帕克曾经说过的一句话：我的想法是，我们所有人，无论男女，无论我们是谁，都应被视为人类。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Traffic noise impairs songbirds' abilities Rather than studying birds in the wild, these researchers brought recordings of traffic noise from the nearby road into their lab and put captive zebra finches to the test. 这些研究人员并没有在野外研究鸟类，而是将在附近道路上录好的交通噪音带进他们的实验室，并对圈养的珍珠鸟进行测试。 The scientists designed tasks to mimic the problem-solving the birds have to do to find food – flipping over leaf-like lids to reveal a treat and working out how to reach a food reward that's hidden inside a cylinder. 科学家们设计了一些任务来模拟鸟儿觅食时必须解决的问题。例如，翻开叶子状的盖子发现食物，并想办法获得藏在圆筒中的食物奖励。 In a quiet laboratory, birds were twice as likely to succeed, and to find the food, than when traffic recordings were being played. 在一个安静的实验室里，鸟儿成功找到食物的可能性是播放交通噪音录音时的两倍。 The discovery adds to mounting evidence that the sound we put into the environment has unexpected negative impacts on wildlife. 这一发现进一步证明，人为噪音对野生动物产生了意想不到的负面影响。 Studies have shown that noise can affect insect behaviour, and noise pollution in the ocean has even been linked with whale strandings. 有研究已经表明，噪音会影响昆虫的行为，海洋中的噪音污染甚至与鲸鱼搁浅有关。 But these researchers say that with clever engineering of tyres and road surfaces, there is scope to insulate the natural world from at least some of our noise. 但这些研究人员表示，通过对轮胎和路面进行的巧妙设计，至少有希望将一些人为噪音隔离在自然界之外。 词汇表 recordings 录音 captive 圈养的 zebra finches 珍珠鸟，斑胸草雀（学名） mimic 模仿，仿效 flipping over 翻开 lids 盖子 treat （奖励性的）食物 reward 奖励 mounting 越来越多的 strandings 搁浅 engineering 设计，建造 tyres 轮胎 road surfaces 路面 insulate 使隔音，使隔离 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

What is the likelihood of you having someone who looks just like you? Would it be a good thing? And if you did have one, would you want to meet them? 遇到和你长得一模一样的人的可能性有多大?这是一件好事吗？如果真有这个人，你会想见见他们吗? Consider how often your facial features are used to identify you. Your passport, ID card and driving licence all bare your face. To enter your workplace, you likely need to be recognisable. You may need your face to unlock your smartphone and possibly even need it to exclude you from being present at a crime scene. 想想你的面部特征被用来识别你的频率。你的护照、身份证和驾驶执照都需露出你的脸。要进入你的工作场所，你可能需要被认出来。你可能需要你的脸来解锁你的智能手机，甚至可能需要它来排除你出现在犯罪现场。 The word 'doppelganger' refers to a person who looks the same as you, essentially sharing your features; those that you thought were unique to you and your identity. Not an identical twin, as a doppelganger has no relation to you. The idea originated in German folklore. A doppelganger was said to be a spirit-double that replicated every human and beast on earth. “二重身”这个词指的是一个和你长得一模一样的人，基本上和你有相同的特征；那些你认为是你和你的身份所独有的特征。二重身不是同卵双胞胎，因为二重身与你没有任何关系。二重身的概念起源于德国民间传说。据说，二重身是一个复制了地球上所有人类和野兽的灵魂替身。 So, let's get real. What are the chances of you having one in the first place? There's said to be a one in 135 chance of an absolute dead ringer for you existing anywhere in the world, so the chances are pretty low, despite folk wisdom promising you otherwise. And the chances of meeting? The mathematical certainty of finding this particular person is supposedly less than one in a trillion! 那么，让我们面对现实吧。首先，你拥有一个二重身的几率有多大？据说在世界上任何地方都只有 135 分之一的几率会出现和你一模一样的人，所以几率非常低，尽管民间智慧不这么认为。那相遇的几率呢？据说找到这个人的数学确定性不到万亿分之一！ That said, these statistics may be a good thing. Historically, having a double hasn't always been a positive. Back in 1999, an innocent American man, indistinguishable from the real criminal, was sent to prison for robbery, where he stayed for 19 years. In the end, it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. In a different case, a woman in New York was accused of trying to poison her doppelganger with deadly cheesecake so that she could steal her identity! 尽管如此，这些数据可能是件好事。从历史上看，有二重身并不总是一件好事。早在 1999 年，一名与真正罪犯毫无区别的无辜美国男子因抢劫罪被送进监狱，在那里一呆就是 19 年。最后，事实证明这是一起认错人的案件。在另一起案件中，纽约的一名妇女被指控试图用致命的芝士蛋糕毒死她的二重身，以便盗用她的身份！ And, why are people interested in finding their possible doppelganger anyway? It may be helpful to look to the past when facial resemblance indicated kinship. Maybe one day you'll meet your lookalike, but we understand that, after this, you possibly don't want to! 那么，人们为什么会对寻找自己可能的二重身感兴趣呢？可能是因为往往，长相相似就意味着亲属关系。也许有一天，你会遇到与你长相相似的人，但我们知道，看了这篇文之后，你可能并不想遇见了！ 词汇表 facial features 面部特征 recognisable 可认出的 exclude 排除…，认为…不可能 unique 独一无二的 identity 身份 identical twin 同卵双胞胎 folklore 民间传说 replicate 复制 a dead ringer 酷似…的人，相像之人/物 mathematical certainty 数学准确性 a double 一模一样的人 indistinguishable 难以分辨的，无法识别的 mistaken identity 认错人，身份错认 resemblance 相似 kinship 亲属关系 lookalike 长得极像…的人 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How is climate change affecting whales? Delving into the lives of Antarctica's giants. We're with a team of wildlife scientists studying humpback whales up close. (This is so beautiful. This might be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.) The researchers have special permits to check the health of whales in this part of Antarctica. 深入了解南极洲巨鲸的生活。我们和一队野生动物科学家正在近距离研究座头鲸。（太美了，这可能是我见过的最美的东西了。）研究人员有特别许可证，可以在南极洲的这个地方检查鲸鱼的健康状况。 （The climate is shifting in the Antarctic Peninsula faster than anywhere else in Antarctica.） Scientists want to know what impact rising temperatures and other pressures like tourism and fishing have on wildlife here. They have a surprising way of finding that out. (南极半岛的气候变化速度比南极洲其他任何地方都快。)科学家们想知道气温上升、以及旅游和捕鱼等其他压力对这里的野生动物有什么影响。他们有一个惊人的发现方法。 (So is that a weapon? No, it's not a weapon, it's a tool.) That tool allows Natalia to take whale tissue biopsies. A tube on the end of each arrow takes just a tiny nick out of each animal's body. (Well, it clearly didn't bother them very much because they're hanging around the boat.) Analysing this tissue can reveal if a female humpback is pregnant. (In years that we have low sea ice, then the following year you have lower pregnancy rates. And that's as good as it gets in getting to know the environment and getting to know the effects of all these conservation threats on the animals.) （那是武器吗？不，这不是武器，这是一种工具。）这种工具可以让纳塔利娅进行鲸鱼组织活检。每支箭末端的一根管子只从每只动物身上取下一个小缺口。（很明显，这并没有给它们带来太大困扰，因为它们在船上徘徊。）分析这些组织可以揭示雌性座头鲸是否怀孕了。（在海冰较少的年份，次年的怀孕率会较低。这是了解环境以及、所有这些威胁对动物的影响的最好方式。） This is what the whales and many other animals here feed on, Antarctic krill. Swarms of them thrive here because they eat algae that lives in sea ice. So researchers want to know if this crucial marine food supply is decreasing as rising temperatures melt the ice. 这里的鲸鱼和许多其他动物都以南极磷虾为食。成群的磷虾在这里繁衍生息，因为它们吃的是长在海冰中的藻类。因此，研究人员想知道，随着气温升高，冰层融化，这种重要的海洋食物供应是否会减少。 And they're using another scientific tool. (Oh, this is fantastic.) The social, intelligent giants work together to catch krill inside a net of bubbles. As well as recording their behaviour, scientists use the drone to work out the whale's weight. (Some populations around the world are getting skinny because they're not getting enough to eat because of climate change impacts. ) 它们还使用了另一种科学工具。(哦，这真是太棒了！）这些会社交、有智慧的巨鲸一起在气泡网中捕捉磷虾。除了记录它们的行为，科学家们还用无人机计算鲸鱼的体重。(由于气候变化的影响，鲸鱼吃不饱，因此全球有些鲸鱼种群正越变越瘦。） (Juvie's coming up on the left, mum's pooping.) One quick health check on this environment is to examine what's coming out of the animals that depend on krill. (Liquid gold! Is that what I think it is? It is exactly what you think it is and it smells exactly like you think it would. It's whale poo. Whale poo, yeah. ) (小家伙在左边，妈妈在排便。）要对这一环境进行快速的健康检查，可以检查一下以磷虾为生的动物体内排出了什么。(液体黄金！是我想的那样吗？和你想的一模一样，闻起来也和你想的一样。这是鲸鱼的便便。） By keeping a check on its gigantic residence, researchers hope to understand how to protect this fragile wilderness for all the wildlife here. 研究人员希望通过对其巨大的住所进行检查，了解如何为这里的所有野生动物保护这片脆弱的荒野 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】