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】

Culture World in a dish 文化的盘中世界 A moveable feast A new book celebrates Chinese food's spread and savour. 流动的盛宴 一本赞美中国菜传播和美味的新书。 About a decade ago, this correspondent attended a banquet in Guangzhou. The bird's nest soup was gentle and slithery, the sea cucumber rich and gelatinous and the fish sparklingly fresh and perfectly steamed. The most memorable dish, however, was the plain white cup of broth served at the end. Made from chicken, probably with ham and dried scallop as well, it was simple, austere and perfect. 大约十年前，记者在广州参加了一个宴会。燕窝汤温和而滑腻，海参丰富而胶状，鱼闪闪发光、新鲜而且蒸得恰到好处。然而，最令人难忘的一道菜是最后端上来的一杯白色的肉汤。由鸡肉制成，可能还有火腿和干扇贝，简单、朴素、完美。 Ending a banquet with soup may seem odd to Westerners, accustomed as they are to sweets at a meal's close. But, as Fuchsia Dunlop, an English food writer, explains in an authoritative new book, stock is a unique, intrinsic expression of a chef's art, much as a voice is for a singer. And the "transparent, almost invisible soup…in its quiet golden, ineffable loveliness" is an ideal conclusion to a banquet, with its opulence and strong flavours. 对于西方人来说，以汤来结束宴会似乎有些奇怪，因为他们习惯于在用餐结束时吃甜食。但是，正如英国美食作家福夏·邓洛普在一本权威新书中解释的那样，高汤是厨艺的一种独特的内在表达，就像声音对于歌手一样。“透明的，几乎看不见的汤…在它安静的金色中，不可言喻的可爱”是一个宴会的理想结尾，有着丰富和浓郁的味道。 "Invitation to a Banquet" is Ms Dunlop's seventh book. Unlike those for which she is best known, including "The Food of Sichuan" and "Revolutionary Kitchen" (about Hunanese cuisine), this is not a cookbook. Instead, she has chosen 30 dishes and used each to illuminate different aspects of Chinese cuisine-and, in turn, Chinese life and history. This is less of a departure for Ms Dunlop than it seems. Like other outsiders who spend their lives focused on a foreign cuisine-as Diana Kennedy, an English food writer, did in Mexico, or Paula Wolfert, an American, did in the Middle East-she is more a gatherer than an inventor of recipes. Ms Dunlop's well-researched cookbooks read as mini-ethnographies. 《宴会的邀请》是邓洛普女士的第七本书。不像她最著名的书，包括《川菜》和《革命厨房》（关于湘菜），这不是一本烹饪书。相反，她选择了30道菜，用每一道菜来展示中国烹饪的不同方面，进而展示中国的生活和历史。对邓洛普来说，这并不像看上去那样是离经叛道的行为。像其他致力于外国美食的外来者一样——如英国美食作家戴安娜·肯尼迪在墨西哥所做的，或美国人保拉·沃尔弗特在中东所做的——与其说她是食谱的发明者，不如说她是收集者。邓洛普女士精心研究的烹饪书读起来像是迷你民族志。 Readers will not learn how to make braised pomelo pith with shrimp eggs but how and why Chinese chefs have long prized unusual (and to Western palates, sometimes off-putting) ingredients, such as the bitter pith of a giant citrus fruit. An apparently humble, but in fact exceptionally laborious, dish of braised carp's tail is a jumping-off point for a discussion of the importance of kougan, or mouth-feel, in Chinese cuisine. 读者将学到的不是如何用虾卵烹制红烧柚子瓤，而是中国厨师如何以及为何长期以来一直珍视不寻常的（对于西方人的味觉来说有时是令人反感的）食材，如巨大柑橘类水果的苦瓤。红烧鲤鱼尾这道菜看似不起眼，实际上却异常费工，它是讨论口感在中国菜中的重要性的切入点。 Westerners, Ms Dunlop argues, "have traditionally assumed that the Chinese eat marginal animal parts out of poverty and desperation", when in fact turning up one's nose at gizzards, cartilage and jellyfish shuts the door on a range of foods that is wonderfully cui ("slippery and crunchy, often in a wet way"). 邓洛普女士认为，西方人“传统上认为中国人吃动物的边缘部分是出于贫穷和绝望”，而事实上，对胗、软骨和海蜇的嗤之以鼻，让人们对一系列奇妙的“脆”食物（"又滑又脆，通常是湿的"）望而却步。 In aggregate, Ms Dunlop makes a compelling case for the superiority of Chinese cuisine, and in a delighted and expansive rather than chauvinistic way. She shows how it has assimilated foreign influences (as other cuisines have, too), how it has changed with China's increasing wealth and how central it is to the country's intellectual and cultural history. 总之，邓洛普女士为中国菜的优越性提出了令人信服的理由，而且是以一种令人愉悦的、广阔的而非盲目爱国的方式提出的。她展示了中国菜是如何吸收外来影响的（其他菜系也是如此），中国菜是如何随着中国的日益富裕而变化的，以及中国菜在中国的思想和文化历史中是多么重要。 She makes an equally compelling case that what Westerners think of as "Chinese food", meaning what most can find at their local takeaway, is neither inauthentic nor wrong. Instead, it is a diasporic offshoot that reflects local tastes but is about as representative of the cuisine's diversity as a frozen pizza is of Italy's. Immigration and adventurousness have made the real thing more accessible than ever outside China. Eaters should savour that. 她提出了一个同样令人信服的案例，即西方人认为的“中国菜”，即大多数人在他们当地点到的外卖，并没有不正宗和不够意思。相反，它是一个散居的分支，反映了当地的口味，但与意大利的冷冻比萨饼一样代表了美食的多样性。移民和冒险精神使真正的东西比以往任何时候都更容易在中国境外找到。食客们应该好好品尝一下。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

The school run by kids Welcome to our school. At this school in Thailand, the kids are in charge. From taking assembly at the start of the day to checking uniforms. Many of the kids who come to the Mee Chai Pattana school are from poorer backgrounds. But this school has the environment at the heart of its mission. 欢迎来到我们的学校。在泰国的这所学校里，孩子们说了算。从一天开始的集合到检查校服。Mee Chai Pattana学校的许多孩子来自贫困家庭。但这所学校的使命是保护环境。 The students pay for their education by planting 800 trees a year. They're also responsible for doing 400 hours of community service each year. Smichai Pattana School is also known as the Bamboo School because many of the school buildings are constructed from bamboo, a fast-growing plant that is common in Thailand. We don't have a janitor in our schools, so the work has to be done by the students. 学生们通过每年植树 800 棵来支付学费。此外，他们还负责每年400小时的社区服务。Smichai Pattana 学校也被称为竹子学校，因为许多学校建筑是用竹子建造的，竹子是一种在泰国很常见的快速生长的植物。我们学校没有清洁工，所以工作必须由学生来做。 The idea behind the school is to inspire a future generation of leaders. I really love it here because it's a lot of difference to other schools. It's a boarding school and it teaches me a lot of experience that I never learned before. And I meet new friends, they are all good to me. 学校的理念是激励未来一代的领导者。我非常喜欢这里，因为它与其他学校有很大不同。这是一所寄宿学校，它让我学到了很多以前从未学到过的经验。我还认识了新朋友，他们对我都很好。 So this is English classroom. While teachers are still responsible for leading the lessons, the students choose who teaches them. And decisions about rules and discipline are down to the student council. Even the school dinners are organised by the pupils, while older students serve the meals and everyone is in charge of their own washing up. Any dirt left on your plate and you're sent back to wash it again. I think I'd fit right in. My washing up skills are impeccable. 这就是英语课堂。虽然教师仍然负责授课，但由学生选择授课人。校规和纪律由学生会决定。就连学校的晚餐也是由学生组织的，高年级学生负责盛饭，每个人都负责自己的洗碗工作。如果盘子里有残留污渍，就会被送回去再洗一遍。我觉得我很适合到那里。我的洗碗技术无可挑剔。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

In every language, there's one word which has special power over us: our name. Our senses, feelings and whole identity are closely linked to our name. Yet strangely, our name isn't usually something we choose – it's given to us by our parents. But what if the name you were given at birth doesn't fit? Maybe you simply don't like it, or maybe there are bigger reasons for wanting to change your name, reasons connected with historical injustices, or unfair events in the past. In this programme, we'll be meeting two people whose family history has caused them to consider changing their name. And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. Sounds good, Beth, but first I have a question for you. My name – Neil – is a British name and was given to me at birth. But names change a lot between cultures and religions. Many Muslim boys are named Mohammed, Indian boys are often called Ram or Krishna, and in Mexico, some boys are named Jesus. So according to a recent global survey, what is currently the world's most popular boys' name? Is it: a) Jesus? b) Mohammed? or, c) Noah? Hmm, I guess it's Mohammed. OK Beth, I'll reveal the answer at the end of the programme. In Britain, a person's first name is also called their Christian name, and in Christianity, many names have a religious meaning. The name John, for example, means 'God is good'. Anderson Jeremiah is the Bishop of Edmonton. He was born in South India, but he doesn't have a traditional Indian sounding name. Here, Bishop Jeremiah explains the roots of his name to BBC World Service programme, Heart and Soul: It was the name of one John Anderson. He was the first educational missionary who came and worked and set up several schools in South India, who had very noble ambitions, but also as with any missionaries, he was a big collaborator of the colonial establishment at that point in time, so he has a very a strong baggage that goes with it. So, Anderson is my Christian name, and Jeremiah is my dad's name. Bishop Anderson Jeremiah's name comes from another man, John Anderson, a Christian missionary during the British empire. The history of the British empire in India is controversial with many views on all sides. Bishop Jeremiah thinks that some of the empire's missionaries were noble, meaning admirable or morally good. But nevertheless, John Anderson was part of a violent and exploitative empire. Bishop Jeremiah uses the word baggage to describe the beliefs, especially outdated or unhelpful beliefs, which influence how people think. Emotional baggage tends to influence the feelings of one individual, while historical baggage can affect whole societies. In India, names serve an important purpose: to signify social status. Low-status Indians, including Bishop Anderson's grandparents, escaped social discrimination by converting to Christianity and taking another, Christian, name. But elsewhere in the British Empire, names were connected with something completely unchristian: slavery. Black British writer, Professor Robert Beckford, is an activist theologian at the University of Winchester. His surname – Beckford - is a slave name, passed down from his enslaved African ancestors in 18th century Jamaica. Here, Professor Beckford talks to BBC World Service programme, Heart and Soul, about his decision to name his son, Micah: My son is named Micah, Micah Beckford, after one of the prophets, so I do like the idea of people in the Biblical tradition who speak truth to power, who ruffle people's feathers, who challenge the injustice. I haven't thought of giving myself a biblical name. I could never find a name that really resonated with me. The phrase to speak truth to power describes times when people non-violently resist an oppressive force, such as a government or corporation, by telling the truth. And if you ruffle someone's feathers, you upset or annoy them. Maybe it's not so much your name, as what you do with it that counts. Anyway, it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil. Yes, I asked you which boys' name is currently the world's most popular, and you guessed Mohammed, which was… the correct answer! Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with injustice, a situation lacking fairness or justice. In British English, your Christian name is your first name, the name you were given at birth. The adjective noble means admirable or morally good. Baggage refers to beliefs and feelings, especially outdated or unhelpful ones, which influence how someone thinks. The idiom speak truth to power describes when people non-violently resist an oppressive force, such as a government or corporation, by telling the truth. And finally, to ruffle someone's feathers means to upset or annoy them. Once again, our six minutes are up, but remember to join us again next time for more trending topics and 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】

A brief history to coffee Globally, over two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. In Britain alone, we need around 95 million cups to keep us going from dawn 'til dusk. But 450 years ago, Western Europe had barely even heard of it. Coffee's roots lie in Ethiopia, where the wild plant grew. People slowly started to realise that the dried fruit, when roasted and ground, could be used to produce a beverage which was curiously addictive, and gave its drinker a bit of a buzz. 全球每天消费的咖啡超过 20 亿杯。仅在英国，我们就需要约 9500 万杯咖啡，才能从清晨一直喝到黄昏。但在 450 年前，西欧甚至还没听说过咖啡。咖啡起源于埃塞俄比亚，那里生长着一种野生植物。人们慢慢开始意识到，这种干果经烘焙和研磨后，可以用来制作一种饮料，这种饮料会让人上瘾，喝了之后还能让人兴奋。 Coffee is, let's face it, an acquired taste. Early Western drinkers were fascinated by it, recognising its potential as a drink which was ideal for business. Wine and beer were great, but they weren't always conducive to delicate negotiations which required a clear head. When Westerners brought the drink back to Britain, reactions were polarised, including one description of it as, "Pluto's diet-drink, that witches tipple out of dead men's skulls." 让我们面对现实吧，咖啡是一种后天养成的嗜好。早期的西方饮者对咖啡情有独钟，他们认识到咖啡作为一种理想的商务饮品的潜力。葡萄酒和啤酒固然不错，但它们并不总是有利于需要清醒头脑的微妙谈判。当西方人把这种饮料带回英国时，人们对它的反应两极分化，有人形容它是“冥王星的减肥饮料，巫师们从死人头骨中提取的小酒。” The first coffee house in the UK opened in Oxford in 1651, followed by London, and they quickly became sort of proto-clubs. There were coffee houses for all sorts - from bankers to merchants, literati to men about town, and they were often heavily politicised. Charles II tried to ban them for encouraging sedition. Many subscribed to journals and newspapers for their clientele and, since a dish of coffee cost only a penny, they became known as the 'penny universities'. They were, however, only for men, and coffee quickly became seen as a masculine drink. Even today, men drink more coffee than women. 英国的第一家咖啡馆于 1651 年在牛津开张，随后在伦敦开张，它们很快就成了一种原生态俱乐部。从银行家到商人，从文人雅士到市井小民，各种各样的人都有咖啡馆，而且这些咖啡馆往往被严重政治化。查理二世曾试图以煽动叛乱为由取缔咖啡馆。许多咖啡馆为顾客订阅期刊和报纸，由于一碟咖啡只需一便士，因此被称为“便士大学”。然而，这些大学只为男性开设，咖啡很快就被视为一种男性饮品。时至今日，男性喝咖啡的数量仍多于女性。 The taste still put many people off, but the British habit of drinking it with milk and sugar, like their tea, helped. By the 18th Century it was established as a part of British life, emerging out of coffee houses and into its place as an after-dinner drink. In the 19th Century coffee was still pretty bad, until the Italian invention of the espresso machine which forced pressurised water through a small amount of ground beans - a huge step forward from simply steeping coffee and filtering it, and then keeping it warm for hours until needed. Italian coffee culture, with its futuristic and gleaming coffee machines and aura of effortless cool, spread across the Western world. Their rules, well... ruled - including tenets such as never drink a cappuccino after lunch. 咖啡的味道仍然让很多人望而却步，但是英国人喝茶的习惯是加牛奶和糖，就像他们喝茶一样。到了18世纪，它已经成为英国生活的一部分，走出咖啡馆，成为餐后饮料。在19世纪，咖啡味道仍然很差，直到意大利发明了浓缩咖啡机，高压水注入少量磨碎的咖啡豆--这比简单地浸泡咖啡、过滤咖啡，然后保温数小时直至需要时才饮用的做法向前迈进了一大步。意大利的咖啡文化，以其未来主义和闪闪发光的咖啡机和毫不费力的酷光环，传播到整个西方世界。他们的规矩，呃... 规矩包括午饭后不能喝卡布奇诺。 The last 20 years have seen the rise of new types of coffee - long, flavoured American drinks, along with the Antipodean flat whites. We've also adopted a new way of drinking it. Wandering down the street coffee cup in hand is such a ubiquitous sight now that it's hard to remember this is a recent fad. It's a fundamental part of hipster identity - along with beards and vintage cardis, knowing your cold brew from your nitro is vital. Society - and coffee - have moved on a lot in 450 years. But some things haven't changed. So, here's to coffee, with a side of sedition, sociability and amazing cool. 在过去的20年里，新型咖啡兴起了——时间长、味道浓的美国饮料，还有澳大利亚的扁平白咖啡。我们还采用了一种新的饮用方式。现在，手持咖啡杯漫步街头已成为一种无处不在的景象，很难让人想起这是最近才兴起的时尚。这是潮人身份的一个基本组成部分--与胡子和复古卡其裤一样，了解冷萃氮气咖啡至关重要。450年来，社会和咖啡都发生了很大的变化。但是有些事情并没有改变。所以，为咖啡干杯，它有煽动性、社会性和惊人的酷。 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】