英音听力｜BBC & 经济学人等 - 节目列表

Who is Kamala Harris? You may have heard the name Kamala Harris quite a bit recently, but who is she? Kamala Harris is likely to be the Democratic candidate in the US election happening in November. That means that she could be going head to head with Donald Trump, and one of them would then become the new president. 你最近可能经常听到卡玛拉·哈里斯这个名字，但她到底是谁呢？卡玛拉·哈里斯很可能成为11月美国大选的民主党候选人。这意味着她可能会与唐纳德·特朗普正面交锋，然后他们中的一个会成为新任总统。 But who is Kamala Harris? Here are some facts. She's a history maker. In 2021, Kamala Harris became vice president of the United States after she and President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last." She was the first ever female vice president and one of only three women to have ever been nominated. She was also the first ever nonwhite vice president. 卡玛拉·哈里斯是谁？以下是一些事实。她是一位创造历史的人。2021年，卡玛拉·哈里斯和乔·拜登总统一起击败了唐纳德·特朗普，从而当选为美国副总统。“虽然我可能是这个办公室的第一位女性，但我绝不会是最后一位。”哈里斯是美国历史上的第一位女性副总统，也是仅有的三位获得提名的女性之一。她还是史上第一位非白人副总统。 She grew up in California, in America. Her dad is from Jamaica and her mum is from India. She has one younger sister. She went to law school and then became the attorney general, which made her the top lawyer and lawmaker in all of America. She's also been a member of the US Senate, which is an important part of the US government which makes laws. 她在美国加州长大。她爸爸来自牙买加，妈妈来自印度。她有一个妹妹。哈里斯上了法学院，然后成为了司法部长，这让她成为了全美顶尖的律师和立法者。她也是美国参议院的成员，参议院是美国政府的重要组成部分，主要负责制定法律。 She actually wanted to run for president back in 2019, but lost out to her soon to be political partner, Joe Biden. So what are people saying about her chances? As vice president, she was tasked with looking at immigration, but opponents say she hasn't got to grips with the issue during her time in the job. While supporters say she's the right candidate as she's had a successful career prosecuting criminals. 早在2019年，哈里斯就想竞选总统，但输给了她即将成为政治伙伴的乔·拜登。人们对哈里斯胜选的机会有什么看法？作为副总统，她的任务是关注移民问题，但反对者表示，她在任职期间并没有认真处理这个问题。而支持者则表示，她是正确的候选人，因为她在追诉罪犯方面取得了成功。 If she wins the election, she will make history once again as the first female president. 如果哈里斯赢得了选举，她将再次创造历史，成为美国第一位女总统。 词汇表 Democratic candidate 民主党候选人：指参加美国民主党总统候选人提名竞选的人。 go head to head with 与……正面交锋，与……竞争：指与某人或某物直接对抗或竞争。 history maker 创造历史的人 vice president 副总统：一位在总统之后排名第二的官员，通常有权在总统无法履职时代理总统职务。 nonwhite 非白人的；非白人 Jamaica 牙买加（加勒比岛国） attorney general 司法部长，首席检查官 top lawyer 顶级律师，首席律师 lawmaker 立法委员，国会议员 Senate 参议院：美国、澳大利亚、加拿大、法国等国家的两个立法机构之一 lose out to 输给，处于劣势 soon to be 即将成为……的 get to grips with 认真处理，着手对付（问题或局面） prosecute criminals 追诉罪犯，追究犯罪责任 ★原视频见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

The science of falling in love 'Head over heels', 'butterflies in the tummy', 'the apple of my eye' – in English there are many idioms to describe what it feels like to fall in love. Aww, I didn't know you were such a romantic, Neil! But do you know what's actually happening in our brains when we fall in love? Because I'm sorry to say this, Neil, but it's more about brain chemistry than romance – specifically hormones, chemical messengers which the body releases into the blood to control our growth, mood, and yes – falling in love. Thanks for ruining my romantic ideas, Beth! And since my dreams are now shattered, why don't we spend the rest of this programme finding out exactly what is going on inside our bodies and brains when we fall in love. And, of course, learn some useful new vocabulary too. There's no doubt that being in love has the health benefit of reducing stress, even lengthening your life, but the hormones which the brain releases have an immediate effect as well. So, chemically speaking, what happens when lovers look into each others' eyes? Is it: a) their body temperature increases? b) their heartbeats harmonise? or, c) the hairs stand up on the back of their neck? Hmmm, is it… all three? No? OK then, I'll guess it's b) their heartbeats harmonise. OK, we'll find out if that's correct at the end of the programme. According to Helen E Fisher, self-help author and anthropologist at Rutgers University, there are three aspects of romantic love. Here's BBC Ideas to explain more: Often lust comes first, but not always. For some people who are asexual, it may not happen at all. But for those who do experience lust, it's driven by the hormones oestrogen and testosterone. It may feel purely carnal, but in fact it's about the urge to mate and pass on your DNA via offspring. Without lust, it's fair to say our species would not survive. Helen Fisher thinks the first aspect of love is purely physical – lust, the strong feeling of sexual desire for someone. Lust is driven by the hormones oestrogen in women, and testosterone in men. A few people are asexual, meaning they don't feel sexual attraction for anyone of any gender. Lust is hardwired into us through our DNA and it drives us to have children. Helen thinks it's fair to say that without lust, our species would not survive. Here, she uses the phrase it's fair to say to introduce an idea she believes to be true and reasonable. Of course, love is not just physical. Here's BBC Ideas again to introduce Helen Fisher's second aspect of love, attraction: The second aspect of romantic love is attraction, influenced by a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This is a feel-good substance released in our brain that is involved in driving us towards reward. Do something, get a dopamine hit, feel good. Eventually dopamine will push us toward repeating that behaviour. This is why intense attraction feels like an addiction to another human being. Some people get stuck in that loop, always chasing the dopamine-soaked excitement of a new relationship. This time, the hormone responsible is dopamine, a neurotransmitter that rewards our attraction to someone with pleasurable feelings. That's why dopamine is called a feel-good substance. The adjective feel-good can be used to describe anything causing happy and optimistic feelings about life, things like feel-good films or feel-good music. Here, though, there's a downside. The dopamine 'hit' of sexual attraction feels so good, we crave it more and more. Some people are always chasing the next relationship to get a new 'hit' of pleasure, and soon become stuck in a loop – an idiom meaning they're unable to break the habit of repeating the same patterns of behaviour over and over again. It's fascinating to see the power which hormones have over us, but if you're an old-fashioned romantic like Neil, don't despair. And speaking as a romantic, how about the answer to my question… Right, you asked me about the effect on the body when two lovers look deep into each others' eyes. I guessed it was that their heartbeats harmonise. Which was… the correct answer! In experiments, looking into the eyes produced hormones causing couple's hearts to beat in time. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme starting with the idiom head over heels – to be completely in love with someone. Lust is a very strong feeling of sexual desire. Someone who is asexual does not feel sexual attraction towards anyone of any gender. The phrase, it's fair to say, is used to introduce a statement you believe to be true and reasonable. The adjective feel-good describes something which makes people feel happy and optimistic. And finally, the idiom stuck in a loop describes someone unable to break the habit of repeating the same negative patterns of behaviour over and over again. ★字数限制，翻译见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

What would Freud make of our obsession with selfies? Go to any of the most beautiful places in the world, and you'll see people taking pictures... of themselves. We think of this as a new thing. Selfie only made it into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, when it quickly became word of the year. But selfies are about as old as photography. The first was taken in 1839 by an American named Robert Cornelius. So why have we used photography, this miraculous invention, to take pictures of something we can see in our bathroom mirror every morning? Something odd is clearly going on. And who better to explain human oddities than Sigmund Freud? 去世界上任何一个最美丽的地方，你都会看到人们在拍……自己。我们认为这是一个新事物。2013年，Selfie（自拍）才被收入《牛津英语词典》，并迅速成为年度热词。但自拍和摄影一样古老。第一张自拍照片是1839年由美国人罗伯特·科尼利厄斯拍的。那么，为什么我们要用摄影这个神奇的发明，来拍摄我们每天早上在浴室镜子里看到的东西呢? 奇怪的事情显然正在发生。还有谁比西格蒙德·弗洛伊德更能解释人类的奇怪呢？ Freud invented psychoanalysis and popularised many ideas like the ego, the unconscious, and talking to a therapist. One of those ideas is narcissism, or excessive self-love. In a Greek myth, a young man called Narcissus sees his reflection in a pool and spends so long staring at his own beauty that he loses touch with the rest of the world, and eventually drowns trying to embrace his own image in the water. 弗洛伊德发明了精神分析学，并普及了许多观念，如自我、潜意识和与谈话疗法。其中一个概念就是自恋，或者说过度的自爱。在一个希腊神话中，一个叫纳西索斯的年轻人在水池中看到了自己的倒影，他长时间凝视着自己的美貌，以至于与世界失去了联系，最终为了拥抱自己在水中的映像而溺水身亡。 Freud thought that a bit of self-love was a natural part of being human. But Freud also thought that self-love can turn into a psychological disorder, when someone loves himself to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. And that's what we usually mean by narcissism. Psychologists have developed tests for measuring personality traits like narcissism. Here are some results. Narcissists do tend to be more active on social media. And posting selfies is strongly related to narcissism - but only if you're a man. Women tend to be less narcissistic than men, even though women post more selfies. 弗洛伊德认为有点自爱是人类天性的一部分。但是弗洛伊德也认为自爱可以变成一种心理障碍，当一个人爱自己的时候，他会把所有人和所有事情都排除在外。这就是我们通常所说的自恋。心理学家已经开发出测试自恋等人格特征的测试。这里有一些结果。自恋者在社交媒体上的确更加活跃。发布自拍与自恋有很大关系——但只有在你是男性的情况下。女性往往不比男性自恋，尽管女性发布的自拍照更多。 Perhaps more worryingly, narcissism is rising. The psychologist Jean Twenge has shown that, over the past few decades, it's risen at roughly the same rate as obesity. Freud derived most of his insights from everyday life observations, so he would have been very interested in all this data. He would have concluded that narcissism is only part of what's going on in the rise of selfie culture. Some people are posting selfies not because they're in love with themselves, but because they want other people to be in love with them. 也许更令人担忧的是，自恋情结正在上升。心理学家让·特文格的研究表明，在过去几十年里，自恋的上升速度与肥胖的上升速度大致相同。弗洛伊德的大部分见解来自于对日常生活的观察，因此他会对所有这些数据非常感兴趣。他会得出这样的结论：自恋只是自拍文化兴起的一部分原因。有些人发布自拍照并不是因为他们爱上了自己，而是因为他们希望其他人爱上他们。 Freud would have seen that need for approval as neurotic or hysterical. Freud began his career in the late 1800s, a much more sexually repressed time. Men and women were kept strictly separated. And they were taught to be ashamed of feeling... sexy. Many of Freud's female patients in Viennese high society suffered from 'hysterical paralysis' - an inability to walk that had no physical cause. Freud believed that these women were, without knowing it, stopping themselves from walking because they wanted attention. 弗洛伊德会认为这种对认可的需求是神经质的或歇斯底里的。弗洛伊德的职业生涯开始于19世纪晚期，那是一个犹为性压抑的时代。男人和女人被严格分开。他们被教导要为性感的感觉感到羞耻。弗洛伊德的许多女性患者在维也纳上流社会遭受“癔症性瘫痪”——无法行走，但没有身体原因。弗洛伊德认为，这些女人在不自觉的情况下，阻止自己走路，是因为她们想引起别人的注意。 So, if we need attention so badly that we'll paralyse ourselves for it, why not post a few selfies? Isn't that better? Well, Freud would find something unhealthy about selfies - not just because of what they say about the people taking them, but also because of what they do to the people seeing them. Selfies show people's best moments, carefully curated and heavily stage-managed. So we're increasingly surrounded by images of other people's apparently perfect lives and bodies. 所以，如果我们迫切需要关注，以至于我们会为此麻痹自己，为什么不发几张自拍照呢？这样不是更好吗？弗洛伊德会发现自拍有一些不健康的地方——不仅是因为自拍者的表现，还因为自拍对看到自拍的人造成的影响。自拍展示了人们最美好的时刻，经过精心策划和刻意安排。因此，我们越来越多地被他人表面上完美的生活和身体的图像所包围。 Recent studies show that this makes us feel more envy, inadequacy, isolation and insecurity. Making us, in Freud's terms, more neurotic. Freud said, "the aim of psychoanalysis is to replace neurotic with ordinary human unhappiness." So next time you reach for the camera, remember Narcissus and focus on your friends instead. You may not get as many likes, but you'll get a thumbs up from Freud. 最近的研究表明，这让我们感到更多的嫉妒、信心不足、孤立和不安全感。用弗洛伊德的话说，让我们变得更加神经质。弗洛伊德说：“精神分析的目的是用普通人的不快乐取代神经质。所以下次你拿起相机的时候，记住纳西索斯，把注意力放在你的朋友身上。你可能不会得到那么多的赞，但你会得到弗洛伊德竖起的大拇指。 ★原视频及更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Bear Cubs' First Trip to the Seaside A mother black bear is looking for something suitable for her cubs. This is their first-ever trip to the seaside. In a few hours, the tide will return, so they must keep up with Mum. 一只黑熊妈妈正在为它的幼崽寻找合适的食物。这是它们第一次来到海边。再过几个小时，潮水就会退去，所以它们必须跟上妈妈的脚步。 Here's something tasty — crabs. Big crabs can give a nasty nip, so it's best to start off with smaller ones. During spring, three-quarters of the bears' food comes from the beach. 这里有些好吃的东西——螃蟹。大螃蟹咬起来很难受，所以最好从小螃蟹开始。在春天，熊四分之三的食物来自海滩。 But now this family is not alone. An adult male. He's double her size and they're in his territory. The cubs know that call. It's time to head for safety. 但现在这一家子并不孤单。一只成年公熊。他的体型是她的两倍，他们在他的领地里。幼熊们清楚这个叫声。是时候移往安全地带了。 Bears have poor eyesight, but their sense of smell is acute and the male has detected intruders. He knows exactly which tree they are in. If the cubs stay up there, they'll be safe but they're losing precious feeding time. For now, he's content to leave his scent mark, a warning note for trespassers. 熊的视力很差，但它们的嗅觉很敏锐，且公熊已经察觉到了入侵者。他确切地知道他们在哪棵树上。如果幼崽呆在上面，它们会很安全，但它们正在失去宝贵的进食时间。现在，他满足地留下自己的气味痕迹，以作为对闯入者的警告。 The family moves on. For the cubs, lunch today will have to be a takeaway. The tide comes in and within minutes, feeding time is over for another day. 一家人继续前进。对于幼熊来说，今天的午餐只能是外带了。涨潮了，几分钟后，又一天的进食时间结束了。 ★视频版见见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Sleep study: Simple sleep tweaks boost wellbeing Life can be hard for night owls. Their bodies are hard-wired to stay up late into the night. And a morning alarm clock can force them to get up for work hours before their body is ready. 生活对于夜猫子来说可能会比较艰难。他们的身体天生就会熬夜。早晨的闹钟总是迫使他们在自己身体准备好之前起床工作。 The study looked at 21 people who were regularly going to bed after 2am. They were instructed to get up and go to bed at the same times every day, do so hours earlier than usual, get loads of sunlight in the morning and have fixed meal times. 这项研究对21名经常在凌晨两点以后睡觉的人进行了跟踪调查。研究人员要求他们每天在相同的时间起床和睡觉 —— 这比平时早几个小时，上午多晒太阳，用餐时间也要固定。 On average people shifted their body clocks two hours earlier, were getting the same total shuteye but were reporting lower levels of sleepiness, stress and depression. The researchers said their methods may seem like obvious advice for good sleep hygiene, but they were surprised how effective such relatively simple strategies were. 平均来看，他们的生物钟提前了两个小时，总体睡眠时间和以往相同，但困倦、压力和抑郁的程度有所降低。研究人员说，虽然他们的方法看似是对养成良好睡眠卫生习惯最直白的建议，但他们对这个相对简单的方法的效果感到惊讶。 词汇表 词汇表tweak （对机器、系统等的）轻微调整 night owls 夜猫子 hard-wired 本能的，天生的 alarm clock 闹钟 instruct 指示，要求 sunlight 日光，阳光 fixed meal times 固定用餐时间 body clocks 生物钟 shuteye （俚）睡眠 sleepiness 困倦，睡意 sleep hygiene 睡眠健康，睡眠卫生 ★更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

The benefits of being an introvert From a young age, many of us learn the benefits of being an extrovert – those gregarious individuals who always seem to be the life and soul of the party, often outspoken and able to express their opinions easily. However, not all of us are wired that way – so is being an extrovert really better? 从很小的时候起，我们中的许多人就知道了外向的好处——那些善于交际的人似乎总是聚会的生命和灵魂，经常直言不讳，能够轻松地表达自己的观点。然而，并不是所有人都是这样的——那么外向的人真的更好吗? While thinking of extroverts, we imagine a character who is assertive, approachable, cheerful and charming. We are taught to admire these traits early on. Kids are often encouraged to interact, play and communicate with other children. It seems at times as though children are made to embrace a more outgoing lifestyle, with some people becoming pseudo-extroverts – introverts who mimic extrovert behaviour. While externally they may seem to enjoy the company of others, or being in the limelight, they can still become over-extended in intense social situations. 一想到外向的人，我们就会想到一个自信、平易近人、开朗、迷人的人。我们从小就被教导要欣赏这些品质。孩子们经常被鼓励与其他孩子互动、玩耍和交流。有时候，似乎孩子们被要求接受一种更外向的生活方式，有些人变成了伪外向者——内向的人模仿外向的行为。虽然从外表上看，他们似乎喜欢别人的陪伴，或者成为众人瞩目的焦点，但在紧张的社交场合，他们仍然会变得过度紧张。 So, while the positive aspects of being an extrovert are plain to see, what are the benefits of introversion? While extroverts thrive on social interaction, introverts are more comfortable with levels of isolation. According to Dr Berit Brogaard, a professor of philosophy, extreme solitude, such as times like the recent lockdown, does not affect introverts as much as extroverts. Lack of social contact, something extroverts thrive on, can lead to depression, loneliness, and even premature death. 所以，虽然外向的积极方面显而易见，但内向的好处是什么？外向的人在社交互动中获取能量，而内向的人则更享受独自一人的状态。哲学教授贝里特·布罗加德博士表示，极端的孤独（比如最近的封城）对内向者的影响不如外向者大。外向者最喜欢与人接触，而缺乏社交接触会导致抑郁、孤独，甚至过早死亡。 But it's not just in an extreme situation that the pros of being an introvert shine through. These people seem to have more time for contemplation and introspection and thus can become more balanced. They also tend to be good listeners and think before they speak, meaning they could become great friends. Finally, introverts are often fantastic observers, as sitting out of the focus can give you more time to watch the behaviour of others. 但并非只有在极端情况下，内向者的优势才会显现出来。这些人似乎有更多的时间来沉思和自省，因此可以变得更加平衡。他们也是很好的倾听者，说话前会三思，这意味着他们可以成为很好的朋友。最后，内向的人往往是出色的观察者，因为远离焦点可以让你有更多的时间观察别人的行为。 So, whatever your personality, either introvert or extrovert, there are clear advantages to being either, and if you meet an introvert, you might just end up with an amazing friend. 所以，无论你的性格是内向还是外向，都有明显的优势，如果你遇到一个内向的人，你可能会交到一个很棒的朋友。 词汇表 gregarious 爱交际的 life and soul of the party 社交场合的灵魂人物 outspoken 坦率的，直率的 assertive 坚定自信的 approachable 平易近人的 cheerful 乐观开朗的 charming 迷人的 trait （性格）特点 encourage 鼓励 interact 互动，相互交流 outgoing 开朗外向的 pseudo 假冒的，伪的 mimic 模仿 over-extended 吃不消，压力过大 thrive on 靠…获取能量 solitude 孤独 contemplation 沉思 introspection 反思 ★更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Utopia: the search for a perfect world Utopianism is the ism of utopias. It means a belief or interest in a perfect world - or at least a world designed to be perfect. The word 'utopia' was coined in 1516 by Sir Thomas More - writer, saint and opponent of Henry the VIII's marriage plans - in his book of the same name. Utopia has been taken by some people at face value as a book about a perfect land. But others point to the fact that the word 'utopia' literally means no place and that the book is a satire. But that hasn't stopped people. 乌托邦主义是乌托邦的主义。它意味着对一个完美世界的信念或兴趣——或者至少是一个被设计成完美的世界。“乌托邦”这个词是1516年由作家、圣人、亨利八世婚姻计划的反对者托马斯·莫尔爵士在他的同名著作中创造的。有些人从表面上认为《乌托邦》是一本描写完美国度的书。但也有人指出，“乌托邦”这个词的字面意思是没有地方，这本书是一部讽刺作品。但这并没有阻止人们。 Through the years there has been all sorts of ideas about a perfect society. Economic utopias with no poverty... ecological utopias where humans live in harmony with nature and so on and so forth. Many cultures and religions have a myth of a perfect society in the past, like the Garden of Eden. Communes, music festivals and naturist camps could all be seen as attempts to create a mini utopia on Earth. There are many kinds of utopias but one of the central qualities of any utopia, paradoxically, is that it doesn't exist. 多年来，关于完美社会有各种各样的想法。没有贫困的经济乌托邦...人类与自然和谐相处的生态乌托邦等等。许多文化和宗教在过去都有一个完美社会的神话，比如伊甸园。公社、音乐节和裸体主义者营地都可以被视为在地球上创造一个迷你乌托邦的尝试。乌托邦有很多种，但矛盾的是，任何乌托邦的核心特质之一就是它并不存在。 Being a utopianist essentially means being a dreamer. When John Lennon sang, "You may say I'm a dreamer" in his famous hit single and utopian anthem, Imagine, he was referring to exactly this quality. Utopianism's main flaw is its obsession with perfection. This can lead to absurdities like the Soviet Russian belief that one day all crime would be eradicated because under true socialism crime would not be necessary. Or the more sinister belief in fascist ideologies that racial purity would eliminate all evil from society. 乌托邦主义者本质上意味着梦想家。当约翰·列侬在他著名的热门单曲和乌托邦颂歌《想象》中唱“你可以说我是一个梦想家”时，他指的正是这种品质。乌托邦主义的主要缺陷在于对完美的痴迷。这可能会导致一些荒谬的事情发生，比如苏联人相信有一天所有的犯罪都会被消灭，因为在真正的社会主义制度下，犯罪是没有必要的。或者法西斯主义意识形态中更险恶的信念，即种族纯洁将消除社会中的一切邪恶。 Perhaps this is why much discussion of the topic is now confined to utopianism's dark side - dystopianism, a way of describing worlds, real or imaginary, in entirely negative terms. From George Orwell's 1984 to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, dystopian fiction has become increasingly popular in books, films and television. But interest in utopias isn't going anywhere - references within books have been on a steady rise since the 1900s with clear spikes in the 60s and also - perhaps surprisingly - in the 80s. 也许这就是为什么现在对这个话题的许多讨论都局限于乌托邦主义的黑暗面——反乌托邦主义，一种用完全负面的语言描述现实或想象世界的方式。从乔治·奥威尔的《1984》到玛格丽特·阿特伍德的《使女的故事》，反乌托邦小说在书籍、电影和电视中越来越受欢迎。但对乌托邦的兴趣并没有消失——自20世纪以来，书籍中对乌托邦的的引用一直在稳步上升，60年代出现了明显的峰值，80年代也出现了峰值，这或许令人惊讶。 And who could deny the perfection of the world - at least in microcosm - as you sit by an ocean and listen to the sound of the waves crashing on a beach. Or when you first see a blanket of bluebells in the spring. And without at least striving for a better world, where would we be? In chains, with rats chewing off our faces, that's where. 当你坐在海边，听着海浪拍打海滩的声音时，谁能否认世界的完美——至少在微观世界里是这样。或者，当你在春天第一次看到一片风铃草时。如果不努力创造一个更美好的世界，我们将何去何从？戴着镣铐，被老鼠啃食脸颊，就是这样。 词汇表 utopianism 乌托邦主义，空想的社会改良方案 utopia 乌托邦，理想国，空想的完美境界 saint 圣人，圣徒，道德高尚的人 satire 讽刺，讽刺作品 so on and so forth 等等，诸如此类 Garden of Eden (《圣经》中所说亚当和夏娃所住的)伊甸园 commune 公社，群居团体 naturist 裸体主义者（指认为裸体有益身心的人） paradoxically 矛盾地，荒谬地 utopianist 乌托邦主义者，空想家 anthem 颂歌，赞歌 absurdity 荒谬的事，荒唐事 Soviet Russian 苏联（人） eradicate/eliminate 根除，消灭 sinister 邪恶的，不祥的 fascist 法西斯主义者 racial purity 种族纯化，种族纯粹 dystopianism 反乌托邦主义 handmaid 女仆，侍女 spike 猛增，峰值 microcosm 微观世界，缩影 a blanket of bluebells 一片风铃草 chew off 嚼断，咬掉 ★原视频及更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

The hidden life of buffets Have you ever been to an all-you-can-eat buffet, Sam? You know – a meal in a restaurant where you can eat as much food as you like. Yes, I went to an Indian buffet once. I didn't eat all day before the meal, but I only managed to finish three or four plates… well, maybe five! It sounds like your eyes were bigger than your belly, or stomach – a phrase describing someone who has taken more food than they can eat. In this programme we'll be discussing buffets – a feast of many different food dishes where diners are allowed to eat as much as they want – or as much as their stomachs will allow. And, of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well. The popularity of buffets is booming, especially in Middle Eastern and Asian countries where the variety of foods means there's something for everyone. But feasts are big and boastful - usually too much is cooked, and buffets have been criticised for waste. We'll hear more soon, but first I have a question for you, Sam. The word 'buffet' originated from the French name for the table on which food was served, but buffets themselves don't come from France. So in which country did buffets begin? Was it: a) The United States of America, b) Sweden or c) China? Well, the US is famous for supersizing food so I'll guess a) America. OK, Sam. We'll find out the answer later in the programme. John Wood, owner of cooking company Kitchen Cut, knows a lot about buffets – he used to run a one thousand seat breakfast buffet at the five-star Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai. Here John shares his observations on human buffet behaviour with BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain. There are different people that treat buffets in different ways. Some people think this is a great opportunity to try little bits and lots of everything, and we come back as many times as I like. And other people just - whether they don't like getting up and down, which is understandable from their table - just want to pile it high, and people they want to get value for money. So, if you're paying $100, $200 a head for a buffet, you're gonna pile it up high and take the most expensive things you can you know, and get your money's worth. John says buffet diners want to get their money's worth – get good value for the money they spend, so they often pile up food on their plate. If you pile something up, you gather a large amount of it into one place to build what's called a pile. But buffets are not just about eating until you explode - they're also an opportunity to show off to your friends. Weddings are big in India, and usually include a buffet. The richer the people getting married, the bigger the buffet, sometimes inviting as many as five thousand guests. If each guest eats around six dishes, we're taking about a seriously big buffet! Sandeep Sreedharan is a wedding caterer from Goa in South India – he owns a company which provides the food and drink for special social occasions. Here he talks with Ruth Alexander, presenter of BBC World Service, The Food Programme, about organising an Indian wedding buffet: It's a very vicious circle, I think, right? Everybody wants to overwhelm everybody around you. --OK. That's the aim. They are out to impress - they want to 'wow' the guests - knock their socks off. --Knock their socks off. They should just go back saying, 'I couldn't eat even half of it!', you know. Some people just come for eating. They don't even worry about who's wedding it is … They know that… 'Who's the caterer?'. Ah, these guys are catering. Oh my God, this is gonna be great. Wedding buffets are designed to amaze and overwhelm the guests with their huge displays of food. They need to 'wow' the guests, or knock their socks off – an idiom meaning to amaze and impress someone. The problem is that no matter how extravagant and expensive one buffet is, the next one has to be even more impressive, something Sandeep calls a vicious circle – a difficult situation which has the effect of creating new problems which then make the original situation even worse. It seems the secret to enjoying a buffet is trying a little bit of everything, without stuffing yourself until you can't move – although in the past, I think, that was exactly the idea. OK, it's time to reveal the answer to my question - where did the buffets originally come from? I guessed it was from the United States. Was I right? That was… the wrong answer, I'm afraid, Sam. In fact buffets are thought to have come from Sweden in the Middle Ages. ★字数限制，完整文本和翻译见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

New study re-explores mystery behind zebra stripes It's something that's puzzled biologists for over a century. You might think if you're trying to avoid being hunted down and eaten, that sporting a striking black and white pattern isn't exactly the best way to do it. 这是困扰了生物学家一个多世纪的难题。你可能觉得，如果在试图避免被捕捉并被吞食的命运，那一身醒目的黑白图案可不是最好的办法。 But early naturalists thought otherwise. They put forward the theory of 'motion dazzle', believing that it's hard for predators to estimate the speed or direction of patterned prey while it's running. 但早期的博物学家却不这么认为。他们提出了 “运动眩晕” 理论，认为掠食者很难估计身上有图案的猎物在奔跑时的速度和方向。 And somewhat in the spirit of that, dazzle patterning was used on ships in the First World War to help them evade being spotted. But can this really be the case? 本着这一认识，在第一次世界大战中，令人眩晕的图案被应用于船只上，使其不易被发现，但这样做真的有效吗？ It's counter-instinctive, perhaps. And scientists in Exeter have been taking a much closer look. They've been testing the theory using a touch-screen game called Dazzle Bug. That's where you have to catch a rectangular bug, but it keeps changing its pattern in an effort to stop you doing so. What the scientists found was that even when they were moving, the bugs still tended to lose that clear patterning. 这个理论也许与我们的直觉相反。对此，英国埃克塞特的科学家们进行了更为仔细的研究。他们用一款名为 “眼花虫（Dazzle Bug）” 的触屏游戏来测试 “运动眩晕” 理论。游戏中，玩家需要捕捉一条长方形的虫子，但这条虫子会不断改变它身上的图案，以防被玩家捉到。科学家们发现，即使在移动过程中，这些虫子仍然容易失去醒目的图案。 It's the strongest evidence yet against the 'motion dazzle' hypothesis. And as a consequence, the scientists suggest that protection in motion may rely on a completely different mechanism. Where that leaves the zebra is anyone's guess. But while the results may raise more questions than they answer, it does reinforce the idea that even for scientists, nature is a constantly moving target. 这是迄今为止反驳 “运动眩晕” 假说的最有力证据。因此，科学家们认为，如何在移动的时候保护自己可能依赖于一种完全不同的机制。斑马身上的条纹该如何解释，谁也说不准。尽管研究结果引出的问题可能比它们给出的答案多，但研究确实进一步证实了这样一个观点：即使对科学家来说，大自然也是一个变幻莫测的研究对象。 词汇表 puzzled 迷惑了，困惑了 hunted down 被捉捕 sporting 穿戴，装点 pattern 图案 naturalists 博物学家 predators 掠食者，掠食动物 patterned prey 身上长有图案的猎物 evade 逃避，避开 spotted 被发现 counter-instinctive 与直觉相反的 touch-screen 触摸屏的 hypothesis 假说 mechanism 机制 reinforce 进一步证实 target 目标，对象 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

How music takes us back to our past It's happened to all of us: a song comes on the radio, and we are immediately transported to a time in our past. But what is it that makes music so effective at doing this? 我们每个人都会遇到这种情况：收音机里传来一首歌，我们就会立刻被带到到过去的时光。是什么让音乐能如此有效地做到这一点呢？ There are a few things that link tunes with our memories. Paul Donoghue, writing for ABC News, reminds us that the emotional nature of music helps make it particularly memorable. And Kelly Jakubowski, an assistant professor in music psychology, adds that music and singing are often part of many important life events and rituals, and that it is also very effective in grabbing our attention. These things combined mean that music and these life events are likely to be encoded together in our memories. 有一些东西将曲调与我们的记忆联系在一起。保罗·多诺霍在为美国广播公司新闻撰稿时提醒我们，音乐的情感属性有助于让人特别难忘。音乐心理学助理教授凯利·雅库博斯基补充说，音乐和歌唱通常是许多重要生活事件和仪式的一部分，它还能非常有效地吸引我们的注意力。这些因素结合在一起，意味着音乐和这些生活事件很可能会一起编码在我们的记忆中。 Music itself is easy to remember. Tiffany Jenkins, writing for BBC Culture, tells us how throughout history oral cultures have passed important knowledge from generation to generation through song. The rhythm, rhyme, melody and alliteration in lyrics all serve as memory aids. 音乐本身很好记。蒂芙尼·詹金斯为BBC文化撰稿，她向我们讲述了在历史上，口述文化如何通过歌曲将重要的知识代代相传。歌词中的节奏、韵律、旋律和典故都能帮助记忆。 She goes on to say that pop music especially can be associated with a particular moment in time. As Shahram Heshmat, writing in Psychology Today highlights, we often become familiar with a piece of music because we hear it as background music. Familiarity is important. Jakubowski, tells us that the more familiar a piece of music is, the more effective it is at bringing back memories. 她接着说，流行音乐尤其可以与特定的时刻联系在一起。正如沙赫拉姆·赫什马特在《今日心理学》上所强调的那样，我们经常熟悉一段音乐，因为我们听到它是背景音乐。熟悉度很重要。雅库博夫斯基告诉我们，一段音乐越熟悉，它就越能有效地唤起人们的记忆。 This applies to music more than other cultural products because we are far more likely to hear a song over and over again than watch a film or a TV programme in the same way. Heshmat points out that our musical preferences usually form during our teens, and this corresponds with what many experts call the 'reminiscence bump', where we make our strongest memories between the ages of 10 and 30. 与其他文化产品相比，这一点更适用于音乐，因为我们反复聆听一首歌曲的可能性要远远大于以同样的方式观看一部电影或电视节目。赫什马特指出，我们的音乐偏好通常是在十几岁时形成的，这与许多专家所说的“回忆高峰 ”相吻合，即我们在 10 岁到 30 岁之间的记忆最为深刻。 It's clear that our memories and music are closely linked – to the point that music is being used to help dementia sufferers access memories that they thought they had lost. 很明显，我们的记忆和音乐是紧密相连的——以至于音乐被用来帮助痴呆症患者获得他们认为已经失去的记忆。 词汇表 come on the radio 在广播中播放 tune 旋律，曲子 music psychology 音乐心理学 singing 歌唱 grab our attention 吸引我们的注意力 encode 把…译成电码（或密码）；把…编码 rhythm 节奏，韵律 rhyme 押韵 melody 旋律，曲调 alliteration 头韵 lyrics 歌词 pop music 流行音乐 piece of music 一段音乐 background music 背景音乐 cultural product 文化产品 musical preferences 音乐偏好 reminiscence bump 回忆高峰：指人们在回忆过去时，对某一特定年龄段（通常是青少年和早期成年时期）的记忆更加清晰和详细的现象。 dementia 痴呆，精神错乱 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

World's Smallest Wild Dog Five and a half million square miles of sand. The size of China. The Sahara smothers six percent of the world's land. Yet this vast, unforgiving place is home to the world's smallest wild dog, the fennec fox. 550万平方英里的沙地。相当于中国的面积。撒哈拉沙漠覆盖了全球百分之六的土地。然而在这片广袤无垠的土地上，却生活着世界上最小的犬科动物——耳廓狐。 Barely the size of a walking boot, this tiny fox goes head-to-head with the desert every day. The Sahara is filled with millions upon millions of grains of sand, and every grain acts as a radiator. Sand absorbs heat, and the hotter it gets, the more heat it radiates. The temperature here spirals to over 100 degrees. 这只小狐狸只有一只步行靴那么大，每天都要与沙漠正面交锋。撒哈拉沙漠充满了数以百万计的沙粒，每一粒沙粒都是一个散热器。沙子吸收热量，温度越高，散发的热量就越多。这里的温度飙升到 100 度以上。 In such sizzling conditions, the fennec's size matters. A small body can shed heat faster than a large one, and to lose heat even faster, the fennec's ears act like sophisticated air conditioning units. The network of veins cools the blood to lower the temperature. Despite such capable cooling, not even a fennec can endure the heat of the Saharan Sun. 在这种炙热的环境下，耳廓狐的体型非常重要。体型小的比体型大的散热更快，为了更快地散热，耳廓就像一个精密的空调装置。静脉网络可以冷却血液，降低体温。尽管有如此强大的散热能力，但即使是非洲狐狸也无法忍受撒哈拉太阳的炙烤。 There's no shade. But fennecs are masters of their environment. Moisture concentrates at the foot of the dunes, so the sand here is firm enough to dig a burrow. Home sweet home for a pair of fennecs. They have shelter from the worst of the heat, but they must eventually leave the safety of their den to find food. 没有阴凉处。但耳廓狐是环境的主人。水分集中在沙丘脚下，所以这里的沙子足够坚固，可以挖洞。对一对耳廓狐来说，这里就是甜蜜的家。它们可以躲避最炎热的天气，但它们最终必须离开安全的洞穴去寻找食物。 And this enormous desert is a dangerous place for a tiny, wild dog. An unwary fennec is small enough to be caught by feral dogs and even eagle owls. But their camouflaged coats make them less conspicuous. 这片广袤的沙漠对一只小小的野犬来说是个危险的地方。一个不小心，耳廓狐会小到足以被野狗甚至雕鸮抓住。但它们伪装的皮毛使它们不那么显眼。 In the fading light of dusk, she makes a run for it. Zig-zagging and jumping, she uses the dunes to mask her location. The grains of sand are constantly shifting, but the pads on her feet are furry for maximum traction. Few can keep tabs on her whereabouts. 在暮色中，她跑了出去。她曲折地移动并跳跃着，利用沙丘来掩盖自己的位置。沙粒在不停地移动，但她毛茸茸的爪垫让她能获得最大的牵引力。很少有人能监视到她的行踪。 词汇表 Sahara 撒哈拉大沙漠 smother 覆盖，掩盖 unforgiving （环境等）恶劣的，不利的 wild dog 野狗；野生犬科动物 fennec fox 耳廓狐，沙漠狐狸 walking boot 步行靴 go head-to-head with 与…正面对抗 grains of sand 沙粒 radiator 散热器，冷却器 spiral 盘旋上升（或下降），急剧增长 sizzling 酷热的，热烈的 shed heat 散发热量 sophisticated 精密的，复杂的 network of veins 静脉网 shade 背阴处，阴凉处 dune 沙丘 burrow （动物挖掘居住的）洞穴，地道 den （动物的）巢穴，窝 unwary 粗心的，不警惕的 feral 野生的，凶猛的 eagle owls 雕鸮：一种大型猫头鹰 camouflaged 伪装的，隐蔽起来的，有保护色的 conspicuous 显眼的，醒目的 Zig-zag 呈之字形移动，曲折行进 pad（猫或狗的）肉趾，爪垫 traction 牵引力，拉力 keep tabs on 监视，密切注意 whereabouts 下落，所在，去向 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】

Plastic pollution in the ocean creates new habitat There are at least five hotspots of floating plastic in the global ocean. 全球海洋中至少有五个漂浮着塑料的热点地区。 These are gyres, where circulating currents trap debris. This one ­– the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch – is the largest, with almost 80,000 tonnes distributed over 600,000 square miles. 这些都是海洋环流地带，而环流会聚集残渣。其中，这个被称为 “太平洋垃圾带” 的区域最大，有8万吨垃圾分布在60万平方英里范围内。 The scientists teamed up with a charity that collects old fishing gear and other litter from the ocean, and gathered hundreds of plastic items to study in the lab. 科学家们与一家从海洋中收集旧渔具和其它垃圾的慈善机构合作，采捞了数以百计的塑料物品，送到实验室进行研究。 They found plants and animals, including anemones, tiny marine bugs, molluscs, and crabs on 90% of the debris they examined. 他们在90%的塑料残渣上发现了动植物，包括海葵、微小的海洋昆虫、软体动物和螃蟹。 As well as creating a semi-permanent floating habitat for coastal species in the open ocean, the researchers say all this plastic could be providing invasive species with rafts that allow them to cross the Pacific. 研究人员表示，这些塑料除了在开阔海洋中为沿海物种创造了一个半永久性的漂浮栖息地以外，也可以成为入侵物种的 “筏子”，使其穿越太平洋。 This, they say, is yet another unintended consequence of plastic pollution for the ocean. 他们指出，这是海洋塑料污染的另一个意想不到的后果。 词汇表 hotspots 热点地带 gyres 海洋环流 circulating 循环流动的 debris 碎片，残渣 Great Pacific Garbage Patch 太平洋垃圾带：指位于北太平洋中央的一个巨大的垃圾聚集区。 fishing gear 渔具，打捞装置 litter 垃圾 anemones 海葵 molluscs 软体动物 invasive species 入侵物种 rafts 筏子，浮垫 ✔更多内容见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”，可进入【打卡交流群】