Daring to Be Simple It can take a very long time indeed to work up the courage to be simple: to read simple books, to wear simple clothes, to have simple days and to say simple things. For a long time, all the glamour seem to lie with complexity. We are pulled towards rare and hard-to-follow ideas; we entertain our friends with elaborate meals; we pursue convoluted relationships; we have careers that enmesh us in cumbersome commitments; we fill our leisure hours with exotic hobbies. 要想变得简单，确实需要很长时间来鼓足勇气：读简单的书，穿简单的衣服，过简单的日子，说简单的话。长期以来，所有的魅力似乎都与复杂性有关。我们被罕见且难以理解的想法所吸引；我们用精致的饭菜款待朋友；我们追求错综复杂的人际关系；我们的职业让我们陷入繁琐的承诺中；我们用奇异的爱好填满闲暇时光。 And then at some point, we may sense and aspire to the real challenge of existence: to dare to sound – to some – like an idiot; to fix on certain basic truths that we've always known, to edit down our calendars, to wear only what is comfortable, to put in front of others the same sort of basic foods we like when we're alone, to have relationships solely with those who know how to be direct, to leave our days more or less free apart from one or two elementary pleasures (like tending to a garden, having a bath, going for a walk), to limit our reading to books we can understand and to communicate without inhibition all those heartfelt and essential things we know to those we are close to (that they are everything to us and that we'll miss them immensely when it is over). 然后在某个时候，我们可能会感觉到并渴望存在的真正挑战：敢于听起来——对某些人来说——像个白痴；坚持我们一直知道的基本真理，简化我们的日程表，只穿舒适的衣服，在别人面前摆放我们独处时喜欢的同类基本食物，只与那些懂得直接的人交往，除了一两个基本的乐趣（比如照料花园， 洗澡，散步），将我们的阅读限定在我们可以理解的书籍上，并毫无保留地向我们亲近的人传达我们所知道的那些发自内心的、必不可少的事情（即他们是我们的一切，当一切结束时，我们会非常想念他们）。 We worry so much about sounding boring or silly if we were to show ourselves without elaboration or live according to our own less adorned inclinations. We spend the major part of our lives trying – unsuccessfully – to be somebody else. It can be the thought of death that eventually loosens us from our pretensions. We realise – under its bracing influence – that there is no point burdening ourselves with habits, ideas, vocabularies, people and duties that don't belong to us. There is no point wasting time we can ill afford on those who can't non-defensively say 'I love you', with clothes that we can't keep clean, with books we can't understand and with crowded days heavy with panic and meaningless challenges. We finally lose our terror of coming across as a simpleton and a yokel. 我们如此担心，如果我们不加以修饰地展示自己，或者按照自己不那么修饰的倾向生活，会显得无聊或愚蠢。我们大部分时间都在徒劳地尝试成为别人。可能是对死亡的思考最终让我们卸下了伪装。在它振奋人心的影响下，我们意识到，没有必要让自己背负不属于我们的习惯、思想、词汇、人和责任。没有必要在那些无法毫无防卫地说“我爱你”的人身上浪费时间，也没有必要在那些我们难以清洁的衣服、我们无法理解的书籍以及充满恐慌和无意义挑战的拥挤日子上浪费时间。我们最终不再害怕被看作是傻瓜和乡巴佬。 We'll be properly mature, properly sophisticated even, we'll probably have had to go through a host of complications, by the time we learn to appreciate the art of being direct, easy-to-follow, emotionally straightforward, predictable, unhurried and – in the eyes of the frantic and the impressionable many – exceptionally dull. 我们会变得相当成熟，甚至相当老练，我们可能不得不经历许多复杂的事情，直到我们学会欣赏直接、易于理解、情感直白、可预测、从容不迫的艺术——即便这对于在那些忙碌和易受影响的许多人眼中——是异常乏味的。 词汇表 work up the courage 鼓起勇气 glamour 魅力，诱惑力 complexity [kəm'pleksəti] 复杂，复杂性 be pulled towards 被吸引 hard-to-follow 难以理解的，难懂的 elaborate 复杂的，精心制作的 convoluted 复杂的，错综的 enmesh 使陷入，使纠缠 cumbersome 笨重的，复杂的 exotic 异国的，奇异的 calendar 日程表，日历 tend to 照料，处理 without inhibition 毫无顾虑地，毫无保留地 heartfelt 由衷的，发自内心的 immensely 极其，非常 without elaboration 不加修饰地 unadorned 未装饰的，朴素的 inclination 倾向，意愿 pretension 自负，虚饰 bracing 令人振奋的 non-defensively 无防御地 simpleton 傻瓜，头脑简单的人 yokel乡巴佬 sophisticated 复杂的，老练的 a host of complications 大量复杂事件 straightforward 简单的，直接的 unhurried 不急的，从容的 frantic 忙乱的，狂乱的 impressionable 易受影响的，易受感动的 dull 枯燥的，乏味的 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】

Keeping kids off smartphones Can I ask you something, Beth? Beth? Hello, Beth? Are you listening? --Oh, sorry, Neil! I was er… checking my Instagram, and ugh… Facebook…and, just sending this email… done! Now, what did you want? --Well, I wanted to ask if you're getting addicted to your smartphone, but clearly the answer is 'yes'! --Actually, Neil, I am worried about my smartphone use, and it's not just me. Concerns are growing about the negative effect smartphones are having on adults and, even more, on children. Studies show that girls who spend more time on social media are more likely to be anxious or depressed, and smartphones have also been linked to delayed brain development and poor sleep. Even so, around 60% of British eight-to-eleven-year-olds have a smartphone. So, in this programme, we'll be asking: are kids better off without a phone? And, of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary too. But first, put your phone away, Beth, because I have a question for you. The US has one of the highest levels of smartphone use, but according to a recent survey, how long does the average American 11-to-14-year-old spend looking at a screen every day? Is it: a) five hours? b) seven hours? or, c) nine hours? --I'll guess American teens spend five hours a day on screens. OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. BBC journalist, Myra Anubi, has a nine-year-old daughter who desperately wants her own phone. But Myra isn't convinced, as she explained to BBC World Service programme, 'People Fixing the World': I'm worried about how much time she'll spend on her own device and what she might even see there. I mean, she's only nine at the end of the day. But at the same time, I don't want her to feel left out because some of her friends already have smartphones, and there's a chance that she'll miss out on play dates or kids' trends, cat videos or online chats with her besties. So, I'm torn between wanting her to be in our world, and also letting her be in her own mini world with her friends. Myra is worried about her daughter, and says, "at the end of the day, she's only nine". Myra uses the phrase, at the end of the day, to mean after everything is considered. Myra's daughter wants to chat with her besties – her best friends. But Myra worries she'll get hooked on social media, see harmful content, or spend too long online. Myra is torn between letting her daughter get a phone and not. If you're torn between two things, you can't decide between two possibilities, leaving you feeling anxious. Parents like Myra are having to make an impossible choice – either give their children potentially harmful devices, or risk alienating them from their friends who do have smartphones. In February 2024, mums Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough, started a WhatsApp group encouraging parents to not give their child a smartphone until the age of 14, with no social media access until 16. Soon, the phone-free group of families grew into a movement, 'Smartphone Free Childhood'. Here, mum, Daisy Greenwell, explains more to BBC World Service's, 'People Fixing the World': Everyone I spoke to said, 'Yes, it's a nightmare getting your child a phone, but you've got no choice. You have to because everyone else is doing it. You can't leave them on their own'. So, Clare and I decided to start a WhatsApp group to support each other, and I posted about it on social media, and it went viral. The group is full so we encourage people, start one in your region, in your county, and they sprung up all over the country right in front of our eyes. It was amazing! And now there's over 100,000 people in the UK who are in our community. At the start, Daisy says it was a nightmare - a very unpleasant situation. Everyone else's kids had a phone, and Daisy didn't want her children to feel left out. But soon, more families got involved, and the group went viral, it spread quickly and widely on the internet and social media. Within months, new groups started up across Britain, right in front of Daisy's eyes. If you say something happens right in front of your eyes, you are emphasising that something surprising or unusual happened directly before you. The Smartphone Free Childhood campaign has grown rapidly in schools, and there are now groups in 18 countries around the world, offering kids a circle of friends to play and chat with in the old-fashioned way: face-to-face. 🌟 字数限制，完整文本和翻译见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

How birth order affects our personalities BBC Ideas How birth order affects our personalities fascinates many of us, and it's not just at Christmas time when we're arguing over why the elder sibling has to peel potatoes and why everyone's forgotten the middle child has no gravy with their lunch. Although you may not realise it, you've probably absorbed these stereotypes from birth order theory. Birth order theory is the idea that our position in our family affects our personality characteristics, our IQ, and even our life success and that these last long into adulthood. 出生顺序如何影响我们的性格，这个问题让我们中的许多人着迷，这不仅仅表现在圣诞节的时候，当我们争论为什么哥哥姐姐要削土豆皮，为什么每个人都忘记了中间的孩子午餐没有肉汁的时候。虽然你可能没有意识到，但你可能已经从出生顺序理论中吸收了这些刻板印象。出生顺序理论认为，我们在家庭中的地位会影响我们的个性特征、智商甚至人生成就，而且这些影响会一直持续到成年。 One of the most influential characters in this story was Alfred Adler - an Austrian physician and psychotherapist. He wanted to try and understand why children who were raised in the same family seem to have different personalities. Now at this point I should mention that Alfred Adler was actually a middle child - the second of seven children. In 1927, Adler theorised that birth order affected personality hugely because parents treated children differently according to whether they were the eldest or the youngest. He also believed that parents comparing siblings created a sense of inferiority. Since then, researchers have added to this list of birth order characteristics. Here are just some of them - they might ring a few bells. 这个故事中最具影响力的人物之一是奥地利医生和心理治疗师阿尔弗雷德·阿德勒(Alfred Adler)。他想弄明白为什么在同一个家庭长大的孩子似乎有着不同的性格。说到这里，我得提一下，阿尔弗雷德·阿德勒其实是个中间孩子，即七个孩子中的老二。1927 年，阿德勒建立了出生顺序对性格影响巨大的理论，因为父母会根据孩子是长子还是幼子来区别对待。他还认为，父母对兄弟姐妹的比较会产生自卑感。从那时起，研究人员就不断增加出生顺序特征的内容。以下是其中的一些——也许你会对它们有所印象。 For example, the older child - thought to be a people pleaser, responsible, reliable, cautious but perhaps bossy and controlling. The older child traditionally has been thought to be given a lot of parental attention so when the second sibling arrives they can often feel neglected or dethroned. The middle child is thought to be often left out, ignored, so they tend to be the peacemaker. They tend to adapt their personality to fit in with perhaps what the older child has already taken away in that family niche. The youngest child is often thought of as being self-centred, manipulative, fun, entertaining and charming. The youngest child is often thought to have to work harder to get attention and to maintain independence and seem different from their siblings. 例如，大孩子——被认为是一个讨人喜欢、负责任、可靠、谨慎的人，但也可能是一个专横和控制欲强的人。传统上，人们认为大孩子会得到父母的大量关注，所以当第二个兄弟姐妹到来时，他们往往会感到被忽视或被取代。 中间的孩子通常被认为是被冷落、被忽视的，因此他们倾向于做和事佬。他们往往会调整自己的个性，以适应大孩子在家庭中已经占据的位置。最小的孩子通常被认为是以自我为中心、控制欲强、有趣和迷人的。最小的孩子往往被认为必须付出更多努力才能得到关注和保持独立，才能显得与兄弟姐妹不同。 And if you don't have siblings then don't feel left out because Adler had something to say about the personality characteristics of people without siblings. Only children are often thought to be self-centred, independent, looking for approval and mature. As they have no older or younger siblings they often take on the personality characteristics of either the eldest child or the youngest child. 如果你没有兄弟姐妹，也不要觉得自己被忽略了，因为阿德勒对没有兄弟姐妹的人的性格特点有自己的看法。独生子女通常被认为是以自我为中心、独立、寻求认同和成熟的。由于他们没有哥哥姐姐或弟弟妹妹，他们往往具有长子或幼子的个性特征。 In 1996, American psychologist Frank Sulloway theorised that these differences may be due to Darwin's theory of competition and survival. Within every family, every child has to compete for parental attention and investment in order to survive. So for example, the elder sibling taking on the responsible role of looking after the younger siblings so when the younger child comes along they have to develop a different way of being in that family and find their own niche for example, by being more adventurous. By doing this they reduce competition and enhance cooperation within the family - so chances of survival for everyone are increased. 1996年，美国心理学家弗兰克·苏洛威(Frank Sulloway)提出理论，认为这些差异可能是基于达尔文的竞争和生存理论。在每个家庭中，每个孩子都必须为了生存而竞争父母的关注和投入。例如，哥哥承担起照顾弟弟妹妹的责任，所以当弟弟妹妹出生时，他们不得不在家庭中发展一种不同的方式，并找到自己合适的位置，例如，更大胆。这样做可以减少家庭内部的竞争，加强合作，从而增加每个人的生存机会。 Over time, results of further studies have been inconsistent. Some have totally backed up Adler's theory, others have totally negated it. Some studies have shown there are differences but that these are not meaningful and others have shown that actually any differences found are due to study design. For example, how many siblings are in a family or the relative ages of siblings. So who knows? Birth order is a fascinating subject but pinning down exactly what impact it has, if any, is still a massive challenge. 随着时间的推移，进一步研究的结果并不一致。一些研究完全支持阿德勒的理论，另一些则完全否定了这一理论。有些研究表明存在差异，但这些差异并无意义；有些研究则表明，实际上发现的任何差异都是由研究设计造成的。例如，一个家庭中有多少兄弟姐妹或兄弟姐妹的相对年龄。谁知道呢？出生顺序是一个引人入胜的话题，但要确定它到底有什么影响（如果有的话），仍然是一个巨大的挑战。 🌟 视频版见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Battle for Sunlight in the Rainforest BBC Earth｜Tropical Worlds｜The Green Planet Throughout this forest, plants are competing ferociously with one another to claim the light. The battle is at its fiercest on the forest floor, where only 2% of the sunlight filters through. Plants here have to bide their time. 在这片森林里，植物们为了争夺阳光，相互之间展开了激烈的竞争。森林地面上的争夺最为激烈，因为只有 2% 的阳光能透过这里。这里的植物必须等待时机。 Their opportunity comes when an old tree dies. When that happens, sunlight floods the forest floor for the first time in perhaps 100 years. The seedling's wait is over. It must now race skywards and claim a place in the canopy. But it's not alone. Rivals are everywhere, each with its own survival strategy. 当一棵老树死去时，它们的机会就来了。这种情况发生时，阳光可能在100年来首次洒满森林地面。树苗的等待结束了。它现在必须迅速向天空生长，争取在树冠中占有一席之地。但它并不孤单。竞争对手无处不在，每个都有各自的生存策略。 Some plants, like this monstera, stretch out divided leaves to collect what light they can. This vine is groping blindly around with its tendrils. It attempts to reach the light by hitching a ride. Its tendrils are highly sensitive to touch. And a suitable target is in range. Got it! The vine tightens its grip and begins to haul itself upwards. 有些植物，比如这种龟背竹，会伸展出分裂的叶子来尽可能地收集光线。这株藤蔓正盲目地用它的卷须四处探索。它试图通过依附来接近光源。它的卷须对触碰非常敏感。合适的目标就在眼前。抓住了！藤蔓收紧了抓握，开始向上攀爬。 But it's now overtaken by the forest's fastest-growing tree. A young balsa. Its giant leaves are already 40cm across and are stealing the light from its rivals below. But the balsa's battle is not yet won. Other, different vines are lying in wait. Each is armed with dozens of claw-like hooks. If just one hook gets a grip, the vine will be able to smother its victim. 但它现在被森林中生长最快的树木超越了。一棵年轻的轻木。它的巨叶已经有40厘米宽，正在从下方的竞争对手那里窃取阳光。但轻木的战斗尚未获胜。其他不同的藤蔓正潜伏着。每根藤蔓都装备着数十个爪状钩子。如果任何一个钩子抓住了，藤蔓就能让受害者窒息。 But the balsa is defended by a shield of slippery hairs. The vine's hooks just can't get a hold. The balsa brushes them aside, and continues to rush skywards, leaving the losers in its shadow to fight among themselves. This balsa has won its battle for the light. And it's done so in a little over a year. 但是，轻木被一层光滑的茸毛所保护。藤蔓的钩子根本无法抓住它。轻轻而易举地将它们拂开，继续向天空冲刺，将那些失败者留在自己的阴影中相互争斗。这棵轻木赢得了对阳光的争夺战。而且，它在短短一年多的时间里就做到了。 Most trees would have grown an inch or so in that time, but this one is already 30 feet - 10 metres - tall. Balsas owe their success to the special character of their wood. If this section of tree trunk came from a hardwood tree, it would be really quite heavy. But as it is, it's from balsa, and it's really very light, and that's because of its internal structure. 大多数树木在这段时间里可能会长高一英寸左右，但这颗已经高达30英尺（约10米）了。轻木的成功归功于它们木材的特性。如果这段树干来自硬木树，它将会非常重。但事实上，它来自轻木，所以它非常轻，这正是因为它的内部结构。 Under the microscope, balsawood looks like a honeycomb. It contains more air than wood, so, not only can it grow very fast, but it gets the maximum height for minimum weight. 在显微镜下，轻木看起来像蜂窝。它所含的空气比木头还多，因此，它不仅生长得非常快，而且以最小的重量达到了最大高度。 词汇表 ferociously 猛烈地，凶猛地 claim the light 争夺阳光 filter through 透过，滤过 bide their time 耐心等待时机 seedling 幼苗 race/rush skywards 冲向天空（指植物迅速向上生长） canopy 树冠层，（顶蓬似的）树阴 monstera 龟背竹，蓬莱蕉（因其枝干如竹，叶大翠绿像乌龟壳花纹而得名） divided leaves 分裂的叶子，分叉生长的叶子 vine 藤蔓，攀缘植物 grope 摸索，探索 tendril （攀缘植物的）卷须 hitch a ride 搭便车（指藤蔓依附而上） tighten its grip 收紧抓握力；加强掌控 overtake 超过，压制 balsa 轻木，巴尔沙木（原产于美洲的热带地区的一种坚固的质轻木材） smother 使窒息，掩盖 claw-like hook 爪状钩子 shield 保护物，防护层 slippery hair 光滑的茸毛 brush aside 扫到一边，拂开 hardwood 硬木，阔叶树 internal structure 内部结构 microscope 显微镜 honeycomb 蜂窝状结构 🌟 视频版见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Rewilding: letting nature come back to life Humankind has developed so much that urban sprawl and intensive agriculture now dominate our landscapes. Unfortunately, with that comes the threat of climate change and a loss of biodiversity. What if we could return these landscapes to places that teem with wildlife, with ecosystems thriving as they did centuries ago? 人类发展如此之快，以至于城市扩张和集约农业现在主宰了我们的景观。不幸的是，随之而来的是气候变化的威胁和生物多样性的丧失。如果我们能够将这些景观恢复到遍布野生动物的状态，让生态系统重现几个世纪前的繁荣，那会怎样呢？ Since the 1980s, the concept of rewilding has increased in popularity. But what exactly is it, and what are the keys to its success? Put simply, rewilding is a technique that returns landscapes to a wilder, more natural state. It often involves reintroducing plants or animals that used to live there, but now don't. 自20世纪80年代以来，再野化的概念越来越受欢迎。但究竟什么是再野化，它的关键又是什么？简单地说，再野化是一种将景观恢复到更原始、更自然状态的技术。它通常包括重新引入那些曾经栖息于此，但现在已不复存在的植物和动物。 Not-for-profit organisation Rewilding Europe says rewilding is "about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes." So, unlike traditional conservation techniques, the aim is to reduce the need for human intervention once the programme has been set up. 非营利组织“再野化欧洲”（Rewilding Europe）称，野化是“让大自然自我修复，让自然过程塑造陆地和海洋，修复受损的生态系统，恢复退化的景观”。因此，与传统的保护技术不同，再野化的目的是在项目建立后减少人工干预的需求。 In a 2021 article called 'Guiding principles for rewilding', one suggestion is to introduce plants, prey animals, and fungi first, so that when the top predator is introduced, they have an appropriate habitat to support them. 在2021年一篇名为《再野化指导原则》的文章中，一个建议是首先引入植物、被捕食动物和真菌，这样，当引入顶级捕食者时，它们将拥有适宜的栖息地来支持它们的生存。 Other tips are more people focused. Even though rewilding is about reducing human presence in ecosystems, that doesn't mean we should be excluded from nature. The authors encourage compassion and learning from nature, rather than dominating it. They also say that, to avoid fear amongst rural communities that their farmland will be taken away, and that new predators will endanger their livestock, local people should be included so they have some control over the process and can directly benefit from it. 其他的建议是更关注人。尽管再野化是为了减少人类在生态系统中的存在，但这并不意味着我们应该被排除在自然之外。作者鼓励同情和向自然学习，而不是支配它。他们还指出，为了避免农村社区担心他们的农田被占用，以及新的捕食者威胁到他们的牲畜，应该让当地人参与进来，这样他们就能在一定程度上控制这一过程，并从中直接获益。 Alex Stevenson owns Jordan's Farm in Essex, England and is rewilding her fields, hoping to help the ecosystem thrive. She says, "I am rewilding to look after nature and to give life back to the soil" and adds, "you have to value nature because nature sustains us – we are part of it." 亚历克斯·史蒂文森是英国埃塞克斯郡乔丹农场的农场主，她正在对自己的田地进行再野化，希望帮助生态系统茁壮成长。她说：“我进行再野化是为了保护大自然，让土壤恢复生机”，她还说：“你必须珍视大自然，因为大自然养育了我们——我们是大自然的一部分”。 词汇表 urban sprawl 城市扩张 agriculture 农业 landscape景观，环境 biodiversity 生物多样性 teem with 充满 ecosystem 生态系统 thrive 蓬勃发展 wild 野生的 shape 塑造 degraded 退化的 conservation 保护 prey 猎物，被捕食的动物 fungi 菌类 predator 捕食性动物 habitat 栖息地 rural 农村的 livestock 牲畜 🌟 更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Plants reduce stress, study finds Scientists gave 38 households in an economically deprived part of Salford in the north of England a tree, a shrub, and some other flowering plants. More than half said the plants made them feel happier. But the scientists also measured cortisol levels in their saliva, which indicate how stressed they are. 科学家们给位于英格兰北部索尔福德一个经济贫困地区的 38 个家庭提供了一棵树、一个灌木和其它一些开花植物。超过一半的人说这些植物让他们感觉更快乐。与此同时，科学家们也测量了他们唾液中的皮质醇水平，皮质醇水平可以表明他们的压力有多大。 Before the experiment, only a quarter of those involved had healthy cortisol levels. Afterwards, half did so. Lauriane Suyin Chalmin-Pui from the Royal Horticultural Society is the lead author of the study. She says it has major implications for public policy. 在进行实验之前，只有四分之一参与者的皮质醇水平处于正常水平。但后来，有一半人的皮质醇水平处于正常水平。来自皇家园艺学会的劳莉雅娜·苏因·查明-普伊（Lauriane Suyin Chalmin-Pui）是这项研究的第一作者。她说，这项研究对公共政策有重大影响。 The research has also found that the effects of the plants on people’s perceptions of stress were similar to a previous study in which participants were given mindfulness and meditation sessions once a week for eight weeks. 研究还发现，这些植物对人们对压力感知的影响与之前的一项研究相似。在那项研究中，参与者每周参加一次正念和冥想的课程，持续八周。 词汇表 deprived 贫困的，穷苦的 Salford 索尔福德（英格兰西北部港市） shrub 灌木 flowering 开花的 cortisol levels 皮质醇水平 saliva 唾液 stressed 紧张的，感到有压力的 Royal Horticultural Society （英国）皇家园艺学会 public policy 公共政策 perception 感知，认识 mindfulness 正念 meditation 冥想 🌟 更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

How does punctuality vary across cultures? Time flies, or so they say. No matter where you are, humans are constantly measuring and checking time. Some of us are good at it – planning and doing things way ahead of time - while others are always trying to beat the clock and do things at the eleventh hour. And that's only if you're on time. What about if you are behind time? 时光飞逝，至少他们是这么说的。无论你在哪里，人类都在不断地测量和检查时间。我们中的一些人擅长计划和提前做事，而另一些人则总是努力赶时间，在最后一刻才做事情。而前提是你要准时。可如果你迟到了怎么办? Tardiness can be serious. If you were one minute late for work, would you resign? It may sound extreme to many of us, but that is exactly what occurred in the UK upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords, in January 2018. International development minister Lord Bates arrived one minute late, and, as a result, was unable to answer a scheduled question. Instead of trying to make up for lost time, as many might do, he resigned on the spot. He apologised for his discourtesy and stated that he was ashamed. His resignation, though, was not accepted by the UK prime minister. 迟到可能很严重。如果上班迟到一分钟，你会辞职吗？对我们许多人来说，这听起来可能很极端，但这正是2018年1月在英国上议院发生的事情。国际发展部长贝茨勋爵迟到了一分钟，因此无法回答预定的问题。他没有像许多人可能做的那样试图弥补失去的时间，而是当场辞职。他为自己的无礼道歉，并表示自己很惭愧。不过，英国首相并未接受他的辞呈。 So, how late is too late? Many cultures take punctuality very seriously, whereas others seem to accept lagging behind as just the normal way of things. Members of the BBC from various different cultures were asked about the concept of timekeeping in their native countries and responded with a raft of answers. 那么，多晚才算晚呢？许多文化都非常重视守时，而另一些文化则似乎认为滞后是正常的。来自不同文化背景的BBC成员被问及各自国家的守时观念，他们的回答五花八门。 BBC employees from Latin America, Rwanda and Sri Lanka said that there are more flexible attitudes to timekeeping in their cultures. In Latin America, things may happen five minutes, 20 minutes, an hour or even two after they were planned. Whereas, in Sri Lanka, lateness is a part of the daily routine. This is because of poor infrastructure and heavy traffic conditions. In Rwanda, those who attend to deadlines with rigid timekeeping are said to be ‘like a typical European'. This is in a place where it is not unusual to arrive at 11am for a meeting which started at nine. 来自拉丁美洲、卢旺达和斯里兰卡的BBC员工表示，在他们的文化中，对守时的态度更加灵活。在拉丁美洲，事情可能在计划好的5分钟、20分钟、1小时甚至2小时后发生。然而，在斯里兰卡，迟到是家常便饭。这是因为基础设施差和交通拥挤。在卢旺达，那些严格守时的人被称为“像典型的欧洲人”。在这个地方，上午11点就来参加9点开始的会议是常有的事。 On the other hand, German and Japanese employees mentioned a stricter adherence to time. In Japan, it is common to make an effort to arrive with time to spare for an appointment. Those who arrived at the stroke of nine to a meeting starting at nine a.m. would be considered late. In Germany, however, if a dinner party were to begin at eight, a person who had arrived five minutes prior, may walk around the block to ensure that they arrive at eight on the dot. 另一方面，德国和日本的员工提到了对时间的严格遵守。在日本，人们通常会努力争取在赴约前留出时间。上午九点开始的会议，如果九点才到，就会被视为迟到。但在德国，如果晚宴在八点开始，提前五分钟到达的人可能会绕着街区走一圈，以确保八点准时到达。 It seems that the answer is subjective, and what is considered acceptable is based on culture. That said, if you don't mind waiting, it might be best to attend your appointments in good time. And if the worst comes to the worst, remember the old English proverb. Better late than never. 答案似乎是主观的，而何为可接受的是基于文化的。也就是说，如果你不介意等待，最好及时赴约。如果最坏的情况发生，请记住古老的英国谚语：迟到总比不到好。 词汇表 time flies 时光飞逝 ahead of time 提前 beat the clock “战胜时间”，提前完成工作，赶时间（做某事） at the eleventh hour 在最后一刻，在最后时刻 on time 按时，准时 behind time 迟到 tardiness 迟到，迟缓 upper chamber of parliament 议会上院 the House of Lords （英国）上议院 scheduled 已安排的 make up for lost time 弥补失去的时间 on the spot 当场，立即 discourtesy 失礼的行为，无礼 punctuality 准时性，守时 lag behind 掉队，滞后，落后 a raft of 一系列，大量 rigid timekeeping 严格的时间规定，严格守时 Latin America, Rwanda and Sri Lanka 拉丁美洲、卢旺达和斯里兰卡 deadline 截至日期，最后期限 adherence to 遵守，坚持 with time to spare 有富余时间 at the stroke of 刚好在…的时候 prior 在…之前 on the dot 准时，正好 in good time 提早，有充裕时间的 proverb 谚语，格言 better late than never 晚来总比不来强；迟做总比不做好 🌟 更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Less salt, better health Do you know the five tastes which give food its flavour, Neil? There's sweet… --Yes… and er, sour, bitter… --And salty! Everyone knows that salt makes food taste better by enhancing the flavours of the ingredients. There's even a phrase you'll see in many recipes – 'add a pinch of salt'. But exactly how much salt makes a 'pinch' of salt? The World Health Organisation, or WHO, recommends a daily salt intake of less than 5g, about the same as a teaspoon. In fact, the human body needs salt - at least 1g a day to survive. But most of us eat far too much, increasing the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. In this programme, we'll be asking: how much salt is too much? And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. Great! But first I have a question for you, Neil. The reason it's difficult to know how much salt you consume is that it's hidden in food, especially processed food. So, which of the following everyday foods do you think contains most salt? Is it: a) meat? b) bread? or, c) pasta? --Well, I'm going to guess that meat is the saltiest of those foods. --OK Neil, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Marian Sumbiva lives in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, a country where people eat, on average, 17g of salt a day. That's more than three times the amount recommended by the WHO. Here, Marian explains some of the reasons behind this to BBC World Service programme, 'The Food Chain': We consume lots of salt, which is due to historical heritage, because when we were nomads, for centuries and centuries we travelled and wandered across the steppes, and here, we had to carry lots of meat which could be preserved only adding salt. And even the milk products, the dairy products, are also very much salty for the same reasons. Besides improving its flavour, salt can be used to preserve food, to stop it from going bad. Traditionally, people in Kazakhstan were nomads, they travelled from place to place with their animals, rather than living in one place all the time. Treating food with salt gave them enough to eat during the long winter months. They even did it with dairy products, foods which are made from milk, such as cheese and butter. So, salt has a long, and useful, history. But there's a big difference between traditional Kazakh nomads and the health problems associated with modern processed food. When we eat too much salt, the body dilutes it by retaining water. And as a result, the heart works harder to pump liquid around the body. This causes high blood pressure which, over time, can lead to heart disease. Globally, governments are fighting this health risk in different ways. The Australian government reduced its recommended salt intake to 6g a day, while the British government has passed laws forcing food companies to reduce the amount of salt they use, and now recommends just 5g of salt per day. Clare Collins is professor of nutrition at the University of Newcastle in Australia. Here, she explains more about these salt recommendations to BBC World Service programme, 'The Food Chain': I think you just gotta take a step back, and look at the bigger picture, like arguing whether it should be 5g or 6g… The issue is that around the world, salt intakes are very high, contributing to high blood pressure, contributing to premature strokes, premature mortality, and we need to address it in a way that's culturally appropriate for each country. Instead of arguing over grams of salt, Professor Collins thinks we should take a step back and look at the bigger picture. She uses two idioms: take a step back,which means to temporarily withdraw from a situation in order to think about it more calmly, and look at the bigger picture - to consider the overall meaning of something, not just the details. Yes, the problem remains that overconsumption of salt is causing premature health problems, problems which are happening sooner than they should. By limiting salt and processed food, most people can enjoy long, healthy lives. And if you don't like your food unsalted, try adding herbs and spices instead. Well, speaking of salty foods, I think it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Neil. If you remember, I asked you which everyday food contains most salt. --And I guessed it was meat. --Which was… the correct answer! Meat contains the highest amount of salt - around 19% - followed by bread with 14%, and pasta with 7%. 🌟 字数限制，完整文本和翻译见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

How to tell if someone is lying to you | BBC Ideas If we want to detect deception we need to stop looking for those visual behaviours that we think relate to deception, like eyecontact or fidgeting. Instead we need to start thinking about the pieces of information we can find in the world that match or mismatch with the statement being offered. 如果我们想要识别欺骗行为，我们就不应该再去寻找那些我们认为与欺骗有关的视觉行为，比如眼神接触或坐立不安。相反，我们需要开始思考我们在世界上能找到的与所提供的陈述相匹配或不匹配的信息。 If you want to be able to accurately detect somebody's lies or truths, what you need to do is, you need to listen to what they're saying and the way that they say it, not how they're acting. Think about when you are talking to somebody, you meet them for the first time, now any good poker player will tell you that it is very easy to control your face. Therefore facial cues really aren't good cues of whether or not somebody is lying or telling the truth. What you should be doing is you should be listening to what people say - the verbal cues and the way in which they say it - the vocal cues. 如果你想准确辨别某人是在说谎还是在说真话，你需要做的是，你需要听他们说的内容以及他们说话的方式，而不是他们的行为。想想当你第一次与人交谈时，任何优秀的扑克玩家都会告诉你，控制你的面部表情是非常容易的。因此，面部线索并不是判断某人是否在说谎或说真话的好线索。你应该做的是，你应该听人们说什么——言语线索以及他们说话的方式——声音线索。 A lie teller, because they are trying to think very hard, they will use probably the same word over and over again over a very short period of time. There's some general research that suggests we are about 54% accurate when it comes to detecting lies and truths and as I always say, "If that's the case, you might as well flip a coin - you'll be just as accurate." 一个说谎的人，因为他们在努力思考，可能会在很短的时间内反复使用同一个词。一些普遍的研究表明，，我们在辨别谎言和真相方面的准确率大约是54%，正如我经常说的，“如果是这样，你还不如抛硬币——你的准确率也就这么高。” There are some people who think they are lie detection wizards. That they can read subtle clues that we give off. The research suggests that this isn't the case, that there aren't lie detection experts. Liars just don't give themselves away in any obvious fashion. There aren't good clues to deception, we don't avoid eye contact, we don't scratch our face when we're lying or telling the truth. These just aren't reliable indicators and so, expert or not, we have no good information on which to make that decision. 有些人认为自己是测谎奇才。他们能读懂我们发出的微妙线索。研究表明，事实并非如此，并不存在什么测谎专家。说谎者并不会以任何明显的方式暴露自己。没有可靠的欺骗线索，我们不会在说谎时避免眼神接触，也不会在说谎或说真话时挠脸。这些都不是可靠的迹象，因此，不管是不是专家，我们都没有很好的信息来做出判断。 We have this idea that if somebody is lying to us they can't keep our eye contact. Now of course, liars know this and what they will do is they will keep your eye contact ever so slightly longer than normal, just enough to make you feel uncomfortable. Number two misconception tends to be when people lie they move about a lot, they kind of get very nervous. In fact the opposite is true. When we lie, we have to think really hard. So imagine you've got a limited amount of energy, you will channel all of that energy into telling a lie and as a consequence, you will become ever so slightly stiller than you normally are. A third misconception is the idea that if we look up to the right or we look up to the left, it determines the type of lie or truth that we're telling. A recent piece of research has in fact debunked the idea that looking up that way or looking up that way is a good way to detect deception, it's not. 我们有这样的想法，如果有人对我们撒谎，他们就不会和我们保持眼神接触。当然，说谎者知道这一点，他们会让你的目光接触比正常时间稍长一些，足以让你感到不舒服。第二个误解是，当人们说谎时，他们往往会走来走去，显得非常紧张。事实上恰恰相反。当我们说谎时，我们必须认真思考。因此，想象一下，你的精力有限，你会把所有的精力都用在说谎上，因此，你会变得比平时稍微安静一些。第三个误解是，如果我们抬头向右或向左看，就可以确定我们说的是谎言还是真话。 My top tip for accurately determining whether somebody is lying or telling the truth is using something that we call the honest baseline. Now the honest baseline is understanding how people act and speak when they're not stressed and when they're being truthful. So when we ask them a question, now if we find a pretty even match between the way they normally act and the way that they're acting now, we will be fairly happy that they're probably telling us a truth. If we find a mismatch, it might indicate that there is something going on here that we need to follow up with in a bit more detail. ALIED theory, or the adaptive lie detector theory, argues that when we try to decide if someone's lying or telling the truth, what we're doing is actually quite functional and informed with our past experience and with the information available in the world. For instance if I claim to have gone to France last week and I have a selfie of me in France that's a great piece of information that I was actually there. But often we don't have that sort of information, so what do we do? ALIED theory claims that we, rather than simply guess, rely on our past experience of the world to make an informed judgement. People tend to be truth biased, they tend to believe people are telling the truth, and that may be something we want to get rid of. The best thing to do is just try to keep an open mind and engage with the situation in a sceptical manner. 🌟 字数限制，完整翻译视频版见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Sally Lightfoot Crab' Race Against Hunters A Sally Lightfoot crab, one of thousands of shore crabs just waiting for their moment. Every day, they gather on the tropical shores of Brazil, waiting for the tide to go out, which exposes their feeding grounds — seaweed-covered rocks, 100 metres from the shore. 一只红石蟹，成千上万只等待时机的滨蟹之一。每天，它们聚集在巴西的热带海岸，等待潮水退去，露出它们的觅食地——覆盖着海藻的岩石，距离海岸100米。 Getting there is a race against the tide. They leap from rock to rock. 到达那里是一场与潮水的赛跑。它们在岩石间跳跃前行。 These crabs seem to be afraid of the water. And for good reason. A moray eel. The chain moray is a specialist crab-hunter. Its blunt teeth can easily grip and crush a crab shell. It's the crabs' deadliest enemy. 这些螃蟹似乎很怕水。理由很充分。海鳗。尤其链蛇鳗，是捕蟹专家。它的钝牙可以轻易咬碎蟹壳。它是螃蟹最致命的敌人。 But the crabs' feeding grounds are still a long way off. They must press on. Halfway. But their enemy has other ideas. Crossing the land to reset the ambush. 但螃蟹离觅食地还很遥远。它们必须继续前进。还有一半。但是它们的敌人另有打算。即穿越陆地，重置埋伏。 To feed, the crabs must keep going. But nowhere is safe. An octopus. Also a crab killer. The crabs make a dash for it. Made it! 为了进食，螃蟹必须继续前进。但没有地方是安全的。章鱼。也是螃蟹杀手。螃蟹飞奔逃跑。成功了！ Risking life and limb to graze on these seaweed pastures. But in two hours' time, when the tide starts to turn, they will have to run the gauntlet all over again. 螃蟹冒着生命危险来到这些海藻牧场觅食。但在两小时后，当潮水开始上涨时，它们将不得不再次经受一次考验。 词汇表 Sally Lightfoot crab 红石蟹，萨莉轻足蟹：生活在潮间带岩石上，以鲜亮的红蓝色外壳和敏捷的移动能力闻名，以藻类和小型无脊椎动物为食。 shore crab 滨蟹（生活在海滨潮间带的小型蟹类） feeding ground 觅食地 seaweed-covered rock 覆盖海藻的岩石 moray eel 海鳗（栖于热带水域岩礁间的鳗类） chain moray 链蛇鳝：体型修长，带有黄色的链状线条，具有用于压碎蟹壳的钝圆形牙齿。 specialist 专家 blunt teeth 钝牙 grip and crush 咬碎，咬住并压碎 press on （不顾困难地）继续前进 reset the ambush 重置埋伏 octopus 章鱼 make a dash 飞奔，匆忙离开 risk life and limb 冒着生命危险 graze 觅食，吃草 pasture 牧场，草地（指覆盖海藻的岩石） run the gauntlet 经受考验，接受挑战（原指受夹道鞭笞的刑罚） 🌟 视频版见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Whale threats from fishing gear 'underestimated' Getting caught up in fishing ropes or nets is one of the biggest threats to whales. The animals can suffocate or starve after becoming trapped. Reports of very large whales getting entangled in fishing gear are rare compared with smaller species, leading to the assumption that the biggest whales might largely avoid such threats. 被渔绳或渔网缠住是鲸鱼面临的最大威胁之一。它们在被困住后可能会窒息或挨饿。与体型较小的鲸鱼相比，关于大型鲸鱼被渔具缠住的报道很少，因此产生了一种假设，即最大的鲸鱼可能在很大程度上避免了这个威胁。 A new study, led by experts at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, cast doubt on this idea. The researchers analysed images taken by drones of blue and fin whales in Canada's Gulf of St Lawrence – an important summer feeding ground for whales. 由苏格兰圣安德鲁斯大学的专家牵头的一项新研究对这一观点提出了质疑。研究人员们分析了无人机在加拿大圣劳伦斯湾拍摄的蓝鲸和长须鲸的照片，圣劳伦斯湾是鲸鱼夏季的重要觅食地。 Scars seen on the bodies of the whales suggest that 60% of blue whales studied, and about half of fin whales, had been entangled in nets at some point in their life. 鲸鱼身上的伤疤表明，被研究的60%的蓝鲸和大约半数的长须鲸曾在它们生命中的某个时刻被渔网缠住。 The researchers say death from entanglement could tip some whale populations into decline. The blue and fin whale are the two largest species in the oceans. Both are endangered, though the blue whale's starting to make a comeback in Antarctic waters. 研究人员表示，鲸鱼被缠住致死可能会导致一些鲸鱼数量下降。蓝鲸和长须鲸是海洋中体型最大的两个物种。尽管蓝鲸的数量在南极水域有所增加，但这两种鲸鱼均为濒危物种。 词汇表 caught up 被缠住 suffocate 窒息 starve 挨饿 trapped 被困住 entangled 被缠在一起 gear 用具，装备 cast doubt on… 对…怀有疑虑 blue whales 蓝鲸 fin whales 长须鲸 feeding ground 觅食地 scars 伤疤 endangered 濒临灭绝的 make a comeback 重新增长 🌟 更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

What is flexitarian? What kind of food do you eat? Are you conscious of the types of food you consume or do you stuff yourself silly with whatever is available? Today, we are constantly bombarded with media reports about research on the right diet to follow to help us maintain a healthy lifestyle or lose weight - but it's hard to know which one to pick and, once chosen, it's harder still to stick to it. And now there's another choice to get our teeth into. 你吃什么样的食物？你是有意识地选择食物种类，还是有什么吃什么，填饱肚子就行？如今，我们不断被媒体报道的关于正确饮食的研究轰炸，这些研究可以帮助我们保持健康的生活方式或减肥，但我们很难知道该选择哪一种，一旦选择了，坚持下去就更难了。 现在，我们又有了新的选择。 A flexitarian diet involves eating plant-based foods and only occasionally eating meat and fish. You might think this is a halfway house to being a vegetarian by not completely abstaining from meat. But if vegetarianism is hard to swallow and you fancy chomping on the occasional lean steak, then this could be the choice for you. 弹性素食包括吃植物性食物，只偶尔吃肉和鱼。你可能会认为这是成为素食者的折中办法，因为你不能完全戒除肉类。但是，如果素食主义很难接受，而你又想偶尔吃一块瘦牛排，那么这可能是你的选择。 This eating style allows you to supplement some ingredients that you wouldn't get in a stricter vegan diet – another trend growing in popularity. And like veganism, flexitarianism isn't about eating carefully to help you lose a few pounds - it's something people choose for ethical reasons, to help the planet. And a study into the global food system and how it affects the climate, has found that eating mainly plant-based foods is one of three key steps towards a sustainable future for all by 2050. 这种饮食方式可以让你补充一些在严格的纯素食中无法获得的成分——这也是另一种日益流行的趋势。与纯素食主义一样，弹性素食主义并不是为了减肥而精打细算，而是人们出于道德原因，为了帮助地球而选择的一种饮食方式。一项关于全球食品体系及其如何影响气候的研究发现，主要食用植物性食物是到2050年实现人类可持续未来的三个关键步骤之一。 This research found that food waste will need to be halved and farming practices will also have to improve to achieve this. But without a single solution, a combined approach is needed. Dr Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford was one of the lead authors of the report. He told the BBC "We really found that a combination of measures would be needed to stay within environmental limits and those include changes towards healthier more plant-based diets." 这项研究发现，为了实现这一目标，需要将食物浪费减半，而且还必须改进耕作方法。但是如果没有一个单一的解决方案，就需要一个组合的方法。牛津大学的马可 · 斯普林曼博士是该报告的主要作者之一。他告诉 BBC: “我们确实发现，要想保持在环境限制范围内，需要采取综合措施，其中包括改变饮食习惯，使之更健康，更以植物为基础。” But whereas vegans think it's wrong for animals to be killed for food, flexitarians believe eating meat once in a while is acceptable. And Dr Springmann agrees - as long as we "treat it as a luxury, it's probably OK but you shouldn’t have more than one serving of red meat, which includes beef and pork, per week." And here's another fact to digest: If we moved to this type of diet, the study found that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would be cut by more than half. 但是，素食主义者认为杀死动物作为食物是错误的，而弹性素食者则认为偶尔吃肉是可以接受的。斯普林曼博士对此表示赞同——只要我们“把它当作一种奢侈品，这可能没问题，但你每周不应该吃超过一份红肉，包括牛肉和猪肉。还有另一个需要消化的事实：如果我们转向这种饮食方式，研究发现农业的温室气体排放量将减少一半以上。 词汇表 stuff yourself 大吃大喝 diet 日常饮食 get your teeth into something 专注做某事 flexitarian 弹性素食者 plant-based 植物性的，基于植物的 halfway house 折中办法 vegetarian 素食者 abstain 节制 hard to swallow （双关语）难以下咽，令人难以接受 chomp 大声地咀嚼 lean （肉）瘦的 supplement 补充，增加 ingredient （食品的）成分，食材 vegan 纯素食主义者（不食用、不使用任何动物产品） veganism 纯素食主义 flexitarianism 弹性素食主义 ethical 道德的 food waste 食品浪费 serving （饭食的）一份 red meat 红肉（由指牛肉、猪肉、羊肉） digest （双关语）消化，理解 greenhouse gas emissions 温室气体排放 🌟 更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】