英音听力｜BBC & 经济学人等 - 节目列表

From the Sky News Centre at 1, The Prime Minister says he'll defend Labour's budget all day long. Sir Keir Starmer was speaking at the Welsh Labour Conference, where farmers protested outside over the changes to inheritance tax announced last month. Farming estates worth over a million pounds will be hit with a 20% levy. While he didn't address their issue directly in his speech, the PM did say the tough decisions are necessary. 英国首相表示他将全天捍卫工党的预算决策。基尔·斯塔默爵士在威尔士工党会议上发表讲话，与此同时，农民们在场外抗议上个月宣布的遗产税变动。价值超过一百万美元的农业地产将被征收20%的税款。尽管首相在讲话中没有直接回应他们的问题，但他确实表示，做出艰难的决定是必要的。 ...Protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales, finally turning the page on austerity once and for all. ...保护劳动者的工资单，修复我们经济的基础，并投资于英国和威尔士的未来，最终彻底翻过紧缩政策这一页。 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says a call between the German Chancellor and Vladimir Putin opens Pandora's box. Olaf Scholz called on the Russian leader to withdraw troops from Ukraine. 乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基表示，德国总理与弗拉基米尔·普京之间的通话打开了潘多拉的盒子。奥拉夫·朔尔茨呼吁俄罗斯领导人从乌克兰撤军。 GPs have warned they're increasingly concerned about people self-medicating for ADHD, as a global shortage of things like Ritalin and other medications caused by manufacturing issues and an increase in demand. 全科医生警告说，他们越来越担心人们自行治疗注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD），由于制造问题和需求增加导致的全球利他林等药物短缺。 Ten newborn babies have been killed in a hospital fire in India. Sixteen others were also injured in the blaze at the neonatal unit in the Uttar Pradesh state. 在印度一家医院的火灾中，有十名新生儿死亡。在北方邦的新生儿单元发生的火灾中，还有十六人受伤。 Eighty percent of state school staff say more children are coming to lessons with poor personal hygiene in the last year. Dirty uniforms, unbrushed teeth and frequent head lice are all on the rise. Sarah Smith's the head teacher of a primary school in Blackburn where they've had to install a washing machine. 80%的公立学校工作人员表示，在过去一年中，越来越多的孩子带着不佳的个人卫生状况来上课。脏制服、未刷的牙和频繁的头虱的情况都在增加。萨拉·史密斯是布莱克本一所小学的校长，他们不得不在学校安装洗衣机。 I never thought that I would need a laundrette in our school and unfortunately that's just the nature of the state of affairs for our families. Families find it incredibly difficult to heat their houses, to provide food for their children and to wash clothes. 我从未想过我们会需要在学校里安装洗衣房，但不幸的是，这正是我们家庭所面临的现实。家庭发现很难为他们的房屋供暖，为孩子们提供食物和洗衣服。对许多家庭来说，为房子供暖、为孩子提供食物和洗衣都非常困难。 The government says tackling child poverty is one of its top priorities. 政府表示，解决儿童贫困问题是其首要任务之一。 And an instrument praised by Noel Gallagher as the best guitar in the world has sold for over £226,000 at an auction. It was used on the third Oasis album, Be Here Now, released in August 1997. That's the latest. 诺埃尔·加拉格尔称赞为世界上最好的吉他在拍卖中以超过22.6万英镑的价格售出。这把吉他曾在1997年8月发行的绿洲乐队第三张专辑《Be Here Now》中使用。这是最新的报道。 🔆更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”可加入【打卡交流群】

Burnout: Is Your Job Killing Your Happiness? Have you ever had a horrible boss, not been paid enough, or simply got tired of doing the same old boring job? --I love presenting Six Minute English – of course, but some of my previous jobs have been pretty awful, Neil. When I waitressed in cafes I was on my feet ten hours a day – it was exhausting! Most people have had bad work experiences at one time or another - maybe a job that was boring, badly paid, or just working too much and getting burned out – lacking energy or enthusiasm because of working too hard. --But does work have to be like this? Since most of our waking day is spent at work, how can we make sure our job doesn't make us unhappy? That's what we'll be discussing in this programme, and, as usual, will be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. Sounds good, Beth, but first I have a question for you. The worst job I ever had was the summer I spent working as a portable toilet cleaner at music festivals, but according to a recent survey by Forbes magazine, what was voted the worst job in the UK? Was it: a) a call centre worker? b) a bartender? or, c) a traffic warden? --I think the answer might be a call centre worker. --OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Now, it's interesting that survey was carried out in the UK, because being unhappy at work could be related to the British working culture which emphasizes working at a fast pace. Here's Damian Grimshaw, a Professor of Employment Studies at King's College, London, speaking with BBC Radio 4 programme, Analysis: Really it's all about pace, cost efficiencies, meeting targets, deadlines. So this is why when people do surveys of what we call 'work intensity' (so how hard you work, are you driven on pace? is there a supervisor breathing down your neck? ), we score really badly compared to European countries. Compared to some European countries, British workers have to meet more targets and deadlines - a time or date by which a particular job must be finished. The pressure to work quickly means you might have your boss breathing down your neck, an idiom meaning that someone is watching you very closely and checking everything you do. Not a nice feeling to have at work! That's right. A good job is about more than pay and conditions, it's one that uses your talents, and gives you some choice over how and when you work. In 2022, Britain's biggest employer, the National Health Service or NHS, lost more than 15,000 nurses, many quitting because of the long and inflexible working hours. Another sector with long working hours is the construction industry. Low paid, dirty and physically demanding, construction workers also risk high levels of work related injury. Here, Emma Stewart, co-founder of social business, TimeWise, tells BBC Radio 4 programme, Analysis, about her trial project to help builders enjoy their jobs more: In the work that we've done within the construction industry, we have trialled what we would call an 'output based' way of working, which means we shift away from this sense of presenteeism, this sense of: you are paid by the day, you are on site from seven in the morning until the last person leaves, maybe seven in the evening, to a 'task-based' way of working which means: you are going to do five tasks over the course of this day, when you've done those tasks, and you've done them well, you can go home, but we will still pay you the same amount for the day. They were able to deliver the projects that we worked on with them on time, on budget, but critically the feedback from workers was that work-life balance scores doubled, and they were able to reduce the amount of overtime that they did - it's a win-win. Emma describes the current working patterns using the word, presenteeism – staying at work longer than usual, or going to work when you're ill, to show that you work hard. But this isn't an effective way to work. Emma thinks a task-based approach is better, both at getting the job done, and for improving work-life balance - the amount of time you spend at work, compared with the amount of time you spend relaxing with your family, and doing things you enjoy. In other words, flexible working is a win-win – a situation that's good for everyone involved. Maybe more flexible working would help some of the jobs I mentioned earlier in my question, Beth - according to a recent Forbes magazine survey, what was voted the worst job in the UK? --I guessed it was a job I've done myself - working in a call centre. --And that was, the correct answer, although I think my summer job cleaning toilets was even worse! 🌟 字数限制，完整文本，翻译和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

What if robots were in charge of the world? | BBC Ideas Here's a thought experiment. Could artificial intelligence govern us? Populism and disinformation are on the rise, and politics across the world seems to be dominated by emotions and strongman personalities. Leaders often seem to be more interested in short-term political gains, then the long-term needs of their electorate. But could machines do a better job? 这是一个思想实验。人工智能能统治我们吗？民粹主义和虚假信息正在上升，世界各地的政治似乎被情绪和铁腕人物所主导。领导人似乎往往对短期政治利益更感兴趣，而不是选民的长期需求。但是机器能做得更好吗？ Imagine a world where decisions are made based on impartial facts and data, where the decision makers are unconcerned by scandals, immune to corruption, and have no vested interest in maintaining their popularity. A world where climate change is a more pressing issue than the results of the latest focus group. And where global leaders don't risk instigating World War Three, by ranting on Twitter at 2 AM. Sounds too good to be true? 想象一个基于公正的事实和数据做出决策的世界，在那里，决策者不关心丑闻，不受腐败的影响，也没有既得利益来维持他们的声望。在这个世界里，气候变化是一个比最新焦点小组的结果更紧迫的问题。在那里，全球领导人不会冒着挑起第三次世界大战的风险，在凌晨两点在推特上咆哮。听起来是不是好得不近真实？ In fact, scientists believe there are no plausible circumstances in which machines would or could, replace governments entirely. While a machine might be able to make incredibly complex calculations, it would have no objective concept of right and wrong, no definitive way of deciding what's best. For example, it might be able to objectively analyse the financial cost of keeping someone alive through medical treatment, but it cannot quantify whether the human life is worth that cost. 事实上，科学家们认为，在任何情况下，机器都不会或不可能完全取代政府。虽然机器可能能够进行极其复杂的计算，但它没有客观的是非观念，没有决定什么是最好的明确方法。例如，机器也许能够客观地分析通过医疗手段维持生命的经济成本，但它无法量化人的生命是否值得付出这样的代价。 And while you could argue our current politicians may not be subject to enough accountability, it would be impossible to hold a machine accountable for its mistakes. After all, what do you do when a machine misbehaves? Tell its motherboard? It's not quite the Terminator, but perhaps the biggest risk in the medium term, is the use of lethal automated weapons. While there is currently human oversight, if drones were ever authorised to make life-or-death decisions, one mistake could trigger an automatic reaction and cause an accidental flash war. Which frankly sounds a tad more terrifying than Arnie stealing your clothes, boots and motorcycle. 虽然你可能会说我们当前的政治家可能没有受到足够的问责，但让一台机器为其错误负责是不可能的。毕竟，当机器出现问题时，你会怎么做？告诉它的主板吗？虽然这还算不上“终结者”，但从中期来看，最大的风险可能是使用致命的自动化武器。虽然目前有人类的监督，但如果无人机被授权做出生死攸关的决定，一个错误就可能触发自动反应，引发一场意外的闪电战。老实说，这听起来比阿尼偷走你的衣服、靴子和摩托车还要可怕。 As hard as it might be to believe, technology which surpasses human intelligence is decades if not centuries away. But even if it existed, scientists argue that it would be no more useful in government than the world's most intelligent human. Instead, it is far more likely that the use of artificial intelligence in government will continue on its current trajectory as an aid in decision-making, with humans having ultimate power. 尽管很难相信，但超越人类智慧的技术即使不是几个世纪，也要几十年后才会出现。但科学家们认为，即使这样的技术真的存在，它在政府中的作用也不会超过世界上最聪明的人类。相反，人工智能在政府中的应用更有可能沿着目前的轨迹发展下去，作为决策的辅助工具，而人类则拥有最终的权力。 AI is already being used to assist in deciding who gets grants or benefits, in healthcare and policing. But think of it like VAR, with a human being acting as the referee. Of course, as machines are programmed by humans and their conclusions used to support human decisions, they can be susceptible to human bias, and their findings can be used selectively. Machines learn from data, which is gathered from the world we live in, as opposed to the world we'd like to live in. 在医疗保健和警务领域，人工智能已被用于协助决定谁能获得补助金或福利。但可以把它想象成视频助理裁判，由人类担任裁判。当然，由于机器是由人类编程的，它们的结论用于支持人类的决策，因此可能容易受到人类偏见的影响，其结论也可能被选择性地使用。机器从数据中学习，而数据是从我们生活的世界中收集的，而不是我们希望生活的世界。 In places like the US, where African-Americans are often disproportionately and, in some cases, lethally targeted by the police, predictive policing could interpret existing data, to potentially perpetuate those discriminatory patterns. Sadly, it would seem that machine learning is no more equipped than human beings to make big ethical calls. AI would not be an infallible replacement for flawed human beings. How we use AI to govern, whether or not it is manipulated or how mistakes are made, are all down to human beings themselves. 在美国等地方，非裔美国人常常被警察不成比例地、有时甚至是致命地针对，预测性警务可能会解读现有数据，从而可能延续这些歧视性模式。遗憾的是，机器学习似乎并不比人类更有能力做出重大的道德决策。人工智能并不会成为有缺陷人类的完美替代品。我们如何使用人工智能来治理，它是否被操纵，或者如何出错，这些都取决于人类自己。 In short, AI is much more human than we ever realised, which is perhaps the scariest notion of all. 简而言之，人工智能比我们意识到的更像人类，这可能是最可怕的想法。 🌟 视频版和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Fire Lily Rising from the Ashes BBC Earth｜Seasonal Worlds·The Green Planet As summer approaches, the need to flower becomes more urgent. And nowhere more so than here in South Africa. Here there are more different species of plant than anywhere else in the world. Nearly 9,000, many needing pollinators. They compete with one another for such help by flaunting extravagant shapes and vivid colours, all promising nectar as a sugary reward. 随着夏天的临近，开花的需求变得愈发迫切。尤其是在南非，这里的植物种类比世界上任何其他地方都要丰富。将近9000种植物中，许多都需要传粉者的帮助。它们通过招展华丽的外形和鲜艳的颜色来争夺这种帮助，并都承诺以花蜜作为甜蜜的回报。 But there is a plant here that avoids this crowded competition. And the rising temperatures of summer bring just what it needs. This is the first fire here for 15 years. Nearly all the plants are destroyed, incinerated. It might seem from the smoke and the still-smouldering embers that no plant could survive such an inferno. 但这里有一种植物避开了这种拥挤的竞争。夏天温度的上升给它带来了所需的一切。这是这里15年来的第一场火灾。几乎所有的植物都被摧毁了，被焚烧殆尽。从烟雾和闷燃的余烬中看，似乎没有植物能在这样一场大火中存活。 But just four days after the flames, rising from the ashes, a fire lily. It has been lying dormant underground for 15 years, but now, awakened by the smoke, it flowers. The blooms may be small and unshowy, but that's all they need to be. 但就在大火过后的第四天，一朵火百合在灰烬中重生。它已经在地下蛰伏了15年，但现在，被烟雾唤醒后，它开花了。这些花朵可能小而不起眼，但这正是它们所需要的。 In this charred landscape, pollinators, such as these sunbirds, can spot these little red beacons from great distances. They're the only source of nectar around. And the more visitors the flowers attract, the more likely they are to be pollinated. It's just in time. 在这片焦黑的景观上，传粉者，比如这些太阳鸟，可以从很远的地方发现这些小小的红色信号。它们是周围唯一的花蜜来源。花朵吸引的访客越多，它们被传粉的可能性就越大。一切都恰逢其时。 Within a few months, the whole landscape is alive once more. In fact, all these plants need fire to survive. And as competitors return, the fire lily fades. It now returns underground and will rest there as a bulb until another fire awakens it. 几个月后，整个地貌又恢复了生机。实际上，这些植物都需要火才能生存。随着竞争者归来，火焰百合逐渐凋谢。它现在回到了地下，化作一颗球茎继续蛰伏，直到另一场火将它唤醒。 词汇表 urgent [ˈɜːdʒənt] 紧迫的，迫切的 flaunt [flɔːnt] 炫耀，招展，卖弄 extravagant [ɪkˈstrævəɡənt] 华丽的；奢侈的；过分的，放肆的 nectar [ˈnektə(r)] 花蜜，甘露 sugary reward ['ʃʊɡəri] 甜蜜的回报 incinerate[ɪnˈsɪnəreɪt] 焚化，烧毁 smouldering embers [ˈsməuldəriŋ] [ˈembə(r)] 闷燃的余烬 inferno [ɪnˈfɜːnəʊ] 大火；地狱，阴间 rise from the ashes [æʃ] 在灰烬中重生，浴火重生；死灰复燃 fire lily ['lɪlɪ] 火百合（原产于南非，以其在火灾后产生鲜艳的红色花朵而闻名 ） dormant [ˈdɔːmənt] 蛰伏的，休眠的 awaken [əˈweɪkən] 唤醒，叫醒；使意识到 bloom [bluːm] 花；开花 unshowy [ʌnˈʃəʊi] 不显眼的，不艳丽的 charred [tʃɑː(r)d] 烧焦的，焦黑的 landscape [ˈlændskeɪp] 景象，地貌；风景 pollinator ['pɒlɪneɪtə] 传粉者，传粉昆虫 sunbird ['sʌnbә:d] 太阳鸟（外表习性似蜂鸟，喜欢停留在花上食蜜） beacon [ˈbiːkən] 信号，信号灯；烽火 pollinate [ˈpɔlɪneɪt] 授粉，传花粉给 fade [feɪd] 枯萎，凋谢；褪色，消失 bulb [bʌlb] （植物的）球茎；球茎状物；电灯泡 🌟 视频版和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Youth Mental Health at Risk Due to Climate Change Psychologists say that worries about the environment are affecting young people's mental health. Children are frightened about the state of the planet and what it will mean for their futures. A BBC survey of 2000 children has found that three quarters of them are worried about the environment and 22% are very worried. 心理学家表示，对环境的担忧影响年轻人的心理健康。孩子们对地球的现状和这对他们未来的影响感到恐惧。BBC 对2000名儿童的一项调查发现，四分之三的儿童对环境感到担忧，22%感到非常担忧。 2019 was the year millions of children from Australia to Europe and Africa took part in large climate protests. And we saw Sweden's Greta Thunberg emerge as a lightning rod for young climate change activists all over the world. 2019年，数百万来自澳洲、欧洲和非洲的儿童参加了大规模的气候问题抗议活动。深陷争议漩涡的瑞典青年气候主义者格蕾塔·桑伯格成为全球青年反气候变化运动的代表人物。 But this survey also reveals a real sense of powerlessness and frustration. More than half of young people in the UK don't think their voices are being heard and only a third believe politicians are listening to them. 但这项调查也揭示了一种切实的无力感和挫败感。在英国，超过半数的青年认为自己的意愿未被人听取，只有三分之一的青年认为从政者在倾听他们的心声。 Perhaps the most worrying figure is around generational trust. Fewer than two in five believe that adults and world leaders will rise to the challenges climate change brings. Not only are adults facing a demand from young people that they listen to their concerns about climate change, but it's clear they face a battle to convince a doubtful and worried next generation that they've got what it takes to meet the challenges it raises. 或许最让人担忧的数字是世代间的信任度。不到四成的人认为，成年人和世界各国的领导人会成功应对气候变化带来的挑战。成年人不仅面临着要听取年轻人对气候变化的担忧，他们显然还面临另一场战斗，那就是需要说服充满疑虑和担忧的下一代他们有能力应对气候变化带来的挑战。 词汇表 worry / concern 担忧，忧虑 be frightened about ['fraɪt(ə)nd] 对...感到恐惧 climate protest [ˈprəʊtest] 气候抗议活动 emerge as [ɪˈmɜː(r)dʒ] 一跃成为，崭露头角；崛起为 lightning rod [rɒd] 争议性人物；替罪羊；避雷针 activist ['æktɪvɪst] 积极分子，活动家，活动分子 powerlessness [ˈpaʊələsnəs] 无力，无能为力 frustration [frʌ'streɪʃ(ə)n] 沮丧，挫败 generational [ˌdʒenəˈreɪʃənəl] 世代间的，代际的；一代人的 rise to the challenges 接受挑战，成功应对困难 doubtful [ˈdaʊtf(ə)l] 有疑虑的，持怀疑态度的 🌟更多英语听力和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Why Do We Pick Up Our Phones? There are the standard, conventional-sounding answers: we check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. 有一些标准的、听起来很常规的答案：我们查看手机，看看是否收到了任何信息，是否有人发布了有趣的电影，是否有可怕的事情在海外发生。 But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and far too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. We don't pick up our phones to find out what's going on; we pick them up to ensure – with considerable ruthlessness – that we are in no danger of finding out anything more about ourselves. 但这听起来可能太过正常，对我们太过仁慈。事实要黑暗得多，也更令人羞愧。我们拿起手机不是为了了解发生了什么；我们拿起手机是为了确保——相当无情地确保——我们不用再面临任何发现自己的危险。 If we forensically study the moments when we are drawn to pick up our devices, these are almost always when some kind of anxiety is pressing in on us – an anxiety on whose analysis and interpretation the correct navigation of our lives might actually depend. We are using our devices as an alternative to thinking about our futures, we employ our machines to block insight, to halt the business of processing, to alienate our minds from their most promising and complex substrata. 如果我们仔细研究一下我们被吸引去拿起电子设备的时刻，就会发现这些时刻几乎总是某种焦虑向我们袭来的时候——我们对生活的正确驾驭可能实际上依赖于对这种焦虑的分析和理解。我们把电子设备当作思考未来的替代品，我们利用机器来阻挡洞察力，停止处理事务，使我们的思想与它们最有希望和最复杂的底层分离。 The thoughts attempting to break into consciousness might be about our mother and the strange, disturbing thing she said to us over the lunch. Or about how we should try to make better use of our talents, given what we learnt in a meeting with an old university friend. Or about an unkind and sharp word our partner had with us this morning, which threatens to throw our relationship into question once again. 试图闯入意识的想法可能是关于我们的母亲和她在午餐时对我们说的奇怪、令人不安的事情。或者关于我们应该如何更好地利用我们的才能，鉴于我们在一位大学老友会面中学到的东西。或者关于我们的伴侣今天早上对我们的一句不友善而尖锐的话语，这有可能使我们的关系再次受到质疑。 How convenient – dreadfully convenient – that we should have invented a device to ensure that we will never have to meet ourselves again, and how darkly ironic that we should blithely refer to this as, of all things, an instrument of communication. 这是多么方便——可怕地方便——我们发明了一种设备，确保我们永远不必再面对自己，而我们却轻率地称之为沟通工具，这是多么黑暗的讽刺。 We take pride in the time we've saved, the dictionaries we don't have to consult, the atlases we can throw away, the many strange and funny things we have discovered. And yet we ignore the fruitful boredom we haven't had, the daydreams we haven't entertained, the reveries we've throttled, the ideas we've not hatched, the novels we haven't written, the businesses we didn't start, the feelings we've not identified, the self-awareness we've lost. 我们为节省下来的时间、为不必查阅的字典、为可以扔掉的地图册、为我们发现的许多奇怪而有趣的事物而自豪。然而，我们忽略了我们没有经历过的富有成效的无聊，我们没有享受的白日梦，我们扼杀的遐想，我们没有孵化的想法，我们未曾动笔的小说，我们未曾起步的事业，我们未曾觉察的情感，以及我们失去的自我意识。 However, this doesn't have to be the end of the story. Precisely when we most want to pick up our phones, we should learn to do something very unusual; pause and ask ourselves a bold question: if I wasn't allowed to consult my phone right now, what might I need to think about? 然而，这不一定是故事的结局。恰恰在我们最想拿起手机的时候，我们应该学会做一些很不寻常的事情；停下来问我们自己一个大胆的问题：如果我现在不允许查看手机，我可能需要思考什么？ The answer can provide us with nothing less than a royal road into our unexamined lives. Rather than using our phones to stop ourselves from thinking, we can study our craving for them as a guide to when and where we particularly need to introspect; we can study the times we most want to flee to them to understand what we should be staying put and exploring. 这个答案可以为我们提供一条通往未经审视的生活的坦途。与其用手机来逃避思考，我们不如观察自己对手机的渴望，以此作为何时何地需要进行自我反省的指南；我们可以研究自己最想逃避到手机中的时刻，以了解我们应该停下来深入探索的问题。 So, when our itch for distraction is at its height, we should turn over the following questions: 因此，当我们对分心的渴望达到顶点时，我们应该思考以下问题： – What am I trying to do with the rest of my life? 我打算如何度过我的余生？ – What should I concentrate on? 我应该专注于什么？ – What might I be sad about? 我可能因什么而悲伤？ – What might I be angry about? 我可能因什么而愤怒？ – What might I need to tell myself? 我需要告诉自己什么？ The answers are all inside us already, half imploring us – and half begging us not – to download yet more noise to drown them out. Our instruments of non-communication might turn out to be a gateway to insight after all. 答案已经在我们心中，它们在一半恳求我们——一半乞求我们不要——下载更多的干扰来将其淹没。毕竟，我们的非交流工具可能最终会成为通往洞察力的门户。 🌟视频版和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进入【打卡交流群】

What makes something go viral? What do these three things have in common: a grumpy baby, Harry Potter puppets singing, and a challenge where you pour a bucket of icy water over your head? The answer – they have all 'gone viral'. The world is becoming more and more digital, and we can't stop it. 这三样事有什么共同点：脾气暴躁的婴儿、会唱歌的哈利波特木偶，以及往你头上浇一桶冰水的挑战？答案是——它们都“走红”了。世界变得越来越数字化，我们无法阻止这一趋势。 While growing up, instead of wanting to be a doctor or a teacher, some now aspire to be an influencer or content creator, maybe in the hope of suddenly capturing widespread attention. It's generally agreed that if your content reaches over 1 million views in a week or less, you have 'gone viral'. 长大后，有些人不再想当医生或教师，而是渴望成为有影响力的人或内容创作者，也许是希望突然引起广泛的关注。人们普遍认为，如果你的内容在一周或更短时间内达到100万次以上的浏览量，你就“走红”了。 So, how does virality happen? The marketing tech company Unruly analysed over 400 billion videos and found that emotional connections, like humour and shock value, resonate the most strongly. These emotional elements drive us to share that content with others, and the more shares we have, the more seen that content will be. 那么，走红是如何产生的呢？营销技术公司Unruly分析 4000多亿个视频，发现幽默和震撼性等情感联系最能产生强烈的共鸣。这些情感元素促使我们与他人分享这些内容，分享得越多，这些内容就会被更多人看到。 We should also think about why people want to share content in the first place. Dr Jonah Berger, a Marketing Professor at the Wharton School, says "Sharing allows us to feel connected to others. We share emotions, which allow us to deepen the bonds we have with our peers and with our friends". So, while we may be behind a screen, we're still online because we want to connect and communicate with others, and going viral is driven by organic sharing, just like word of mouth but in a digital sense. 首先，我们还应该思考人们为什么要分享内容。沃顿商学院营销学教授乔纳·伯杰博士说：“分享让我们感受到与他人的联系。我们分享情感，从而加深我们与同龄人和朋友之间的联系。”因此，虽然我们可能在屏幕后面，但我们仍然在线，因为我们希望与他人联系和交流，并且走红是由自发的共享驱动的，就像口碑一样，但是在数字意义上。 Though there are other things to consider. Datadab, a marketing agency, says that our brains are wired to enjoy and recognise patterns, which they say is why internet memes often go viral. If we are already familiar with a theme, like a recognisable image on a meme, then it doesn't take long for us to understand the context of a new caption, which our brain enjoys and makes us more likely to share it. 尽管还有其他事情要考虑。营销机构Datadab表示，我们的大脑天生喜欢并识别图案，这就是为什么互联网梗图常常走红。如果我们已经熟悉一个主题，比如一个容易认出的梗图图像，那么我们很快就能理解一个新的说明文字的语境，我们的大脑喜欢这样，这让我们更有可能分享它。 Timeliness and relevance are also crucial. Content that is relatable, or that aligns with current trends, captures more interest and encourages more sharing. So, combine all of these factors and you could have content that goes viral. 时效性和相关性也至关重要。能够引起共鸣，或者符合流行趋势的内容，更能吸引兴趣，鼓励更多分享。所以，将所有这些因素结合起来，你就可能创造出走红的内容。 词汇表 grumpy ['ɡrʌmpi] 脾气坏的，脾气暴躁的 puppet ['pʌpɪt] 木偶，傀儡 bucket [ˈbʌkɪt] 水桶，吊桶 go viral ['vaɪrəl]（在社交媒体上）迅速走红，迅速传播 digital ['dɪdʒɪt(ə)l] 数字化的，数字的，数码的 aspire to be [əˈspaɪə(r)] 渴望成为，立志成为 influencer [ˈɪnfluənsər] 有影响力的人，网红 content creator 内容创作者 capture widespread attention [ˈkæptʃə(r)] 引起广泛关注 virality [vaɪˈrælɪti] 走红，病毒式传播 shock value 冲击性，震撼性 resonate [ˈrezəneɪt] 产生共鸣，发出回响 deepen the bonds 加深联系 organic sharing [ɔː(r)ˈɡænɪk] 自发的分享 word of mouth 口碑（通过口头传播的信息或评价） marketing agency 营销机构 be wired to [ˈwaɪə(r)d] 天生就，生来 meme [miːm] 梗图，模因（在网络上不断传播的图片等） recognisable ['rekəgnaɪzəbl] 容易认出的，易于识别的 caption ['kæpʃ(ə)n]（图片、漫画的）说明文字；字幕 timeliness [ˈtaɪmlinəs] 时效性，及时 relevance [ˈreləv(ə)ns] 相关性；实用性；意义 relatable [rɪˈleɪtəbəl] 能与之关联的，能引起共鸣的 align with [ə'laɪn] 符合，与…一致 current trend 流行趋势，目前趋势 🌟 更多英语听力和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Climate change: Are there too many people? We're talking about the environment in this programme, specifically climate change. Now, Sam, what do you think is the biggest cause of climate change? --An obvious answer would be that climate change is the result of carbon emissions caused by humans. It's about people's carbon footprint – the measurement of how much carbon dioxide is produced by someone's everyday activities. That makes sense. But recently some scientists, especially in the west, have been focusing on another issue: the increasing number of people in the world, something known as overpopulation. In this programme, we'll be discussing the controversial link between overpopulation and climate change. And as usual we'll be learning some new vocabulary, as well. Sounds good, Neil, but first I have a question for you. Over the last 100 years, within one lifetime, the world's population has soared. At the start of the 20th century, it was around one-and-a-half billion, but how many people are there in the world today? Is it: a) seven billion, b) eight billion or c) nine billion? --I'll say around eight billion people live on the planet today. --OK, Neil, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Since climate change is caused by human activities, it seems common sense that fewer people would mean lower carbon emissions. But in fact the connection isn't so simple. Not everyone emits carbon equally, and people in the western world produce far more than people in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. Arvind Ravikumar is professor of climate policy at the University of Texas. He's made the surprising calculation that an extra two billion people born in low-consuming countries, would actually add very little to global carbon emissions. Here, Kate Lamble and Neal Razzell, presenters of BBC World Service programme, The Climate Question, discuss Professor Ravikumar's findings. What he's saying is kind of astonishing, right? Two billion people is, to say the least, a lot. It's the combined population of Europe and Africa. He's crunched the numbers and found that an extra two billion low-income people as defined by the World Bank, these are people without cars, without electricity often, would see global emissions rise by just 1.5%. Add two billion high-income earners - that's people with cars and power and all the mod cons, and Arvind reckons emissions would rise by more than 60%. So when it comes to climate change and population, where you were born matters. Professor Ravikumar made his discovery after crunching the numbers, an idiom meaning performing many mathematical calculations involving large amounts of data. He concluded that whereas two billion low-income people would increase carbon levels very little, two billion high-income people would increase it a lot. That's because high-income populations have mod cons, which is short for 'modern conveniences': technology and machines like cars, fridges and air-conditioning that make life easier and more pleasant. According to this view, the real problem is not overpopulation but overconsumption. Affluence – that's having lots of money and owning many things, has become a big factor in climate change, and that's true in poorer countries as well as richer ones. Listen to Rajesh Joshi, reporter for BBC World Service's, The Climate Question, interviewing a rich Indian housewife, Priti Dhagan, in her luxurious home in New Delhi. I need everything that I buy. You cannot be judgmental about anybody's needs, and I derive a lot of happiness out of being very, very drawn towards consumer things, and I love it. And I'm not apologetic about it. --So if I tell you that poor people have a smaller carbon footprint as compared to their richer counterparts, do you feel apologetic about it? --So the brain says yes, we should be apologetic about it, but the heart does not agree. Yes, poor can't afford lots of stuff so their carbon imprint is small, but here my heart wins over my brain because it gives me happiness. Priti does not feel apologetic about her shopping – she doesn't think that she should feel sorry. Shopping makes her happy and she lets her heart rule her head – an idiom meaning that you do something based on emotions rather than reason. Priti is being very honest. She is consuming and looking for happiness in a way that people in the west have been doing for decades. It seems overconsumption is a bigger cause of climate change than raw population numbers. Speaking of which, what was the answer to your question, Sam? --Ah yes, I asked about the current global population. You guessed it was around eight billion people which was… the correct answer! According to the United Nations, the world's population reached eight billion on November 15, 2022. 🌟 字数限制，完整文本，翻译和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

4 productivity tips to achieve more with less Getting things done isn't working all day at 100 miles an hour. Looking for ways to do less and get more done sounds a bit counterintuitive, but it actually makes a lot of sense. And the following tips can definitely help you. Suppose you've got a really important presentation to do. It's the kind of task productivity expert Professor Cal Newport says needs 'deep work'. Deep work is your concentration sweet spot, where you can achieve most. 把事情做好不是整天以每小时100英里的速度工作。寻找少做多得的方法听起来有点违反直觉，但实际上很有道理。下面的建议绝对能帮到你。假设你有一个非常重要的报告要做。就是那种如工作效率专家卡尔·纽波特教授说的需要“深度工作”的工作。深度工作需要你达到注意力集中的最佳状态，以取得最大成效。 1. Shut out the shallow. 排除浅层工作。 Smaller tasks like answering emails are 'shallow work'. Try to be more conscious of what your shallow tasks are, and give yourself permission to block them out for a while so you can focus on the important tasks that require 'deep work'. Lots of successful people have cut out the shallow to work more productively. Bill Gates went to a remote cottage. Others, like Maya Angelou, shut themselves away to write. 像回复邮件这样的小任务就是“浅层工作”。试着更清醒地认识到你的浅层任务是什么，并允许自己暂时屏蔽掉它们，这样你就能专注于需要 “深度工作”的重要任务。很多成功人士都会摒弃浅层的工作，从而提高工作效率。比尔·盖茨会去一个偏远的小木屋。其他人，比如玛雅·安吉洛，会把自己关起来写作。 2. Call it a day. 今天到此为止。 For good productivity, be strict about when your working day is over, and when you get to the end of your planned work session, ease yourself into a more relaxed state and try Cal Newport's shutdown ritual. Look through your unfinished work. Write a short plan of how you'll tackle it tomorrow. Then close that textbook or laptop and say something out loud like 'Shutdown complete!' It might sound silly, but it signals the end of your working thoughts for the day. After that? Have some fun. Give your mind the rest it's earned. 为了提高工作效率，请严格遵守一天工作结束的时间，当你计划好的工作时段结束时，让自己进入更放松的状态，并尝试卡尔·纽波特的关机仪式。仔细查看你未完成的工作。写一个简短的计划，说明你明天将如何处理它。然后合上课本或笔记本电脑，大声说出“关机完成！”这可能听起来很傻，但它标志着你一天的工作思考结束。之后呢？找点乐子。让你的大脑得到它应得的休息。 3. Find your top level goal. 找到你的顶级目标。 Businessman Warren Buffett's technique for getting people to focus on their most important goals was simple: Write down in order the top 20 things you want to do in life, and then draw a line under number five. Until you've done those first five, forget everything else. For a more structured approach, organise your priorities by making a pyramid of goals, designed by psychologist Professor Angela Duckworth. Find the big thing that we could call your life's purpose, like inspiring others, or helping people in society. Put that at the top. 商人沃伦·巴菲特让人们专注于最重要的目标的技巧很简单：按顺序写下你一生中最想做的20件事，然后在第5件事下面划一条线。在你完成前5个之前，忘掉其他的事情。心理学家安吉拉·杜克沃斯教授设计了一种更有条理的方法，通过建立目标金字塔来组织你的优先事项。找到我们称之为人生目标的大事，比如激励他人，或者帮助社会中的人。把它置于顶层。 On the next level you'll have mid-level goals like passing an exam. The goals below it should all feed into your top-level. They'll be smaller, more practical things — perhaps writing an email, or doing some research. If they don't help with achieving your top goal, then get rid of them! You could make a similar pyramid with a more specific task at the top — like that big presentation. Remember all the other to-dos should feed in. 在下一层，你会有中等级别的目标，比如通过考试。下面的目标都应该服务于你的顶级目标。它们会更小、更实际——也许是写一封电子邮件，或者做一些研究。如果它们实现你的顶级目标没有帮助，那么就去除掉它们！你可以用一个更具体的任务在顶层制作一个类似的金字塔——比如那个重要的报告。记住，所有其他待办事项都应该服务于它。 4. Make your breaks smarter. 让你的休息时间更高效。 Let's get back to the big presentation. It'll take a few hours to get it done properly, but in order to keep those stress levels at bay, try the Pomodoro technique named after a tomato-shaped kitchen timer. Time-management guru Francesco Cirillo says that for every 25 minutes of intense concentration, you should take five off to do nothing at all. The theory? Tackling a big task in focused chunks with regular breaks gives the brain time to recover and keeps your productivity high. 让我们回到那个重要的报告。要把它完成好需要几个小时，但为了控制压力水平，不妨试试番茄工作法，它以一个番茄形状的厨房计时器得名。时间管理大师弗朗切斯科·西里洛说，每集中精力工作25分钟，就应该休息5分钟，什么也不做。理论依据是什么？分块集中精力处理一项大任务，并定期休息，这样大脑就有恢复的时间，并保持较高的工作效率。 In the five-minute breaks, don't jump on your phone! Move around, stare out of a window. A recent study showed that regular five-minute walk breaks improve people's mood, and even make them feel less tired and hungry at work. And finally, if you really need to concentrate, find some pictures of kittens and puppies first. That's right. Research in Japan suggests that looking at cute baby animals brings out the natural caregiver in us, and improves our ability to focus on the details. Turns out productivity can be cute, too. 在5分钟的休息时间里，不要拿起手机！四处走动走动，或者凝视窗外。最近的一项研究表明，有规律的5分钟散步休息能改善人们的情绪，甚至让他们在工作时感觉不那么疲惫和饥饿。最后，如果你真的需要集中精力，可以先找一些小猫小狗的图片。这就对了。日本的研究表明，看着可爱的小动物能激发我们天生的照顾者天性，提高我们专注于细节的能力。原来，工作效率也可以很可爱。 🌟 视频版和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

Daisies that keep facing the sun BBC Earth｜Seasonal Worlds｜The Green Planet The first warm days of spring encourage some plants to flower and get ahead of the competition, creating beautiful displays throughout the seasonal world. From the spectacular cherry blossoms of Japan to the goldfield flowers of California. 初春温暖的天气促使一些植物竞相开花，在季节性的世界里创造出美丽的景象。从日本壮观的樱花，到加州的金原菊花。 But spring flowering is risky. If they flower too early, it may not be warm enough for pollinating insects to be active. But the common daisy gives them every opportunity. 但是春天开花是有风险的。如果它们开花太早，这样的温度可能不足以让授粉昆虫活跃起来。但是普通的雏菊给了授粉昆虫每一个机会。 The warmer the flowers are, the more attractive they are, and they have a remarkable strategy in order to maximise this. They were closed up tightly throughout the night as a protection against the elements. But once they feel the warmth and the light of the sun, they spring into action. It's a behaviour called heliotropism. They turn to keep facing the sun, absorbing as much heat as they can. 花朵越温暖，就越有吸引力，为了最大化这一点，雏菊有一个非凡的策略。它们的花朵整夜紧闭，以抵御恶劣的天气。但是一旦它们感受到温暖和阳光，它们便会立即行动起来。这种行为被称为向日性。它们转动以面向太阳，尽可能多地吸收热量。 This is a thermal camera, and it will tell me the difference between the surrounding temperature and the temperature in the centre of a daisy flower. The surroundings: 12 degrees. In the centre of a flower: 21. 这是一个热像仪，它会告诉我周围的温度和雏菊花心的温度之间的差异。周围环境是12度。而花心是21度。 Pollinators such as bees and wasps prefer the warmed-up flowers because they can get a share of the heat for themselves. As a consequence, they can collect more nectar from more flowers, pollinating as they go. And the daisies, with the help of their pollinators, are able to have a particularly long flowering season. 蜜蜂和黄蜂等传粉者更喜欢温暖的花朵，因为它们可以为自己获得一份热量。因此，它们可以从更多的花朵上采集更多的花蜜，边采边授粉。在传粉昆虫的帮助下，雏菊有着特别长的花期。 词汇表 cherry blossom ['tʃerɪ][ˈblɒs(ə)m] 樱花 goldfield ['gəʊldfi:ld] （加州）金原菊属植物（以其在春季盛开时覆盖山坡和草地的金黄色花海而闻名） pollinating insect [ˈpɒləneɪt] 授粉昆虫，传粉昆虫 pollinator ['pɒlɪneɪtə] 传粉者，传粉昆虫 daisy ['deɪzɪ] 雏菊 maximise ['mæksɪmaɪz] 使最大化，充分利用 the elements（恶劣的）天气 spring into action 立即采取行动，突然活跃起来 heliotropism [ˌhi:lɪ'ɒtrəʊpɪzəm] 向日性，趋日性（指某些植物调整自身方向面向太阳，以最大化地吸收阳光） thermal camera [ˈθɜː(r)m(ə)l] 热成像仪，红外热成像仪（一种能够检测并记录物体表面温度分布的设备） wasp [wɒsp] 胡蜂，黄蜂，马蜂 warmed-up 升温的，温暖的 get a share of 获取（利益），分一杯羹 nectar [ˈnektə(r)] 花蜜，甘露 flowering season 花期，开花季节 🌟 视频版和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】

From the Sky News Center at 11. Donald Trump has been elected US President for a second time. The Republican candidate declared victory earlier and the numbers now sit in a way that it would be impossible for Kamala Harris to overtake him. Our correspondent David Levins in Washington says he'll return to the White House on the back of an extraordinary set of results. The Republicans have taken back the Senate. It looks like they're going to retain the House. There are vacancies on the Supreme Court, so Donald Trump is going to wield power that is beyond his wildest expectations. Though his Democrat rival didn't concede defeat, her campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told a rally of supporters in Washington to go home once results from some of the key battleground states came in. She will be back here tomorrow to address not only the H.U. family, not only to address her supporters, but to address the nation. So thank you. We believe in you. That's the last we've heard from her camp. Mr. Trump, though, took to the stage in Florida in the early hours to promise a golden age for America. July's assassination attempt came up. Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness. World leaders wasted no time in offering their congratulations, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Some opposition parties here are a little more hostile, though. The Lib Dems say it's a dark, dark day, while the Greens have called Mr Trump a dangerous bigot, bully and liar. 翻译和更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”可加入【打卡交流群】

From the Sky News Center at 8. Donald Trump has claimed victory in the U.S. presidential election. I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president. Counting still underway, though it seems almost certain he'll be back in the White House because of the states he's done well in. Pennsylvania, for example, carries the highest number of electoral college votes, taking him closer than his rival Kamala Harris to the magic number of 270. He's just four short. It's 3 a.m. on the East Coast, (U.S.! U.S.! U.S.!) where Mr. Trump addressed crowds of supporters. We're going to help our country heal. We're going to help our country heal. We have a country that needs help. Along with running mate J.D. Vance. I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America. We're going to lead the greatest economic comeback in American history under Donald Trump's leadership. Though Democrats aren't happy in Michigan. I'm actually very nervous. I'm very surprised. Definitely anxious. We'll be in for a rude awakening under Trump's leadership. He was a disaster the first four years. He's completely unhinged. Meanwhile, the FBI says emails sent from Russia were to blame for bomb threats at a number of voting places. None were deemed credible, though. 翻译和更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复“1”可加入【打卡交流群】