中美贸易战,若不会英语怎么谈?
你说,我们还有什么理由,不学好英语呢!
* 泛读,文中有测验,去瞧瞧?
* 泛读,文下有漫画,去看看!
2019年2月25日
星期一
1
每日一句
Dubai, Global Gateway
3、Dubai's thriving secondhand supercar market
In this global supercar hotspot, a whirlwind secondhand market has buyers snapping up rare gems.
迪拜,全球之门
3、迪拜蓬勃发展的二手超级跑车市场
在这个全球超级跑车热点中,旋风二手市场让买家抢购稀有宝石。
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Karen Hopkin.
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列,我是凯伦·霍普金。
This will just take a minute.
只需要一分钟哦。
If you need help herding some sheep or retrieving a stick, you can count on your canine companion. Because dogs always seem to be keen on lending a paw. But only if their partner is a person. When it comes to cooperating with one another, dogs are truly lost...and instead it's wolves who've mastered the art of teamwork. That's according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
如果你在放羊或捡回棍子时需要帮助,你可以依赖狗狗朋友。因为狗狗看起来总是乐于帮忙。但是,前提是合作对象是人类。在和同类合作时,狗狗会完全不知所措,而狼才是团队合作艺术的大师。这是《美国国家科学院学报》上刊登的一篇研究所提出的观点。
For thousands of years, humans have been breeding dogs that can do all sorts of neat tricks. And because pups aim to please, we've come to think that domestication has somehow boosted dogs' powers of cooperation. But researchers in Austria have been wondering whether that notion could be barking up the wrong tree. Because left to their own devices, dogs are bigger loners than wolves.
数千年来,人类一直在饲养可以掌握各种小技能的狗狗。因为狗的目的是取悦人类,所以我们认为驯养会以某种方式提高狗狗的合作能力。但是,奥地利研究人员一直想弄明白这种观念是不是弄错了。因为在自然成长的情况下,狗比狼更喜欢独来独往。
"So wolves live in closely knit family packs, they cooperate in raising the young, they also cooperate in hunting and in defending their territories. So they really have a strong dependence on cooperation in many aspects of their lives. In contrast, to this free ranging dogs actually forage mostly by themselves solitarily. It's only mothers that raise their young. And they do form packs but they tend to be somewhat more fluid, if you want."
“狼生活在紧密团结的族群中,它们共同抚养后代,还一起捕猎和保护领地。所以,它们在生活的很多方面都对合作有很强的依赖性。相反,放养犬其实大多独处觅食。只有母犬养育后代。它们也会形成族群,但是可以说,它们的关系并不稳定。”
That's Sarah Marshall-Pescini of the Wolf Science Center at the University of Vienna. She and her colleagues decided to test dogs' and wolves' relative powers of cooperation. In the setup, a pair of animals...either two dogs or two wolves...is presented with a contraption that will allow the participants to access a tray of food...but only if both members of the team simultaneously pull on the two ends of a rope.
“狼生活在紧密团结的族群中,它们共同抚养后代,还一起捕猎和保护领地。所以,它们在生活的很多方面都对合作有很强的依赖性。相反,放养犬其实大多独处觅食。只有母犬养育后代。它们也会形成族群,但是可以说,它们的关系并不稳定。”
A dozen wolves and 14 dogs took the challenge. And the results? The wolves ran circles around their doggie descendants. In some 400 attempts, the wolf teams scored a snack 100 times. Which may not sound all that impressive...until you compare it with the doggie duos, who, in nearly 500 trials, succeeded only twice.
12只狼和14只狗接受了挑战。结果呢?狼的表现明显比狗好。在约400次测试中,狼组成功获得了100次食物。这听起来也许不算什么,那就和狗狗组的成绩比较一下吧,在近500次试验中,狗狗组只成功了2次。
Now, it's not that dogs are less avid learners. Or that they turned tail and avoided the apparatus. Marshall-Pescini says the pooches were curious about the device.
这并不是说狗狗不热爱学习。它们也没有掉头就走并避开装置。马绍尔·佩希尼表示,狗狗对于这种装置充满了好奇。
"What seemed to be happening was they didn't want to get into conflict with each other. So they wouldn't both go and try things on it but rather took it in turns. And this really hindered their capacity to cooperate."
“情况是,狗狗似乎并不想和对方发生冲突。所以,它们不会一起尝试,而是会轮流努力。而这阻碍了它们的合作能力。”
So rather than step on each others' toes, the hounds took turns bowing out, giving their teammate a chance at the plate. That show of social grace left the poor pups with their tummies growling. And no treat to wolf down.
狗狗们并没有踩到对方的脚趾,而是轮流结束尝试,让队友也有尝试的机会。这种社交礼仪使可怜的狗狗肚子饿得咕咕叫。没有享受到可以狼吞虎咽的美食。
For Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是凯伦·霍普金。
4
每日一词
每日一词:Toxic
Toxic:2018,“有毒”的一年
纽约时报中文网
关键词:toxic 有毒的
牛津词典宣布:2018年“有毒”(toxic)。
该公司的美国版词典负责人凯瑟琳·康纳·马丁(Katherine Connor Martin)??告诉时报记者,过去一年中,人们对toxic一词的兴趣明显增加。这个词获选并不是基于统计上的理由,而是因为它被应用在更广泛的领域:从环境中的有毒物质、对现今具有破坏力的政治语言的哀叹,到不断发酵的“我也是”运动(#MeToo),都与之息息相关。
根据在线牛津字典的解释,toxic一词意指“有毒的”,这个词在17世纪中叶首次出现在中世纪的拉丁语中,意为“中毒的”(poisoned)或“充满毒药的”(imbued with poison)。但这个词实际上来源于希腊语中的“toxikon pharmakon”,意指“箭上的毒药”(poison for arrows)。(有趣的是,意思是“箭”的词toxikon取代了意为药物的词pharmakon,成为了现今toxic一词的字根。)
Toxic一词在最初面世的几个世纪中,其意思都是字面上的“毒”。1980年代,这个词的隐喻含义逐渐被广泛使用,尤其是在一些“心灵鸡汤”类的书籍中。1990年代,开始有了“toxic debt”(不良债务)和“toxic bachelors”(“有毒的单身汉”,出自美剧《欲望都市》[Sex and the City],意指自私、感觉迟钝、惧怕承诺的未婚男性)等说法。2003年,歌手“小甜甜”布兰妮·斯皮尔斯(Britney Spears)出了一首名为“Toxic”的歌。
最近,“有毒的阳刚特质”(toxic masculinity)这个说法出现了爆炸式增长。根据牛津词典的统计,在过去的一年中,和toxic一词最常搭配出现的分类是“chemicals”(化学品),其次就是“masculinity”(阳刚特质)。
牛津词典选择年度词汇的标准是,这个词能反映出该年份的“精神特质、情绪或当务之急”,并具有持久性的潜力作为一个文化意义术语。今年候选名单中还有“gaslighting”(煤气灯操纵)、“incel”(非自愿处男)和“techlash”(科技抵制),这些词语突出了单词的出现或和它们演变的不同方式。去年的年度词汇是“youthquake”(青年震荡),2016年则是“post-truth”(后真相)。
你认为即将过去的这个2018年“有毒”吗?关于toxic和其他候选名单上的词,你有什么想法?
5
信息来源
1、本期每日一句,由编辑选优推荐。
2、本期每日一播,取自影视资源。
3、本期每日一闻,取自Scientific American — 60-Second Science.
4、本期每日一词,取自纽约时报中文网.
本文仅供学习交流参考,未用作商业用途。如对本公众号发布的文章存有异议,欢迎留言告知,编辑将在24小时内回复处理。
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