☊ 碧瓏司の→ßeℒongŚ

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2016/20160127sa_mind.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
Animals that live in the city are usually less wary of humans than their rural counterparts. Most people think the boldness comes from experience: since the majority of humans are rather harmless, the critters learn to go about their business without fear. But the truth turns out to be far more interesting, at least for Australian swans. Turns out the city birds are genetically different from their country counterparts.
與城市動物相比，生活在農村的動物更易懼怕人類。多數人認為勇敢源於經驗：由於大部分人類不會傷害動物，因此動物們可以無所畏懼的從事自己的活動。但是對於澳大利亞的天鵝來說，結果更為有趣。結果表明，城市天鵝和農村的天鵝基因不同。
Australian researchers looked at two groups of swans. One population lived on a pond in the center of Melbourne. The second hung out just 30 kilometers away in a more bucolic setting, surrounded by far fewer humans. The researchers measured what they call each bird’s “flight initiation distance”: basically, how close could a human get before the swan would fly away?
澳大利亞的研究人員調查了兩組天鵝。其中一組生活在墨爾本市中心的池塘裡。而第二組則生活在30公里外，人煙稀少的鄉村景色中。研究人員測量了每只天鵝的“飛行起始距離”：即，在天鵝起飛時，人類可靠近的距離。
“We found that the flight initiation distance for the swans at the urban environment was only 13 meters, and on average at the non-urban environment it was 96 meters. So that’s like an 83 meter difference, a really big difference in how wary these swans are at the two habitats.” Victoria University ecologist Wouter van Dongen.
“我們發現，在城市生活的天鵝其飛行起始距離只有13米，而在非城市環境中天鵝的平均飛行起始距離為96米。這83米的差距也揭示了這些天鵝對兩處不同棲息地謹慎程度。”瑞士維多利亞大學的生態學家Wouter van Dongen說到。
The researchers also took blood samples from some of the swans to analyze their DNA. And almost 90 percent of urban swans had the same variant of a gene for dopamine transport, while just 60 percent of rural birds had that version. And those swans were less wary of humans than were the swans with the rarer genotypes.
研究人員也從天鵝的身上採集了血液樣本分析其DNA。其中，幾乎90%的城市天鵝有多巴胺轉運體變體，而農村天鵝此資料僅為60%。擁有此變體的天鵝更不懼怕人類。
Dopamine influences a lot of brain function, so the gene variation could be behind the difference in swan attitudes. The study is in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/72.mp3

👯  

👯 中英文稿：
Hello, I’m Rob, welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Jennifer.
大家好，我是Rob，歡迎來到6分鐘英語。今天和我一起的是Jennifer。
Hi there, Rob.
你好，Rob。
Thanks for joining me. Now, this year the BBC is looking into the future, in key areas of science, politics, education and our personal life in a series called ’What If…’. One of the questions it’s asking is ’What if everyone had a car?’ and that’s what we’re discussing today and we’ll be looking at some of the language associated with driving and traffic.
謝謝和我一起主持。今年，BBC公司展望未來，在科學、政治、教育及我們個人的生活等關鍵領域它問的問題之一就是“如果每人都有一輛車會怎樣？”這也是我們今天要討論的，同時學習一些和駕駛和交通有關的詞語。
Well, living in London, I know all about traffic, especially traffic jams – that’s where too many cars, lorries and buses get stuck in long queues on the road.
住在倫敦，我很瞭解倫敦的交通，尤其是交通堵塞--實在是有太多的小汽車、貨車和巴士在路上卡住，排起長龍。
Yes, they are stuck together, just like jam! And it’s a big problem in cities around the world.It could be the situation that one day, all the traffic becomes one long queue and we have a global traffic jam! Today, we will be hearing about some possible solutions that may prevent this problem from happening. But first, I think it’s only fair that we begin today’s journey with a question.

大表姐勞倫斯成最吸金奧斯卡候選人
Oscars 2016: Jennifer Lawrence out-earns the other nominees

Jennifer Lawrence is the highest-earning actor or actress to earn an Oscar nomination in this year’s awards, according to Forbes’s magazine. The magazine, which publishes an annual list of the top-earning male and female actors, lists Lawrence as the world’s highest-earning actress, after she netted $52 million before tax last year.
據福布斯雜誌報導，詹妮弗•勞倫斯是今年入圍奧斯卡的演員中收入最高的一位。福布斯發佈了年度最吸金男女演員，勞倫斯去年稅前淨賺5200萬美元，成為全球最高收入女星。

Lawrence is the only Best Actress or Supporting Actress nominee to appear on Forbes’s list: none of the other nominees’ 2014-15 earnings met their $6m mimimum for inclusion. In fact, she made more money last year than all her fellow Best Actress nominees put together.
勞倫斯是躋身福布斯榜單的唯一一位奧斯卡“最佳女主角”或“最佳女配角”候選人：其他候選人因達不到2014-2015年度的最低收入要求600萬美元而遺憾落榜。實際上，她去年的入帳超過了其他入圍“最佳女演員”女星收入的總和。

As Forbes point out, if Lawrence wins the award, it will be first time that an actress has won an Oscar in the same year as becoming the world’s highest paid, though former list-topper Sandra Bullock came close in 2014, when she was nominated for a Best Actress award for her role in Gravity.
正如福布斯指出的那樣，此次大表姐若能得獎，她將成為第一個同年既獲得奧斯卡又入選全球收入最高演員榜單的女星。而此前，因出演《地心引力》被提名2014“最佳女主角”的該年度最高收入女星桑德拉•布洛克曾與這個榮譽失之交臂。

Nonetheless, it seems that awards do matter more financially to women than to men; a closer look at the figures suggests that actresses may be expected to have won a major award before they can break into a higher pay bracket. While overall pay for women is lower, the highest-earners are more likely to have an Oscar than not to have one: eight out of the top 15 highest-paid actresses have won Academy Awards.
然而，相比于男演員，能否獲獎似乎對女演員的收入影響更大。仔細研究資料後會發現，女演員在獲得一項大獎之後，通常收入都能更上一層樓。儘管女星的收入總體要低一些，但收入最高者獲得奧斯卡獎的幾率還是要高一些：收入前15的女演員中有8位曾獲得奧斯卡金像獎。

But for men the reverse is true: none of the top 15 highest-earning male actors has ever won an Oscar. Even accounting for the presence of three Bollywood stars on the list (Bollywood films are rarely major Oscar contenders), the gap is still surprising.
但在男演員這兒，情況卻截然不同：收入前15的男星中沒有一位獲得過奧斯卡獎。就算將榜單上的3位寶萊塢男星包括在內（寶萊塢電影鮮少入圍奧斯卡），也無濟於事。

It looks likely that Leonardo DiCaprio (ranked at number 13) will be the first among them to snag a trophy. DiCaprio is the highest-earning male acting nominee at this year’s Oscars, but still earns far less than Lawrence’s $52 milllion, pocketing a paltry $29 million in 2014-15.
看起來，萊昂納多•迪卡普里奧（入選榜單第13）將成為第一個贏得奧斯卡的高收入男星。小李子是今年入圍奧斯卡的收入最高男星，但他的吸金能力還是遠遜于大表姐勞倫斯，2014-2015年度他僅賺得2900萬美元。

✿ 托福寫作備考之“時間軸式”複習法 ✿

托福考試中，如何才能讓自己的托福寫作得到高分？在以下內容中就為大家介紹托福寫作備考之“時間軸式”複習法。希望能為大家的托福備考帶來幫助。

➣ 寫作備考——1個月
● 綜合寫作篇
一個月備考期的話，綜合寫作部分的練習建議在模考軟體中按照考試流程來進行，在規定的時間內讀閱讀、聽聽力、然後計時寫作，寫的過程中注意以下幾點：
1. 單字的拼寫，邊打字邊檢查;

2. 三單的問題，也就是每句話的動詞要重點關注語態和時態;

3. 不能出現與閱讀內容連續超過 6 words的重複，也就是說寫作中需要用到閱讀內容時必須要自己改寫;

4. 注意聽力內容的轉述，不要盲目概括，要清楚聽力內容的邏輯;

5. 不要去套用網路上盛行的各種範本，自己的創新更重要;

P.S. 有些同學遇到聽力一遍聽不懂的情況，最好再去重聽幾遍補充筆記，聽力內容大體掌握後，再去寫作，畢竟綜合寫作部分聽力內容的轉述才是關鍵。

● 獨立寫作篇
正常來說，寫作備考應該有一個初期詞彙和題材累積的過程，但是如果只有一個月備考時間的話，大家最好直接從範文開始學起，不單獨去累積詞彙和題材。

閱讀高分及滿分範文，不是去賞析一篇散文，閱讀過程中需要我們去分析範文中的詞彙、句式以及一些素材，然後把這些內容都做一個累積本。一篇範文看完後，學習到哪些內容應該自己再去總結一下，最後在自己寫作的時候儘量的去套用。

如何應對職場壓力

The time you spend at the office may be the most stressful part of your day, but it doesn't have to be. 
你工作的時段也許是一天中感覺壓力最大的時候，不過，事情並不是非這樣不可。

╠╣ 提高托福口說 自言自語有奇效 ╠╣

一般來說，衡量一個人英語口頭表達能力主要看以下幾個方面：（1）語言的準確性（accuracy）和得體性（appropriateness）；（2）語音（pronunciation）的語調（intonation）是否正確，口齒是否清楚；（3）話語組織（discourse management）是否合理；（4）口語表達的流利程度（fluency）；（5）語法（grammar）是否正確，用詞是否恰當，語言是否符合英語表達習慣。這些是衡量英語會話能力的主要標準，針對這些標準，要提高英語口頭表達能力，就要採取相應的訓練方法，方法恰當了，就能起到事半功倍的效果。

⊠ 何謂“自言自語法”？
“自言自語法”，即以自己跟自己交流的方式，促成英語口語能力提高之方法。它不受時間及其他交流因素的限制，只要有一個屬於你的空間，自己對著自己用英語講就可以了，此方法是正常課堂英語口語訓練的有益補充。