☊ 碧瓏司の→ßeℒongŚ

 精選GRE&GMAT會考的主題，堅持每天精讀一定會進步的哦!!
🎁 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://xia2.kekenet.com/Sound/2015/…/ecob1222_3421333xQ7.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Private education is becoming more egalitarian
民辦教育變得越來越平等

WHEN Charlotte Hobbs decided to teach her 11-year-old pupil about the 「imaginary」 maths needed to work out the square root of a negative number, she knew it would be a stretch. But her ambition paid off: the girl quickly mastered the concept and now hopes to study maths at university. Most remarkably, Ms Hobbs achieved her feat in a foster home, not a west London Victorian terrace.
當夏洛特‧霍布斯決定教她11歲的學生用來計算負數平方根的虛數時，她知道這是一個艱巨的任務。但她的抱負最終得以實現：這個女孩很快掌握了概念並希望在大學學習數學專業。最值得注意的是，霍布斯女士是在一個寄養家庭取得了這樣的成就，而不是在倫敦西部的維多利亞式露台。

Private tuition has long been popular with the rich. A gaggle of London-based firms hire new graduates from Oxford and Cambridge who charge ￡70-￡100 an hour to prepare children for independent-school entrance exams taken at 11 or 13. Yet thanks to ambitious parents and government policies, many more children from lower-income families are being tutored.

私人補習一直受到富人的歡迎。一些總部位於倫敦的公司聘請剛從牛津、劍橋畢業的學生幫助11歲或13歲的孩子準備私立學校入學考試，他們每小時收費70到100英鎊。然而，由於那些望子成龍的父母和政府的政策，更多低收入家庭的孩子也開始補習。
The primary force is the pupil premium, a scheme that channels extra money to schools with poorer pupils. This payment, which is rising from ￡623 ($950) per pupil this year to ￡900 in 2014, has created a market for private tuition in state schools. Ms Hobbs works for Tutor Trust, a not-for-profit organisation which provides one-to-one sessions for ￡18 an hour. The firm's 220 tutors tend to be students at Manchester University keen to earn some extra cash. Since February 2012 they have taught for more than 10,000 hours in schools across the city. According to figures from Ofsted, the education regulator, two-fifths of schools are using their pupil-premium cash to pay for one-on-one tuition; a third are using it for group tuition. The aim is to improve results and shrink the yawning gap between the academic achievements of poor children and richer ones in England's schools.
這一現象最主要的動力來自學生獎學金計畫，這個計畫把額外的錢撥給貧困學子。這筆款項將從今年的623英鎊（約合950美元）在2014年漲到900英鎊，這也為在公立學校提供私人補習創造了市場。霍布斯女士為「Tutor Trust」工作，這個非營利組織提供每小時18英鎊的一對一輔導。公司的220名老師大多是曼徹斯特大學想要賺點外快的學生。從2012年2月開始，他們已經在這個城市教授超過10000小時的課程。根據教育主管機構Ofsted的數據，五分之二的學校用學生獎學金支付一對一輔導費用；三分之一用此支付集體輔導費用。這項計畫的目的是要提高教學成果並減少英國學校貧富學生之間學業成績的鴻溝。
But it is not just the hardest-up who are getting private help: parents on ordinary incomes are hiring more tutors, too. Explore Learning, a private-tuition chain, says that many of its customers use government child-care vouchers (which are tax-free) to pay for tuition. Lower earners receiving tax credits can claim back up to 70% of the cost. It helps that franchises such as Kumon, a Japanese firm, lower costs for parents by teaching in groups. These kinds of out-of-hours outfits have long been popular in East Asia: roughly three-quarters of South Korean students attend a hagwon after school.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20140805sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
When you think of birds, you probably imagine their dazzling plumage or their beautiful songs. But since the days of Darwin, scientists have figured that individual species of birds should not have both: they'd either be drab virtuosos or eye candy that sings only one note.
當你想到鳥，你可能會想到它們耀眼的羽毛或它們動聽的歌聲。但是自從達爾文的時代開始，科學家就發現稱，鳥類中的個體種類不能同時擁有這兩個特徵，它們要不就是羽毛色彩單調灰暗的演奏家，要不就是華而不實只能唱著一個音節。
Now a study shows that some songbirds are in fact show-offs in sight and sound. The work is in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. [Nicholas A. Mason, Allison J. Shultz and Kevin J. Burns, Elaborate visual and acoustic signals evolve independently in a large, phenotypically diverse radiation of songbirds]
現在的一項研究表明，一些黃鶯在視覺和聲覺方面都較出色。該研究被發表在《皇家學會學報B》上。
Bright feathers and complex songs are different ways to attract a mate. The more flamboyant the display, the more likely a bird will get noticed. But these exaggerated calling cards take a lot of energy to produce. Which is why scientists assumed that birds would have to choose between melody or looks. You can find more 60-Second Science onchinavoa.com.
明亮的羽毛和複雜動聽的歌曲是兩種吸引異性的不同方式。鳥兒羽毛的色彩越豔麗，越容易被大家注意到。但是這些誇張的名片需要大量的精力。這就是為什麼科學家認為鳥類要麼就要會唱歌，要麼就長得好看。
But an exhaustive survey of the tanagers, a family of songbirds from Central and South America, shows no sign of a tradeoff. Although some tanager species do emphasize oration over attire, like the aptly named drab hemispingus, some, like the mountain tanager, are both dashing and melodious. While the white-bellied seedeater is fine with looking and sounding rather dull.
但是對來自中美洲和南美洲黃鶯家族的唐納雀進行的一份詳細的調查表明，這種鳥這兩方面都很出色。雖然一些唐納雀品種的歌喉勝過外表，就像它恰當的名字----褐擬雀。還有一些類似於山裸鼻雀這樣的，既具有華麗的外表又具有悅耳的歌喉。然而白腹食籽雀的外表和歌喉的都還較好。
The different species likely experienced different selective pressures, leading to their varied strategies. Whatever it takes to catch the eye, and/or ear, of a potential mate. —Karen Hopkin
不同的物種可能經歷了大自然不同的選擇壓力，從而導致它們採取多變的策略。無論是能吸引眼球還是能吸引耳朵都會成為鳥兒們潛在的伴侶選擇對象。——凱倫‧霍普金

英文單字超多，常常背得你哇哇大叫？
把這些常見字首記起來
mega/ pre/ post/ inter/ trans
以後就能秉持中文「用部首猜意思」的原則
大略猜到單字的意思啦！

先來看看，字首到底有什麼作用呢？

 英文字首 (Prefix) 有什麼功用

接下來就介紹五個常用的字首：

1. Mega 大；百萬倍

“Mega” 來自希臘文中的 “megas”（巨大的），在英文的運用之間，也自然的成為「巨大的」(great) 的意思。而在數字的代表中，“mega” 自首的出現是「百萬倍」的意思。如果是單獨的 “mega” 單字，意思就是「許多」、「非常」。在英文千變萬化的轉換中，也可以把 “mega” 放在各種不同的字的前面，製造強調的語態。就像我們可以說 “Learning prefixes and have fun at the same time is mega-cool!” （快快樂樂地把英文字首學好超級酷！）

 英語實用字首─ “Mega" (百萬倍)

mega 許多；非常

megabuck 一百萬美金（口語）

✼ “吃”透托福閱讀經典題型 ✼

1.文章內容小結題 
這是托福閱讀真題中經常出現的題目。顧名思義，是對全文內容的總結，測驗的是對文章主旨和段落主旨的把握。正確選項是一些總結性的選項，錯誤選項的特點是：與原文不符，原文沒有提到，或者是次要資訊。次要資訊也就是文中提到的某個細節性的資訊，次要資訊的選項具有極大的干擾，同學們在做題時應注意識別。那麼文章主旨和段落主旨怎麼判斷呢，我們可以結合文章標題和題目的引導句來判斷文章主旨，段落主旨可以直接看段首句，段首句通常是段落的主旨句。非常重要的一點是，我們要充分利用前面做過的題目。我們在前面的做題中已經對各個段落的主旨有了一個大致的瞭解。此題目在托福閱讀中很好拿分。

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20140806sa_science.mp3

🎁 

🎁 中英文稿：
Pack rat. The name is synonymous with hoarding. And researchers have learned that pack rats can actually increase the range of foods they're able to eat because of their collection of gut bacteria.
林鼠，這個名字與囤積同義。研究人員發現林鼠實際上是可以增加它們可食用食物的範圍的，因為它們收集腸道細菌。
Pack rats live in the American Southwest, where they nosh on the native vegetation. Some of these plants produce protective toxins, for example the junipers in the Great Basin desert or the creosote bushes of the Mojave. But pack rats seem to eat these noxious shrubs with impunity.
林鼠生活在美國西南部，它們吃原生植物。這些原生植物中有一些植物自身帶有保護性毒素，就像在美國西南部大盆地沙漠中的杜松，或者是莫哈韋沙漠中的石炭酸灌木。而林鼠似乎吃了這些有毒的灌木後，身體也無恙。
The researchers found that pack rats from the Mojave harbor gut bacteria that can break down creosote. When antibiotics depleted the pack rats' gut bacteria, the animals suddenly found creosote nearly indigestible.
研究人員發現莫哈韋港口的林鼠所收集的腸道細菌可以分解木榴油。當研究人員用抗生素來耗盡林鼠體內的腸道細菌，研究人員突然發現林鼠幾乎難以消化掉其體內的木榴油。
Further, the researchers found that they could take pack rats from the Great Basin—the ones that eat juniper—and give them the ability to eat creosote. All they needed was a fecal transplant, which supplied the necessary gut bacteria from their Mojave-based neighbors. You can find more 60-Second Science on chinavoa.com.
此外，研究人員還發現他們可以把大盆地沙漠中能吃杜松的林鼠帶到莫哈韋沙漠，給予它們可以消化木榴油的能力。所有它們所需要的就是腸道細菌，這些必需的腸道細菌將會由莫哈韋沙漠地區所居住的居民提供。
The work appears in the journal Ecology Letters. [Kevin D. Kohl et al,Gut microbes of mammalian herbivores facilitate intake of plant toxins]
這項研究發表在《生態學通訊》雜誌上。