☊ 碧瓏司の→ßeℒongŚ

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/1035.mp3

👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Sophie…
大家好，歡迎收聽六分鐘英語。我是蘇菲。
And I’m Neil… Here’s your coffee, Sophie.
我是尼爾。蘇菲，你的咖啡。
Neil – remember that staff meeting we had yesterday? Why did you agree to having decaff coffee in the kitchen when I know you don’t like it… and neither do I!
尼爾，還記得昨天的員工大會嗎？你怎麼同意廚房使用低因咖啡呢，我知道你不喜歡，我也不喜歡！
I know. It’s just that the boss said that decaffeinated coffee– that’s coffee with the caffeine removed – was a good idea, healthier, you know. And then everyone else agreed. And I… I don’t know… I just felt uncomfortable disagreeing with everyone.
我知道。只是老闆說低因咖啡，也就是不帶咖啡因的咖啡，非常好，更健康。其他每個人都同意了啊。我不知道。我只是覺得反對大家的意見不好。
Well, it’s interesting you should say that, Neil.Groupthink is the subject of today’s show. Groupthink refers to the type of bad decisions we make when we are in a group.Decisions that are contrary to – or against – what we really think. A psychology experiment conducted in the 1950s showed that a lot of people do exactly that – they submit to the will of the group.
你說得真有意思。趨同思維是今天節目的主題。趨同思維是指我們身處團隊所做的錯誤決定。所做的決定與我們真實的想法相悖。20世紀50年代進行的一項心理研究顯示，許多人在團隊中都會這樣，屈服於團隊的意志。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2016/20160422sa_mind.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
The Hebrew bible was first written down some 2,600 years ago. And scholars have argued that only a population with sufficiently widespread literacy could have accomplished the task. Now there’s new evidence for such literacy—in the form of notes from that same time period, written in ink on shards of pottery.
希伯來聖經大約最初寫於2600年前。學者們認為只有備受歡迎的文學作品才能完成這樣的任務。但是，新的證據表明，在同一時期，有文學作品是以墨水寫在陶瓷器上完成的。
Scientists have debated whether the first significant phase of the compilation of biblical texts happened before or after the fall of the first Temple, in 586 B.C. To get at the potential answers to that question, a group of researchers in Israel analyzed mundane inscriptions about the needs of daily life on 16 ceramic shards written about 600 B.C. from an ancient military fortress in Arad, at the northern edge of the Negev desert. These notes had no direct connection with biblical texts, which were more frequently written on papyrus or parchment and would not have survived the region’s climate. But they reveal that literacy did not belong to a privileged few. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
科學家們爭議這個聖經文本完成最初的重要階段是在西元前586年，首座寺廟倒塌前還是在其倒塌後完成的。為了得到問題的可能性答案，一批以色列研究人員分析了16種日常生活中需要的陶瓷碎片上的平凡的銘文。這些陶瓷碎片來自于內蓋夫沙漠的北部邊緣一個古老的阿拉德的軍事堡壘。這些銘文和聖經文本沒有直接關係，因為聖經文本經常寫於紙莎草紙或者羊皮紙上，而這些媒介會被氣候所摧殘。但是這揭示出了並不是只有上流社會具有讀寫能力。該研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》。
The research team was able to determine that the documents—detailing military movements and food expenses—were written by a minimum of six authors. The scientists could even generally identify those authors, who ranged from a military commander down the ranks to a much lower subordinate.
研究人員發現這些檔——詳細敘述了軍事運動和食物開支——至少是由六個人共同創作的。科學家們甚至可以這些作者，從軍事指揮官到下級下屬。
"This means that not only their priests were able to write, but also the an army administration were literate down to the quartermaster of this fort in the desert.” Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, a Tel Aviv University researcher involved with the study. “This indicates that in Judah, in the sixth century, there were high literacy ranks in not only the elite people but among simple people also.”
這意味著不僅僅牧師具有書寫能力，同時沙漠軍事要塞中的軍隊管理至軍需官都有書寫能力。Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin是特拉維夫大學的研究人員，也參與了這項研究。“這表明在猶大時期，西元前600，不僅精英人才，還有很多平凡的人都具有很高的素養。”
Such widespread literacy in the region could have set the stage for the eventual compilation of the Bible, and thus the foundation of the monotheism that still prevails in the West.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/25.mp3

👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English, I’m Chris and with me today is Jen.
歡迎收聽BBC六分鐘英語欄目，我是 克里斯，今天來到我們節目的還有珍。
Hi there.
大家好。
Now Jen, are you reading any books at the moment?
珍，你最近在讀一些書嗎？
Yes, I’m currently reading a book called Room by Emma Donoghue. It’s about a woman who has been kidnapped and is being held hostage in a tiny room and she’s there for years. It’s quite a riveting read.
是的，我正在讀艾瑪•多諾霍寫的《房間》。它講述的是一個被綁架並囚禁在一間小屋內幾年的女子。這是本十分吸引人的書。
Yes, I love reading a good book. I often like to read a book on the way to work in the mornings. You might even say that I’m a bit of a bookworm. So today’s topic is all about books, and in particular, one of the world’s most prestigious literature and arts awards, the Pulitzer Prizes.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160421sa_science.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
Chances are you’ve never seen a binturong. It’s a tree-dwelling mammal about the size of a raccoon that’s native to Southeast Asia. But if you’ve ever been to the movies, you’d be familiar with their scent. That’s because binturongs smell like freshly cooked popcorn. And now, in a major advance in research connecting animal odors to human recreational venues, researchers know why.
可能你從沒有見過熊狸。這是一種住在樹上的哺乳類動物，體型和浣熊一樣大，產於東南亞地區。如果你曾看過相關電影，就會對它們所散發出的氣味不陌生。這是因為，熊狸的氣味就好像新鮮烹製出的爆米花哦。那麼現在，有項針對動物氣味和人類娛樂場所之間關係的研究取得了重大進展，研究人員們已經知道熊狸身上氣味的原因啦。
In the wild, binturongs, also called bearcats, are thought to spend most of their time alone. So to communicate with potential mates—or rivals—they leave behind aromatic messages. Although to you and me their musk evokes a matinee, to other animals it reads pure binturong. But previous studies of the animals’ scent glands failed to find chemicals that could account for the distinctive stank. Desperate for an answer, the researchers opted to peruse some pee.
在野外，熊狸，又被稱作小熊貓，一般是單獨居住。所以為了和其它同伴——或者敵人——交流，它們常常會留下有芳香氣味作為信號。儘管，對你我來講，這些香氣只會使我們想到電影院，對其它動物來講，這種氣味可是純粹的就是說明始作俑者是只熊狸呢。可是之前對於動物氣味腺的研究並沒有發現相關化學物質和這些氣味相對應。為了找尋答案，研究人員們選擇從它們的尿跡入手。
They ever-so-gently squeezed 33 sedated binturongs at a North Caroline wildlife sanctuary to produce urine for analysis. And they discovered that the samples contained a compound called 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, or 2-AP—which is the very same chemical that lends its distinctive scent to popcorn, as well as to some rice and breads. The finding is served up in the journal Naturwissenschaften, or The Science of Nature.
他們在北卡萊羅那野生保護區用十分輕柔的動作擠出了33只被下了鎮靜劑的熊狸的尿液進行分析。研究發現，這些樣品中含有一種名為化合物2乙醯1二氫吡咯，或簡稱為2-AP——這個物質和爆米花發出的獨特氣味十分相似，還有一些大米、麵包類食物也有此種氣味。該研究已經發表在《自然科學》雜誌上。
Popcorn gets its 2-AP from the Maillard reaction, chemistry that occurs as corn kernels heat up. But for bearcats, who don’t have access to an air popper, it’s probably the bacteria present on their fur or in their intestines that help cook up their signature scent—the researchers confirmed that the animals don’t get their 2-AP from their diet, which, in captivity, includes kibbles and mice.
爆米花是因為製作過程中發生美拉德反應而生成了2-AP，這種反應起因於玉米粒受熱。但是對於小熊貓來講，它們可沒有空氣爆米花機啊，很可能就是它們毛皮或者宣導內的微生物細菌説明製造出的這種特徵氣味——研究人員們進一步確認了它們的飲食中也沒有製作出2-AP的可能，它們的食物也就是圈養的小動物比如kibbles小狗和小鼠。
When binturongs go wee, they tend to soak their tails and feet, which ensures that they leave behind a trail of odiferous information about their species, sex, and reproductive readiness. Of course, if you find yourself in binturong country, remember: that ain’t popcorn you smell. So don’t lick your fingers.

villain（壞蛋）：字源是束縛在農場的隸農
英語單詞villain源自拉丁語villanus，本意為束縛在villa（農場、鄉村別墅）的隸農。英語單詞village（農村）、villager（村民）都源自拉丁語villa。
在古羅馬早期，在羅馬城外的鄉村區域，還有一些擁有人身自由的自耕農。隨著軍事上的節節獲勝，羅馬獲得了大量的戰爭奴隸。因此，羅馬貴族紛紛使用奴隸在鄉下莊園（即所謂的villa）進行農業生產，羅馬進入了奴隸社會時代。奴隸被視為“會說話的工具”，毫無人身自由，整天被奴隸主強迫幹活。採用奴隸進行農業生產成本極低，產品價格更低。原來的自耕農無力競爭，紛紛破產。另一方面，奴隸起義此起彼伏，奴隸制難以為繼。因此，奴隸主階層被迫進行社會改革，把土地分割成小塊，出租給奴隸和破產自耕農來耕種，從而產生了一種新型社會制度——隸農制。隸農的地位介於奴隸和自耕農之間，是後來的封建社會農奴的前身。雖然地位被奴隸略有提高，但對於居住在城裡的羅馬貴族和平民來說，隸農的社會地位還是非常低的。因此表示隸農的拉丁語villanus及其衍生的英語單詞villain就不可避免地含有了強烈的貶義，並從表示社會地位的卑賤延伸至表示人品的卑賤，逐漸發展出“壞人、惡棍、反派”等負面含義。可以說，這個單詞也體現了一種社會階級偏見。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2016/20160420sa_mind.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
The baseball season is almost here. To get you up to speed, the excellent new documentary Fastball opens today in select theaters.
棒球季即將來臨。為了提升你的速度，優秀的新紀錄片《快球》今日將會在部分影院上映。
Fastball is all about, you guessed it, the heater, the cheese, the hummer, the hard stuff, from the perspective of pitchers, hitters, umpires—and scientists, who talk about everything from the physics governing the trajectory of the ball to the physiology of the strain on the pitcher’s arm to the psychology of hurling a potentially deadly projectile at another human being to the neuroscience of the batter’s perception and reaction.
這部紀錄片是從投手、打擊、裁判以以及科學家的角度才談論加熱器、乳酪、快速球、速球塞內角（the heater, the cheese, the hummer, the hard stuff皆為棒球俚語，為各種速球）。科學家們談論了物理控制球運行的軌道，到投手手臂牽拉的生理學解釋，再到投擲致命球對另外一個人的心理意義，以及擊球手的看法和反映上的神經科學意義。
At high speeds, the ball may appear to the hitter to rise. Of course, the ball is actually still going down due to gravity as it approaches the plate from any pitcher throwing overhand, no matter how fast. It’s just not falling as much as the batter’s brain is accustomed to from watching slower pitches. But I did not know tilI saw the movie that, for some hitters facing the very hardest throwers, the ball can completely disappear.
高速運動的球對擊球手來說，可能是上升的。當然，由於重力的作用，球在離開投手的手靠近球棒時，無論球的速度有多快，球的運動趨勢是下降的。只要球不落地，擊球手的大腦的反映跟看到慢球反映是一樣的。但是在看過這部電影之後，我才知道一些打擊手在面對最頑強的投手，（揮棒時）球可能完全消失。
“The idea of the ball disappearing was really fascinating to me. Because all these hall of famers were talking, they all were saying the same thing, that these few really special guys, the Koufaxes and the Fellers, that the ball would disappear.”
球消失的說法十分吸引我。因為所有這些被談起的名人堂內的成員，他們都曾說過同樣的一件事，對這些特殊的少數人，如Koufaxes 和Fellers，他們說球會消失。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/142.mp3

👯 中英文稿：
Hello I’m Rob….
大家好，我是Rob……
… and I’m Finn…
大家好，我是Finn……
… and this is 6 Minute English. In today’s programme we’re talking about slimming –in other words, doing something to lose weight and get thinner. Not a problem for you Finn?
歡迎收聽我們的六分鐘英語節目。在今天的節目裡我們將要討論的話題是瘦身——換句話說就是，做一些事情來減少體重，讓身材變得更加苗條。這對你來說不是個問題吧，Finn？
Well, I do have a small tyre of fat that is growing around my middle – so even I don’t have a perfect body!
呃，不瞞你說，我的肚子上已經長了一圈肉肉的“小輪胎“了——所以說我也不能算是有非常完美的身材！
It doesn’t show and maybe you are what we call TOFI –that’s thin on the outside and fat on the inside. But for people who perceive – or think they may be fat on the outside, there could be some good news.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/13.mp3

👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Michelle and joining me today is Neil.
歡迎來到6分鐘英語BBC英語學習欄目。我是蜜雪兒，今天參與我們節目的還有尼爾。
Hello there.
大家好。
Now it may be well past Halloween but our topic today is a tale of the strange and supernatural. We’re talking about witches. But before we start on our mysterious journey, I’ve got a quiz question for you Neil. Are you ready?
雖然現在萬聖節已經過去了，但我們今天的話題仍是一個奇異、超自然的事情。我們談談女巫。但在我們的神秘之旅開始之前，我有個測驗問題想提問尼爾。你準備好了嗎？
Yes come on then.
準備好了。
How many people across Europe do you think were executed for witchcraft that’s the practice of magic - between the years 1500 and 1800? Was it: a) 10,000 people b) 20,000 people c) 50,000 people

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2016/20160418sa_earth.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
"She has this thing where she goes to a movie theater, watching a horror movie and there was a wolf howling in the background.” University of Cambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, talking about his collaborator Holly Root-Gutteridge, a biologist at Syracuse University. She said to herself, 'Well, that's wrong. That's clearly a European wolf and not a North American wolf like it should be in the scene.'"
當她去電影院去看一部恐怖電影的時候帶著這個東西，背景音樂裡出現了一聲狼嚎。這是劍橋大學動物學家艾瑞克，他正在談論自己同事奧利，錫拉丘茲大學的一位生物學家。她對自己說，嗯，這不對啊。這明明就是一隻歐洲狼的叫聲，不是電影場景裡應該出現的北美狼啊。
Slight variations in the way we speak allow us to tell whether someone is from Boston or New York just by listening to them. The same turns out to be true for the animals known as canids, which includes wolves, dogs and coyotes. They all howl to communicate—but those howls vary. Canids can tell which howls belong to their known associates and which belong to strangers.
大家說話方式上的細微差異，使我們可以通過聽對方說話而分辨出談話的人是來自波士頓還是紐約。同樣的道理也適用於某些動物，比如犬科動物，包括狼，狗，土狼等等。它們通過嚎叫進行交流——但是這些叫聲也是有區別的。犬科動物可以通過嚎叫聲來分辨出哪些是同伴那些是敵人。
So Kershenbaum and Root-Gutteridge decided to categorize the howls of different canids around the world. Together with colleagues, they compiled recordings of more than 2,000 canid howls, including European wolves, Mexican wolves, arctic wolves, dingoes, coyotes, golden jackals, domestic dogs, New Guinea singing dogs, and more. A computer program sorted the howls into different types. The study was published in the journal Behavioral Processes.
所以Kershenbaum 和Root-Gutteridge決定分類整理一下全世界不同犬科動物的嚎叫聲音。和同事們一起努力，他們彙編了超過2000種犬科動物的嚎叫聲，其中包括歐洲狼，墨西哥狼，北極狼，澳大利亞犬，美國西部小郊狼，黃金胡狼，家犬，新幾內亞唱歌犬等。他們用計算機程序分選了這些嚎叫聲音文件。該研究已經發表在《行為過程》雜誌上。
Based on the analysis, canids use 21 different kinds of howls to communicate. If you think of the howls as words, then all canids have the same vocabulary—but each species or sub-species has its own unique dialect. Some words are more common in one dialect, while other words are more common in another dialect and so on. By matching dialect with species and geography, researchers could monitor endangered species, like red wolves, just by listening.
基於這種分析，犬科動物共使用了21種不同的嚎叫聲影進行同類交流。如果你把這些嚎叫聲音想像成為某種語言，那麼所有的犬科動物就擁有的是同樣的詞彙——但是每個種或者亞種又都有各自獨特的方言。一種方言中的某些詞很常見，但是另一種方言中可能常見的就是另外一些詞，以此類推。通過比對這些具備方言的品種和地理環境，研究人員們就可以僅僅通過監聽聲音，對一些瀕危的品種，比如像是紅狼，進行監控。
[AK:] "Being able to distinguish between the howls of a coyote and the howls of a red wolf opens the possibility for techniques of passive monitoring, passive population monitoring, using acoustics."

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2014/20140609sa.mp3

🎁

🎁 中英文稿：
For insects in Europe, climate change has led to habitat change. In the past couple of decades, for example, Mediterranean butterfly and dragonfly species have been found flying around places previously off limits to them—new northern climes such as Germany.
對於歐洲的昆蟲來說，氣候變化導致他們生活環境的變化。例如在過去的幾十年裡，地中海的蝴蝶和蜻蜓等物種已經突破先前的限制，被發現在新的像德國這樣具有北方氣候的地區飛來飛去。
Now a study in Nature Communications finds a colorful reason for the northern expansion. As northern Europe warms, the light-colored butterflies and dragonflies typically found in the Mediterranean find themselves able to survive in the newly warmer north, and to even outcompete their darker- colored rivals. [Dirk Zeuss et al, Global warming favours light-coloured insects in Europe]
《自然通訊》雜誌上的一項研究表明，這些物種向北方發展是由於顏色的原因。隨著北歐氣候變暖，淺色的典型地中海氣候昆蟲蝴蝶和蜻蜓，發現他們自己比那些深顏色的同類更能在溫暖的北部生存。
Lighter colors reflect sunlight while dark colors absorb it and heat up. Hence chocolate ice cream melts in the sun faster than vanilla. Lighter-colored insects thus function well in warmer climates. They don't overheat as easily and can stay active longer, giving them a leg up—well, six legs up—in our warming world.
淺顏色可以反射太陽的光，而深顏色吸收陽光並使自己變熱。因此在太陽下，巧克力冰淇淋比香草冰淇淋更容易快速融化。這些淺顏色的昆蟲不容易變熱，這樣就可以活動的時間就長，這就使他們在溫暖的世界裡比深顏色的昆蟲更佔上風。
The researchers say this migration of insects shows that climate change isn't something that's coming—it's already happening. And it could drastically affect which insects up end up where. Which will in turn affect us.
—Erika Beras
研究人員稱，昆蟲的遷移說明了氣候變化不是將要來臨，而是已經來了，這會大大影響昆蟲的生存環境，甚至是他們的生死存亡。然後就會輪到我們了。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/22.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Rob.
大家好，歡迎收聽BBC6分鐘英語學習欄目。我是羅伯。
And I’m Amy.
我是艾米。
Hi Amy. Today we’re off to the theatre, to London’s Theatreland to be more precise.
艾米你好。今天我們會談談劇院，更確切的說是倫敦戲劇街。
Great! Theatreland. That’s the area of London where many of the big theatres are located, also known as the West End.
太好啦！倫敦戲劇街。倫敦有一片地區是許多重大劇院的所在地，也被稱為西區。
Yes and these theatres put on many popular operas, ballets, plays and plays where the story is told in songs and music, we call them musicals. So Amy, do you have any favourite musicals?

👕  椅子和地板也能當衣櫃？ 👕
　　
你們家有沒有這樣一把椅子，它不是供人坐的，而是專門用來堆衣服的？嗯，我知道有些人被說中了。其實呢，這種做法是全球通行的。國外的妹子們還直接拿地板當衣櫥呢！
今天，我們就來說說跟衣櫥（wardrobe）相關的幾個詞彙表達。
　　
👗 Chairdrobe is the art of piling clothes on a chair to be used in place of a closet or dresser. 
所謂的椅子衣櫥（chairdrobe）就是用一把椅子來代替衣櫥，然後把衣服都堆在椅子上的做法。
If a chair is not available one can always defer to a floordrobe.
如果你們家沒有這樣的一把椅子，你可以直接進入地板衣櫥（floordrobe）階段。
　　
👗 Floordrobe is a form of storage for clothing which requires no hangers, drawers, doors or effort. You simply drop your clothes on the floor and you have a floordrobe.
地板衣櫥（floordrobe）就是不用衣架、抽屜、門或者任何設備的衣服存放方式，你只需把衣服隨意扔在地板上，你的地板衣櫥就出現了。
　　
我們來看兩個例句：
I searched through my chairdrobe to find my outfit for work.
我從我的椅子衣櫥中摸索出上班要穿的衣服。
We have a very stylish colonial-style his and hers walk-on floordrobe at home.
我們家有一個特別時尚，男女通用，有點殖民地風格的地板衣櫥。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2016/20160415sa_earth.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Humans aren’t the only creatures who love junk food—many animals are known to enjoy sifting through our garbage to find edible treats. And now we learn that some storks have stopped migrating from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa in the winter—they’d rather feed at landfills.
不僅僅只有人類喜歡垃圾食品——據我們所知，許多動物也非常享受在垃圾箱裡尋找一些可口的免費食物。現在，一些鸛已經不再從歐洲向撒哈拉以南的非洲遷徙——因為它們寧可在垃圾堆裡尋找食物。
“They use landfill sites heavily during the winter and they travel very long distance to get to the sites.”
在冬天，即使要飛行很遠的距離才能到達垃圾站，鸛主要依賴垃圾填埋場來過冬。
Aldina Franco of the University of East Anglia, one of the scientists who studied the storks’ use of landfills in Portugal. GPS tracking devices on 17 birds showed that the landfill life might mean up to 100-kilometer round-trips to feed—healthy distances, but far shorter than their historic migration routes.
來自東安格利亞大學的科學家愛麗娜`弗朗哥研究了葡萄牙鸛們利用的垃圾填埋區。17只鸛安裝的GPS定位儀錶明，去垃圾填埋場覓食意味著要飛行來回100千米，但這與它們以往的遷徙路線相比，這些距離就變得微不足道了。
“And also they use the nests throughout the year and look after the nests. So these resident birds are in perfect condition, they are always ready to start breeding. So as soon as spring arrives they’re ready to go, the nest is in good condition, and they start breeding earlier.”
同時，鸛要需要棲居照顧巢穴。所有，這些沒有遷徙的鳥現在的生活狀態很好，因為它們可以準備隨時餵食幼鳥。所以，春天一到來，它們就可以離開巢穴，提前餵食。
The number of storks overwintering in Portugal has shot up from fewer than 2,000 in 1995 to 14,000 in 2014. The increase appears to reflect both changes in behavior and a booming stork population in general. The study is in the journal Movement Ecology.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160413sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
"What you're listening to is what I like to call the beautiful chaos of the bat echolocation stream." Laura Kloepper, a bioacoustician at Saint Mary's College in Indiana. "So you're listening to the sound of probably a couple hundred bats emerging per second from the cave and there's a microphone that we have suspended in the middle of the bats to record the sounds. These are the echolocation sounds the bats make when they're flying and this is what they use to help navigate and find prey."
你所聽到的是我稱之為天籟之音的蝙蝠回聲定位流。蘿拉`科柏是印第安那州聖瑪麗學院的生物聲學家。“你聽到的是每秒鐘從洞穴中出來的數百隻蝙蝠發出的聲音，我們在蝙蝠當中安裝了一個麥克風，來記錄這些聲音。這是蝙蝠在飛行中發出的回升定位流，蝙蝠利用回聲定位幫助自己進行導航和尋找獵物。”
The sounds—slowed down 10 times so we can hear them—were recorded at a network of lava tube caves in New Mexico. Kloepper and her colleagues camped out there to study how Mexican free-tailed bats echolocate in huge swarms without jamming each other's signals. And they noticed that the intensity of the “bleeps” seemed to correlate with the number of bats fluttering out of the cave. Meaning, maybe you could survey their populations with audio. "One night we were sitting around the campfire at our field site and we said, I wonder if this would actually work?"
這些聲音——經過10倍減慢處理，我們人類才能夠聽到——是在新墨西哥州的很多熔岩洞中記錄的。科柏和同事們在熔岩洞外露營來研究是蝙蝠是通過何種方式在大群蝙蝠中不干擾同伴的信號的情況下，進行聲波定位。他們注意到聲波的強度和飛出洞穴的蝙蝠的數量有關。這也就意味著，也許可以利用聲音來計算蝙蝠的數量。“有一天晚上，我們圍著篝火聊天，我猜想，這個辦法可行嗎?”
So they set up a new experiment, capturing audio and GoPro video at the cave site. They counted the bats in each video frame, and correlated that to the zips and zaps, to create predictive models. They then tried the method at another cave—and found that their models could indeed estimate the number of bats emerging using acoustics alone. The study is in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
所以，他們制定了新的實驗計畫，在洞穴處捕捉音訊和視頻。他們計算了每個視頻幀數中的蝙蝠數量，並將此與聲波相關聯創建了預測模型。然後，他們將這種方法應用於其他洞穴——結果表明，這些模型利用聲學可以估計出現的蝙蝠數量。該研究結果發表在英國皇家協會《Royal Society Open Science》。
"Historically what has been used to estimate bats has been photographic estimates, visual estimates, mark-recapture estimates, and those have been highly prone to bias." Newer technology, like thermal imaging cameras is accurate, but expensive. So at a time of epic bat mortality—due to, for example, the fungal white nose syndrome that’s wiping out bats in Canada and the U.S.—Kloepper says her method might be a cheap, reliable way to determine the most critical caves to save.
“過去人們利用照片、視覺、標記捕捉方法來估計蝙蝠的數量，但是這些方法都存在著很大的誤差。”熱成像相機等先進的技術測量的很準確，但價格昂貴。所以，蝙蝠大量死亡時，如真菌白鼻綜合症肆虐了加拿大和美國的蝙蝠，科柏表示，自己的方法將會是決定拯救最重要洞穴的最低廉、可行的辦法。
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👯 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/3.mp3

👯 

👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Rosie and here with me today is Chris. Hello Chris!
大家好，歡迎來到6分鐘英語。我是羅西，今天和我一起的是克里斯。你好克里斯！
Hi Rosie!
你好，羅西！
Today we’re going to talk about alien invaders in the Antarctic.
今天我們將要談論的是在南極洲的外來入侵。
Alien invaders? Have aliens landed on Antarctica then? They should have chosen a more exciting place to land… like London
外星入侵？有外星人降落在南極洲嗎？他們為什麼不選一個更有趣的地方來降落呢？比如說倫敦。

👠盛夏上班族的著裝禁忌👠

如果說女性是這個世界的半邊天，那麼女性上班族則是整片天空下靚麗的彩虹。每日上下班高峰的時候，隨處可見女性上班族們充滿自信的步伐與大方明豔的衣著，穿行於人海之間，著實形成了一道道奪目的風景。然而，既然是上班族，在衣著上就應注重細節，不可隨意搭配。想知道上班族的著裝禁忌嗎？那就是吊帶衫+夾指涼拖（人字拖）。
Shopping for summer clothes to wear to work? Forget the tank tops and lose the flip-flops. 
上班族們開始夏裝大採購了嗎？吊帶衫和夾指涼拖還是不要考慮了。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160412sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
The news last month that gravitational waves had been discovered made waves throughout the world of science. The finding, from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, showed that extreme gravity can cause ripples in space time. In the case studied, the extreme gravity came from two colliding black holes. Now one scientist is suggesting an added wrinkle—that those two black holes might have originated in a single star.
上個月，引力波的發現在科學界引發了波瀾。從鐳射干涉引力波天文臺觀測到的結果顯示，極限條件下的引力波能夠造成時空波動。相關研究顯示，極限重力來自於兩個碰撞的黑洞。現在，有一個科學家正在建議增加一項背景條件——那就是這兩個相關的黑洞也許起源於同一顆恒星。
“The situation is similar to a pregnant woman that has twin babies in her belly.” Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He’s proposing the idea in a paper that’s been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
這好比一個懷著雙胞胎的孕婦。哈佛-史密松天體物理中心物理學家艾維•勞埃伯說到。他的上述觀點所在的文章將會發表在《天體物理通訊》雜誌。
Loeb became suspicious because just 0.4 seconds after LIGO spotted the gravitational waves, a space telescope called Fermi glimpsed a bright flash of gamma-ray light in the same area of the sky.
正式因為在LIGO觀測結果中顯示出的引力波之後那0.4秒鐘的資料，讓他產生了一些懷疑。當時Fermi的天文望遠鏡快速觀測到了當時天空中同一區域上一閃而過的伽瑪射線。
“Detecting such a signal is quite surprising from a collision of two black holes. What could be the source of a flash of light following a black hole merger?”
在兩個相撞的黑洞區域能觀測到這樣一個光信號著實讓人感到驚訝。是什麼物質能夠從黑洞中能發出的閃光?
Colliding black holes should not produce such light—but the death of a very massive star could.

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/1034.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Sophie…
大家好，歡迎收聽六分鐘英語。我是蘇菲。
Watashi-wa Ni-ru.
我是尼爾（日語）。
What did you say?
你說什麼？
Watashi-wa Ni-ru. ’I’m Neil.’ It’s Japanese, Sophie.
我說的是“我是尼爾”。這是日語，蘇菲。
Very good, Neil!So your Japanese language lessons are going well, then?

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2016/20160331sa_tech.mp3

🎁  

🎁 中英文稿：
Hall of Famer Ted Williams once famously commented that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Although Williams—a .344 career hitter—made it look easy, he had a point. Hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely is difficult. It’s also an excellent example of some very entertaining applied physics.
名人堂成員泰德•威廉姆斯曾經說過，打棒球是最難的體育運動。儘管威廉姆斯安打率.344，但他說的很有道理。用一個圓圓的棍子準確擊打一個圓滾滾的球並不簡單。這同時也是應用物理學一個典型的例子。
No surprise then that professional baseball players are turning to science to improve their multimillion-dollar strokes. Some approaches focus on the neuroscience of hitting—the deep internal brain mechanisms behind seeing the pitch and reacting to it. But for more info about the swing itself, a sports tech company called Zepp Labs makes a sensor that can help break down those mechanics.
專業的棒球運動員利用科學知識提高自己的價值百萬美元的擊球次數，這不足為奇。一些方法重點在於神經科學方面——棒球運動員在看到棒球投擲後並作出反應，這背後的原理是內部的大腦機制。關於揮動球棒更多的資訊，一家叫做Zepp Labs的體育科技公司，製作了可以幫助打破頭腦機制的感測器。
The sensor sits in the knob of the company’s so-called “Smart Bat” and uses two accelerometers and a three-axis gyroscope to measure bat speed, hand speed, attack angle and other factors. The sensor, which weighs only about eight grams, sends this info to a smartphone app via Bluetooth. The app can then use this data to have an onscreen avatar reenact the swing, in the hope that the batter can pick up some details and make the necessary adjustments. Zepp’s sensors can also be fitted to golf clubs and tennis rackets.
感測器位於公司製作的“智慧球拍”的把手處，並利用了兩個加速計以及一個三軸陀螺儀來測量球拍的速度、出手速度、攻角等其他因素。感測器僅有八克重，可以通過藍牙將資訊發送到智慧手機應用程式上。手機上的應用程式可以利用接收的資料讓螢幕上頭像調整重新進行揮動，希望球拍可以接受一些細節資訊，並做必要的調整。Zepp公司的感測器也可以安裝在高爾夫球杆以及網球拍上。
Never one to mince words, Ted Williams also once said that pitchers were “the stupidest people alive.” Hmm, maybe somebody could come up with a smart baseball to help them. Against any Ted Williamses out there, anyway.
毫不避諱，泰德•威廉姆斯曾經一度表示，投手是最愚蠢的人。或許有人可以發明智慧棒球來幫幫他們。這樣就可以反駁泰德•威廉姆斯的言論啦~
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MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/11.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Michelle.
大家好，歡迎來到BBC學習英語的6分鐘英語節目。我是蜜雪兒。
And I’m Neil.
我是尼爾。
Thanks for joining me Neil. Have you got used to being back in the office after that lovely long Christmas break?
謝謝你加入我們，尼爾。你習慣在幸福的聖誕長假之後回到辦公室嗎？
Just about I think.
只是我認為。
It’s always difficult coming back to work after a holiday, especially when the first thing you have to do is spend the morning going through all the work emails that have built up!