☊ 碧瓏司の→ßeℒongŚ

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello I’m Callum and this is 6 Minute English. With me today is Neil, hello Neil.
大家好，我是Callum，六分鐘英語又和大家見面了，今天我的搭檔是Neil，你好，Neil。
Hi Callum
你好，Callum。
In today’s programme we’re going to be looking at an interesting story of war, secret messages, codes and …
今天的節目中我們將討論一個有趣的故事，關於戰爭、密電、代碼，還有......
And, and what?
還有什麼？
Pigeons.

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http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20150925sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
The standard story told about domesticating wild animals goes something like this: humans selected individuals with a desired trait—docility, for example—and bred those animals together to produce offspring even more docile than their parents. Eventually the breeders created a genetic bottleneck that separated domestic animals from their wild relatives. And they brought their livestock along as they spread across Europe and Asia.
關於馴化野生動物的標準說法是這樣子的：人類選擇了具備所需特徵的個體——例如，溫順——然後這些動物飼養在一起，以繁殖出比父母更加溫順的後代。最終這些飼養人員就造成了遺傳瓶頸，把馴化的動物和野生動物區分開來。然後他們帶著這些牲畜一起遷徙到了歐洲和亞洲。
But now a group of scientists has demonstrated that the story is far too tidy—at least when it comes to pigs.
但是現在一批科學家們指出這個理論不太準確——至少在小豬方面。
Pigs were domesticated from wild boar at least twice, in Anatolia in present day Turkey and in the Mekong Valley in China, both about 9,000 years ago. They arrived in Europe about 7,500 years ago.
現在的豬至少經過兩次馴化，一次是在土耳其現在的安納托利亞，還有一次是在中國的湄公河流域。兩次的時間均發生在9000年以前。他們傳入歐洲的時間大約是在7500年前。
For this study, researchers focused on European pigs. They evaluated more than 600 genomes from European and Asian wild boars and domesticated pigs. And they found that, in Europe, the story of a bottleneck separating domestic from wild animals does not fit the genetic data.
這次研究，研究者們選擇了歐洲豬。他們分析了600多個歐洲和亞洲野生豬和馴化豬的基因組。之後研究者發現，在歐洲，這個講述野生動物和家畜分離的遺傳瓶頸故事與基因資料並不相符。
Rather, the model that does fit indicates that there was a frequent flow of genes from wild European boars into the domestic population. In other words, boars and pigs kept finding ways to get together. The most likely scenario for the development of the modern pig genome includes gene flow from some species of European wild boars that are now extinct. But their genes live on, on the farm. The research is in the journal Nature Genetics.
不如這樣說，吻合的模型表明有一股基因流頻繁從歐洲的野生豬進入到家養的豬群中。換句話說，野豬和家豬之間一直在尋找保持一致的方法。對於現在豬基因組發展最有可能的情景一些已經現在野生豬身上已經消失的基因組流傳如了家豬的體內。不過他們的基因在農場種保留了下來。該研究結果發表在《自然遺傳學》雜誌上。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160303sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Some sea creatures can find their way through thousands of miles of seemingly featureless oceans. Even more impressive is the route that they take.
一些海洋生物能夠在茫茫的大海中找到方向，而最讓人印象深刻的是它們的航線。
“Well, we've known for a long time that sharks are capable of long-distance migrations, and in some cases those migrations occur along very straight paths.” Scripps Institution of Oceanography biologist Andy Nosal. “And this has always begged the question : how exactly do they know where they're going?...So, there have been a lot of hypotheses floated over the last several decades, including the idea that these sharks are using, for example, geomagnetic cues, chemical cues and others . But none of these have really been systematically tested in the field.”
“很久以前我們就知道，鯊魚能夠長途遷移，並且在某些情況下，它們的的遷徙路線是直的。” 斯克瑞普思研究生海洋生物學家安迪•諾薩爾說到。“一直以來人們都未探討問題的實質：鯊魚究竟是怎樣知道自己的去向呢?因此，過去幾十年來，人們有無數的假設，例如鯊魚在利用地磁信號、化學信號等等。但是，所有這些假設都尚未得到系統地檢測。”
Nosal and his team suspected that the navigational secret of some sharks might be their sense of smell. They use their keen noses to find food, of course. And other fish, like salmon, are known to use olfaction to navigate.
諾薩爾和他的團隊猜測，鯊魚的導航秘訣可能是嗅覺。鯊魚可以使用自己靈敏的鼻子來尋找食物。人們知道鮭魚等其他魚類利用嗅覺進行導航。
To see if his hunch was right, Nosal scooped up some adult female leopard sharks in their preferred environment, waist-deep water off the San Diego coast. He attached a small radio transmitter behind their dorsal fins. And he half of the sharks by shoving cotton balls soaked with petroleum jelly blocked the sense of smell in their nostrils.
為了驗證猜測是否正確，諾薩爾在聖地亞哥海岸齊腰深的海水處，圈養觀察一些成年雌性豹鯊。這裡的環境為這些豹鯊所喜愛。諾薩爾在豹鯊的背鰭出裝上小型的無線電發射器。並利用佔有凡士林的棉花堵塞了一半鯊魚的鼻孔，通過這種方法來阻塞鯊魚的嗅覺。
Nosal and his crew dropped the sharks about six miles away at a spot in the open ocean. The researchers then tracked the sharks as they tried to swim back home. Four hours later, the sharks that could smell were two-thirds of the way back home—and had swum in very straight paths. But the ones with stuffed noses took erratic routes and only made it about half as far.

【經典台詞】

　　1. As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe……keep breathing.
　　【翻譯】 只要你一息尚存，就不能退縮。深呼吸，不要間斷，深呼吸。
　　【解析】 勇者無懼，忍者無敵。

　　2. I am not afraid to die anymore. I'd done it already.
　　【翻譯】 我已經不再畏懼死亡，因為我已經死過一次。
　　【解析】 未曾痛哭過長夜的人，不足以語人生。

　　3. You came all this way just for your revenge huh? Did you enjoy it Glass?
　　【翻譯】 你一路走來，只是為了復仇?格拉斯，你樂在其中麼?
　　【解析】 仇恨的種子不需要澆水灌溉。

　　4. My heart bleeds. But revenge is in the creator's hands.
　　【翻譯】 我的心在滴血，但是，復仇一事乃操之於上帝之手。
　　【解析】 復仇的種子，柔弱卻堅定地抓住心靈，汲取著散發著詛咒的養分

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/63.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello I’m Callum and this is 6 Minute English. With me today is Jennifer, hello Jennifer.
大家好，我是Callum，這裡是六分鐘英語。今天我的搭檔是Jennifer，你好Jennifer。
Hello Callum.
你好Callum。
Do you like to travel?
你喜不喜歡旅行？
Oh yes, I love going to new and interesting places.
哦，當然，我喜歡去新鮮，有趣的地方。
What do you think of the idea of travelling to another planet?

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/1027.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。
And I’m Neil. I was watching the news the other day, Sophie.
我是尼爾。蘇菲，我在看前幾天的新聞。
Learn anything interesting?
有什麼有趣的事嗎？
Yes, actually. UK scientists have been authorised by the government to genetically modify human embryos for research. What they can’t do though is implant modified embryos into women. They talked a lot about gene editing...
當然有。英國科學家獲政府批准，以研究為目的修改人類胚胎基因。但他們不能將基因修改的胚胎植入婦女體內。他們還談論了很多關於基因編輯的事。
Can you explain to us what gene editing is?

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2016/20160302sa_earth.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
That, of course, is the sound of the Himalayan forest thrush. And that sound was a clue to field researchers that they might have a new species of bird on their hands. Even though it was in the bush. You know what I mean.
這是喜馬拉雅深林中畫眉的歌聲。這個歌聲會告訴田野研究員這裡可能有新的鳥類物種。即使它在灌木叢中～你懂我的意思。
You see, the Himalayan forest thrush looks a great deal like another well-known bird called the alpine thrush. They're both found in northeastern India and nearby parts of China. But the alpine thrush has a raspy song compared with the more mellifluous Himalayan forest thrush.
喜馬拉雅畫眉和著名的高山畫眉有很多相似之處。它們都發現於印度東北部以及中國附近地區。但是，喜馬拉雅畫眉的歌聲甜美如蜜，但高山畫眉的歌聲卻有些刺耳。
One of the researchers, Shashank Dalvi of India's National Center for Biological Sciences and the Wildlife Conservation Society, likened the two different birds to Rod Stewart versus Adele.
來自於印度的國家生物科學中心和野生動物保護協會的的沙•代爾維，將這兩不同的鳥比作為羅德•斯圖爾特和阿黛爾。
Further analyses, including of the birds' DNA, confirmed that the song differences were indicative of these birds indeed belonging to two separate species. The finding is in the journal Avian Research.
通過對鳥類的DNA等進一步分析，證明了這兩種鳥歌聲不同表明實際上它們屬於不同的物種。該研究結果發表在《鳥類學研究》雜誌上。
The discovery of a new bird species is relatively rare. Since the year 2000, ornithologists have found five new species annually on average, mostly in South America. So this newly characterized thrush—only the fourth new species found in India since it became independent in 1947—should send birdwatchers from all over the world flocking. I mean, it's a sound discovery.
發現新的鳥類物種是相當罕見的。自從2000年，鳥類學家平均每年發現5種新物種，而這些新的物種主要集中在南美洲。所以，自1947年印度獨立以後，這種具有新特徵的畫眉，是在印度發現的第四個新物種。這項新發現應引起世界觀鳥者蜂擁而至。我的意思是，這樣才是驚奇的發現。

【神鬼獵人REVENANT是什麼?】都拿奧斯卡了，這字怎能不認識!!

李奧納多陪跑22年的奧斯卡，終於捧了小金人影帝回家囉！
李奧納多在《神鬼獵人》中，又是被熊咬、又是睡在死馬身體裡，幾乎快被虐待到瘋掉，終於拿下他夢寐以求的奧斯卡影帝。

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http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/71.mp3

中英文稿：
Hello, I’m Rob, welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Feifei.
大家好，我是Rob. 歡迎來到六分鐘英語。今天和我一起主持節目的是Feifei.
Hi there, Rob.
你好，Rob.
Hello Feifei.Today we’re discussing the issue of the illegal trade in wildlife. And we’ll be looking at some of the words and phrases associated with this sad and increasing activity.I think we all know there are many rare species of animals that are being illegally hunted to make money.And 200 governments have been meeting in Bangkok to talk about how to tackle this problem.More on that in a moment but as always, we like to start with a question.
你好，Feifei.今天我們在一起討論在野生世界裡不合法的貿易問題。並且我們還能一起學單詞和短語，關於這些悲傷的和增加的活動。眾所周知，這裡有許多稀有的動物在被不合法的屠殺用來賺錢。並且有200個政府正在Bangkok開會討論如何處理這些問題。請稍等一會兒討論更多，但是像往常一樣，我們開始先問一個問題。
Hmm, and this question is for me isn’t it?
Hmm, 想問我問題嗎？
It is Feifei. Let’s see if you can answer this question correctly this time! The dodo bird has been extinct for a very long time – that means there have been no living members of the species for quite a long time.But when did this bird become extinct? a) In the late 1600’s b) In the late 1700’s c) In the early 1900’s

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voa…/2016/20160301sa_health.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
It’s nearly game day and, if you’re a fan, you’ve already set aside your roomiest sweatpants and your own personal Family-size bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos. But if you’re at all concerned about overindulging—which, if you live in America, you probably should be—you might take a tip from a public health advocate at the New York City Food Policy Center. Charles Platkin says that one way to avoid overdoing it is to consider how much you’d have to exercise to work off what you consume.
超級盃星期天算是個全民遊戲日了，如果你是它的粉絲的話，恐怕已經準備好居家服和家庭裝多利多滋脆片。但是，如果你擔心——如果你生活在美國，或許應該——從紐約城市食品政策研究中心的公眾健康宣講會上找點兒建議。Charles Platkin建議，有一種方法可以避免過度飲食，那就是先考慮一下吃這些食物後，你需要做多少運動來消耗掉食物中所含的熱量。
So to prepare for Super Bowl Sunday—the second biggest day for food consumption in the U.S.—Platkin crunched the numbers for some of our favorite couch-side snacks. And he’s helpfully converted them into football-themed exercise equivalents.
所以，為了準備超級盃星期天——美國食品消費第二大高峰日——Charles Platkin嘗試了大量的人們喜愛的零食小吃。並且，他將其所含熱量轉換為一些與足球相關的運動項目。
So, for example, two slices of Domino’s ultimate pepperoni hand-tossed crust pizza would require running nearly 11,000 yards—that’s 109 football fields—at a speed of five miles per hour.
所以，比如，兩片達美樂的全手工義大利辣腸口味的皮薩所含熱量大概需要跑11000碼——也就是大概109個足球場 ——速度需要保持每小時5英里。
Two KFC original drumsticks? Just do the wave 1,561 times.

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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

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👯 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.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20150928sa_science.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
California's been in the grips of a record-setting drought since 2012. But don't just blame a lack of precipitation. "It's nothing exceptional in the context of the last 1,000 years. However—higher temperatures, this is the feature of this drought."
加州創造了自2012年以來的乾旱記錄。但是，別只是指責雨水不充足。1000年以來，這種雨水缺少的天氣，並沒有什麼差別。但是——溫度升高，是這次乾旱的特徵。
Soumaya Belmecheri, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona. She and her colleagues used two different sets of historic tree ring records to reconstruct 500 years of climate history: blue oak tree rings as a proxy for winter precipitation, and another set of rings from a variety of trees, as a proxy for winter temperatures. The tree ring data made it possible to model Sierra Nevada snowpack going back to the year 1500. And the researchers found that today's snowpack is just five percent of its average level over the last five centuries. Please visitwww.chinavoa.com

to get mre information.The finding is in the journal Nature Climate Change.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/64.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Callum and with me today is Jennifer. Hello Jennifer.
大家好，歡迎收聽本期BBC六分鐘英語。我是Callum，這是我的搭檔Jennifer。你好Jennifer。
Hello Callum.
你好，Callum。
Jennifer, did you go to a finishing school?
Jennifer，你上過女子精修學校麼？
You mean one of those schools where young ladies learn how to behave in high society?
你是指年輕女性學習上流社會舉止的學校嗎？
Yes, did you go to one?

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2016/20160219sa_earth.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Extinction. When species go bye-bye forever, we usually blame things like climate change, volcanic eruption or asteroid impact. But for the giant flightless birds that once roamed the Australian outback, it was an omelet station what did ‘em in. A new study finds evidence that about 47,000 years ago, humans helped to wipe out this avian leviathan by collecting and cooking its eggs. The study is in the journal Nature Communications.
滅絕。當一些物種永遠和我們說再見時，我們通常會將責任歸咎於氣候變化、火山噴發或者行星碰撞。但是一種曾經生活在澳大利亞的鳥類，這種不會飛行的鳥滅絕的原因是它們成為了煎蛋的材料。一項新的研究發現，在大約47,000年前，人類採集並烹飪這種鳥類的蛋而加速了它們的滅絕。該研究結果發表在《自然通訊》雜誌上。
Before humans swept over the land down under, animals of enormous proportions were not uncommon. A two-ton wombat, a thousand-pound kangaroo, and a 500-pound bird now known as Genyornis newtoni were spread across the continent. But most of these so-called megafauna disappeared once humans hit the scene.
在人類席捲新奧大陸之前，這種大型動物非常的常見。兩噸重的袋熊、千磅重的袋鼠以及500磅重的鳥，人們現在稱之為牛頓巨鳥，在當時的新奧大陸上隨處可見。但是人類出現在該地區之後，這些所謂的巨型動物就消失了。
Coincidence? Well, it could be. Which is why researchers set out to look for proof that human predation played a role in the demise of Genyornis. (Which only coincidentally sounds like ginormous.)
這是巧合?可能是吧。這就是為什麼研究人員們開始著手搜集證據，希望查找人類捕獵對於牛頓巨鳥的滅亡的影響。
They collected eggshells from hundreds of sites around the country. And they found that the shell fragments exhibited scorch marks that suggested that the eggs had been purposefully cooked over an open flame. Marks that were not consistent with the eggs getting, say, burned up in a wildfire.
研究人員從澳洲數百個地方收集了鳥蛋的化石。他們發現，這些蛋殼碎片燒焦的痕跡表明這些蛋可能經過明火的烹調。同時這些痕跡與野火灼燒的痕跡不同。
Three different dating methods put the eggs’ age in the correct era, and thus place the smoking gun—or in this case, firepit—directly in the hands of hungry humans. Which suggests that our ancestral appetite for over-easy compromised the fitness of this species. Ultimately leading to its egg-stinction.

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/65.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello I’m Kaz and this is 6 Minute English. With me in the studio today is Finn. Hello Finn.
大家好，我是Kaz，這裡是六分鐘英語。今天與我在演播室的是Finn。你好Finn。
Hello Kaz.
你好，Kaz。
So, what news Finn?
Finn，有什麼新聞呢？
Oh nothing new from me. Just the same old stuff, Kaz.
哦，Kza，我這沒什麼新的，都是一些舊東西。
Oh well, you know the saying: ‘no news is good news’.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160119sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Every winter some 20 million tons of salt are dumped on America's roads. The sodium chloride melts ice or prevents its formation, helping to prevent accidents. But road salt has its downsides. "This is actually not very economical, because salt is mainly corrosive." Seda Kizilel, a chemical engineer at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. She says salt's corrosive effects don't discriminate—they affect "vehicles and also nature, plants, microorganisms."
每年冬天，美國高速公路所撒鹽量約達2千萬噸。這種氯化鈉可融冰、防止冰形成的方法有助於阻止事故發生。但是路面撒鹽也有其弊端。“這種方法並不經濟，因為鹽有腐蝕作用。”Seda Kizilel是土耳其伊斯坦堡科克大學的化學工程師。她說，鹽類的腐蝕作用不容忽視——會影響車輛、大自然、植物和微生物。
So Kizilel and her colleagues designed a road substance that can de-ice itself. They started with a polymer called SBS, commonly added to strengthen asphalt. They whipped up an emulsion of SBS with potassium formate, an alternative salt that's been studied as a more environmentally friendly de-icer than regular road salt. Then they added that emulsion to bitumen--the sticky black stuff in asphalt.
所以Kizilel和同事們設計了一條可以自融冰的公路。公路的原料是一種多聚酯叫做SBS，通常用作添加在瀝青中作為增強劑。Kizilel和同事們將SBS乳狀物和甲酸鉀混合攪拌。其中甲酸鉀是一種對環境影響較小的融冰劑替代物。然後她們把這種乳狀物添加到柏油中——一種瀝青中的黑色粘性物質。
They subjected their creation and regular bitumen to the winter weather conditions that typically lead to black ice. Turns out the hybrid compound delayed ice formation 10 minutes longer than the control. And the samples continued releasing salt for more than two months. The study is in the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
她們又把這種添加乳狀物和沒添加的瀝青都放入一個在冬季天氣環境條件下進行了試驗。結果顯示，混合過後的複合物比無添加的對照組把形成冰的時間延遲了10分鐘。並且試驗樣本中的混合材料在未來長達2個月的時間裡還能夠不間斷的釋放出鹽類。該研究已發表在《工業與工程化學研究》雜誌上。
Of course, 10 minutes of de-icing is a nice head start—but it's not going to put salt truck drivers out of business. "But we're saying that, during the first 10 to 15 minutes, when the road becomes very icy, this material and this release of salt from this functional bitumen is going to be very useful and potentially eliminate many accidents on the roads." The next step, she says, is to pave a test surface and drive on it--to literally see what happens when the rubber meets the road.
當然啦，將冰的形成時間延長10分鐘，是一個良好的開始——但是這並不意味著融冰撒鹽的卡車司機即將面臨失業下崗。我們是說在這開始的10到15分鐘，當路面變得非常冰冷的時候，這種功能性瀝青材料以及從中釋放出的鹽類就能有效消除許多路上事故。下一步，她說，就是要鋪在一小塊路面上並在上面開車進行實際測驗一下——為了真實的看看當橡膠與路面親密接觸的時候到底會發生什麼事。
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MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160215sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
The tree people in the Lord of the Rings—the Ents—can get around by walking. But for real trees, well, it's harder to uproot. "Because it's a sessile organism, literally, rooted into the ground, it is unable to leave and go elsewhere." Mario Pesendorfer, a behavioral ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "When a tree first starts growing in a certain area, it's likely that the climatic envelope, so the temperature, humidity, soil composition and so on suits it, because it would otherwise be unable to grow from a seedling. But as it ages, these conditions may change and the area around it may no longer be suitable for its offspring."
魔戒裡面的樹人——Ents家族——可以四處遊走。但是對於真的樹來講，把根拔出來還是比較困難的一件事兒。因為樹木是一種生長固定的有機體，紮根於土壤，不能離開生長的地方。Mario Presendorfer 是康奈爾實驗室的一名行為生態學家。他還說到：“種子在最初開始生長的時候，它生長的領域就像一個氣候外殼，那裡的溫度、濕度、土壤成分等等都適應種子的生長，否則的話，種子就無法成長為幼苗。但是隨著時間的推移，這些條件可能會改變，周圍的環境也不再適合它的子孫後代了。”
And if that happens? Walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, oaks, pines—many rely exclusively on so-called "scatter-hoarders," like birds, to move their hefty seeds to new locales. "Many members of the family Corvidae—the crows, jays and magpies—are scatter-hoarders. Meaning they like to store food for the winter, which they then subsequently retrieve."
如果真的發生這樣的事情怎麼辦呢?核桃、榛子、栗子、橡樹、松樹等許多樹木都是完全依靠鳥類等“分散儲存者”將它們的種子帶到新的地方。“許多鴉科類動物——如，烏鴉、松鴉和喜鵲——都是分散儲存者”。這些動物喜歡為冬天存儲食物，之後在翻出來。
Or not. And when they do forget something, a seedling has a chance to grow, sometimes a good distance away. "The Clark's nutcracker, which is found in alpine regions of western North America, is definitely the rock star among the scatter-hoarding corvids. They hide up to 100,000 seeds per year, up to 30 kilometers away from the seed source, and have a very close symbiotic relationship with several pine species, most notably the whitebark pine.”
或許就翻不出來了。當動物們忘記了這些事物的時候，種子就有機會長大了，而這時，有的種子已經被帶到很遠的地方了。“在西北美的阿爾卑斯地區發現的克氏星鴉，就是分散儲藏能手鴉科類中的高手。它們每年要藏的種子類食物能達到100000個，最遠的儲藏地距種子源達30公里。克氏星鴉與許多松科樹木都有非常緊密的共生關係，其中最著名的要數白皮松。”
Pesendorfer and his colleagues catalogue the seed-scattering activities of the Clark's nutcracker and its cousins in a new review paper, in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications. They also write that, as trees outgrow their ideal habitats in the face of climate change, or battle new insects and disease, these flying ecosystem engineers could be a big help replanting trees. It's a solution, Pesendorfer says, that's good for us—getting birds to do the work is cheap and effective— and it could give vulnerable oaks and pines the option to truly "make like a tree and leave."
Pesendofer和同事們在一篇最新的綜述文章中分類記載了克氏星鴉和其親屬的種子存儲活動，該篇文章發表在《神鷹：鳥類應用》雜誌上。他們還寫道，當樹木面臨氣候變化或者抗擊新型昆蟲騷擾或者疾病侵襲而不得不放棄它們的理想棲息地時，它們這些飛行的生態系統工程師對於重新植樹能有巨大的幫助。這也是一種辦法，Pesendorfer說，對我們來講是個好辦法——可以經濟有效的幫助這些鳥類——這還能給脆弱的橡樹以及松樹機會“像一棵樹--離開”。
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MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/75.mp3

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👯 中英文稿：
Hello, I’m Finn. This is 6 Minute English and I’m joined this week by Neil. Hello Neil.
大家好，我是Finn。這裡是6分鐘英語，這周和我一起的是Neil。你好Neil。
(Monkey sounds)
（猴子的聲音）
Err, Neil?
呃， Neil?
(Monkey sounds)
（猴子的聲音）
Neil, are you OK?

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2016/20160216sa_earth.mp3

🎁 

🎁 中英文稿：
As many as 12 million tons of plastic waste end up in the world's oceans every year, according to a 2015 estimate in the journal Science. Over time, wind and waves grind and chew that plastic trash into tiny bits of what's called "microplastic"— which happen to be about the same size and shape as the micro algae that filter feeders like oysters snack on. Meaning oysters can ingest it.
根據2015年《科技》雜誌估計，每年有1200萬的塑料垃圾投擲到世界海洋。隨著時間的推移，風和海浪的研磨、咀嚼，這些塑料垃圾就變成了極小的“微塑料”——而這些微塑料的大小以及形狀和牡蠣這些濾食性動物所食用的微型海藻的大小相同。這也就意味著牡蠣可以消化這些微型塑料。
To find out the effects of consuming the debris, researchers at the French Institute for Ocean Studies raised oysters in water polluted with plastic microbeads, in concentrations similar to those observed in field studies. The shellfish sucked up the six-micrometer-wide plastic particles extremely efficiently—as they evolved to do with the tiny algae.
為了研究牡蠣消化這些塑料殘骸的影響，法國海洋研究所的研究人員用被塑料粒子污染過的水飼養牡蠣，污水中塑料粒子的濃度和現場研究的濃度相似。這些貝類能非常有效的消化吸收這些6微米寬的塑料粒子——因為牡蠣利用這些微小的藻類進化。
Two months later, the oysters exposed to microplastics produced half as many eggs and slower swimming sperm than did oysters that fed on algae alone. Perhaps, the researchers say, because plastic interferes with the oysters' energy uptake. And the offspring of the plastic- eaters were also smaller and slower-growing than the progeny of control oysters. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
兩個月後，與僅食用藻類的牡蠣相比，食用微型塑料的牡蠣產生的卵子數量減半，同時精子的游動速度減慢。研究人員稱，或許是因為塑料影響了牡蠣吸收能量。因此，這些塑料食客的後代體積變小，同時游泳速度減慢。該研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》。
The scientists say oysters will probably survive in spite of plastic pollution—they're still prolific reproducers. But until we clean up our act, there's no question we're giving them a raw deal.
科學家稱儘管遭遇塑料污染，牡蠣仍然能夠存活——它們仍然保持多產。即使人類改正了自己的行為，毫無疑問，牡蠣仍遭遇了不公正的待遇。
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