☊ 碧瓏司の→ßeℒongŚ

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151202sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
How do you attract a mate? If you’re a male mouse, you take the Frank Sinatra approach—you sing. Scientists have known about crooning male mice for years. And past experiments showed that if you leave male mice alone with an unconscious female or even with just a trace of her urine, the males will sing. If you reverse roles, the females do not sing. So scientists believed that in courtship, males made all the noise. Until now.
你會怎樣吸引異性?如果你是一隻雄性老鼠，那麼可以採用弗蘭克•辛納屈的方法——唱歌。多年以來，科學家們就知道雄性老鼠會唱歌。以往的研究表明，如果讓一隻雄性老鼠與一隻無意識的雌性老鼠獨處，或者僅是留下雌性老鼠的尿液的痕跡，那麼這只雄性老鼠就會唱歌。但是如果角色互換，這只雌性老鼠不會唱歌。所以，以前科學家們認為在戀愛階段，所有的聲音都是雄性老鼠製造的。
“The problem with the field is that we’ve never had a way to figure out who’s vocalizing.” Neuroscientist Josh Neunuebel at University of Delaware. He realized that researchers needed better listening tools.
“這個領域的問題是我們從沒有弄清楚是誰在唱歌。”Josh Neunuebel是德拉瓦大學的一位神經科學家。他認為研究人員需要更好的聽力工具。
So Neunuebel built a mouse sized recording studio. His team lined a small closet with nylon mesh and foam, which absorb sound rather than reflect it. And they installed ultrasonic microphones, because mice make sounds at a frequency that’s above the range of human hearing.
所以，Neunuebel 建立了一個老鼠大小的錄音室。他的團隊排了一個由尼龍網布和泡沫製成的小櫃子。這個小櫃子不會將聲音反彈，而會將聲音吸收。並且他們在裡面安置了超聲波麥克風，因為老鼠的聲音頻率要高於人類的聽覺範圍。
That’s some mouse singing slowed down so we can hear it.
我們將老鼠的歌聲放緩，這樣我們就能聽到。
Neunuebel’s set-up made it possible for the researchers to determine that some songs were in fact coming from female mice. The gals that sang back to the males pursuing them also slowed down their pace, as if to say (Neunuebel’s voice): “Hey! I’m interested in you. Catch me if you can.” The study is in the journal eLife.

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151225sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Microbes play a huge role in our nutrition, our immunity, maybe even our mental health. But we aren’t the only ones that rely on these armies of resident bacteria. "Baby cockroaches, the ones that just emerge from the egg, don't have any gut bacteria." Coby Schal, an entomologist and chemical ecologist at North Carolina State University. "The first thing they do is take a nice feces meal: basically, eating the poop of their brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers."
微生物在我們的營養、免疫力甚至我們的心理健康中都發揮著重要的作用。但是並只是是我們人類依賴這些常住細菌。“那些剛才出殼的幼兒蟑螂，腸道內並沒有含有細菌。”科比•沙爾是北卡羅萊納州立大學的一名昆蟲學者和化學生態學家。他講到，“這些剛出生的蟑螂所作的第一件事情就是享受一場糞便盛宴，基本上就是吃他們兄弟姐妹和父母的糞便。”
Excrement inoculates the roaches with beneficial gut bugs, Schal says. And it's also a longevity-boosting nutritional supplement. But the weirdest thing is, the poop actually calls the tots to come hither. Because it's laced with compounds, like fatty acids, that attract roaches of all ages. The substances are called aggregation pheromones. So poop essentially serves as a rallying call to congregate—and feast.
沙爾稱，糞便孕育蟑螂擁有有益的腸道細菌。同時糞便還為蟑螂提供長期的營養供給。但是最奇怪的事情是，這些糞便會招引一些幼兒的蟑螂。因為這些糞便中含有脂肪酸等有機化合物，會吸引各個年齡階段的蟑螂。這些物質被稱為聚合資訊素。所以糞便實際上是蟑螂們聚集——享受盛宴的集合信號。
To determine where the attractive chemicals come from, Schal and his colleagues raised a group of sterile, microbe-free cockroaches—and then collected their excrement.
為了確定這些有吸引力的化學物質來自哪裡，沙爾和同事們飼養了一群無菌的、無微生物的蟑螂，並收集了他們的排泄物。
But as they suspected, the sterile stuff, without any microbial by-products, failed to tantalize other roaches. They then gave the sterile bugs a fecal transplant. "So we took feces of normal cockroaches, and exposed sterile cockroaches to those feces. They very readily eat these feces and they incorporate the microbes, the bacteria from these feces, into their gut. And then these cockroaches then produce the aggregation pheromone again." They published the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
但是令他們懷疑的是，這些無菌、沒有任何微生物副產品的糞便並沒有吸引其他的蟑螂。之後，研究人員給這些無菌的蟲子進行糞便移植。“我們收集正常蟑螂的糞便，然後將無菌的蟑螂來接觸這些糞便。這些無菌的蟑螂非常樂意享受這些糞便，然後它們就會吸收這些糞便中的微生物和細菌。之後這些蟑螂就會產生聚合資訊素。”研究人員將研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》上。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/87.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. My name is Jennifer and I am joined in the studio today by Neil.
大家好，歡迎來到本期BBC六分鐘英語。我是Jennifer，這是我今天的搭檔Neil。
Hi there.
嘿，你好。
In this programme, we are going to talk about coffee and an interesting new project which is going on in many European cafes. Do you like coffee?
本期節目中，我們要講講咖啡，並談談即將在諸多歐洲咖啡館開始實施的有趣新專案。Neil，你喜歡喝咖啡嗎？
Yes, I do like a cup of coffee.
恩，我喜歡喝咖啡。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2015/20151207sa_mind.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Back in ancient times, philosophers like Aristotle were already speculating about the origins of taste, and how the tongue sensed elemental tastes like sweet, bitter, salty and sour. "What we discovered just a few years ago is that there are regions of the brain—regions of the cortex—where particular fields of neurons represent these different tastes again, so there's a sweet field, a bitter field, a salty field, etcetera." Nick Ryba, a sensory neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health
在古代的時候，亞里斯多德等思想家曾經猜測味道的起源，以及舌頭如何感知到酸、甜、苦、鹹、辣等味道。“就在幾年以前，我們曾經討論大腦區域——大腦皮層——特定領域的神經元代表著不同的味道嗎，這樣，就會有負責甜味的區域、苦味的區域、鹹味的區域等等。”美國國立衛生研究院的感官神經科學家尼克•里巴，講述了上述言論。
Ryba and his colleagues found that you can actually taste without a tongue at all, simply by stimulating the "taste" part of the brain—the insular cortex. They ran the experiment in mice with a special sort of brain implant—a fiber-optic cable that turns neurons on with a pulse of laser light. And by switching on the "bitter" sensing part of the brain, they were able to make mice pucker up, as if they were tasting something bitter—even though absolutely nothing bitter was touching the tongues of the mice.
里巴和他的同事研究發現，實際上，即使沒有舌頭，你也可是嚐出味道，而這僅需要通過刺激大腦中的“味覺”部分——島葉皮層即可。他們在老鼠身上做了實驗，老鼠植入了特殊的大腦結構——光纖電纜，通過雷射光束，此光纖電纜可以“刺激”神經元。研究人員通過刺激大腦中的“苦味”感官部分，而使老鼠脾氣暴躁，彷彿老鼠品嚐到了苦味的東西——而老鼠沒有嚐到任何苦的東西。
In another experiment, the researchers fed the mice a bitter flavoring on their tongues—but then made it more palatable by switching on the "sweet" zone of the brain. "What we were doing here was adding the sweetness, but only adding it in the brain, not in what we were giving to the mouse." Think adding sugar to your coffee—but doing it only in your mind. The findings appear in the journal Nature.
在另外一個實驗裡，研究人員老鼠吃苦味的東西——但是研究人員又刺激老鼠大腦中的“甜味”區，而讓苦味變得更加的可口。“我們做的是增加甜蜜，但僅僅是通過刺激老鼠大腦中的甜味區域，而不是餵老鼠吃填的東西。”想想在咖啡裡面加糖——而這次僅僅是在大腦裡面加糖。該研究結果發表在《自然》雜誌上。
Ryba says the study suggests that a lot of our basic judgments about taste—sweet means good, bitter means bad—are actually hard-wired at the level of the brain. As for that virtual-sugar-in-your-coffee idea? "I think it's basically science fiction to think that this would be something that would be applied to humans." But today’s science fiction might be tomorrow’s artificial sweetener.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/95.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello, I’m Feifei and this is 6 Minute English.
大家好，我是菲菲，這裡是六分鐘英語。
And I’m Neil.
我是尼爾。
How are you Neil and what have you been up to?
你好，尼爾，你都在忙什麼呢？
I’m very well, thank you. I’ve been listening to the news a lot this week.
我很好，謝謝你。這周我收聽了很多新聞。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/88.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English with me, Rob, and a very beautiful sound…
大家好，歡迎收聽本期BBC六分鐘英語，欣賞這優美的聲音。我是Rob。
Ahhh, the sound of birdsong. Hello, I’m Jennifer and that’s what we’re talking about today – birdsong.
啊，鳥叫聲~大家好，我是Jennifer。今天我們討論的主題是鳥鳴。
In Britain, this is the sound of summer – lots of different species – or types – of birds tweeting .
在英國，這是夏天的聲音。多種小鳥，各種鳴叫。
Tweeting? You mean they are using Twitter – the social media site?!
Tweeting？你是說它們用社交媒體Twitter？
Of course not! Tweeting is a way of describing the sounds birds make.We sometimes say they chirp or trill too – making short, high- pitched sounds.

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151208sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
“The city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm which lasted a whole year. Wiped clean by the wrath of God.” Indiana Jones’s friend Marcus Brody, explaining the fictional fate of the city of Tanis in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
坦尼斯在持續了一整年的沙城暴中，被沙漠所掩埋了，被憤怒的上帝徹底清除。印第安那瓊斯的朋友馬庫斯•布羅迪在《法櫃奇兵》中闡述了這座城市小說般的命運。
Back in real life, scientists have found something else covered by the Sahara’s sea of sand: an ancient river system. The remains of the main channel—which dried up long ago—wind beneath the west African desert for more than 300 miles before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
在現實生活中，科學家們發現了被撒哈拉沙漠所掩埋的其他東西：一條古老的河系。河流已經乾涸了很久，其主要通道的殘留物蜿蜒在西非沙漠之下300多英里之後到達大西洋。
Researchers led by Charlotte Skoniezcny of the University of Lille in France uncovered the system using a kind of satellite-borne radar that can penetrate through several feet of dry surface sediments like sand. The scientists think that the network may extend even farther inland, but thick dunes prevented them from mapping it. They report their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
法國里爾大學的 Charlotte Skoniezcny領導的研究人員，通過一種可以穿透沙子乾燥的表面沉積物的衛星載運雷達，發現了這個古代的河道。科學家認為該河流可能向內陸擴展的還要深一些，但是厚厚的積沙最終阻止了他們用衛星掃描地圖。該研究結果發表在《自然通訊》雜誌上。
The discovery solves the mystery of what created a vast underwater canyon off the coast of Mauritania in northwest Africa. The subsurface ravine looks like those that form at the mouths of massive rivers today. But researchers had only hypothesized the existence of major waterways in West Africa until now.
該研究結果解決了，在非洲西北部，茅利塔尼亞海岸有一個巨大的地下峽谷之謎。地表下的峽谷就像是今天大量河流交匯處形成的那些峽谷一樣。但是研究人員們直到今天之前也還只能認為這種大型水路體系的存在是個假說。
The fact that rivers raged at the surface in this region sheds light on the Sahara’s tumultuous history. Scientists know that this vast desert wasn’t always dry. At certain times in the past, it boasted green grasslands teeming with life. The researchers think the Sahara’s lost river last flowed 6,500 years ago, revealing just how fast west Africa’s climate can change. Maybe not quite as fast as Indiana Jones swapping out a bag of sand for a golden idol. But still, surprisingly fast. “Wiped clean.”
該地區表明曾經流淌的河流揭示了撒哈拉沙漠動盪的歷史。科學家們認為這個廣袤的沙漠以前並不是乾旱的。在古代的某個時期，撒哈拉沙漠生機勃勃，孕育了許多生命。研究人員認為，撒哈拉所流淌的河流大概是在6500年消失，這同時也揭示了西非氣候變化之快。也許沒有印第安那瓊斯為黃金神像換出一帶沙子那樣快。但是，仍然還是很快的。一掃而光。

【雅思考官口說高分技巧2：IELTS Examiner’s Tip2：Timing】

雅思口說考試的回答時間該如何掌握，
今天我們來看看字神的雅思考官給予的建議。
2016年字神雅思口說，由專業外師領軍，
字神還有超超超真實的口說實戰模考哦。
(有多像呢，就和真實考試 99% 一樣!!! 因為…不能再說了啦)
昨晚雅思聽力，同學也說GABBY老師教的超好的。
GABBY老師是康康親自選的優秀老師，
研究出雅思聽力最強的技巧，只要一招，就能破填空與選擇題。
昨天錯過正班的同學，太可惜，

【01/24 托福獨立寫作真題解析及範文】
相信不少考生在面對托福寫作的時候，會遇到「有話說不出，說出沒邏輯」的尷尬，以至於造成托福寫作的分數不高。何不看看真題範文，也許會有思路提示的。

1月24日托福獨立寫作真題真題
托福獨立寫作題目：
In times of economic crisis, in which field do you think the government can cut financial support?
1. Art
2. Scientific research
3. Parks and public gardens
是否新題：是
題材：社會類
觀點： 削減藝術方面的經費
寫作思路：

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voa…/2015/20151217sa_health.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
What's the liveliest part of your kitchen, in terms of harboring bacteria? Is it the cutting board? The dish sponge? Or maybe… your coffeemaker? Because even though caffeine has antibacterial effects, it turns out espresso machines can harbor a whole menagerie of bacteria —including some pathogenic species more commonly associated with the toilet.
你廚房裡哪裡的最容易養殖細菌?是櫥櫃?洗碗布?可能還是你的咖啡壺?雖然咖啡有抗菌效果，結果表明咖啡機能夠養殖大量的細菌——其中包括一些和細菌相關的致命細菌。
Researchers sampled ten Nespresso brand espresso machines, zeroing in on the drip trays, which catch those last drops of brown gold after a brew. They found that nine of the ten machines harbored residues rich in Enterococcus bacteria, a typical marker of human fecal contamination. And another common resident was Pseudomonas—which has both benign and pathogenic strains. Pseudomonas appears to thrive in the presence of caffeine, and break it down. Which suggests the bugs might be put to work decaffeinating coffee, or cleaning caffeine residues from our waterways. The findings appear in the journal Scientific Reports.
研究人員取樣了10種品牌的雀巢咖啡機，集中研究了滴灌托盤，方法是在咖啡釀造之後收集咖啡機中最後幾滴咖啡液體。研究人員發現，十台咖啡機中有九台殘留了大量的腸球菌細菌，腸球菌細菌標誌著人類的排泄物。而另一種常見的細菌是假單胞菌——其中包含良性和致命菌種。假單胞菌似乎在咖啡機中大量存在，然後自身繁殖。這表明細菌可以去除咖啡中的咖啡因，或者清理我們水道中的咖啡殘留物。該研究結果發表在《科學報告》雜誌上。
As for your next espresso shot? Don't worry too much. The researchers did not find any bacteria in the coffee pods themselves—so they say our fingertips might be to blame for spreading the single-celled invaders. And they write that it's "absolutely not the case" that Nespresso machines are dangerous for human health. Just wash the drip tray regularly with soap and water, as you would any other food-contaminated surface. So that the only thing brewing in your espresso machine… is your coffee.
至於你的下一杯濃咖啡?不要擔心太多。研究人員並沒有在咖啡豆上發現任何的細菌——所以研究人員稱指尖可能是細菌入侵者的罪魁禍首。並且他們寫道：“雀巢咖啡機對人類健康有危險——情況絕對不是這樣的。只需要經常用肥皂和清水清洗滴灌托盤，並且只要不用任何其他事物污染托盤表面。所以，這樣的話，咖啡機釀製的--只有你的咖啡。
➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/153.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello I’m Rob. Welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Finn. Hi Finn.
大家好，我是Rob。歡迎收聽六分鐘英語節目，今天我的搭檔是Finn。你好，Finn。
Hello Rob.
你好Rob。
Today we’re talking about something we have some expertise in or knowledge about.That’s teaching English.
今天我們討論我們專業技能或知識有關的事情。就是教英語。
That’s right Rob. We work on the BBC’s Learning English website - hopefully giving people around the world a helping hand in learning a language that isn’t the one they usually use.
Rob你說的對。我們致力於BBC學習英語網站-希望給世界各地非英語常用語言的人們學習英語提供幫助。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151220sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
The widespread death of honeybees has some farmers fretting: if honeybees disappear, who will pollinate their crops? "Almost any kind of insect you can think of." Margie Mayfield, an ecologist at The University of Queensland in Australia. "Globally speaking flies are probably the second largest group of crop pollinators. In particular a group called hoverflies, or syrphid flies. And these are these large-eyed flies that if you take a hike you sometimes see them hovering in front of your face."
蜜蜂大規模死亡讓一些農民擔心：如果蜜蜂消失，那麼誰來為他們的莊稼授粉呢?“幾乎你能想到的所有種類的昆蟲，”Margie Mayfield是澳大利亞的昆士蘭大學的生物學家，他說到：“從全球範圍來講，昆蟲可能是為莊稼授粉的第二大群體。尤其有一種群體叫做食蚜蠅，這些大眼睛蒼蠅，如果你出去徒步的話，有時候你會看見它們在你面前盤旋。”
Along with hoverflies, the army of under-appreciated pollinators includes butterflies, moths, beetles, ants and wasps. Mayfield and her colleagues analyzed more than three dozen studies on pollination, covering 17 crop plants grown on five continents. And they found that these underdog insects accounted for some 40 percent of the flower visits. Some of the crops in their review--especially tropical ones like mangoes and custard apples--did not rely on honeybees at all. Even commodities like canola did fine without bees. The meta-analysis is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
除了食蚜蠅，其他的授粉群體還包括蝴蝶、蛾子、甲蟲、螞蟻還有黃蜂。Mayfield和她的同事們分析了30多個關於授粉的研究，這些研究作物涵蓋了5個洲17種莊稼作物。研究發現這些不被看好的昆蟲佔據了花訪客的40%。其中接受監督的一些莊稼作物——尤其是芒果以及番荔枝等熱帶植物——一點也不依賴蜜蜂。甚至商業作物花籽油沒有蜜蜂授粉也可以。該研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》雜誌上。
Mayfield says part of the difficulty in gauging the importance of bees starts with the research methods: a third of the studies they initially considered, for example, ignored everything but bees. "You know the European honeybee is obviously from Europe, so there's a lot of focus on the European honeybee there." Another issue, she says, is raising awareness among farmers. "I've encountered farmers in California and in South Africa and in Australia who spray their pesticides largely at night, because that's when the bees have gone back to their hives.
Mayfield稱，評估蜜蜂重要性的難度一部分在於開始的研究方法：例如，他們最初認為，1/3的研究，應該忽視其他因素，只考慮蜜蜂。“大家都知道很明顯歐洲蜜蜂來自歐洲，所以，重點放在了歐洲蜜蜂。”她還說，另一個問題是增加農民的意識。“我曾經見過加州、南美以及澳大利亞的農民，在晚上大肆捕殺昆蟲，因為蜜蜂在晚上回蜂巢。”
And they do that with the idea that we'll spare our pollinators and control our pests. But that very much takes the assumption that only bees are important pollinators." Of course we should still do our best to save honeybees--the celebrity pollinators. But agricultural practices should consider the rest of these tiny farm workers, too.
“他們這樣做是因為他們認為這樣將會寬恕我們的傳粉昆蟲，並控制害蟲。但是這一想法的前提假設是只有蜜蜂是重要的傳粉者。”當然，我們會盡最大的努力保護蜜蜂——著名的傳粉專家。但是農業在實踐中也要考慮其他小小農業 ‘工人’。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/115.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I’m Rob and with me is Finn.
大家好，歡迎來到BBC6分鐘英語，我是Rob，和我一起的是Finn。
Hello Rob.
你好Rob。
You sound very cheerful – so, how are you feeling?
你看起來很高興-你怎麼樣？
I’m good thanks. Things are going well. I’m here in the studio with you, I’m going on holiday next week, and I’m really enjoying this cold weather.
我很好，謝謝。一切都很順利。我現在和你一起在工作室，下周我就要去度假了，我很喜歡這個寒冷的冬天。

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/94.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello, I’m Rob and this is 6 Minute English and I’m joined this week by Jennifer. Hello Jennifer.
大家好，歡迎收聽BBC六分鐘英語。我是Rob，這是我的搭檔Jennifer，你好，Jennifer！
Hello Rob.
你好，Rob。
This week we’re discussing global migration – that’s the movement of people around the world and particularly those who are moving abroad to look for new work. Now is this something you have done Jen?
本周話題和全球移民有關，它是一場各國人民移居國外尋找新工作的運動。Jen，你做過這事嗎？
Yes, when I was a student I moved to France to teach English for a while.
做過啊。當年還是個學生時，我曾奔赴法國，教過一段時間英語呢。
A very good job but luckily for us, you came back to live here in the UK .Many people are forced to emigrate – or leave their home country – to go and work abroad and they never return home. We’ll talk more about that shortly and also look at some of the language associated with migration. But let’s start with today’s question.

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151223sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
By the end of the century, the United Nations reckons the population of Africa could hit 4.3 billion people—four times today's numbers. It's the fastest-growing spot on the planet, which inevitably means growing pains: “We're seeing a real rush , almost a feeding frenzy of foreign mining investment, and in some cases, land grabs." Bill Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Australia.
截止到本世紀末，聯合國估計非洲人口將達到43億——是當今數量的4倍。這是地球上人口增速最快的地區，而不可避免，這意味著增長煩惱：“在這裡我們看到人口激增，同時外國礦業投資瘋狂增長，在一些區域出現了土地爭奪的現象。”Bill Laurance，講述了這番言論，他是澳大利亞詹姆斯庫克大學的生態學家。
"We're living in the most active era of infrastructure and road expansion in human history. We're projected to see 25 million kilometers of new paved roads on the planet by the middle of the century, which is enough to go around the world more than 600 times." Thirty-three of those roads—spanning 53,000 kilometers—are already planned in Africa. So Laurance and his colleagues examined the pros and cons of the new projects. They measured potential benefits, like more agricultural opportunities, and weighed those gains against environmental impacts.
“我們生活在人類歷史上基礎設施以及道路擴展最活躍的時代。在本世紀中葉，估計我們將看到地球上將會鋪設25百萬千米的新公路。這個長度足夠繞地球600多圈。 ”其中有33條道路——長達5.3萬千米——已經計劃在非洲鋪設。所以Laurance和同事們調查了新項目的利弊。並估量了這些項目可能會帶來的益處，例如增加農業機遇，同時，他們也衡量了這些成果對於環境的影響。
The research team determined that the planned roads and railways would slice through more than 400 protected areas. And if you include a 25-kilometer buffer zone on each side of the road—where Laurance says new hunting, poaching, farming, logging and mining are bound to pop up—the tally of violated protected areas rises to more than 2,000. The researchers do endorse five of the 33 roads as promising—good for humans, not so bad for the environment. And they identify the six worst planned roads, which they say probably should not be built at all. The study is in the journal Current Biology.
研究團隊認為，計劃修建的道路和鐵路將會穿越400多個保護區。如果將道路兩側的25千米的緩衝區囊括在內——Laurance稱緩衝區新的狩獵、非法狩獵、耕作、伐木以及採礦一定如春筍般出現——而受到損害的保護區的數量已經超過2000多個。研究人員同意，33條公路中，有5條的確是非常有前途的——對人類有益處，同時也不會破壞環境。而其中規劃最糟糕的6條道路，研究人員認為根本就不應該修建。該研究結果發表在《當代生物學》雜誌上。
Laurance says we've seen the effects of rampant road-building before: "Two-thirds of the world's forest elephants have been wiped out in the last decade. And this has actually been linked pretty clearly with the expansion of the road network in the Congo already." And the first paved road through the Amazon, finished in the early 70s, is now a 400-kilometer-wide gash through the rainforest. Considering all the attention carbon emissions are getting in Paris right now, it might be worth remembering where one-sixth of the world's emissions come from: deforestation.
Laurance稱我們已經見過大肆進行公路建設所帶來的影響：“過去十年，世界上2/3的森林大象已經滅絕。這與剛果地區公路網擴張有著明顯的關係。”穿越亞馬遜第一條公路，在70世紀早期完工，現在這條公路是一條橫跨亞馬遜雨林的寬達400千米的裂縫。想想在巴黎舉辦的聯合國氣候變化大會上，碳排放吸引了所有人的注意，人們可能應該記住世界上1/6的溫室氣體排放來自於：森林砍伐。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/93.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Rob and with me today is Finn.
大家好，歡迎收聽本期BBC六分鐘英語。我是Rob，這是我的搭檔Finn。
(sounding glum) Hi Rob.
（悶悶不樂的聲音）你好，Rob。
Finn you’re sounding a bit down in the dumps – you know, a bit miserable.
Finn，聽起來你不太高興啊。
Well Rob I am. It’s raining again… I’ve got no money… and I’m feeling unfit too – just look at me!
是啊。外面又下雨，我兜裡沒錢，身上還不舒服。你看看我！

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151231sa_science.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
The moon has taken its fair share of beatings, as its craters attest. And last fall the moon took the biggest impact we've ever seen, when a huge meteorite slammed into the area known as the Mare Nubium basin.
月球已經得到足夠多的傷害了，因為有月球上的火山口作證明。並且，去年秋天，月球遭受了我們所見範圍內最大的一次沖擊，當時一個巨型隕石撞擊被稱為Mare Nubium盆地的區域。
Spanish astronomers spotted the September 11th collision using a telescope network that automatically scans the moon. The impact vaporized rock and created a flash of light brighter and longer than any we've ever recorded on the moon's surface.
西班牙天文學家用自動監測月球的天文望遠鏡網絡觀測到了911撞擊事件。這次撞擊蒸發出岩石並且弄出比我們任何以往曾看到的出現在月球表面的更明亮持續時間更長的閃光。
The compact-car sized meteorite smashed into the moon at 61,000 kilometers per hour. The ensuing explosion had the force of 15 tons of TNT, creating a new crater 40 meters wide. Anyone on Earth who happened to be moon-gazing at the time would have seen a flash almost as bright as the North Star. [See video of the impact.]
簡易汽車大小的隕石撞擊月球的速度在每小時61000公里左右。已確定的撞擊力相當於15噸的TNT炸藥，創造出一個新的40米寬的月球坑。地球上的任何人，在當時若是碰巧在賞月，那他應該已經看到整個和北極星一樣亮度的閃光了。
The moon gets pummeled by space rocks more often than Earth does because it lacks our protective atmosphere. The friction from passing through this blanket of air burns up most incoming meteors, letting through only the largest ones. Without such a shield, the moon is defenseless . Poor moon. But hey—better it than Earth!
月球比地球遭受了更多的宇宙岩石的撞擊，因為它缺少我們地球外起保護作用的大氣層。從外到裡穿過的這種覆蓋空氣層燃燒掉大部分進入的隕石，只有最大的才能通過。沒有這樣一個屏障，月球是毫無防備的。可憐的月球。但是，嘿—— 還好不是我們地球沒有防備。
➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟➟

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20160110sa_science.mp3

🎁 中英文稿：
March 27th, 1964: the world's second-most powerful recorded earthquake hits Alaska.
1964年，3月27日，阿拉斯加發生了世界上第二強大的地震。
"What happened was the whole Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound just sort of tilted, and so near shore, near Alaska, that region sank. And then out at sea, the sea floor raised up." Susie Bassham, a molecular biologist at the University of Oregon. "And so things that were submarine platforms before suddenly were lifted above sea level, and then silt could come in and build more island."
“整個阿拉斯加海灣和威廉王子灣發生了傾斜，阿拉斯加附近發生了塌陷。海床升高。”Susie Bassham是俄勒岡州立大學的分子生物學家，她還說到，“海底高地突出海平面，淤泥可以用來建立更多的島嶼。”
And with more island, came new freshwater ponds. Those newly created bodies of water turned out to be the testbed for a natural evolutionary experiment on a finger-sized fish, called the three-spined stickleback. Saltwater fish went in… freshwater fish came out. "Big silvery well-armored fish entered freshwater ponds. And during the last 50 years they changed their size, their coloration, they changed the size of their eyes, the length of their spines, many aspects of their skeletons, feeding structures, swimming structures, and became more stereotypical freshwater fish." But how?
島嶼更多，就會有新的淡水池塘。原來這些新的淡水池塘是用來對一種手指大小的魚——三刺魚——進行自然進化實驗的。這種鹹水魚潛入水底，然後出來的就是淡水魚。“這種大銀灰色刺魚，進入淡水池塘。在過去的50年，它們的體型、顏色發生了變化。同時眼睛的大小、棘突長度、骨骼的很多方面、進食和游泳結構都發生了變化，越來越像淡水魚。”但是這是怎麼發生的呢?
Bassham and her colleagues ran statistical analyses on the genomes and body measurements of fish living in those freshwater ponds today. And they found that the saltwater versions of the fish may have actually colonized those freshwater ponds on the study islands at least six times in the last 50 years. They were able to move in and rapidly adapt because the sea-dwelling fish have a sort of "sleeper genome" of freshwater traits, just waiting to be activated.
Bassham和同事們對淡水池塘的魚進行了基因組和身體測量。研究發現，這些鹹魚版的淡水魚在實驗島嶼的淡水池塘至少生活了50年。這中深海魚，能夠快速的適應淡水環境，因為它們具有淡水魚的“休眠基因”。這些基因只是在等待被啟動。
"These are anadromous fish that have been invading freshwater ecosystems over and over and over. And all those freshwater adaptations have trickled back into the sea, allowing the oceanic population, which is believed to be the ancestor of all the freshwater populations, to maintain this huge resource of differently, alternately adapted genotypes that are just waiting to get back into a freshwater system."
這些溯河性魚類在一次又一次的入侵淡水魚生態系統。這些慢慢適應淡水的鹹水魚，回流到大海裡，這可以讓鹹水魚種類多樣化——人們認為鹹水魚是淡水魚的祖先——之後，已經適應大海的鹹水魚再回到淡水系統。

 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/96.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to another episode of 6 Minute English with me Feifei.
大家好，歡迎收聽本期的六分鍾英語，我是菲菲。
And me Neil.
我是尼爾。
And how are you today Neil?
尼爾，你今天過的怎樣？
It's all good today thank you! I've got a really good question for you today…
今天過的很好，謝謝你！我今天有一個很好的問題要提問你。
Oh a question – ask away!
一個問題啊，隨便問！

【01/24：來聊聊這週凍壞的托福閱讀真題】

上週是2016年第一次週末兩天連考。和2015年底的情況一樣，
有五成的機會，週六考新題，週日考舊題，本週就是這樣的情況。
所以，2016年的同學，盡量避開週末兩天連考的週六。