英语每日一听 | 每天少于5分钟

The clear-winged, yellow-bellied moths made an improbable journey from the jungle of Guyana to Pontardawe in South Wales before being discovered. One was spotted on a windowsill at home by ecologist Daisy Cadet, whose mother had visited South America on a photography trip three months earlier. The pair later found the remains of two cocoons in the bag she'd used to carry her boots on the journey.&...

So, you've reached an intermediate level of English – congrats! You can understand most things about familiar topics and can express yourself in most situations. But maybe you've been here a while, and now you're stuck in what we call the 'intermediate plateau'. Often when we begin learning something, progress is fast and noticeable, but perhaps now it's difficult to see your improvements. Let's s...

Fruit flies can walk, hover and the males can even sing love songs to woo females. All this, and these flies have a brain that's tinier than a pinhead. Researchers have taken a closer look and found that it's a tangle of more than 130,000 separate wires called neurons – all packed together, making more than 50 million separate connections to each other.  果蝇能行走和盘旋，雄性果蝇甚至能够通过...

What do these three things have in common: a grumpy baby, Harry Potter puppets singing, and a challenge where you pour a bucket of icy water over your head? The answer – they have all 'gone viral'.  这三件事有什么共同点：脾气暴躁的婴儿、哈利·波特木偶的歌声以及将一桶冰水倒在头上的挑战？答案是——它们都“病毒式传播”了。  The world is becoming more and more digital, and we can't stop it. While...

In the Japanese village of Kamimomi, a small group of farmers began gathering their rice in extreme heat, two weeks earlier than usual.  在日本的上莫米村，一小群农民开始在酷暑中收割稻谷，比平时提前了两周。  Kamimomi is in Japan’s western Okayama prefecture. The area is called "the Land of Sunshine" because of its good weather. But farmers working in the mountainside rice fields say clima...

Researchers say a large fish that was thought to have disappeared from Asia’s Mekong River has been seen in the waterway in recent years.  研究人员表示，一种被认为从亚洲湄公河消失的大型鱼类近年来在该水道中被发现。  The fish is called a giant salmon carp. A recent study detailed the most recent sightings of the fish. The lead writer of that study said the fish was seen at least three time...

South Korean researchers have developed a drone designed to stay level when transporting goods over many kinds of surfaces.  韩国研究人员开发了一种无人机，旨在在多种表面上运输货物时保持水平。  A team at Seoul National University of Science and Technology built a prototype, or test model of the drone. The team recently demonstrated the aircraft for reporters from Reuters.  首尔国立科...

A new government study suggests U.S. teen smoking rates reached an all-time low this year.  一项新的政府研究表明，今年美国青少年吸烟率达到历史最低点。  The study was a survey of American youth carried out by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  该研究是美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）对美国青少年进行的一项调查。  The survey involved middle school students –...

The Grand National, regarded by many as the world's most famous horse race, features  jockeys  and horses  negotiating  30  fences  over more than four miles, and is watched by an estimated six hundred million people  worldwide . 英国国家障碍赛马大赛被许多人认为是世界上最著名的赛马比赛，骑手们需驾驭马匹在超过四英里长的赛程中跨越30道障碍。每年全球约有六亿人观看这...

“No pain, no gain” is an old saying in English. It means that one has to suffer or work hard in order to succeed or make progress.  “没有付出，就没有收获”是英语中的一句老话。它意味着一个人必须受苦或努力工作才能成功或取得进步。  The expression is now often used to push people to train harder or exercise more to get good effects.  现在这个词经常被用来督促人们更加努力地训练或...

October 31 is Halloween. But many Americans have been preparing for the holiday for weeks. And businesses are hoping for good profits from Halloween purchases.  10月31日是万圣节。但许多美国人已经为假期做准备了数周。企业希望从万圣节采购中获得丰厚利润。  The National Retail Federation (N.R.F.) is the largest U.S. trade group representing sellers of material goods. It expects total Hallowee...

Octopuses are usually considered to be solitary creatures, but this study suggests they may have richer social lives than previously thought.  章鱼通常被认为是独居动物，但这个研究表明它们的社交生活可能比此前人们认为的更加丰富。 Researchers found they work together with different species of fish when hunting for prey, even making decisions on behalf of the pack and sharing leadership responsib...

Suddenly a sound rings out, stopping you in your tracks. Panicking, you search for where it could be coming from. It's your phone, and if you're like a quarter of 18 to 34-year-olds in a recent British study, you probably won't answer it. The same study found that 70% of people in this age group prefer text messages to phone calls. Why do so many people hate phone calls?  突然，一道声音响起，...

A new study says humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy.  一项新的研究表明，人类正在达到预期寿命的上限。  Developments in medical technology and genetic research are not leading to major increases in lifespan overall, the researchers said.  研究人员表示，医疗技术和基因研究的发展并没有导致整体寿命的大幅延长。  The study was published recently in Nature Aging...

In Pakistan, polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign. Violence targeting health workers has also hurt years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.  在巴基斯坦，在新的疫苗接种活动之前，脊髓灰质炎病例正在上升。针对卫生工作者的暴力行为也损害了该国多年来为消除脊髓灰质炎所做的努力。  The World Health Organization says polio is a highly infectious disease caused by...

“There was a trend, it happened when COVID hit, to stop reading full-length novels because students were in trauma; we were in a pandemic. The problem is we haven’t quite come back from that,” she said.  “当新冠疫情来袭时，出现了一种趋势，即停止阅读长篇小说，因为学生们正处于创伤之中；我们正处于大流行之中。问题是我们还没有完全恢复过来，”她说。  Other teachers blame standardized testing an...

Teachers in many English classes across America are having students read fewer full-length books.  美国许多英语课堂的老师都在减少学生阅读长篇书籍的数量。  Recently, the Associated Press explored the issue in education.  近日，美联社就教育问题进行了探讨。  It reports that students instead are given only short parts of books. Educators said this is because they believe current st...

A new state law will soon require school districts in California to create new rules restricting student smartphone use.  新的州法律很快将要求加州学区制定新规则，限制学生使用智能手机。  California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law recently. The legislation makes California the latest state to try to reduce student phone access. Florida, Louisiana, Indiana, and several other states hav...

Early education expert Dan Gartrell says the most important civics lesson that preschools can teach is “social democracy.”  早期教育专家丹·加特雷尔表示，幼儿园可以教授的最重要的公民课程是“社会民主”。  Gartrell wrote a book about teaching democracy to preschoolers. It is called Education for a Civil Society. The book is used by the ACCA Child Development Center near Washington, D.C. in No...

NASA also chose American aerospace company Boeing to serve as a possible partner in its Artemis program. But the company’s Starliner rocket has faced major delays and difficulties during past test flights. 美国宇航局还选择美国航空航天公司波音作为其阿尔忒弥斯计划的可能合作伙伴。但该公司的 Starliner 火箭在过去的试飞中遇到了严重的延误和困难。  In the last one, Starliner successfully transported...

SpaceX has successfully completed a fifth test of its Starship rocket system. The uncrewed test was carried out Sunday at the American space company’s launch center in Boca Chica, Texas.  SpaceX 已成功完成其 Starship 火箭系统的第五次测试。这次无人测试是周日在美国航天公司位于德克萨斯州博卡奇卡的发射中心进行的。  During the flight, the 121-meter-tall Starship was successfully pushed into s...

Glasgow hosted an extremely successful Commonwealth Games in 2014. So, after Victoria's withdrawal, it was suggested the city could rescue the 2026 Games using existing infrastructure and venues.  格拉斯哥在 2014 年主办了一届极其成功的英联邦运动会。所以在维多利亚州退出后，便有人提出格拉斯哥可以利用现有的基础设施和比赛场馆来举办比赛，从而挽救 2026 年的运动会。  Today, the Scottish governm...

Flying has revolutionised the way we navigate the world. It's often the quickest and most convenient way to travel long distances. But there's a catch – it's one of the most carbon-intensive activities the average person is likely to do. In 2018, a small group of celebrities in Sweden led the 'flygskam' movement, meaning 'flight shame' in English, to encourage people to give up flying. But, for pe...

The team began following Chrastil shortly before she became pregnant through in vitro fertilization. During the pregnancy and for two years after she gave birth, they continued doing MRI brain scans and blood tests to see how her brain changed. During this time, Chrastil’s sex hormones, like estrogen, increased and decreased. Some of the changes continued past pregnancy.  在克拉斯蒂尔通过体外...

When a brain scientist at the University of California, Irvine got pregnant at the age of 38, she saw a rare chance. Neuroscientist Liz Chrastil wanted to see how her brain changed while she was pregnant.  当加州大学欧文分校的一位脑科学家在 38 岁时怀孕时，她看到了一个难得的机会。神经科学家莉兹·克拉斯蒂尔想看看她怀孕期间大脑发生了怎样的变化。  Chrastil was among a group of researchers who...