英语每日一听 | 每天少于5分钟

West Africa was hit with a severe drought following a humid heat wave that drove temperatures to record levels in February.  西非遭受了严重的干旱，此前潮湿的热浪使2月份的气温达到了创纪录的水平。  Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group say the unusually hot weather was made ten times more likely because of the greenhouse gases humanity has been pumping into the atmosphere.&nb...

Laughter is a universal language for humans to connect with each other and form social bonds. Even as babies, we giggle when our parents pull funny faces, and then gradually learn to make others laugh as we grow up. But, is it a uniquely human experience? Scientists have observed behaviours in animals that suggest that your pets might be secret jokesters…  笑声是人类相互联系并形成社会纽...

Prisoners in the U.S. state of New York have taken legal action against the state corrections department. They started the measure over the state’s decision to lock down prisons during next Monday’s total solar eclipse. 纽约州的囚犯已经对该州矫正部门采取了法律行动。他们开始了这一措施，原因是州政府决定在下周的日全食期间封锁监狱。 The case was filed last week in a federal court in upstate New York....

Today we are at the Newseum in Washington D.C. – where the history of free expression is explained and defended.  今天，我们来到华盛顿特区的新闻博物馆——言论自由的历史在这里得到解释和捍卫。  The first printing presses arrived in the United States in the mid-1600s, marking an important step in the history of America’s free press.  第一台印刷机于 1600 年代中期抵达美国，标志着美国新闻自...

An ongoing bird flu outbreak has killed tens of thousands of seals and sea lions in several parts of the world.  持续爆发的禽流感已导致世界多个地区数以万计的海豹和海狮死亡。  Scientists said the virus’ spread also has caused economic losses at poultry farms and is harming wild birds.  科学家表示，病毒的传播还给家禽养殖场造成了经济损失，并正在伤害野生鸟类。  A worldwide bird flu...

Bamboo farming is on the rise in Uganda. The strong and fast-growing crop is seen by the East African government as having real growth possibility.  乌干达的竹子种植业正在兴起。 东非政府认为这种强劲且快速生长的作物具有真正的增长潜力。  Along a 3-kilometer stretch of the river Rwizi, environment protection officers recently planted new bamboo seedlings and cleared room for last year's sur...

Humans have been writing by hand for thousands of years.  人类用手书写已有数千年历史。  Since ancient times, people have used every tool imaginable to share information, do business, and keep records.  自古以来，人们就使用一切可以想象到的工具来共享信息、开展业务和保存记录。  But as computers took over the job and the type-written word became more common, something was lost in t...

Scientists say new research confirms results of an earlier study suggesting the crash of a spacecraft into an asteroid changed the shape of the targeted object.  科学家表示，新的研究证实了早期研究的结果，即航天器撞击小行星改变了目标物体的形状。  The latest research follows another recent study examining the effects of the asteroid strike. NASA crashed its DART spacecraft into the asteroi...

20 quadrillion sounds like a lot of ants, and it is. To give you an idea, that's two and a half million ants for every human on Earth.  20千万亿听起来像是很多只蚂蚁，事实也确实如此。这就相当于地球上每一个人对应250万只蚂蚁。  T o count them at one a second would take 634 million years. So, no one's tried that.  以每秒数一只蚂蚁的速度，要6.34亿年才能数完。所以，没有人尝试过。 But the...

Squirming in their seat, glancing around the room and never looking you in the eye. We think we know when someone is lying to us, but do we really?  在座位上蠕动，环视房间，却从不看你的眼睛。 我们认为我们知道有人在对我们撒谎，但我们真的知道吗？  A study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Review showed that people's ability to tell if someone is lying to them is little bet...

Historic covered bridges in the United States are under threat by the use of the modern technology GPS.  美国历史悠久的廊桥正受到现代 GPS 技术的使用的威胁。  GPS is short for Global Positioning System. The satellite system tells people who use map applications what roads to use to go from one place to another.  GPS 是全球定位系统的缩写。 卫星系统告诉使用地图应用程序的人们从一个地方...

South Korean researchers have combined cow muscle cells with rice grains. They say the new rice is an important step towards a sustainable, less costly source of protein. The researchers suggested it could replace the meat of farmed cattle, or beef.  韩国研究人员将牛肌肉细胞与米粒结合起来。 他们表示，新大米是迈向可持续、成本更低的蛋白质来源的重要一步。 研究人员建议它可以替代养殖牛的肉或牛肉。...

Only one in five of those who apply to the University of Cambridge is offered a place. Currently there is an admissions quota of at least 69% of places for state-educated pupils. Now, Cambridge is looking at using a more sophisticated set of measures, including whether an applicant has received free school meals and looking at individual exam results in the context of where their school is. ...

Heartbreak has inspired thousands of songs, books and films, and, however much we try to avoid it, is something we are all likely to experience at some point in our lives. But what exactly is heartbreak, and how does it affect us?  心碎激发了数以千计的歌曲、书籍和电影的灵感，无论我们如何努力避免它，我们都可能在生命中的某个时刻经历过。 但心碎到底是什么？它对我们有何影响？  Heartbreak ofte...

The number of marriages in South Korea rose in 2023 for the first time in more than ten years.  2023年，韩国结婚人数十多年来首次上升。  The increase came after the pandemic which forced some couples to delay marriage plans. But the data did not point to a continued increase in the aging country.  这一增长是在大流行迫使一些夫妇推迟结婚计划之后发生的。 但数据并未表明老龄化国家持续增加...

March 20 is the United Nations' International Day of Happiness.  3月20日是联合国国际幸福日。  For many years, northern European countries, especially Finland, have been named among the happiest countries on Earth. The United States has never made it into the top 10.  多年来，北欧国家，尤其是芬兰，一直被评为地球上最幸福的国家之一。美国从未进入过前十名。  But California state law...

A recently released report from European scientists says there are 16,000 chemicals in plastic materials around the world.  欧洲科学家最近发布的一份报告称，全球塑料材料中含有 16,000 种化学物质。  The report said not enough is known about the safety of all those chemicals. They estimate that about 25 percent of these chemicals are possibly harmful to human health or the environment. ...

"A good book is easy to find." That is the message on a sign at Hernando Guanlao's home in the Makati area of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. “ 一本好书很容易找到。” 这是菲律宾首都马尼拉马卡蒂地区埃尔南多·关老家中的一块牌子上写的信息。 Guanlao has turned his home into a free public library. Visitors can borrow the books inside for free.  关老把他的家变成了免费的公共图书馆。游客可以免...

What do you get when you cross the sports of rodeo with skiing? An extreme winter sport called skijoring.  当牛仔竞技运动与滑雪运动交叉时，你会得到什么？一项称为滑雪的极限冬季运动。  The competition involves riding horses that tow skiers by rope over jumps and around barriers. At the same time, competitors try to lance round targets with a baton, a special stick for the purpose.  比...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is adding to the threat of election disinformation worldwide.  人工智能 (AI) 正在加剧全球选举虚假信息的威胁。  The technology makes it easy for anyone with a smartphone and an imagination to create fake – but convincing – content aimed at fooling voters.  这项技术使任何拥有智能手机和想象力的人都可以轻松创建虚假但令人信服的内容，旨在愚弄选民。  Just...

The supernova was visible from Earth for four months, shining with the power of a hundred million Suns. There was so much debris that even the most powerful telescopes could not confirm what remained at its heart.  曾经长达四个月之久，人们可以在地球上看到这颗超新星，它发出的光芒亮度相当于一亿个太阳。由于恒星爆炸产生大量碎片，即便是用最强大的望远镜进行观测，也无法确认超新星爆炸后的残骸中心是什...

'Going for a walk' is a popular pastime among older and younger generations alike because of its well-known benefits for our physical and mental health. But you may be surprised to hear that meandering through pretty streets or hiking along mountainous ridges have not always been considered leisure activities, according to Daniel Gale, a researcher of pedestrianism.  “散步”是老一辈和年轻一代...

In the eastern state of Virginia, employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center are doing their best to act like mother  foxes . They started feeding and caring for a baby fox, called a kit, when the young animal became separated from its mother. 在弗吉尼亚州东部，里士满野生动物中心的员工正在尽力表现得像狐狸妈妈。 当一只小狐狸与母亲走散后，他们开始喂养和照顾这只小狐狸。 The Associa...

Math lovers celebrate Pi Day on March 14, or 3/14. Around the world, many people even mark the day by eating a tasty piece of pie.  数学爱好者会在 3 月 14 日（即 3 月 14 日）庆祝圆周率日。 在世界各地，许多人甚至通过吃一块美味的馅饼来纪念这一天。  For those who do not know, pi is a mathematical constant, a value that never changes. It expresses the ratio of a circle’s circumference (the d...

The American agency that follows the risk of coral bleaching around the world says “the worst bleaching event in the history of the planet may come soon.”  追踪全球珊瑚白化风险的美国机构表示，“地球历史上最严重的白化事件可能很快就会到来。”  Those are the words of Derek Manzello, head of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch.  这是 NOAA 珊瑚礁观察负责人德里克·曼泽洛 (Derek Manzello) 的话。 NOAA is...