英语每日一听 | 每天少于5分钟

Japanese railway operator, Seibu, is testing a special help desk for foreigners at one of the company’s busiest train stations.↳ Visitors who need help at the Seibu-Shinjuku station in Tokyo can go to an information window and ask questions. About 135,000 people per day pass through the Seibu-Shinjuku station. To get help, a person just speaks into a microphone. A system called VoiceBiz...

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently said that by law food makers are permitted to add sesame to their products. They also must identify sesame content in their foods on product packaging. Sesame is the seed of the sesamum or benne plant. It is used to make oil and the seeds themselves are often used on bread or baked goods. The seeds come in black and white colors. Sesame...

Summer is a great time of year – but, unfortunately, it's not just us humans that enjoy it. Mosquitos seem to make the most out of the season by biting us, and as well as being annoying, mosquito-borne diseases can be dangerous. What can we do to avoid getting bitten? 夏天是一年中的美好时光，但不幸的是，享受夏天的不仅仅是我们人类。蚊子似乎通过叮咬我们来充分利用这个季节，蚊子传播的疾病不仅令人...

A new fossil study by researchers from China and Canada suggests that ancient mammals may have attacked and eaten larger dinosaurs. 中国和加拿大研究人员的一项新化石研究表明，古代哺乳动物可能攻击并吃掉了更大的恐龙。 The scientists looked at a fossil found by a Chinese farmer in 2012. A fossil is the mineralized remains of an animal or plant left in an ancient rock. 科学家们观察了一位中国农民在 2012...

More restaurants in Japan are offering bugs in their dishes. 日本越来越多的餐馆在菜肴中加入虫子。 On a recent vacation in Tokyo, Takumi Yamamoto ate a special lunch of cricket curry and silkworm sashimi, which is usually made with raw fish. He drank a water bug  cider . 最近在东京度假时，山本拓海吃了一顿特别的午餐，包括咖喱蟋蟀和蚕生鱼片，这些午餐通常是用生鱼制成的。 他喝了一杯水虫苹果酒。 Th...

In her latest gardening story, Jessica Damiano tells of the garden pests and diseases she has seen in her plants. The Associated Press writer suggests acting quickly when combatting garden pests and diseases. When not dealt with quickly, pests and diseases can quickly grow and reproduce. That can result in less plant growth and worse health, less flower and fruit production, or even death of your...

Researchers say they have identified earth movement signals that could predict earthquakes up to two hours before they hit. The signals were recorded, or detected, by GPS collection devices. The devices were positioned in areas where major earthquakes had struck in the past. Scientists noted, however, that the right equipment does not currently exist to use the data to predict earthquakes. But if...

Olympic Games organizers in France presented the 2024 Olympic  torch  that will light the Summer Games in the country a year from now. In the Olympic torch tradition, many people carry the torch in turn from Greece to the current location of the Games. After it has traveled thousands of kilometers, the torch will light the Olympic  cauldron  at the Opening Ceremony of the next...

The American space agency NASA has offered its satellite technology to Brazil to help identify destruction in the Amazon rainforest. 美国宇航局向巴西提供卫星技术，以帮助确定亚马逊雨林的破坏情况。 NASA Administrator Bill Nelson made the offer during a recent trip to Brazil. The NASA chief visited the country’s space agency – the National Institute for Space Research – in the southeastern city of Jo...

Japan recently put in place export controls on the latest microchip, or semiconductor, technologies. Observers said the move targets. Japan’s export controls follow other recent restrictions enforced by the United States and the Netherlands, two other major producers of the most modern semiconductors. Japan listed 23 kinds of semiconductor technology that have export restrictions. The restrictions...

While black rats have spread rapidly throughout the world over the past 400 years, they've tended to avoid mature forests, disliking the leafy floors which are noisy for these rodents to run through. 虽然黑鼠在过去 400 年来在世界各地迅速蔓延，但它们倾向于避开成熟的森林，不喜欢绿叶茂盛的地板，因为这些地板对于这些啮齿类动物来说会很吵。 Now researchers have found that the clearing of rainforests in t...

A South Korean music production company is using a method of artificial intelligence (AI) to create different language versions of pop music songs. The company using the method is HYBE. The company represents and produces music for some of South Korea’s top pop music performers. Korean pop music is also known as K-pop. The AI method combines voice recordings of South Korean pop stars with recordin...

Many of us wear trainers, or sneakers as they are called in American English. They might not seem like anything special, but these items of footwear have become an obsession for some people. Get ready to meet the sneakerheads. 我们中的许多人都穿着运动鞋，或者美式英语中所说的运动鞋。 它们可能看起来没什么特别的，但这些鞋类产品已经成为一些人的痴迷。 准备好与运动鞋爱好者见面吧。 From their beginnings...

Twitter owner Elon Musk has launched a new  logo  – the single letter “X” – to replace the social media service’s famous blue bird. Twitter 所有者埃隆·马斯克推出了一个新徽标——单字母“X”——以取代该社交媒体服务著名的蓝鸟。 The X design started appearing at the top of Twitter’s computer version on Monday. But the old bird logo could still be seen across areas of the service. X 设计于周一开始...

Since first being detected in Brazil less than a year ago, the Zika virus has spread like wildfire and has now been reported across Latin America. The virus usually only results in a mild rash and fever, but it's also been linked to a surge in microcephaly – a condition where babies are born with abnormally small heads. 自从不到一年前在巴西首次发现以来，寨卡病毒已像野火一样蔓延，现已报道到整个拉丁...

The James Webb Space Telescope recently celebrated its first year in operation. During that time, the orbiting observatory – operated by the American space agency NASA – produced colorful, detailed images. It has also helped researchers make several new scientific discoveries. NASA has described the telescope as the largest, most powerful telescope ever sent into space. The agency launched the Web...

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has announced a new program to identify smart devices that are better equipped to resist internet attacks. The effort is designed to help the public decide which devices in the marketplace carry the best protection against possible cyberattacks. The program will issue a “U.S. Cyber Trust Mark” to the most protected devices, the administration said in...

The idea that there might be a so-called Planet X moving in the distant reaches of the Solar System has been debated for more than 100 years. It's fallen in and out of vogue. 关于太阳系遥远地区可能存在一颗所谓的 X 行星的想法已经争论了 100 多年。 它时而流行，时而过时。 The latest claim is based on an analysis of the movements of objects in a band of icy material orbiting more than 3bn miles away kn...

After a long winter, the arrival of spring can be a welcome relief. The days grow longer, the temperatures increase, and the natural world around us comes to life again. But when the seasons change, our sleep patterns change with them. 经过漫长的冬天，春天的到来可以让人感到欣慰。 白天变长，气温升高，我们周围的自然世界又恢复了生机。 但当季节变化时，我们的睡眠模式也会随之改变。 New research suggests...

U.S. officials on Monday approved the first long-acting drug to protect babies and young children against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. RSV sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year. The virus is a cold-like disease for most healthy people. But it can be life-threatening in the very young and very old. Last year, a large increase in RSV cases crowded U...

New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as giant sloths, big animals that disappeared thousands of years ago. The findings support evidence that people arrived in the Americas thousands of years earlier than once thought. Scientists looked at small pendants made of bony material from the sloths. The pendants have round holes in them and look polished. The team of resea...

Another experimental Alzheimer’s drug has been shown to slow patients’ worsening conditions, researchers reported Monday. The American drug company Eli Lilly said it is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the drug donanemab. If approved, it would be the second Alzheimer’s treatment for delaying the disease. Alzheimer’s affects the brain and causes memory loss and dementia....

For more than five decades scientists have been trying to draw an accurate map of what lies under the Antarctic ice sheet, which is more than 2.5 miles thick in places. Only a couple of regions remain unexplored, what the experts refer to as the 'Poles of Ignorance'. 五十多年来，科学家们一直试图绘制南极冰盖下的准确地图，该冰盖的某些地方厚度超过 2.5 英里。 只有几个地区仍未被探索，专家们将其称为“无...

Since the middle of the 20th century, humans have had a very strong effect on planet Earth. These effects have included climate change, species loss and pollution. Humanity’s impact has been so strong that scientists say a new geological epoch began then. The scientists call it the Anthropocene epoch. The word comes from the Greek terms for “human” and “new.” This epoch started sometime between 19...

Artificial intelligence technology is developing quickly. A new handbook aims to help technology developers make the best ethical decisions for the public. The new handbook is called Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap. It promises to give guidance on concerns related to the ethical use of AI technology such as ChatGPT. The handbook has been in the works for a few...