A podcast is a sound file similar to a radio broadcast, which can be downloaded and listened to on your phone or Pad. If you want to get entertained or learn something new, here are some most exciting podcast series.
Sixth Sense
Pam Sica's friends said she should put her dog to sleep. After all, the 15-year-old golden retriever was aging and ― to make matters worse ― was now acting strangely. A long story about a family's love for their dog and how he paid them back in the most shocking way.
Think Fast, Talk Smart
We all have the ability to express ourselves more clearly, especially at work. Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer Matt Abrahams discusses real-world challenges and offers tips such as writing better emails and preparing for meetings and presentations.
A SongOf Ice And Fire
For those who like long listens, George R. R.Martins series claims the (Iron) Throne (王冠 ). The first story, the 33-hour-long Game of Thrones, won a Guinness World Record for the "most character voices in an audio-book" with 224 characters alone.
Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV
Since it exploded in the early 2000s with shows like Big Brother and Survivor, reality TV has both fascinated and amazed viewers. The BBC's Sirin Kale and Pandora Sykes explore themes such as the Kardashians' creation of celebrity (网红), and why Selling Sunsetand Real Housewives are so successful.
The founder of Earth Day was Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator (参议员). During the late 1960s, Americans experienced the unexpected side effects of high productivity of industry. Factories were giving out smoke while leaded petrol were used for vehicles, making air pollution increasingly severe.
What moved Senator Nelson to action was the 1969 massive oil spill (溢出) in California, which had killed about 3,500 sea birds, besides sea animals like dolphins and seals, causing great public anger. Inspired by the student antiwar movement at that time, Nelson found it a proper time to channel the energy of the students towards a fight for environmental protection. And the sure-fire way was through public pressure. Thus Earth Day was born in 1970, and public environmental awareness took center stage.
On 22nd April 1970, millions of Americans took to the streets to demonstrate for a sustainable environment and thousands of students marched against the worsening environment. Different groups were now working together for a shared goal ― environmental conservation and the effort became effective. The government took tougher measures and affected businesses were forced to follow standards.
As environmental issues were not just localized ones but a global concern, the year 1990 saw Earth Day reach out to many more around the world. Earth Day 1990 helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, bringing together many nations for a joint effort towards protecting the environment.
For his role as founder of Earth Day, Senator Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995), the highest honour in the USA, by then US President Clinton. We salute (致敬) the man, as the fight for cleaner environment continues.
Almost everyone agrees that art is important, but they disagree on whether governments, using taxpayers' public money, should be funding it. Also, if governments do spend money on art, what artworks should they buy and for what purpose?
Most governments purchase well-known artworks for public galleries, such as the Metropolitan in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence, which are all free to the public. Most people do not object to public money being spent on keeping great artworks available to the public eye. However, there are some types the public are often not so happy about supporting.
In the 1980s when most people seemed to have lost interest in art, the Turner Prize was started in order to regain public's attention again. This is a contemporary art award supported by taxpayers. In 1999, the Turner Prize came under great public criticism when Tracey Emin was shortlisted for the prize for her work called "My Bed". "My Bed" was her actual bed which she had lain in for days following a relationship breakup. To some, this was a breakthrough and some visitors even jumped into the bed and rolled around. To others, it was simply a dive into the depths of human depravity (堕落).
But is the kind of "work"done by Emin "art"? And should the public pay for it, especially when it is so controversial (有争议的)?
Western art is certainly at a crossroads. Does it keep exploring the dark side or does it seek an ideal beauty? Perhaps the answer depends on the public at large and the values they hold. Many people were pleased when Richard Wright won the Turner Prize in 2009 with his fresco (壁画). Its artistic beauty, poetic nature and use of historic tradition might shows that society is looking for something more positive and "rooted" in its history again. If public money is spent on art, it is essential that the public play a key role in debating both art, and what art they are willing to pay for.
Victor Borge once wrote, "Laughter is the closest distance between two people." Yet laughter isn't always positive for relationships. Think of your friend laughing at your embarrassing mistake. This kind of unshared laughter can have the opposite effect.
Now, a new study explores when laughter works as a social glue. While all genuine laughter may help us feel good, shared laughter may communicate to others that we have a similar worldview, which strengthens our relationships.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina found a way to produce shared laughter to measure experimentally how it might impact a relationship with a stranger. Participants watched a funny, not-so-funny, or not-funny-at-all video while video-chatting with another same-sex participant. Unknown to them, the video chat displayed a pre-recorded clip (片段) of someone laughing the same amount for each of the two funny videos, but only smiling occasionally during the unfunny video. This produced more shared laughter in the first situation, less shared laughter in the second, and no shared laughter in the third. Afterwards, the participants then filled out questionnaires about their sense of similarity to their video partner, and how much they liked or wanted to get to know their video partner.
Results showed that, across the different videos, the amount of shared laughter had consistent (一致的) effects on the participants' sense of similarity to the video partner ― and that this, in turn, increased how much participants liked their partner and wanted to affiliate with him or her. "For people who are laughing together, shared laughter signals that they see the world in the same way, and it momentarily improve their sense of connection," says Sara Algoe, co-author of the study.
How can we put these findings into practice? Algoe suggests that relationship partners may want to find opportunities to laugh together in order to boost closeness, especially before having difficult conversations. Likewise, shared laughter could be introduced into staff meetings to make people feel more on the same page and thus become more productive.
Sometimes, it's good to be bored
"I am dying of boredom," complains the young wife Yelena in Chekhov's 1897 play UncleVanya. Of course, if Yelena were around today, we know what she would do: pull out her smartphone and find something fun. Today it is easy to get rid of boredom..
That is the finding of two fascinating recent studies. In one, researchers asked subjects to do something boring, like copying out numbers from a phone book, and then take tests of creative thinkings. The result? In the second study, subjects gave more answers to a word test than a non-bored control group after being forced to watch a dull screensaver.
"An restless mind hungers for stimulation, so boredom becomes a seeking state," says Sandi Mann, the psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire. "." Parents will tell you that kids with "nothing to do" will eventually invent some fun games to play ― with a cardboard box, a light switch, whatever.
The problem, the researchers worry, is that these days we don't struggle to overcome these slow moments. "" Mann says. "This might relieve us temporarily, but it shuts down the deeper thinking." So here is an idea: Instead of always avoiding boredom, embrace and face it. Sometimes, anyway. Mann has found she gets some of her best thinking done when she is driving her car and therefore can't be distracted by her phone.
The good type inspires you to see what can come of it. The bad type, in contrast, tires you and makes you feel like you can't be bothered to do anything. An important part of our modern task, then, is learning to evaluate these different types of boredom ― to distinguish the useful kind from the harmful one.
A. And there is, of course, bad boredom.
B. Bored subjects came up with more creative ideas.
C. But what if boredom is a meaningful experience?
D. These moments are a lot more valuable than expected.
E. Actually, tips on getting away from boredom are countless.
F. We try to kill every moment of boredom with mobile devices.
G. When not satisfied with your state, you're seeking and engaged.
I hated that I was born with a cleft palate ( 腭 裂 ). I clearly knew how ugly I looked to others: a(n)1 lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth and somewhat unclear2 .
When asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd say that I'd fallen as a baby and 3 it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more 4 to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I firmly believed that I didn't 5 the love outside my family. And then I entered Grade Three and6 Mrs. Leonard, a very lovely teacher.
The time came for the annual "hearing tests". I was 7 able to hear anything out of one ear, but I was not about to reveal another problem that would single me out as8 . Thus I 9 . I had learned to watch other children and 10 them to raise my hand during group testing. The "whisper test", however, required a different kind of deception ( 欺骗 ). Each child would close one ear with a11 , and the teacher would whisper something, which the child would repeat. While waiting for my turn, I 12 what Mrs. Leonard might say, maybe things like "The sky is blue." or "Do you have breakfast?".
My turn came up. I turned my bad ear to her, 13 the other tightly with my finger, and then gently14 my finger out enough to be able to hear. I waited and then heard the words that changed my life forever. Mrs. Leonard said15 , "I wish you were my little girl."
The Space-TimePainter,written by Chinese writer Hai Ya, has won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette at the 81st World Science Fiction Convention, (hold) in Chengdu on October 18th to 23rd, 2023. It is the third time that the Hugo Award (present) to Chinese writers.
The Space-Time Painterwas inspired by the life experience of Wang Ximeng. He is a talented Chinese painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, and for centuries people all sing high praises his masterpiece One ThousandLi of Rivers and Mountains. Hai Ya said, "The artistic value of the painting as well as the gifted painter himself deserves our (admire). So I created character of painting prodigy ( 奇 才 ) Zhao Ximeng to reproduce Wang's legend ( 传 奇 ) by telling a (fiction) story." In the story, after much suffering, Zhao's mind abandons his physical body and enters a space, a modern police officer is investigating a case involving an ancient painting.
Hai Ya started writing sci-fi stories in 2016. He works in the day and writes at night. He thinks of himself as more of a sci-fi enthusiast a writer. "I am so delighted to win the award and earn positive (comment) from readers." said Hai Ya. "I hope my works could inspire more people (think) about technology, time and art and bring Chinese sci-fi to a global audience.
The Scientist I Admire |
Keeping Hope Alive in the Storm
One day, my parents took my younger brother, Kaleb and me to visit my aunt's family, who lived on a beautiful lake. We planned to have a family dinner together.
While parents made dinner, my cousin Jerel showed us around. Seeing the yellow rubber boat near the bank, I excitedly urged for a boat ride. Jerel agreed. He grew up on this lake. Though he was 16, it didn't seem to bother him that I was 12 and Kaleb was 7.
We couldn't wait to jump into the rubber boat, took up the paddles ( 浆 ) and set out. Our destination was the small rocky island in the middle of the lake. We laughed and chatted as we paddled along. The sky was blue with piles of white clouds. It was a bit cold, but our life jackets kept us warm.
After half an hour, we reached the island. We jumped off and tied the boat to a huge rock. We started to explore the desert island. We were having so much fun that we didn't notice the weather had changed. Dark clouds gathered and the wind picked up. Then thunder rolled across the sky. Jerel looked worried and nudged me, "A storm is on the way. We need to rush back!"
Jerel led us back to the shore. The calm water had turned into a mess. The boat bounced up and down in the waves. Jerel yelled, "Jump into the boat! Hurry!" We held onto the side of the boat and managed to climb into it. Surprisingly, we found our boat stuck firmly in the rocks. What's worse, there was a big hole at the bottom. Maybe it was torn open by the sharp rock.
Suddenly, the rain poured down upon us, beating against our faces and pounding our life jackets. Kaleb was terrified and started crying. We decided to seek shelter from the rain. Before we headed back, Jerel shouted, "Wait! Let's get the boat out onto the shore! It will help us build a shelter."
注意：1．续写词数应为 150 左右；2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
"NMo problem. Let's get stcrted!… I said. Now tunder the sheiter we could do nothing but wait. |
