英语美文阅读

【今日阅读推荐】本篇阅读材料“年龄与智慧：姜真的是老的辣吗？”选自《经济学人》（原文标题：Age and wisdom: Older and wiser? 2012.4.7）。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^   Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start.   ONE stereotype of wisdom is a wizened Zen-master smiling benevolently at the antics of his pupils, while referring to them as little grasshoppers or some such affectation, safe in the knowledge that one day they, too, will have been set on the path that leads to wizened masterhood. But is it true that age brings wisdom? A study two years ago in North America, by Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo, in Canada, suggested that it is. In as much as it is possible to quantify wisdom, Dr Grossmann found that elderly Americans had more of it than youngsters. He has, however, now extended his investigation to Asia—the land of the wizened Zen-master—and, in particular, to Japan. There, he found, in contrast to the West, that the grasshoppers are their masters’ equals almost from the beginning.   stereotype n. 刻板印象；老套  benevolent adj. 仁慈的；亲切的；仁爱的   quantify v. 量化；为……定量   Dr Grossmann’s study, just published in Psychological Science, recruited 186 Japanese from various walks of life and compared them with 225 Americans. Participants were asked to read a series of pretend newspaper articles. Half described conflict between groups, such as a debate between residents of an impoverished Pacific island over whether to allow foreign oil companies to operate there following the discovery of petroleum. (Those in favour viewed it as an opportunity to get rich; those against feared the disruption of ancient ways and potential ecological damage.) The other half took the form of advice columns that dealt with conflicts between individuals: siblings, friends and spouses. After reading each article, participants were asked “What do you think will happen after that?” and “Why do you think it will happen this way?” Their responses were recorded and transcribed.   walks of life 各界；各行各业　impoverished adj. 穷困的；用尽了的，无创造性的   in favor 赞同；偏向　disruption n. 破坏；毁坏  sibling n. 兄弟姐妹   spouse n. 配偶　transcribe v. 转录；抄写   Dr Grossmann and his colleagues removed age-related information from the transcripts, and also any clues to participants’ nationalities, and then passed the edited versions to a group of assessors. These assessors were trained to rate transcribed responses consistently, and had been tested to show that their ratings were statistically comparable with one another.   The assessors scored participants’ responses on a scale of one to three. This attempted to capture the degree to which they discussed what psychologists consider five crucial aspects of wise reasoning: willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise; recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get better.   compromise n. 妥协　perspective n. 观点   A score of one on any aspect indicated a participant gave no consideration to it. A score of two indicated some consideration. A score of three indicated a great deal of consideration. Each participant’s scores were then added up and mathematically transformed to create an overall value within a range of zero to 100 for both interpersonal and intergroup wisdom.   The upshot was that, as Dr Grossmann had found before, Americans do get wiser with age. Their intergroup wisdom score averaged 45 at the age of 25 and 55 at 75. Their interpersonal score similarly climbed from 46 to 50. Japanese scores, by contrast, hardly varied with age. Both 25-year-olds and 75-year-olds had an average intergroup wisdom of 51. For interpersonal wisdom, it was 53 and 52.   Taken at face value, these results suggest Japanese learn wisdom faster than Americans. One up, then, to the wizened Zen-masters. But they also suggest a paradox. Generally, America is seen as an individualistic society, whereas Japan is quite collectivist. Yet Japanese have higher scores than Americans for the sort of interpersonal wisdom you might think would be useful in an individualistic society. Americans, by contrast—at least in the maturity of old age—have more intergroup wisdom than the purportedly collectivist Japanese. Perhaps, then, you need individual skills when society is collective, and social ones when it is individualistic. All of which goes to show that the real root of wisdom is this: do not assume, little grasshopper, that your prejudices are correct.   paradox n. 悖论；似是而非的观点   Question time:   1. What’s the finding of Dr Grossmann’s research?   2. What are the crucial aspects of wise reasoning?   1. Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start.   2. willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise; recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get better. 本篇阅读材料“压力太大对免疫系统的影响”选自《今日美国》（原文标题：Study shows how stress triggers immune system 2012.1.27），涉及到较多的医学名词。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^ Shedding some light on why stress might be bad for you, a new study finds that parts of your immune system ramp up when you get into personal conflicts with others. shed light on 查明；说明；解释；照亮  immune system 免疫系统  ramp up 增加；加强 It's not clear how this effect of stress may make you sick, but the activated parts of the immune system -- which cause inflammation in the body -- have been linked to conditions such as diabetes and cancer. "The message is that the flotsam and jetsam of life predict changes in your underlying biology in ways that cumulatively could have a bad effect on health," said study co-author Shelley Taylor, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. "What this tells me is that people should be investing in socially supportive relationships, and they should not court relationships that lead to a great deal of conflict." flotsam and jetsam 无价值物；零碎杂物  underlying adj. 潜在的 It's well-known that stress causes several reactions in the body. "Stress activates the immune system in preparation for fighting infection and healing wounds," explained Dr. Andrew Miller, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta. "This is not a bad thing, especially in the context of a situation where a fight and wounding may ensue. However, if the immune system is constantly activated, this can contribute to a multitude of chronic health problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and neuropsychiatric disorders." cardiovascular disease 心血管疾病  neuropsychiatric disorders 神经紊乱 ensue v. 接着发生；因而产生 常用词组 ensue from 由……引起；随着发生（接着……） In the new study, researchers sought to determine whether the stress of personal conflicts and competitive sports would trigger the release of molecules known as cytokines, which are linked to inflammation. trigger 引起；促使；触发 The researchers paid 122 young adults (53 men and 69 women) to take part in the study. The participants filled out diaries about their activities over eight days, focusing on their interactions with others and whether these were positive or negative. The participants were also given stress tests in the lab. Saliva samples were taken before and after those tests, to measure biological markers for inflammation. fill out 填写 The researchers found that cytokine levels went up after "negative" interactions, usually arguments. But playing sports didn't have the same effect, even though it's competitive. This may be because "we're really talking about people doing friendly games," Taylor said. "We're not looking at USC playing in the football finals." It's possible that some kinds of competitions, like poker games, could trigger inflammation, she said. Why does it matter if stress triggers molecules linked to inflammation? "If you aren't wounded, there's no place for them to go, and they're circulating," Taylor said. "It's not like they've gone to the site of a wound and engaged in anti-infection activity." Low-grade inflammation in the body can contribute to the buildup of artery-blocking plaque and contribute to disorders linked to an out-of-control immune system, such as asthma, Taylor said. So what does this all mean? The challenge, Emory's Miller said, is figuring out which came first -- stress or inflammation. "Do aggressive, socially disadvantaged individuals exhibit more inflammation because they are constantly stressed?" he asked. "Or are they running their immune system hot because that is their fundamental nature, and the cytokines are driving their aggression because cytokines induce the brain to perceive the world as threatening?" induce v. 诱导；引诱；感应  perceive v. 察觉；感知；认知 The study appears in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Question time: 1. What's the beneficial aspect when immune system is activated by stress? 2. According to the research, what happened when people had "negetive" communication? 【参考】 1. In the context of a situation where a fight and wounding may ensue, stress activates the immune system in preparation for fighting infection and healing wounds. 2. The researchers found that cytokine levels went up after "negative" interactions, usually arguments. 本篇阅读材料“灰尘背后的那些事儿”选自《时代》（原文标题：What's in Household Dust? Don't Ask 2010.2 23）。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^ It's hard to get too worked up about dust. Yes, it's a nuisance, but it's hardly one that causes us much anxiety — and our language itself suggests as much. We call those clumps of the stuff under the bed dust bunnies after all, not, say, dust vermin. to get worked up 为某件事生气；不开心  clumps of 一团一团的 dust bunny 积尘；灰兔子（关于灰尘的比较萌的说法） But there's a higher ick factor to dust than you might think. And there's a science to how it gets around — a science that David Layton and Paloma Beamer, professors of environmental policy at the University of Arizona, are exploring. get around 传播；散播 Layton and Beamer, whose latest study has been accepted for fall publication in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, knew a lot about their subject even before they set to work. Historically, everyone from chemists to homemakers has tried to figure out just what dust is made of, and the Arizona researchers drew their preliminary data mostly from two studies of household dust conducted in the Netherlands and the U.S. The American survey in particular was a big one, covering six Midwestern states. Layton and Beamer also included a localized study in Sacramento, Calif., that focused particularly on lead contamination. What all those surveys showed was decidedly unappetizing. figure out 理解；解决；计算 The specific dust mix in any household differs according to climate, age of the house and the number of people who live in it — not to mention the occupants' cooking, cleaning and smoking habits. But nearly everywhere, dust consists of some combination of shed bits of human skin, animal fur, decomposing insects, food debris, lint and organic fibers from clothes, bedding and other fabrics, tracked-in soil, soot, particulate matter from smoking and cooking, and, disturbingly, lead, arsenic and even DDT. "There are more [components]," Beamer says. "Dust is a hodgepodge of all sorts of things. It would probably be impossible to make a list of all the possible items." But dust's ingredient label is not the whole story, since all of those flecks and bits behave differently and present different levels of health risk. To investigate those factors more closely, Layton and Beamer developed a computer algorithm that looked at the size, source and toxicity of dust particles as well as how easily they enter the house, if they ever exit and, if so, by what route. That information, by extension, can provide at least a rough sense of the dust load in your own home. As a general rule, the majority of household dust — about 60% — comes from outside, through windows, doors, vents and, significantly, on the soles of your shoes. Smaller dust particles — from 28 to 49 microns, or thousandths of a millimeter — tend to stay on your shoes. The rest is shaken off inside. A higher share of the dust that floats in the air gets deposited, but again, there's a lot that determines how much any one home will get. "Here in Arizona," says Beamer, "where we leave our windows open most of the year and have an arid climate, we would probably have a higher ratio." Industrial centers or sooty cities have plenty of dust too, though for different reasons. arid adj. 干旱的；不毛的  ratio n. 比例 There's not much to fret about in simple particles of dirt or organic materials such as pollen (though they can trigger allergies), but lead, arsenic and DDT can be a more serious matter. About one-third of the arsenic in the atmosphere comes from natural sources — volcanoes principally. The rest comes from mining, smelting, burning fossil fuels and other industrial processes. Even in relatively low concentrations, arsenic is not without risk, especially to small children who play on the floor and routinely transfer things from their hands to their mouths. The same is true for lead, which comes less from wall paint — the source most people would expect — than from auto exhaust, smelting and soil deposits. "Lead loading on floors is a key determinant of blood-lead levels in children," Layton and Beamer wrote in their paper. fret about 因……焦急；为……烦恼 particle n. 颗粒；微粒 pollen n. 花粉 low concentration低浓度  determinant adj. 决定性的 n. 决定因素 The fact that DDT is still in house dust is a surprise to most people, since the pesticide was banned in the U.S. in 1972. But a house is a little like a living organism: once it absorbs a contaminant, it may never purge it completely. "Dust in our homes," says Beamer, "especially deep dust in our carpets and furniture, is a conglomerate of substances over the life of the home and can provide a historical record of chemicals that have entered it." contaminant n. 污染物；致污物  purge v. 净化；清除 The mess that originates within the home is a lot easier to measure and control. The more people who live there, the more skin that's going to be shed, the more pets, the more animal fur. And, as Mom always warned, the more you walk around the house while eating, the more food debris you'll drop on the floor — which also attracts more insects that will die, decompose and add their own special zest to your dust. Cooking smoke and tobacco smoke, which are the most obvious contributors when they're being produced, actually make only a small contribution to what winds up on floors and surfaces. The tiny size of the particles makes them likelier to rise and adhere to other surfaces or simply remain in the air than to settle. shed v. 散发；流出  wind up 卷起；扬起 It goes without saying that your home will never be dust-free, but there are ways to reduce your own dust loading — and it's important that you try. Dust mites, which feed on shed skin, produce allergens that are known triggers for people suffering from asthma. Same goes for cockroach dust, especially in cities. No one needs much convincing about the wisdom of getting rid of arsenic, and the good news is that about 80% of it can be removed simply by cleaning floor dust regularly. it goes without saying 不言而喻；不消说    allergen 过敏原；反应原 None of this means that dust poses a clear and present danger or that you need to take any extraordinary measures. Just clean regularly, don't smoke, eat at the table — and try not to freak out. Dust bunnies are still only bunnies; you may just want fewer of them. freak out 吓坏了；崩溃 Question time: 1. How does dust come into our houses? 2. What's the key factor of blood-lead levels in children according to Layton and Beamer' papaer? 3. How to get rid of the dust in house? 【参考答案】 1. Generally, the majority of household dust — about 60% — comes from outside, through windows, doors, vents and on the soles of our shoes. 2. Lead loading on floors. 3. It's important that you try, just clean regularly, don't smoke, eat at the table — and try not to freak out. 本篇阅读材料“研究显示快乐的人比一般人长寿35%”选自《今日美国》（原文标题：Happy? You may live 35% longer, tracking study suggests 2011.10.31）。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^ Be happy. Live longer. No, it's not that simple, but new research says happy lives are longer — by 35%. The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that those who reported feeling happiest had a 35% reduced risk of dying compared with those who reported feeling least happy. Rather than rely on recollections about their feelings of happiness as in earlier studies, this British study of 3,853 participants ages 52-79 rated their feelings at different times on one particular day. Five years later, researchers recorded the number who died and controlled for a variety of factors, including age, gender, health, wealth, education and marital status. rely on 依靠；依赖 This approach "gets closer to measuring how people actually feel" rather than relying on recollections or general questions about well-being, says epidemiologist Andrew Steptoe, a psychology professor at University College in London, who co-authored the study. epidemiologist n. 流行病学家 How happy a person is at any point in time, he says, is a product of "some background disposition; some people tend to be happier than others," but also "what they are doing, who they are with, and other features of that point in time. Both are important." "It's perfectly true that someone's happiness over a single day will be affected by what happens to them over that period," Steptoe says. "However, survey experts and psychologists have come to the view that in many ways, this is a better approach to understanding how people actually feel than asking them general questions about how happy they are. Responses to general questions are influenced strongly by personality, by what people think they 'ought' to say and by recollections that might not be quite accurate," Steptoe says. What's not clear, he says, is whether happy feelings are the key to longevity or if it's something else that causes extended life. "We can't draw the kind of final conclusion that the happiness is leading directly to better survival," he says. longevity n. 长寿；寿命  draw a conclusion下结论 Others who have done research in this area but haven't read the study say this link between a one-day measure and mortality is important. "The fact that positive emotions in one day predicted survival is pretty amazing," says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside. "We do know that happiness is associated with an extended life span," she says. If we can get people to be happier, would that extend the lifespan? We don't know that yet. Future research can definitely try to show that." Arthur Stone, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Stony Brook University in New York, who has used measurements over the course of a day in his research, says the fact that the researchers "got a relationship with mortality means that the relationship must be fairly robust because they only had 3,800 people and they were only measuring the one day." psychiatry n. 精神病学    robust adj. 强健的；健康的 And what if some who were measured on that one day were just having a bad day? "A 'bad day' should weaken the relationship," Stone says. "What it's saying is there are enough people here that people having odd days didn't really matter very much. Some people had bad days and some had good days. If they had been able to measure several days with these techniques, one would guess that the relationship would be even stronger." Laura Kubzansky, an associate professor in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health, at Harvard's School of Public Health in Boston, says there's a "burgeoning body of work that suggests positive psychological functioning benefits health," and this study is significant because it "adds to the arsenal." "It could say to people, you should take your mood seriously," Kubzansky says. "I think people sort of undervalue emotional life anyway. This highlights the idea that if you are going through a period where you're consistently distressed, it's probably worth paying attention to how you feel — it matters for both psychological and physical health." sort of 有点儿；稍稍  highlight v. 突出；强调；使显著  distressed adj. 痛苦的；忧虑的 This study asked participants to rate how happy, excited and content they felt at four points during a single day — 7 a.m., 7 p.m. and a half-hour after each. They used a rating scale from 1 ("not at all") to 4 ("extremely"). "Generally, they were less happy when they woke up and most happy at 7 p.m.," Steptoe says. Question time: 1. What matters to how happy a person is? 2. When do people feel happiest during a single day? 【参考答案】 1. Some background disposition; some people tend to be happier than others, And what they are doing, who they are with, and other features of that point in time. 2. 7 p.m. 本篇阅读材料“女性比男性更容易心碎”选自《时代》（原文标题：Why Are Women More Vulnerable to Broken Hearts? 2011.11.21），如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^ Women are a lot more likely to suffer a broken heart than men, researchers say. The good news is that it probably won't kill you. In the first national study of its kind, researchers at the University of Arkansas looked at rates of "broken heart syndrome" — when a sudden shock or prolonged stress causes heart attack-like symptoms or heart failure — and found that it overwhelmingly affects women. syndrome n. 1. 并发症状，综合症，同时存在的事物 2. 典型意见，典型表现 overwhelmingly ad. 压倒性地；不可抵抗地；（感情）极其强烈地 Women are at least seven times more likely than men to suffer the syndrome, and older women are at greater risk than younger ones, according to data presented Wednesday at the American Heart Association conference in Orlando. "It's the only cardiac condition where there's such a female preponderance," Dr. Abhiram Prasad, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist who was not associated with the study, told the AP. Heart attack and heart disease, of course, strike men more often and earlier in life than women. cardiac a. 1. 心脏的；心脏病的 n. 强心剂；心脏病患者 preponderance n. 重量的优势；优势；优越 Broken heart syndrome can happen in response to shocking or suddenly emotional events — both positive ones like winning the lottery, or negative ones like a car accident or the unexpected death of a loved one. A flood of stress hormones and adrenaline causes part of the heart to enlarge temporarily and triggers symptoms that can look like heart attack: chest pain, shortness of breath, irregular heart rhythm. The difference is that the factors that would normally cause heart attack, such as a blocked artery, aren't present. Most sufferers usually recover within a week or two, but in rare cases — about 1% — people die of the condition. Doctors have long known about broken heart syndrome — first described by Japanese researchers two decades ago — and that it seemed to occur mostly in women. So, Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh, a cardiologist at the University of Arkansas who has treated women with broken heart syndrome, became curious about just how gender-specific the condition was. gender-specific 和性别有多大关系 Using a federal database that included data from roughly 1,000 hospitals, Deshmukh found 6,229 cases of broken heart syndrome in 2007. Of those, only 671 — just under 11% — were in men. He found that, overall, women had about 7.5 times the risk of broken heart syndrome as men; in people under 55, women were at 9.5 times greater risk than men. Women over 55 were also three times more likely to suffer broken heart syndrome than younger women. Researchers don't know what causes the gender disparity, but they have some ideas. Reported the AP: One theory is that hormones play a role. Another is that men have more adrenaline receptors on cells in their hearts than women do, "so maybe men are able to handle stress better" and the chemical surge it releases, Deshmukh said. surge n. 大浪；汹涌澎湃；巨涌 vi. 激增；汹涌 vt. 使颠簸 About 10% of sufferers will have a second episode at some point, but most return to full heart function without permanent damage or need for follow-up treatment. So, it looks like the way to mend a broken heart is what Mom always said: just give it time. follow-up 后续 Question time: 1. What is called broken heart syndrome? 2. What's the difference between broken heart syndrome and heart attack ? 3. Why are women more vulnerable to broken hearts ? 【答案】 1. when a sudden shock or prolonged stress causes heart attack-like symptoms or heart failure, it is called broken heart syndrome. 2. The difference is that the factors that would normally cause heart attack, such as a blocked artery, aren't present. 3. One theory is that hormones play a role. Another is that men have more adrenaline receptors on cells in their hearts than women do. 本篇阅读材料“美国孩子担心未来工资”选自《时代》（原文标题：What teens worry about: drugs, sex and future salaries? 2012.4.13）。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^ You might think teens have it easy. But they worry about a lot: bullying, getting into college, fitting in, finding a date. Now add earning enough money to the list. have it easy 过得舒服；处境很好；放松  fit in 融入；适应 Just 56% of teens aged 14-18 believe they will be as well off financially as their parents, according to a Junior Achievement and Allstate Foundation survey. So much for the optimism of youth. That’s down from 89% in the same survey one year earlier. In another major shift, the survey found that teens are pushing back the age at which they expect to be financially independent; more now say they will be at least 25 years old before they are on their own, compared to 20 in the earlier sample. well off 手头宽裕；富裕的；处境好的  push back 把……向后推；推迟 What gives? According to USA Today, there is a cumulative effect after so many years of recession and slow growth. Teens have seen family and friends lose jobs and homes; they can’t help but feel vulnerable. The paper reports: “Many kids were shielded by parents during the downturn, says Rob Callender, director of insights at youth research firm TRU. Moms and dads would do without to avoid taking things away from the kids. As finances dwindled, though, those parents have been forced to level with the kids about their economic reality.” what gives? 怎么回事？  cumulative effect 累积效应  vulnerable adj. 易受伤害的；脆弱的 shield v. 保护；庇护  downturn 经济衰退；低迷时期    level with 对……说实话 Teens have also had trouble finding summer jobs, though prospects are better this year. And teens report getting fewer money lessons in school. According to the JA poll, just 24% say teachers instruct them about how to manage money, down from 58% a year earlier. This jibes with a report from the Council for Economic Education, which found that fewer states are requiring schools to test in the area of economics and to offer a personal finance course. jibe with 与……一致 Teens may also be suffering from what many adults acknowledge: parents are horrible role models when it comes to things like saving and budgets. Only half of parents regularly set aside money to save; only 43% set financial goals; and only 24% take specific steps to diversify their investments, according to a T. Rowe Price Parents, Kids and Money survey. suffer from 忍受，遭受；受……之苦  set aside 留出；把……置于一边 In the JA survey, teens reported a significant drop in parents saving as a result of the recession—21% this year vs. 59% last year. As you might expect, teens are modeling that behavior. Just 56% plan to save some of their income, down from 89% a year ago, according to JA. It’s not just a plan; it’s happening, according to the Pew Research Center, which found that young adults are getting a slower start saving for retirement. It should come as no surprise then that fewer teens are practicing sound money management skills. JA found a three-fold increase in teens that report not budgeting. This largely confirms a separate survey by Schwab, which found a sharp fall off in teen money management ability. According to that survey, just a quarter of 18-year-olds know how to manage a credit card—down from two-thirds. Less than half know how to check the accuracy of a bank statement—down from 60%. This all represents a huge setback in the push for a more financially literate population, which many see as our best hope for staving off another financial crisis. In this environment, debilitating teen money myths are sure to persist. setback n. 挫折；退步    stave off 避开；延缓 Question time: 1. Why do more teens worry about future salaries? 2. What's the author's attitude to teens' money management skills? A. relieved B. anxious C. angry D. indifferent 【参考答案】 1. Because there is a cumulative effect after so many years of recession and slow growth. Teens have seen family and friends lose jobs and homes; they can’t help but feel vulnerable. B. anxious （从最后一段第一句可以看出，作者说因为青少年的理财能力差，我们在推迟下次金融危机退后了一大步。） Making your way gloomily to the airport after an action-packed holiday, it is easy to feel the days have flown by all too quickly. But there is no need to worry because once you return to the daily grind your break will suddenly seem like it lasted for a lifetime. 人们总在行程忙碌的度假最后一天收拾行李去机场时感叹“欢乐时光过得特别快”。但这无需担心，回归正常生活之后，这段快乐回忆却像一辈子般的长久。 So say psychologists who believe that the effect is down to the different methods the brain uses to judge the passage of time. Learning to manipulate our perception of time could make our lives feel fuller and reassure those who feel that the years slip by faster as they grow older. 心理学家们说这是由于大脑在处理时间流逝时使用不同的方法导致的结果。学会利用时间的分布可以让我们的生活更加充实，也会让人们随着年龄增加忆起往事时，觉得日子过得飞快。 The mystery behind the so-called "holiday paradox" was explained in a presentation by psychologist and BBC broadcaster Claudia Hammond at the British Psychological Society conference in London last week. Ms Hammond, whose book Time Warped will be published next month, said when we are doing something new and interesting – such as when we are on holiday – time appears to go more quickly than when we are bored or anxious. 关于“假日悖论”背后的奥妙，是由心理学家兼英国BBC播报员Claudia Hammond 上周在伦敦举办的英国心理社会会议上阐述的。汉孟的新《把时间打包》将于下个月出版，她表示当我们做一些新鲜和有趣的事情时，就例如当我们度假的时候，时间会过的比我们觉得厌烦或焦虑时要快很多。 In a normal fortnight the average person only accumulates between six and nine new memories because so much of what we do is routine.But on a holiday we can build up that number of memories in a single day because everything we experience is new, meaning that when we look back it will seem to have lasted much longer than it really did. 人们在平常生活里，半个月下来顶多记住6至9件新事情，其他大多数则为“例行公事”。但在假期里，我们可以在一天就建立很多的记忆，因为我们体验的每件事都是新的，也就是说当我们后来回想追溯时，在时间的评估上会将时程拉长。 She said: "The same happens as we get older and time starts to speed up. There are fewer memories of new things, and we do the same things more and more often." 她说：“随着年龄的增长日子会过得飞快，这是因为我们越来越多地做着重复的事情，新鲜事物的记忆越来越少，这也可用‘假期悖论’ 进行说明。” People who complain that years seem to whizz past with increasing speed could slow things down by making the most of their weekends and breaking up their daily routine, she added. "Taking a different route to work, getting off your bus a stop early or avoiding having the same sandwich for lunch every day could make life seem a little slower," she said. “抱怨时间越过越快的人们可以充分利用他们的周末，打破常规的生活习惯来放慢时间的脚步”，她补充道。她说：“如果每天换不同线路去上班，吃不一样的午餐，或许可以稍微改变对时间的感觉。” A new U.S. survey shows that Chinese teachers' average wage has almost dropped to the bottom on a list of 28 countries studied, the New York Times reported. 据美国《纽约时报》报道，一项最新美国调查显示，中国教师的平均工资在28个参评国家中几乎排到了垫底位置。 In terms of purchasing power, newly hired Chinese university teachers are the worst off, earning 1632 yuan ($259) each, and the average wage of university teacher in China is only 4537 yuan ($720), according to the statistics released by Philip Altbach and his colleagues at the Center for International Higher Education. 国际高等教育研究中心的菲利普•阿特巴赫和同事公布了他们得出的统计数据，其中，刚入行的中国大学老师收入按购买力平价计算，为每月1632元（约合259美元），为榜单最低值。中国大学老师平均工资也仅为4537元（约合720美元）。 The report aroused hot discussion among Chinese netizens and many university teachers complain about their low income and plain living styles, Xinhua reported. 另据新华社报道，该报告引发中国网友热议，许多大学老师纷纷抱怨他们收入低、生活拮据。 A netizen named "color ink" posted that he has been a university teacher for 37 years, with a monthly wage less than 4000 yuan. However, his students can normally earn 6000 yuan per month soon after graduation. He felt lost and helpless. 一位名叫彩色墨迹的网友发帖称，他在大学从教37年，月工资不足4000元。而他的学生毕业不久就能拿到月薪6000元，他感到非常失落与无奈。 In general, many netizens call for the increase of academics' salaries to ensure their living standards and social status. 总之，很多网友建议应为大学教师加薪，提高他们的生活水平，保障其应有的社会地位。 2012年4月23日是第17个世界读书日（全称世界图书与版权日World Book and Copyright Day），今年的主题为：“阅读，让我们的世界更丰富”。1995年，联合国教科文组织宣布4月23日为“世界读书日”，以鼓励人们阅读，以及纪念那些为促进人类社会和文化进步做出巨大贡献的人。你平时是个爱读书的人吗？我们为什么要阅读？It doesn't matter if books are delivered in print or by smartphone, the main thing is to get lost in reading them. Reading books is vital for human development. 看纸质书还是电子书并不重要，重要的是沉迷于阅读中的那种感觉。读书对人类的发展非常重要。 Why should we bother reading a book? All children say this occasionally. Many of the 12 million adults in Britain with reading difficulties repeat it to themselves daily. But for the first time in the 500 years since Johannes Gutenberg democratised reading, in a world of accelerating technology, increasing time poverty and diminishing attention spans, should they invest precious time sinking into a good book? 我们为什么要费神去读书呢？所有的孩子都曾经问过这个问题。英国有1200万成年人存在阅读困难的问题，他们每天也会这样问自己。从约翰内斯·古腾堡普及阅读至今已有500年了（小编注：1440年到1445年之间，德国人约翰内斯·古滕堡制造了世界上第一台铅活字印刷机），在这样一个技术不断加速发展的世界，人们感觉时间越来越少，能集中注意力的时间也越来越短，为什么还要把宝贵的时间投入到一本好书上呢？ The discovery that our brains are physically changed by the experience of reading is something many of us will understand instinctively, as we think back to the way an extraordinary book had a transformative effect on the way we viewed the world. This transformation only takes place when we lose ourselves in a book, abandoning the emotional and mental chatter of the real world. That's why studies have found this kind of deep reading makes us more empathetic, or as Nicholas Carr puts it in his essay, The Dreams of Readers, "more alert to the inner lives of others". 研究发现阅读会从生理上改变我们的大脑，当我们回想一下一本特别的书是如何转变我们的世界观的时候，就会立刻地理解这种变化。只有当我们在情感上和精神上忽视现实世界的琐碎生活、完全沉迷于书中的时候，这种转变才会发生。这就是为什么研究发现深度阅读会让我们更加感同身受。或者说，正如美国作家尼古拉斯·卡尔在他的著作《读者的梦》中所描述的那样， “阅读能使人更容易注意到他人的内心生活。” Rationally, we know that reading is the foundation stone of all education, and therefore an essential underpinning of the knowledge economy. So reading is – or should be – an aspect of public policy. But perhaps even more significant is its emotional role as the starting point for individual voyages of personal development and pleasure. Books can open up emotional, imaginative and historical landscapes that equal and extend the corridors of the web. They can help create and reinforce our sense of self. 从理性角度来说，我们理解阅读是所有教育的基石，因而也是知识经济必要的支撑。所以阅读理所当然应当是公共政策的一部分。但可能更重要的是，它作为通向个人发展和幸福旅程的起点时扮演的感性角色。与网络相比，书籍在提升我们的情感、想象力和历史观方面更胜一筹。书籍也有助于创建和增强我们的自我感。 If reading were to decline significantly, it would change the very nature of our species. If we, in the future, are no longer wired for solitary reflection and creative thought, we will be diminished. However, technology throws up as many solutions as it does challenges: for every door it closes, another opens. So the ability, offered by devices like e-readers, smartphones and tablets, to carry an entire library in your hand is an amazing opportunity. Publishers need to use every new piece of technology to embed long-form reading within our culture. We should concentrate on the message, not agonize over the medium. We should be agnostic on the platform, but evangelical about the content. 如果阅读能力显著下降，人类的天性也会发生变化。如果我们将来不再自我反省、不再有创造性的思维，人类势必会消亡。不过技术给我们带来了很多挑战的同时，也为我们提供了多种解决：每关闭一扇门，另一扇门就会打开。电子书、智能手机、平板电脑这些设备让你在手中托起整个图书馆，这是一个绝好的机遇。出版商需要利用每一种新兴技术把长期阅读融入到我们的文化中。我们应该把注意力集中在信息本身，而不该为传播载体而烦恼。我们应该忽视平台而专注于。 We must also get better at harnessing the ability of the internet to inform readers, and potential readers, about all the extraordinary new books that are published every year, and to renew their acquaintance with the best of rich literary tradition. The research shows that if we stop reading, we will be different people: less intricate, less empathetic, less interesting. There can hardly be a better reason for fighting to protect the future of the book. 我们也要更好地利用互联网，为读者也包括潜在的读者提供每年值得看书的的新书信息，让他们重新熟识丰富多彩的传统文学精粹。研究表明，如果我们停止阅读，我们会变得不同：没那么精细、没那么善解人意，没那么有趣。再也没有比这更好的理由来努力保护图未来了。