英语每日一听 | 每天少于5分钟

Daydreaming has a bad reputation – we say things like "he's away with the fairies" or "she has herhead in the clouds" implying these people are inattentive, easily distracted, maybe even lazy. Is this reputation justified? Or is a trip to la-la land actually something that might benefit us?
白日梦的名声很差——我们说“他和仙女在一起了”或“她的头在云端”，暗示这些人注意力不集中、容易分心，甚至可能很懒。 这种声誉是否合理？ 或者说去la-la land旅行实际上可能对我们有益？

First, it's important to differentiate daydreaming from mind wandering. Mind wandering happens when you're busy with a task and your mind disengages from it, whereas daydreaming happens when you're doing nothing and spontaneous thoughts unrelated to your surroundings pop up. In a review of research called 'The costs and benefits of mind-wandering', the authors found mind wandering negatively impacted reading comprehension, attention, memory and intelligence. None of that sounds great, so are there any benefits at all?
首先，区分白日梦和走神很重要。 当你忙于一项任务而你的思绪脱离它时，就会发生走神，而当你无所事事并且与周围环境无关的自发想法突然出现时，就会发生白日梦。 在一项名为“走神的成本和好处”的研究综述中，作者发现走神会对阅读理解、注意力、记忆力和智力产生负面影响。 这些听起来都不太好，那么有什么好处吗？

Activities that allow your mind to wander, like having a bath or meditating can lead to the 'aha' moment that you've been waiting for, which is why people often say they have their best ideas in the shower. This might work in the workplace too. In a 2021 study called 'Zoning out or breaking through? Linking daydreaming to creativity in the workplace', the authors concluded that "daydreaming carries noteworthy benefits for creativity". In other words, daydreaming at work may help you to come up with solutions to your problems. It's also suggested that daydreaming can provide a sort of mental escape, both from the difficulty of the task, but also from the stresses of everyday life.
让你的思绪飘逸的活动，比如洗澡或冥想，可以让你得到一直在等待的“顿悟”时刻，这就是为什么人们经常说他们在淋浴时想到了最好的想法。 这在工作场所也可能有效。 在 2021 年一项名为“分区还是突破？”的研究中 作者将白日梦与工作场所的创造力联系起来，得出结论：“白日梦对创造力具有显着的好处”。 换句话说，工作中的白日梦可能会帮助你找到问题的解决方案。 还有人认为，白日梦可以提供一种精神上的逃避，既可以逃避任务的困难，也可以逃避日常生活的压力。

So, it seems daydreaming might be a bit of a double-edged sword, and the extent to which it provides benefits rather than downsides depends on things like how positive the thoughts are as well as your ability to identify and control them. If you find yourself endlessly staring into space, pondering the meaning of life while you're trying to get things done, why not try a mindfulness technique?
因此，白日梦似乎是一把双刃剑，它带来好处而不是坏处的程度取决于诸如想法的积极程度以及您识别和控制它们的能力等因素。 如果你发现自己在努力完成事情的同时不断地凝视着太空，思考生命的意义，为什么不尝试正念技巧呢？

Observe the thoughts as they pop up, visualise them as clouds and watch them pass by. Alternatively, when you've got some time to yourself, instead of reading a book or listening to music, why not let yourself get lost in thought?
观察突然出现的想法，将它们想象成云，然后看着它们消失。 或者，当您有一些独处时间时，为什么不让自己陷入沉思，而不是读书或听音乐呢？

For many worldwide, smartphones are used for everything from financial transactions to social media.
对于全球许多人来说，智能手机被用于从金融交易到社交媒体等方方面面。

So when screens break or crack, it can feel like life itself comes to a halt.
当手机屏幕破裂时，感觉生活仿佛都停滞了。

Long-time US glassmaker Corning has spent more than a decade making smartphone glass stronger.
美国老牌玻璃制造商康宁公司花了十多年时间，让智能手机玻璃变得更坚固。

These devices are typically a much higher percentage of a person's GDP in emerging regions, so durability and longevity of that phone becomes a much more critical feature than in other developed countries.
在新兴地区，这些设备的价格通常占个人GDP的比例要高得多，所以与其他发达国家相比，手机的耐用性和使用寿命就成了更为关键的特性。

Corning founded in 1851 has pivoted with the times. In 1879, Thomas Edison went to Corning for glass for his light bulb.
康宁公司于1851年成立，一直与时俱进。1879年，托马斯·爱迪生前往康宁公司，为他的灯泡寻找玻璃材料。

Corning's glasses used in the windows for NASA's space shuttles.
康宁公司的玻璃被用于美国国家航空航天局航天飞机的舷窗。

In the 1950s, Corning became a household name with Corningware cookware, and Steve Jobs used it for the iphone.
20世纪50年代，康宁凭借康宁餐具家喻户晓，史蒂夫·乔布斯还将其用于iPhone手机。

Now Corning dominates the worldwide smartphone glass industry.
如今，康宁公司主导着全球智能手机玻璃行业。

Its latest product Gorilla Glass Victus is even tougher, says the company.
该公司表示，其最新产品“Gorilla Glass Victus”更加坚固耐用。

Whenever we develop a new glass, we set the bar high.
每当我们研发一种新玻璃时，我们都会设定很高的标准。

The new glass must be clearly better than our current flagship product and far superior to the competition.
新玻璃必须明显优于我们目前的旗舰产品，并且远远胜过竞争对手的产品。

Corning said they were able to improve both drop and scratch performance at the same time, a first in the industry.
康宁公司表示，他们能够同时提升抗摔性能和抗刮性能，这在业内尚属首次。

Gorilla Glass Victus can drop from two meters in height, which is taller than I am, onto a rough surface like asphalt and has 2x better scratch performance than our previous glass.
Gorilla Glass Victus玻璃能从两米高的地方（这比我还高）掉到像沥青这样的粗糙表面上 ，而且其抗刮性能是我们之前玻璃的两倍。

So the next time you drop your phone and it miraculously doesn't shatter, it's most likely thanks to this company in upstate New York.
下次你不小心把手机掉地上，而它奇迹般地没有摔碎时，这很可能要归功于纽约州北部的这家公司。

Half of Senegal's household rely on wood or wood charcoal.
塞内加尔一半的家庭依靠木材或木炭。

To combat air pollution and deforestation, a cooperative of women produce biochar, an energy source made from straw.
为了应对空气污染和森林砍伐问题，一个妇女合作社生产生物炭，这是一种由秸秆制成的能源。

Theyburnit and mix the charred straw with clay and water. The end result is a carbon-neutral organic charcoal that does not involve chopping down trees.
他们将其焚烧，并将烧焦的稻草与黏土和水混合。最终得到一种碳中和的有机木炭，且无需砍伐树木。

The mixture is pressed and stored, resulting in about 150 pallets of biochar per day.
将混合物进行压制和储存，每天可产出约150托盘的生物炭。

The initiative is diversifying the economy of a rural region where many eke out a living from livestock and fishing.
该倡议正在使一个农村地区的经济多元化，在那里许多人靠畜牧和渔业勉强维持生计。

First of all, this biochar protects the forest. It protects our homes, it protects our supplies, it protects women, it protects the forest that no longer burns, it protects our lives. It is healthy. We thank God for this.
首先，这种生物炭保护了森林。它保护我们的家园，保护我们的物资，保护妇女，保护不再燃烧的森林，保护我们的生命。它有益健康。我们为此感谢上帝。

Biochar production has been launched in 18 villages in the region by the Nebeday ecological association, a name that means "tree" in the Wolof of language.
Nebeday生态协会已在该地区的18个村庄启动了生物炭生产项目，Nebeday在沃洛夫语中意为“树”。

To fight deforestation, the group also plants trees in big cities and small villages alike.
为了对抗森林砍伐，该组织还在大城市和小村庄植树。

Since the beginning of the year, they have planted more than a million trees throughout the country.
自年初以来，他们在全国各地种植了一百多万棵树。

Nebeday director Jean Geopp says that putting straw to good use has an added advantage.
Nebeday主任Jean Geopp表示，充分利用秸秆还有额外的好处。

Straw, which is the raw material of our biochar, in fact conveys thousands of bushfires across the country in the dry season.
稻草是我们生物炭的原料，实际上在旱季会在全国范围内引发数千起丛林大火。

So reducing this straw is reducing bushfires, and, therefore, preventing young trees from dying in the forest.
减少秸秆就是减少丛林火灾，从而防止森林中的幼树死亡。

So by consuming one kilogram of straw charcoal, we save the forest twice.
每消耗一公斤秸秆木炭，我们就能两倍地拯救森林。

The benefits can be seen in Senegal's Djilor Forest, patrolled by ranger Biram Gning, who was born nearby.
这些好处在塞内加尔的吉洛森林可见一斑，这片森林由护林员Biram Gning巡逻，他就出生在附近。

Gning lacks the authority to arrest those he catches cutting down trees, rather, he reports infractions to a local village chief.
Gning没有权力逮捕他抓到的那些砍树的人，而是将违规行为报告给当地的村长。

Gning says rising delta waters have salted the land, posing an additional environmental challenge.
Gning表示，三角洲地区不断上涨的水位已使土地盐碱化，构成了额外的环境挑战。

Deforestation is caused by, one, the harmful cutting of trees, illegal cutting by the population.
森林砍伐是由以下原因造成的：其一，非法砍伐。

Two, there are brushfires, which can ravage miles of forest. Three, the advance of salt from the sea to the forests.
二是有野火，它们能肆虐数英里的森林。三是海水向森林的侵蚀。

The African Union's Great Green Wall initiative is focusing on the Sahel among other regions to prevent desertification.
非洲联盟的“绿色长城”倡议正聚焦于萨赫勒等地区，以防治沙漠化。

The biochar project and efforts to combat deforestation are a vital piece of the puzzle.
生物炭项目以及应对森林砍伐的努力是解决这一难题的关键部分。

Driving While Black, a documentary by Ric Burns, chronicles the discrimination and violence African-Americans have often encountered while driving.
里克·伯恩斯执导的纪录片《黑人驾驶》记录了非裔美国人在驾车时经常遭遇的歧视和暴力。

In order to understand what's happening today, I felt strongly, we felt strongly that you had to go all the way back to slavery because that's the point where freedom is denied and mobility is denied.
为了理解今天正在发生的事情，我们强烈地感到，你必须一直追溯到奴隶制时期，因为从那时起，自由和迁徙的权利就被剥夺了。

The film documents how during the US Antebellum era plantation owners employed slave patrols to monitor and punish slaves who tried to escape.
这部纪录片记录了在美国内战前时期，种植园主如何雇佣奴隶巡逻队来监视并惩罚试图逃跑的奴隶。

It portrays these slave catchers as a precursor to white supremacists and some local sheriffs of the post-slavery Jim Crow era, who targeted African-American motorists from the 1920s to the 1960s.
它将这些追捕奴隶的人描绘成白人至上主义者的前身，以及奴隶制废除后种族隔离时代某些地方警长的前身，这些警长在20世纪20年代至60年代期间专门针对非裔美国司机。

Liberty is locomotion. It was a form of self-empowerment.
自由即行动；它是一种自我赋权的形式。

You drive automobile, you get to go where you want when you want, not sit in the back of the bus, but also an opening to a whole world of challenge as you now must navigate this spaces where African mobility is seen as worrisome and unpleasant and to be stopped by a large cohort of white Americans.
你驾驶汽车，就能随心所欲地去往想去的地方，不必坐在公交车后排，但这也开启了一个充满挑战的全新世界，因为如今你必须在这样的环境中前行，在这个环境里，非洲裔的出行被视为令人担忧和讨厌的事情，而且还可能会被一大群美国白人拦下。

Barriers grew for black motorists at night. So one of the hazards of driving was encountering people who were less interested in you being in that particular neck of the woods.
晚上，黑人司机面临的障碍就增多了。驾驶的风险之一就是遇到那些并不欢迎你出现在那片特定区域的人。

And I say neck of the woods, a neck in the woods, you know, watch out for being lynched or being harassed or terrified.
要当心被私刑处死、被骚扰或受惊吓。

How do you navigate the segregated highways of America if you're an African-American?
如果你是一名非裔美国人，你要如何在美国那些实行种族隔离的公路上出行呢？

Where if your daughter needs to go to the bathroom, if you need to put gasoline in your automobile, if God forbid you have a medical emergency, where are you going to sleep, where are you going to eat, where are you going to get your hair done?
要是你的女儿需要上厕所，要是你的汽车需要加油，要是万一你突发医疗紧急状况，你要去哪里睡觉，去哪里吃饭，去哪里理发呢？

The Negro Motorist Green Book listed such places.
《黑人出行绿皮书》列出了这些地方。

It was published in 1936 by New York postal carrier Victor Hugo Green and put small African-American businesses across the country on the map.
这本指南由纽约邮递员维克多·雨果·格林于1936年出版，将全国的小型非裔美国人企业标注在了地图上。

Eventually, says Ric Burns, the expansion of America's highways offered a level of protection to African-American drivers, giving them alternatives to state and local roads.
最终，里克·伯恩斯表示，美国高速公路的扩建为非裔美国司机提供了一定程度的保护，让他们有了州道和地方道路之外的选择。

However, the film shows African-American drivers continue to be racially profiled and disproportionately likely to be stopped by the police.
然而，这部纪录片显示，非裔美国司机仍然受到种族歧视，更有可能被警察拦下。

And so if people want to say, what is this thing? Structural racism, systemic racism, which has this kind of like abstract quality at first glance, it's not abstract, it's profoundly concrete.
如果人们想问，这到底是什么？结构性种族主义、系统性种族主义，乍一看好像很抽象，但它并非抽象的，而是非常具体的。

They could be the hottest accessory of an even hotter summer. As temperature records were smashed across Europe and other parts of the world, portable electric fans could be seen in the hands of millions of people. Estimates claim that up to 8 million of these devices were sold in the UK alone. The breeze that they provide will have been welcome to many, but could there be a downside to this popular product?
它们可能是炎热夏季最热门的配饰。 随着欧洲和世界其他地区的气温记录被打破，数百万人手中可以看到便携式电风扇。 据估计，仅在英国就售出了多达 800 万台此类设备。 它们提供的微风会受到许多人的欢迎，但是这种受欢迎的产品有缺点吗？

Concerns have been raised that these fans are just another example of fast technology. That is products that are sold cheaply and are likely to be disposed of quickly. Research from Material Focus, a British pro-recycling organisation, suggests that half of all the mini fans bought will end up unused or thrown away. This is unsurprising as they can be cheap to buy and almost impossible to repair. Fans contain a mix of different materials – plastic casing, copperwiring and a lithium-ion battery among other components. This means that a considerable amount of natural resource is used in their production, and that they can be complex to recycle and dispose of sustainably.
人们担心这些风扇只是快速技术的另一个例子。 这些产品售价低廉并且可能会很快被处理掉。 英国支持回收利用的组织Material Focus的研究表明，购买的迷你风扇中有一半最终会被闲置或丢弃。 这并不奇怪，因为它们购买起来很便宜，而且几乎不可能修理。 风扇包含不同材料的组合——塑料外壳、铜线和锂离子电池等组件。 这意味着它们的生产中使用了大量的自然资源，并且它们的可持续回收和处置可能很复杂。

There are more immediate safety risks from portable fans. The London Fire Brigade has reported cases of cheaply-made portable fan batteries catching fire or exploding while being charged. Waste disposal companies in the UK have warned that the lithium-ion batteries used by these devices are often thrown away together with household waste, and that this can lead to fires which put staff and installations at risk. It's not just fire either. The Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency reports a train passenger's hair being sucked into someone else's fan on a train. In addition, once the air around you gets hot enough, fans can even make you warmer rather than colder.
便携式风扇存在更直接的安全风险。 伦敦消防队报告了廉价制造的便携式风扇电池在充电时起火或爆炸的案例。 英国的废物处理公司警告说，这些设备使用的锂离子电池经常与家庭垃圾一起丢弃，这可能导致火灾，使工作人员和设施面临危险。 这也不仅仅是火。 日本消费者事务厅报告称，一名火车乘客的头发在火车上被吸进了别人的风扇中。 此外，一旦你周围的空气变得足够热，风扇甚至可以让你变得更温暖而不是更冷。

As the world's climate continues to heat up, more and more of us may be tempted to reach for portable fans. But maybe we should take some time to reflect on the effect this might be having on our environment and climate.
随着世界气候持续变暖，我们中越来越多的人可能会想要使用便携式风扇。 但也许我们应该花一些时间来思考这可能对我们的环境和气候产生的影响。