A close friend of mine came to me recently. 我的一个很好的朋友最近来找我。 She said she felt tired. Really tired. 她说她觉得好累。真的好累。 Her family was starting to drive her crazy. 她的家人已经要把她逼疯了。 She wanted to live her own life. But her family always had some other plans for her. 她想过自己的生活。但她的家人总是为她安排了别的计划。 She has her own personality. But her family always wanted…
In English complaining can be problematic, particularly in British English where we are very concerned with being polite and not offending anybody. I know it sounds silly, but it’s true, even when complaining we want to be as polite as possible and not make people angry! 在英语中抱怨是有问题的，特别是在英国英语中，我们非常注重礼貌，不冒犯任何人。我知道这听起来很傻，但这是真的，即使在抱怨的时候，我们也希望尽可能有礼貌，不要惹人生气！ Complaining is an art! 投诉是一门艺术！ So, here we…
What is the single most revealing thing about any person? 有没有什么单一的指标最能揭露任何一个人的本性？ “If you want to know what’s a man really like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals”.- Sirius Black, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. “如果你想了解一个人的为人，就要留意他是如何对待他的下级的，而不能光看他如何对待与他地位相等的人。”——西里斯·布莱克，《哈利·波特与火焰杯》 What they’re most proud of. 他们所为之自豪的事情。 Their questions. 他们提的问题。 Questions reveal…
Despite decades of assurances that Queen Elizabeth II intends to stay “on the job” until the end, suddenly the British media are hinting that Her Majesty is thinking of retiring in 18 months when she turns 95, leaving Prince Charles to carry on as prince regent. 尽管英国女王伊丽莎白二世数十年来一直保证要“在位”到最后，但英国媒体突然表示女王正在考虑在18个月后，也就是95岁高龄时退休，查尔斯王子还要继续当摄政王。 Now comes word from the Prince of Wales’…
The company that prints UK banknotes and passports warned there was “significant doubt” about its future unless a turnaround plan revived its fortunes. 打印英国钞票和护照的公司警告说对未来“很是担忧”，除非能扭亏为盈。 De La Rue, which prints notes for the Bank of England and more than 100 other central banks, said it was suspending its dividend to help tackle mounting debts as it…
Russia was slapped Monday with a four-year ban from international sports events, including next summer’s Tokyo Olympics, over a longstanding doping scandal, although its athletes will still be able to compete if they can show they are clean competitors. 因为长期的兴奋剂丑闻，俄罗斯周一被禁止参加国际体育赛事四年，包括明年夏天的东京奥运会。如果运动员能证明未使用兴奋剂，仍可继续参赛。 The ruling by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s executive committee means that Russia’s flag, name and…
If El Niños were dangerous before, they are looking to become especially destructive in the near future. Already severe and unpredictable, recent research indicates these natural weather events are now swinging to even greater extremes. 如果说厄尔尼诺以前很危险，那它在不久的将来将变得极具破坏性。最近的研究表明这些已经很严重并难以预测的自然天气现象现在正朝着更极端的方向发展。 Since humans started burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, coral records from the past 7,000 years indicate that…
As consumers demand faster shipping times, carriers scrambling to make next-day deliveries don’t pack trucks as efficiently, meaning delivery trucks make their rounds with extra space in the back. 因为消费者要求快递速度要快，快递公司要想实现次日送达在装卡车时就不会高效利用空间，送货卡车的车厢里就会有剩余空间。 It also means that each package has a higher carbon footprint. But a new shipping carrier called Sendle is designed to make use of that…
In a new study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, health researchers make the case for using real-time cell-phone data to track and mitigate major disease outbreaks. 在麻省理工学院进行的一项新研究中，健康研究员提出使用实时手机数据跟踪和遏制重大疾病突发。 Unfortunately, several barriers—including privacy concerns and a lack of data legislation—are likely to stop this kind of information from ever getting to researchers. 不幸的是，研究人员在获取这些数据时遇到了一些障碍，如对隐私的担忧、缺乏与数据相关的法律。 Earlier this…
If you want to live longer, live around green space. 如果你想活得更久，那就生活在绿色中吧。 That’s the simple conclusion of the largest analysis ever performed on the relationship between the environment and human longevity—ever. Eight million people. Seven countries. One simple finding: 这是迄今为止对环境和人类寿命之间关系进行的最大规模分析得出的简单结论。数据来自7个国家的800万人。结论很简单： “When you are exposed to greenery or greenness around your home, your probability to die .…