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[阅读小分队] 【Native Speaker每日综合训练—38系列】【38-19】科技

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发表于 2014-7-8 18:14:53 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
内容:ZXPPX 编辑:ZXPPX
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Part I: Speaker

Triple Black Hole System Found in Distant Galaxy
A galaxy four billion light-years from us was has three supermassive black holes at its center, with two in a tight formation. Clara Moskowitz reports

Inside most galaxies a supermassive black hole lurks. But one galaxy about 4 billion light-years from us was recently discovered to have not one, not even two, but three gigantic black holes at its center.

Such triple systems appear to be extremely rare—only four are known. The newfound system includes two black holes orbiting each other very closely, about 450 light-years apart, with a third black hole a bit farther out. The central pair zoom around each other at a fast clip, about 300 times the speed of sound on Earth. The hole trinity also represents the tightest trio of black holes known to date. It’s described in the journal Nature. [R.P. Deane et al, A close-pair binary in a distant triple supermassive black hole system]

As these objects continue to orbit at the center of their galaxy, gravity will eventually pull them closer and closer together. Ultimately, they may even merge. Researchers hope this triple-black-hole system may be a good place to look for space-time ripples called gravitational waves. As their orbits shrink, the black holes should radiate away some of their orbital energy as the sought-after gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein a century ago.

—Clara Moskowitz

Source: Scientificamerican
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/triple-black-hole-system-found-in-distant-galaxy1/

[Rephrase 1, 1:23]

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 楼主| 发表于 2014-7-8 18:14:54 | 显示全部楼层
Part II: Speed

Rebounding whale populations are good for ocean ecosystems
BY Eli Kintisch  | 3 July 2014

[Time 2]



Far from depleting the resources of ocean ecosystems, growing numbers of large whales may be critical to keeping these environments healthy. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that rebounding populations of baleen and sperm whales may be boosting marine food webs around the world. The work is the latest volley in a long-running debate about the ecological role of whales and how their return to the oceans may affect global fisheries that face myriad threats.

Scientists have noted the gradual global recovery of various species of large whales. But many disagree about the impact this is having on ocean ecosystems. Some have cast whales as potential competitors to fishing fleets, because they vacuum up tons of invertebrates and small fish that might otherwise be available to commercially valuable species. Under that line of reasoning, some have argued in favor of the continuation of commercial whaling. In the 1970s and 1980s, for example, researchers argued that reducing certain whale populations would aid stocks of krill, a ubiquitous crustacean in the Southern Ocean that is a key food source for baleen whales and other marine species.

But the new study notes that krill populations remained constant or even declined after great whales experienced big declines. How so? The authors reason that the whales helped provide nutrients critical to krill and other species low on the food web. For instance, the mammals release massive "fecal plumes" and urine streams that fertilize surface waters with nitrogen and iron, the authors note, and help enhance productivity by mixing up the top layers of the ocean when diving.

Whales also move nutrients horizontally around the ocean. Humpback whales, for example, are a species of baleen whale known for grand migrations from the upper latitudes—like Pacific waters near Alaska—to the subtropics where nutrients are more scarce, near Hawaii and Mexico. Using historic and current population data, the study’s authors calculate that rebounded populations of whales could increase the productivity of phytoplankton in some subtropical waters by as much as 15% above the current level.

[342 words]

[Time 3]

Another underappreciated contribution to marine ecosystems, the authors report online today in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, is the bounty of organic material the animals provide to deep-sea ecosystems when they die. A so-called whale fall of a 40-ton gray whale provides a boost of carbon to the seafloor community equivalent to more than 2000 years of normal detritus and nutrient cycling.

“The reduction of whale carcasses during the age of commercial whaling may have caused some of the earliest human-caused extinctions in the ocean,” writes the study’s first author, conservation biologist Joe Roman of the University of Vermont in Burlington, in an e-mail. “More than 60 species have been discovered that are found only on whale falls in recent decades. By removing this habitat through hunting, we may well have lost many species before we even knew they existed.”

Such new understandings, Roman and his colleagues write, “warrants a shift in view from whales being positively valued as exploitable goods … to one that recognizes that these animals play key roles in healthy marine ecosystems.”

The new study is a useful addition to the debate on the role of whales in global ecosystems, writes marine ecologist Lisa Ballance of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in San Diego, California, in an e-mail. “As [whales] recover, we can indeed expect their influence on marine ecosystems to change the structure and function of those systems relative to the past 100 years.”

[242 words]
Source: new.science
http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2014/07/rebounding-whale-populations-are-good-ocean-ecosystems


We dislike being alone with our thoughts
Many people would rather endure physical pain than suffer their own wandering cogitations.
BY Heidi Ledford | 3 July, 2014

[Time 4]



Which would you prefer: pain or boredom?
Given the choice, many people would rather give themselves mild electric shocks than sit idly in a room for 15 minutes, according to a study published today in Science.
The results are a testament to our discomfort with our own thoughts, say psychologists, and to the challenge we face when we try to rein them in.
“We lack a comfort in just being alone with our thoughts,” says Malia Mason, a psychologist at Columbia University in New York, who was not involved in the study. “We’re constantly looking to the external world for some sort of entertainment.”

In search of distraction
It was this observation that led social psychologist Timothy Wilson at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and his team to embark on the study. Wilson and his colleagues began by asking undergraduate students to stash their mobile phones and other distractions, and to sit in a sparsely furnished room for up to 15 minutes. Afterwards, nearly half of the 409 participants said that they did not enjoy the experience.

The researchers were surprised. “We have this huge brain that’s full of pleasant memories and has the ability to tell stories and construct fantasies,” says Wilson, who says he often entertains himself as he falls asleep at night by imagining that he is a castaway on an unpopulated island. “It shouldn’t be that hard.”

Wilson’s team tried to make it easier. They decided that a more comfortable setting might make the experience more pleasant, so they repeated the experiment, this time allowing participants to perform the exercise at home. Nearly one-third of the study subjects later admitted to cheating.

Perhaps, the researchers reasoned, it was too difficult for participants to settle on a topic to think about. But advising participants to select a topic before the experiment also did not help.

[310 words]

[Time 5]

Shocking discomfort
Just how uncomfortable was the experience? In the next experiment, participants were given a small electric shock — akin to a jolt of static electricity — that was so unpleasant that three-quarters of them said they would be willing to pay not to experience the shock again. Yet when they were placed in the room to sit alone with their thoughts, 67% of male participants and 25% of female subjects were so eager to find something to do that they shocked themselves voluntarily.

Wilson thinks that the discomfort comes from a lack of mental control: that it is difficult to tell our minds to stay on one topic and keep it there for a long time. Subjects who reported a positive experience during the experiment tended to think about future events, often with loved ones. Those who did not enjoy the time for quiet reflection often thought about work.

That difficulty is not limited to college students: the results still held when researchers repeated the experiments with a broader age group sampled from a church and a farmer's market.

Mason says that the participants would have benefited from more guidance for their thinking — perhaps if they had been instructed not only to come up with a topic to ponder, but also to map out a more structured plan of where to take their thoughts from there. “It’s not enough to provide people with an entry point,” she says. “They need a direction to go in.”

Wilson intends to pursue ways to tame what he calls “the disengaged mind”. “There are lots of times in our daily lives, when we have a little bit of time out, or are stuck in traffic or trying to get to sleep,” says Wilson. “Having this as a tool in our mental toolbox as a way to retreat or reduce stress would be a useful thing to do.”

[313 words]
Source: nature
http://www.nature.com/news/we-dislike-being-alone-with-our-thoughts-1.15508


Exploding flower blasts birds with pollen
BY Xochitl Rojas-Rocha | 3 July, 2014

[Time 6]



Hidden high in the mountains of Ecuador and Costa Rica is an unusual genus of flowers called Axinaea. When researchers scaled up and down steep mountain slopes to install video cameras in the trees in which these flowers grow, they caught the plants offering a sugar-packed reward to visiting birds: the bellows organ, a bulbous, brightly colored appendage high in sugar and citric acid, which is attached to the plant’s male reproductive organ, or stamen. But as soon as the bird’s beak clamped down, the bellows organ forced air from its spongy tissues into a pollen chamber inside the stamen. The pollen exploded outwards, dusting the unwitting bird’s beak or forehead. When the bird flitted to another tree, it passed on the flower’s pollen to the receptive female organs of other flowers. This is the first case of a flowering plant offering up a food reward on a reproductive organ, the researchers report online today in Current Biology. They speculate that even before it evolved its bellows function, the bulbous organ’s resemblance to fruit seeds may have fooled birds into eating it.

[182 words]
Source: sciencenews
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/07/exploding-flower-blasts-birds-pollen

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 楼主| 发表于 2014-7-8 18:14:55 | 显示全部楼层
Part III: Obstacle

Row hits flagship brain plan
Changes in scope and focus of European project anger factions of neuroscience community.
BY Alison Abbott  | 7 July, 2014

[Paraphrase 7]



The European Union’s high-profile, €1-billion Human Brain Project (HBP), launched last October, has come under fire from neuroscientists, who claim that poor management has run part of the effort’s scientific plans off course.

Around 150 scientists have signed a protest letter that was delivered to the European Commission on 7 July. The letter requests that the commission seriously consider whether the project is still fit for purpose as it reviews proposals for the second round of funding, to be awarded in 2016.

The HBP was originally designed to promote digital technologies by supporting and learning from neuroscience. A key element of the project, which has inspired other brain-research initiatives around the world (see Nature 503, 26–28; 2013), is to develop supercomputers that neuroscientists will use to try to simulate the brain. But as the initiative has developed, its goal has become more and more diffuse. And after months of often fractious discussions about the programme’s scientific scope, tempers boiled over at the end of May, when the HBP’s three-man executive board decided to cut parts of the project, including one on cognitive neuroscience, from the second phase — in a manner that the signatories say was autocratic and scientifically inappropriate.

Stanislas Dehaene, director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit run by the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Paris and one of the winners of this year’s prestigious Brain Prize, had led this part of the effort. On 30 May, he withdrew his participation from the second phase, citing lack of confidence in some of the decisions being made and in the programme’s management; he has not signed the letter.

The escalating row has dismayed the HBP’s internal and external advisory boards, which had hoped to resolve tensions that, they acknowledge, arose partly from non-transparent management. Sten Grillner, a systems neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a member of the internal advisory board, says that it is “disappointing” that the issue has exploded so publicly. “I hope it will not be damaging,” he adds.

The HBP is one of the European Union’s two Future and Emerging Technologies flagship programmes, which are designed to promote information and communication technologies through interdisciplinary research. The project is partnered by around 80 universities and research institutes and its work is organized into three broad interlocking sections: computing, neuroscience and medicine. The cognitive-neuroscience sub-project addresses how the brain contributes to tasks such as generating and controlling emotion and making decisions.

The HBP’s coordinator, neuroscientist Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), says that the criticisms represent a minority view of HBP participants and that accusations of lack of transparency are “entirely groundless”. “It would be difficult to be more transparent or responsive to our members than we are,” he says. He declined to comment specifically on the letter.

Still, he agreed to implement recommendations made by the HBP’s advisory boards last week in their bid to diffuse tensions. The boards say that the chair should be elected by the research board — currently the leaders of the 13 scientific subprojects — and should not be a subproject leader, to avoid conflict of interest. They also recommend that the research board elect the executive committee for terms limited to three years.

But some do not think that these measures are sufficient. Cognitive neuroscientist Zachary Mainen, director of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme in Lisbon, who helped to organize the protest letter says that they do not deal with a fundamental failing. The HBP should represent the views of all its members and the neuroscience community at large, he says — not just of the executive board.

The letter, signed by many leading research-institute directors, some of whom are not connected with the project, calls for the review process for the second phase to proceed in an open fashion and for the identity of the reviewers to be made public. It also wants representatives of the reviewing panel on the external steering committee for the period of the funding under review to ensure that the panel’s recommendations are put into effect.

Boycott threat
The 154 signatories say that if their requests cannot be implemented, the European Commission should reallocate the project’s funding — perhaps to the European Research Council, Europe’s basic-research funding agency, for broad neuroscience-directed investigator-driven grants. The commission provides only half of the HBP’s €100-million (US$136-million) annual budget; the rest must come from the member states of the European Union through competitive grants. The signatories pledge not to apply for such funds unless their concerns are addressed.

Preparations for the next round of funding began in January, and the rift between neuroscientists immediately became apparent. Dehaene, for instance, says that he was “dismayed at the unprecedented level of bureaucracy, gobbledegook and absence of transparent democratic reviewing” in the HBP’s governance. “There was no need to rewrite the project only months after it came into existence,” he says.

The tensions seem to be confined to the neuroscience section of the programme. Physicist Karlheinz Meier of Germany’s Heidelberg University, who heads the HBP’s computing and robotic section — as well as its futuristic computing platform — says that his section is happy. “I don’t see any difference in openness and transparency than in any other mega-project as it approaches a transition stage,” he says. “Maybe biologists are less used to projects of this scale than physicists are.”

Thomas Skordas, who heads the European Commission’s flagships programme, says that the commission closely monitors the progress of the projects and has the power to intervene if it deems it necessary. In a few months, he says, the commission will publish a policy document that will clarify in detail its expectations regarding governance.

[1000 words]
Source: nature
http://www.nature.com/news/row-hits-flagship-brain-plan-1.15519

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发表于 2014-7-8 18:23:10 | 显示全部楼层
今天好早~~~

Speaker: A new found throple black hole system may help scientists to study gravitational waves.

01:38
A new study shows that rebounding populations of whales are good for ocean ecosystem.Whales can fertilize the surface waters with nitrogen and iron,which provides  food to some species.

00:45
Whales also provide  organic material to deep-sea ecosystems when they die.The whale carcasses are the habits of may species.

01:40
A study shows that people lack a comfort in just being alone with our thoughts.

01:25
The discomfort comes from a lack of mental control.It is difficult to tell our minds to stay on one topic and keep it there for a long time.

01:08
Scientists found the first case of a flowering plant offering up a food reward on a reproductive organ.

06:21
The HBP is one of the European Union’s two Future and Emerging Technologies flagship programmes, which are designed to promote information and communication technologies through interdisciplinary research.
But recently,some neuroscientists blamed its poor management and the diffused goal.And executive board decided to cut parts of the project.
But sb object the critism.They think it normal to meet such kind of problems.But the advices are right.But some do not think that these measures are sufficient.These measures do not deal with fundamental failing.
Singatories are treating to the HBP,if they do not change.
The critism is confined to the neuroscience section of the programme.It seems that biologists are less used to projects of this scale than physicists are.
发表于 2014-7-8 19:03:33 | 显示全部楼层
[speaker]
triple black hole, rare, may emerge

[time2]
whales,critical to ocean eco. healthy
some disagree: competitors, fishing fleets, ie: krill
BUT: whales, nutrients-->top layer ocean, productivity,movement

[tim3]
another disappreciate: carcasses, organic material
conclusion: positive value, key roles, influence

[time4]
Q and A: lack comfort being alone
Search: failed , nearly half not enjoy

[time5]
Search 2: over half people prefer electric shock to being alone
explain: lack of mental control
solution: guidance for thinking

[time6]
firs case of a flowering plant offering up a food reward on a reproductive organ

[obstacle]
1 150 scientists signed protest letter,seriously reconsider the HBP
opinion of variable ones: support, suspect, no comment...
2 what's in  the letter:request for more tranparent,democratic
3 respond: commission will clarify details
发表于 2014-7-8 20:10:31 | 显示全部楼层
---Speaker
One galaxy was recently found with three black holes.
Descriptions of the three back holes
Galaxy will pull the three back holes together, and they may eventually merge.
The black holes were predicted to radiate away some of their orbital energy.

[Time 2] 1'05''
Increasing number of large whales is critical to maintain the health of ocean ecosystems.
Though some scientists cast doubts on large whales' functions on the ecosystems, studies show that the whales helped provide nutrients for krill, and move nutrients horizontally around the ocean.
[Time 3] 0'50''
When whales die, their bodies provide a boost of carbon.
The new study is helpful in demonstrating the merits of whales to the ocean ecosystems.
[Time 4]1'24''
Researches showed that people did not enjoy being alone with their own thoughts.
[Time 5]1'30''
Wilson analyzed that such discomfort came from a lack of mental control, and Mason suggested that participants need guidance to direct their thoughts.
[Time 6] 1'18''
Axinaea is the first kind of flowering plant researchers have seen that offers up a food reward on a reproductive organ.

----Obstacles 3'45''
Main idea: The HBP caused some tensions confined to the neuroscience section of the programme, and the tension was partly attributable to the non-transparent management. The HBP’s coordinator agreed to implement recommendations to diffuse tensions, but some did not think that these measures were sufficient; as a result, a review process for the second phase of the project was called for.
发表于 2014-7-8 21:30:09 | 显示全部楼层
今天作业还没做。。占座先,谢谢ppx~~
-------------
speaker:
scientists found three gigantic black holes at the center of the galaxies
the objects continue to become closer and closer

time2:
the increase in the population of whale in turn bring benefit to the ecosystem
some scientists believed that it is necessary to control the amount of the whale in order to save some specific spices but the result turns out opposite to the expectation
the function of whales

time3:
another contribution of whale to the ecosystem that is under appreciated

time4:
almost half of participants choose to experience pain rather than spend time alone

time5:
given a topic to think is definitely not enough, people need a direction to think

time6:
the special reproducing way of a certain kind of flower

time7:
a proposal of HBP has been rejected by many scientists
some info of HBP and the proposal
the headman of the program ensure that the commission will monitors the process and finally publish the result
发表于 2014-7-8 21:30:19 | 显示全部楼层
感谢ZXPPX.

新人,看错了,今天的阅读任务没有完成,把明天的做完了。。明天早上补昨天的:)

首次执行任务:
【Speaker】:One galaxy has three black holes, which is unusual. Because of gravity, these holes might be merged together predicted by a scientists.(Only catch 3 black hole, light-year, gravity, emerge four words at first time and listened for three times for understanding..shocked)
【Part 2】:1:43
【Part 3】:1:11
【Part 4】:1:22
【Part 5】:1:19
【Part 6】:1:03
【Obstacle】5:10

Even though I recite words every day, understanding paragraph within short time is too difficult. Will insist on practicing
 楼主| 发表于 2014-7-8 22:03:04 | 显示全部楼层
Going 发表于 2014-7-8 21:30
感谢ZXPPX.

新人,看错了,今天的阅读任务没有完成,把明天的做完了。。明天早上补昨天的:)

继续加油!
1.2-19
According to a new study, rebounding the number of whales is beneficial for the marine ecosystem. Even though many people hold the idea that cutting the population of whales can provide more food for other marine species, it turns out that this assumption doesn't work when whaling have been conducted in some areas. As a matter of fact, whales can not only release some useful fecal remains for krills, but also bring nutritions to some remote areas. For example, H whale can swim into high latitudes' ocean, thus supplying precious nourishing materials for shrimps and fish(plankton) there.  
2.1-30
Another benefit brought by whales is that when those huge animals die, their body sink to the deep ocean, thus benefiting the species in the sea floor and supplying a large amount of carbon there. What's more, a decrease in the population of whales can do harm to human beings. Before we know some uncharted animals, they already die because our hunt too many whales. Therefore, scientists call for the protection of whales around the world.
3.1-46
Reported by a new study, the finding that people would rather suffer pain physically than leave themselves without talking with others about their ideas. Participants are required stay in a room and do nothing, and researchers find out those people are really uneasy with themselves. Even though participants are allowed to do some exercises, the situation still cannot be improved.
4.1-55
Previously, participants experienced a electronic shock that made them pretty uncomfortable. However, when these participants are in the room with nothing to do, roughly 60% of the males and 20% of the females are willing to find something to shock. Why will people react in this way? It's probably because people have trouble controling their mental condition. In other words, we find it hard for us to choose a topic and focus on it for a long time. This dilemma applies to not only college students, but also a wide range of people. However, when people get both topics and concrete way to make their plans, they can feel much more comfortable than the previous situation.
5.1-08
In a remote forest, A, a kind of plant, can flood its pollens when birds come to find food, and then birds will turn to other A, thus benefiting A's fertilization. The finding is so interesting that people haven't seen ever.

发表于 2014-7-8 22:34:26 | 显示全部楼层
time 2   (03:52)
rebounding whale populations are good for ocean ecosystems. At first, scientists suspect that the growing of whale population will decrease the population of other species. However, the drop in whale population leads to the decrease in other species in the sea. Which indicate that the whales provide some nutrients for other species. In addition, there are some kind of whales migrate for nutrients


time3 (01:52)
Whales are really good for marine ecosystems, since their carcasses provide lots of organic materials for other animals in the sea. However, people have killed many species of whales. It is significant that whales could change the structure and function of deep-sea ecosystems, which is vital to the whole earth environment.


time 4(01:54)
people rather suffer physical pain than the boredom. Research has found that nearly half of the anticipates don’t like being alone in a room without any distraction, and a more comfortable and familiar environment cannot improve this situation.


time 5(02:00)
Most people cannot enjoy the moment by themselves, so that they would rather suffer some physical pain. Positive people would think of the future and the loved one while stressful people think of works. It is vital for us to control our mental thoughts, we could train our brain in some small break in daily life to release the stress through self thinking.


time 6(01:40)
Scientists took a video of a high mountain flower to observe the process how the birds expend flowers’ bellow.
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