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古月小破烂

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Part I: Speaker

Oil Spill Sullies World Heritage Site
The Sundarbans, part of the world's largest mangrove forest and stretching across India and Bangladesh, have been tarnished by a 350,000-liter oil spill. David Biello reports.
December 22, 2014 |By David Biello

They're called the Sundarbans. And they're part of the world's largest mangrove forest, stretching across the border between India and Bangladesh. Mangrove trees help stabilize the river deltas there and provide habitat for an array of animals, including the famous swimming Bengal tigers, some of the last of their kind in the world.

On December 9th, a tanker in the area disgorged its oily cargo after a collision with another ship. Now 350 square kilometers of this riverine environment are coated with more than 350,000 liters of thick fuel oil.

Cleanup efforts have been performed mostly by local people so far, scooping up the sludge with whatever tools are at hand. And as past oil spills around the world have shown, once oil is in marsh sediments it takes decades to come out, with all kinds of negative impacts on flora and fauna.

The United Nations is now organizing a more coordinated response. True, the affected area of the Sundarbans is just a small part of the 10,000-square-kilometer mangrove forest. Still, it's not yet known what impact the oil will ultimately have on fisheries and watery plants that millions of people rely on for food. Also at risk are endangered animals like river dolphins. But it is clear that an area designated a world heritage site by UNESCO has been tarred.

Source: Scientific America
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/oil-spill-sullies-world-heritage-site/

[Rephrase 1,1’36]

古月小破烂

Part II: Speed

The Surprising Ways That Chickens Changed the World
Civilization was powered by the humble chicken, says author.
by Simon Worrall  |  21 Dec 2014

[Time 2]
For most of us, the word "chicken" spells a cold, clammy slab of plastic-wrapped white meat plucked out of the refrigerated section of our local supermarket. But in the ancient world, and in many cultures today, chickens had deep religious and social significance.

Speaking from his home in North Carolina, Andrew Lawler, author of Why Did the Chicken Cross the World: The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization describes how fried chicken has its origins in West Africa, why the Puritans tried to ban the word "cock," and how the backyard chicken movement is bringing roosters to towns and cities all over America.

Andrew, you know what my first question has to be: Why did the chicken cross the world?

The answer's actually quite simple. The chicken crossed the world because we took it with us. Humans can't do without chickens. Chicken is the most popular meat today. Americans eat more than 80 pounds a year, more than pork or beef. So we tend to think people must have domesticated the chicken because it was good to eat, right? Well, no. Scientists now believe chickens were not domesticated to eat in the first place.

Every chicken you see on Earth is the descendant of the red jungle fowl, a very shy jungle bird that lives in south Asia, all the way from Pakistan to Sumatra and Indonesia. It's a small, pheasant-like bird hunters like because it's very hard to find, so it poses a great challenge. The strange thing is that these birds are so shy that when they're captured in the wild, they can die of a heart attack because they're so terrified of humans. So the question is, How did this bird, that is incredibly shy, become the most ubiquitous bird on Earth?

You suggest that the evolution of the chicken has powered human civilization—that's a pretty big claim. Justify it.

It is a big claim, and I would not have made it when I first started looking into the chicken. Like most people, I thought of it as a bird that provides us with meat and eggs but not much else. But when I started to dig into it, I discovered that the chicken has actually played more roles across human history, in more societies, than any other animal, and I include the dog and the cat and cows and pigs. The chicken is a kind of a zelig of human history, which pops up in all kinds of different societies.
[417 words]

[Time 3]
If you go back to ancient Babylon, about 800 B.C., in what is now Iraq, you find seals used by people to identify themselves. Some of these have images of chickens sitting on top of columns being worshipped by priests. That expanded with the Persian Empire. Zoroastrians considered the chicken sacred because it crowed before dawn, before the light appeared. And in Zoroastrian tradition, the coming of the light is a sign of good. So the chicken became associated with an awakening from physical, as well as spiritual, slumber.

I had no idea that chicken soup and the flu vaccine have something in common. So Jewish mothers were right?

Absolutely. There have been several scientific studies in the past decade or so that show quite clearly that chicken soup contains something that helps us get over a cold. It won't cure your cold. But it will definitely help take care of some of those symptoms, like a runny nose or fever. In the ancient world, the chicken was considered a kind of two-legged pharmacy. If you had diarrhea, if you were depressed, if you had a child who was a bed wetter, you name it, there was some part of the chicken that could cure you.

Culturally, you explain that both African-Americans and women were at the forefront of the chicken and egg farming industry in the U.S.—why is that?

When slaves were brought here from West Africa, they came with a deep knowledge of the chicken, because in West Africa the chicken was a common farm animal and also a very sacred animal. The knowledge that African-Americans brought served them very well, because white plantation owners for the most part didn't care much about chicken. In colonial times there were so many other things to eat that chicken was not high on the list.

Whites felt chickens weren't important, so they were often the only animals slaves were allowed to raise in places like Virginia and South Carolina. They would raise chickens and sell them to their owners or to other slave owners. As a result, the chicken business became dominated by African-Americans. Most cooking on the plantations was also done by African-American women.

So whites began to eat more chicken. They also began to like fried chicken. Most people agree that West Africa was a center of this cuisine, where you would fry chicken parts in palm oil. And the slaves brought that tradition to the South. Over time it became one of the most important cuisines of that region.
[423 words]

[Time 4]
Urban chickens are a new fad—sometimes a controversial one. What are the issues?

There's a backyard chicken movement that has started to take off in a lot of cities. There have been numerous legal battles. People who don't want chickens in their neighbors' yards—people who don't want roosters crowing before dawn. There's been a lot of antipathy among some people, who feel farm animals don't belong in the city.

But in the past four or five years, the chicken has begun to triumph in American cities and towns, as they relax their regulations prohibiting farm animals, specifically hens, from backyards. This goes hand in hand with the back-to-the-farm movement, the idea of being of "locavore." Backyard chickens are providing people with a clear and simple way to connect with what lands on their plate.

We have some friends who have free-range chickens. They thought they were just getting eggs, but they're getting a number of other benefits: They have no slugs in their garden, no mosquitoes and no ticks in their yard. What else do chickens do that are good for us?

As I said before, I think one of the most important things that chickens can do for us urban folk is to remind us where our food comes from. In earlier times chickens ate the scraps that the housewife threw out the door after dinner. The chickens took care of insects. In West Africa, they were important for exterminating pests. So chickens were welcome around the house, unlike, say, pigs and cows, which traditionally were kept farther away from dwellings. When archaeologists study ancient sites in the Middle East, they find chicken bones right in the living area. That's because the chicken does a lot of things for us. It cleans things up, gets rid of bugs, and provides us with those eggs we like to have for breakfast
[313 words]

[Time 5]
Do roosters really have no penis?

This is true. And the odd thing about it, of course, is that roosters are the byword for the male reproductive organ. Yet they don't have penises. Ducks and a lot of other birds do. But chickens are among those birds that don't need a penis. When two chickens get romantic, they have a cloacal "kiss," pressing their cloaca against one another. The reason the rooster has been for so long the symbol for sex as well as the male organ is because they're randy creatures. They will mate continuously, and with different partners. In the ancient world, that was considered a sign of vibrancy and fertility. So they became associated with human sex.

In Puritan America, we tried to stamp the word "cock" out of our English language. It used to be you would call a weathervane a weathercock or a water spigot, a water cock. But in the 17th and 18th centuries in New England, people decided that they shouldn't even use the word cock, because it was too suggestive. Luckily, it didn't catch on.

What about the dangers of chickens in the form of avian flu? Are we heading for a human pandemic?

One of the tradeoffs we've made is that animals we domesticate pass on their diseases to us. Pigs and cattle, as well as chickens, have given us things like the flu and the common cold and all kinds of other even more severe diseases.

When it comes to the chicken flu we read about in Asia, there's no question chickens can be a vector. Mostly, these viruses stay within chickens, so they're mainly a threat from one chicken to another. Can chickens give diseases to humans? The answer is yes. And in our modern world it's very easy for a virus that begins in a remote village in Thailand to come to our schools here in the United States. So, it's certainly something to worry about.

But I think we've made the calculation that while the chicken can be a vector for disease, we need the chicken. In a world that's increasingly urban, particularly in places like South America and China, we need the chicken to feed ourselves. If you took the chicken away tomorrow, there would be devastating economic consequences.
[383 words]

[Time 6]
It's the festive season. What's the relationship between chickens and turkeys?

When Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, arrived in Mexico, he described this very large chicken people raised and ate. Scholars have puzzled over that. But it's pretty clear that Cortez was describing the turkey. There's some evidence chickens may have been brought across the Pacific by the Polynesians to South America. But it's disputed how old the chicken bones that are part of this debate are.

What's clear is that before Columbus arrived, there were almost no chickens in the Americas. So Native Americans had to make do with other birds, the turkey being the most prominent. It was widely domesticated in North America, both in Mexico and what is now the U.S., in the pre-Columbian era. But turkeys are quite different. They don't have the growth rate of chickens, and they've never really had the kind of ritual significance chickens had across the ancient world. They also didn't have the fighting gumption you find with chickens.

Do you keep chickens yourself?

I do not. I have friends who have chickens, but my lifestyle is such that, given my travel, I can't have a coop in my backyard, although people in my town are pretty pro-chicken. Nevertheless, I prefer to visit my chickens, rather than feed them every morning.
[220 words]

Source: National Geography
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141221-chickens-civilization-avian-flu-locavore-turkey-ngfood-booktalk/

古月小破烂

Part III: Obstacle

Changing the Way We Eat Meat
by Jose Andres |  26 Nov 2014

[Paraphrase 7]
Sitting on a stage in Washington, DC at National Geographic some months back, I was on a panel that started to discuss meat consumption and how, really, we should be eating more vegetables.

When I exclaimed to the audience, “Vegetables are sexy!” I also had to quickly add that yes, in fact, I am opening a restaurant with the word “meat” in the name, a celebration of the carnivores in the heart of Las Vegas. People started laughing, the topic soon changed, and we moved on. I never felt like I got the chance to explain, so let me do so now.

I am a believer that eating more vegetables in our everyday lives is imperative. So much so, that I plan to open a fast-casual restaurant that will be all about vegetables, and I hope make a significant change in the lives of many people by making vegetables easy and affordable.

A piece of meat, like a steak, can be a beautiful thing to eat. Although, as much as I enjoy one from time to time, I do believe we should be thinking about eating it differently. Our consumption of meat in this country has taken a turn that I don’t think nature intended. Raising cattle and the production of meat has become over industrialized so that, in some cases, it’s cheaper to buy a pound of ground beef than it is a head of broccoli. Huge corporations running factory farms are becoming more and more responsible for creating the food on a lot of our plates, and because of that we’ve started to lose touch with where it comes from and how it’s raised.

It was not always this way. Meat eaters of our generation are the evolution of millions of years. Meat has always been a part of our diet, but several thousands of years ago, at the very beginning of time, it was a means to survive, and it was about sustenance and efficiency. Our ancestors would eat every last bit of an animal, and they’d make clothes and tools out of the remains. Nothing was spared.

Hunting and gathering was one of humanity’s first and most successful adaptations, and tribes were known to use what is called long-distance running, a form of hunting where they would stalk an animal to the point that it would collapse. You see, humans can release their exhaustion through sweating, but animals have to stop and pant, making them vulnerable after a long chase. Later, when we adapted into more of a domesticated species, we still hunted these animals but then took them in as our property. We used them to work the land and let them live for many years before they became our meal. Our ancestors worked for their food, and they made every last bit of the animal work for them, too.

I want to remind people about this primal way of living, and what it means to be connected to our food. When we sourced our own food from the land from start to finish. Planting vegetables to eat, digging our hands in the soil—did you know that it’s a proven fact that it can make you happy? Organisms in the soil actually contain antidepressants that release happiness to our brains! A natural Prozac! Pairing those hand-grown vegetables with a nice piece of meat isn’t a bad thing, but I think it should be done with a little more thought.

In the summer of 2013, I had one of the best birthdays of my life. I was in my home country of Spain, in the hills of Jiménez de Jamuz, at the world-renowned restaurant El Capricho. It is believed by many that they serve the best steak in the world there, and when I went two years ago, they gave me a true reason to celebrate.

Thirteen years prior to my visit, a particular ox was born. When that ox was 3 years old, grill master and owner of El Capricho, José Gordon, purchased it. He brought it back to his ranch and gave it a life that one could only dream of, pampered with an amazing diet of acorns, thyme and thistle, and with space to roam. It worked hard for José for 10 years of its life, until it was wise and old, and then went into “retirement,” and had three years to live a life of leisure until it met its ultimate fate.

This ox was raised specifically for me by my friend José, and for my birthday, I gathered many friends and family at his restaurant, to celebrate the long life of this animal with an astonishing meal. It was just one of the many that he raises on his ranch to serve at his restaurant. José spends a third of his year searching for these animals, and he treats them in such a wonderful way that they’re not only content but have superior taste and flavor. These animals are so happy, I swear you’d believe me when I say that I think they’re proud to become your meal. So you can see why this is where you can find the best steak in the world.

When you order at El Capricho, the waiter and the chef pick the best cut of meat for your table based on your tastes and the size of your group. They grill it to perfection—medium rare—the old fashioned way, over an open fire, just like our ancestors did. It’s presented at your table and perfectly sliced for you to share with your companions.

One steak—for the whole table. Like I said, best birthday ever, but then again, I say that every year, no?

To change our eating habits to something more sustainable is not a radical idea. So many people, like my friends Mark Bittman, Dan Barber, the great Michael Pollan, the list goes on and on, are beating the drum to change the way we eat. I’m not suggesting we reach as far back as ancient times and start stalking a cow every time we want a hamburger. But what if we took what José at El Capricho is doing and tried to apply that thoughtfulness and respect to all of the food we eat. If anything else, caring for our food so that it nourishes our bodies and our minds. That’s something I think we can all adapt to.
[1069 words]

Source : National Geography
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/11/26/changing-the-way-we-eat-meat/

daisy333

掌管 6        00:08:36.69        00:21:53.22
掌管 5        00:01:09.35        00:13:16.52
掌管 4        00:03:15.68        00:12:07.16
掌管 3        00:02:20.67        00:08:51.48
掌管 2        00:03:05.44        00:06:30.80
掌管 1        00:03:25.35        00:03:25.35

cyndichiang

Speaker:
Mangrove trees help stablize river delta and provide habitat for  animals
On 9.Dec, river was coated with oil after a ship collision.,leading negative impact on this area
We don't know the ultimate influence of fishery and watery plants which people rely on for food.
It is clear that the world heritage was tarred.

Obstacle 5'12''
Production of meat is industralized so that in some cases meat is cheaper than vegetables
So we can change the way of enjoying meat:
Raising ox and caring them carefully, and then eating them (>_<.......)

wensd1111

1 A 02:12
2 A 02:12
3 A 02:03
4 A 02:19
5 A 01:07
1 A 04:45

smallchange306

speed
2'46
3'29
2'13
2'22
1'30
obstacle
06'53
i always believe that people should eat more vegetables and less meat.

i run a resturant that offer vegetable food

Today, to meet the demand of people diet, lots of people feed cattle for food. We can buy them at market easily. But in ancient time, people hunt them in person. People eat them and make fur to cloth. none is spared.

i have a best birthday celebration in a Spanish reataurant. it has the best beef in the world. XX tok care of the ox carefully. Then killed it. Baking them in the ancient way, in open fire. That is the way we should eat meat.

rita-schumi

Speed
Main idea: how the chicken change the world
In US,  the majority of people to raise chickens and do egg farming are Afican-American and wemen.
chicken soup and flu,
chicken do not have pennis,
the goods and bads of chicken for human beings.
the relation between chicken and turkey,
1. 01:20
2. 01:47
3. 01:32
4. 01:54
5. 00:59

Obstacle
04:16
We should change the way we eat meat.
1.Eat more vegetalbes (to encorage people to plant more vegetables,thus lowering the price of vegetables)
2.The author takes his friends as an example.Raise the ox, then eat is as a celebration for a meaningful day.

HaiqingYU

Thanks for sharing!
[Time 2]02:31
All chicken on earth are descendant of a very shy bird.
The chicken affects more the civilization through the human history, in many societies than other animals.
[Time 3]03:00
The case of B and Z illustrates that chicken was treated as sth sacred.
Studies showed that chicken soup can help u get over the cold.
The original of chicken raising by African women and their cuisine of roasted chken.
[Time 4]01:57
The trend of raising chicken prevails in cities, as chicken can keep house clean and provide the eggs.
[Time 5]02:22
Chicken, which doesn't have a penis is the simple of sex, because its reproducing ability.
Even though chicken can pass on disease on human, it's still important in daily diet.
[Time 6]01:13
It's disputed whether chicken was brought to America from Pacific. Before that, it's turkey that dominant the domesticated food.
[Obstacle]06:04
By presenting the origin of eating meat and the case of best steak in J, the author calls for more caring for the food, because the caring can nourish our bodies and minds.

arovane

这次主题好逗。。。。第三段估计计时手滑了
speed
掌管 4        00:01:13.95       
掌管 3        00:04:00.56       
掌管 2        00:02:27.39       
掌管 1        00:02:10.20       
different from the common knowledge that chicken first domesticated for food, Athor found that the chicken has more effect on human's history.chickens are regarded divine for they crowd before light appeared, and are regarded a walking medicine. For the reason that chickens weren't the staple for the Europe, the chicken business first widely spread among Africa.
after the regulation on the farm animal is relaxed, the backyard chicken revitalized in america, and they also bring another benefits such as cleaning the backyard by exterminating the insects.
Although chicken have the risk to pass the virus to the human, people still need chicken to feed themselves. Column find turkey rather than chicken when he first arrived on America.
obstacle：
掌管 5        00:05:33.44       
the author appeal the public to change their mind to the food by citing the difficulty our ancestor faced during the hunt and an story of his friend that the friend carefully raised an cow for many years before finally serve it on the table, thus the author suggest people to thoughtfully consider and respect the food they eat.