我来把后面的10个比较新的段子补上,这样邱政政20篇就全喽 理科类段子:讨论“生物学” 2001.8 (47-50) 音频文件点击下载 Today, we are going to continue our discussion on social insects, focusing on the Argentine ants, which as you might guess is a species of ants that are natives to Argentina. We'll consider what happened to this type of ants after some members of the species move to California from their original habitat. OK, well, in Argentina, these Argentine ants behave like most ant species around the world. They fight other ants of the same species if those ants are from some other nests. But the Argentine ants living in California behave differently. Ants from different nests form a single large colony. Within this colony, there is little aggression among ants from different nests. And when they fight with insects from outside their colony, the Argentine ants can quickly recruit a huge army from their network of nests. This of course gives them advantages over other ants' species. So then, why do Argentine ants behave differently in California than they do in Argentina? Well, using genetic testing, researches found that all the Argentine ants in California were very similar genetically. You see, when the first Argentine ants came to California, their population must have been very small and all the later generations of Argentine ants there must have descended from the same few ancestors. So they are all closely related. This discovery is important, because for most social insects, membership in a colony is based on how closely related they are genetically. 文科类段子:讨论“政治学” 2002.5 (46-50) 音频文件点击下载 We know then that in the US, it's the job of Congress to review propose new laws, which we call bills, and perhaps to modify these bills and then wrote on them. But even if the bill passed in Congress, it still doesn't become a law until the president had a chance to review it too. And if it's not to the president's liking, the bill can be vetoed or killed in either of two ways. One is by a veto message. The president has ten days to veto the bill by returning it to Congress, along with the message explaining why it's being rejected. This keeps the bill from becoming a law unless overwhelming majorities of both houses of Congress vote to over-right the president's veto. Something they really do. Often, lawmakers simply revised the vetoed bill and passed it again. This time, in the form the president less likely to object to, and thus less likely to want to veto. The other way the president can kill a bill is by pocket veto. Here's what happen. If the president doesn't sign the bill within ten days, and Congress are jurors during that time, then the bill will not become law. Notice that is only the end of entire session of Congress that the pocket veto can be used, not just whenever Congress take the shorter break, say, for a summer vacation, after a pocket veto, that particular bill is dead. If a lawmaker in Congress want to push the matter in their next session, they'll have to start all over with a brand new version of the bill. 文科类段子:讨论“艺术史” 2002.8 (43-46) 音频文件点击下载 One important thing about art movements is that their popularity can be affected by social conditions, which are themselves often affected by historical events. As an example, look at what happened in the United States early in the 20th century, around the time of the great depression, the art movement known as the Regionalism had begun in the United States even before the depression occurred. But it really flourished in the 1930s, during the depression years. Why? Well, many artists who had been living in big cities were forced by the economic crisis to leave those big cities and move back to their small towns in rural America. Some of these artists came to truly embrace the life in small towns and to eject city life in so called "sophisticated society." These artists or specifically certain painters really built regionalist movement. They created things in everyday life in small towns or farming areas. And their style was not all-neutral, really big glorified or romanticized country life, showing it stable, wholesome, and embodying important American traditions. And this style became very popular, in part because of the economic conditions of the time. You see, the depression had caused many Americans to begin to doubt their society. But regionalism artists painted scenes that glorified American values, scenes that many Americans could easily identify with. So the movement helped strengthen people' s faith in their country, faith that had weakened as the result of the depression. But in the 1940s, before and after the Second World War, American culture began to take on a much more international spirit, and Regionalism, with its focus on small town life, well it lost a lot of popularity, as American society changed once again. 文科类段子:讨论“政治学” 2002.9 (47-50) 音频文件点击下载 We are going to start today to discuss Congressional aids. That's the people who worked for our congressional representatives both in Washington and in the representative's local district. It used to be that members of congress had a relatively small staff of people working for them. And all of these are in a primary importance. And now there are thousands of government' s aids. They profoundly affect the whole government works. Congressional aids work in two different notations, one in Congressional representative's local office, which they were elected, and two, in Washington. Staff in the local office helps members of Congress staying in touch with their districts. These citizens can bring problems in person or by mail or phone. This personal connection between the aids and local people can be helpful when the next election comes around. People remember the help they get from office of local representatives. But as you know, members of congress have to spend most of their times in Washington taking care of their legislative duties. Over 6000 new laws are introduced to the Congress each session, without help, representatives would have trouble keeping up with the proposed laws that directly affect the district. So that's why the congressional aids play a major role in Washington. They keep the bosses informed about the opinion in legislation and just keep their local congress representatives up to date and inform what's going on in other parts of Congress. Now another thing that congressional aids do is to help develop ideas for that their bosses will eventually propose to Congress. This can be called the steps ultra portfolio function. That's a bit like in business trying to find out what product is most popular. Congressional aids promoted or encourage laws they think will be popular for public. You also got other people work for whole Congress, not just individual members, we will talk about these people next. 文科类段子:讨论“经济学” 2002.10 (44-46) 音频文件点击下载 Finally there is one more element to business success that we haven't talked about. I know what you think I'm going to say, luck and you're partially right. Good entrepreneurs know how to make their own luck and that means being in the right place at the right time with the right product. Let me give you a little example, early in this century, if you're a traveler by train and subway and you happen to get a little thirsty in the station, where would you go for some water? There were no big soda machine at every corner or even drinking fountains, yet there were thousands of thirsty travelers out there, well, what they did was drank water out of one little tin cup that was passed from one thirsty commuter to the next. That's right, everybody drank out of the same cup, and you can bet it didn't get washed after every user. Well, that was the right time for the right product and there was a man who had it. His name is HM and his product was the disposable paper cup. He came up with it just as the nation was becoming concerned about their health risks associated with the tin cups. Laws were passed outlying the things; reports were published showing just what sorts of germs can be passed around from sharing them. Mr. M roaded that way to become the best known producers of one of the most successful paper products of all time. He originally called his product health cups, but later changed the nature, so can anyone guess what that name might be? 文科类段子:讨论“生物学” 2003.1 (44-47) 音频文件点击下载 I've mentioned how DNA has solved many mysteries in biology. And today I want to talk about how it might relate to hypothesis about the travels of the green turtle. Every winter some green turtles make a 2000km journey from Brazil to Ascension Island in the middle of Atlantic, where they mate and lay eggs. But the question is why do they travel so far to lay their eggs? One researcher hypothesized that there are two parts to the explanation. One is natal homing, the instinct that drives green turtles to always return to the beach where they were hatched. The second part has to do with continental drift, the theory that the positions of earth continents have changed considerably overtime. Brazil and Ascension Island were once much closer together, and continental drift drove them apart. But the turtles kept on going back to the island where they hatched. However another scientist question this explanation on the ground that it would be very unlikely that conditions would allow generations of turtles over hundreds of millions of years to keep going back to the same nesting ground every single year. So, what is the connection to DNA? Well, there are groups of green turtles that nest in locations other than the Ascension Island. If green turtles always return to the place where they were hatched, then the turtles that have been going to the Ascension Island to nest would have been genetically isolated long enough to have DNA that was very different from the green turtles that nest elsewhere. But when scientists examine DNA from these turtles, their DNA wasn't that different from the DNA of the turtles that go to Ascension Island. Do you have a shock? Well, we still don't know the answer to the question about why a certain group of turtles go to Ascension Island, but this study was a nice example of the usefulness of DNA analysis to biology. 理科类段子:讨论“天文学” 2003.8 (45-47) 音频文件点击下载 We are going to talk today about the moon, our moon. First of all, the earth's moon is unusual. Why? It's larger than other moons or satellites in the solar system, in relation to its planet. Its diameter is more than a quarter that of the earth. And if you compare the earth and the moon in terms of substance, you find the moon isn't much like the earth. For example, the earth has a significant iron core, but the moon contains very little heavy materials like iron. That's why its density is much lower than that of the earth. Now one time it was believed that the moon and the earth were formed at the same time from the same material. But then wouldn't the moon have as much iron as the earth? Another theory is that the moon was formed elsewhere in the solar system, and then it was captured, sort of speak, by earth. But study shows that the young earth would not have had enough gravitational force to stop a body the size of a moon from traveling through the solar system and pull it into orbit. The newest theory is called the big splash theory Here, the new young earth was hit by another big planet. Most of the colliding planet entered the earth and became part of it. But the huge impact created a vapor that shed out into space and eventually condensed as the moon. Because this material came mostly from the earth surface crust, not the iron core, the moon contains almost no iron. Well, as plausible as it sounds, it' s only a theory, and we can't be sure that this is what really happened, that this is how the moon originated. Plenty of research remained to be done. 文科类段子:讨论“心理学” 2003.8 (48-50) 音频文件点击下载 In order to diagnose and treat abnormal behavior, we have to start with clear definitions of what's meant by abnormal and normal. Criteria must be worked out for distinguishing one from the other in actual clinical cases. The word abnormal implies a deviation from some clearly defined norm. In the case of physical illness, the boundary lines between normality and pathology are often clearly delineated by medical science, making it easier to diagnose. On the psychological level, however, we have no ideal model to use as a base of comparison, nothing to help us distinguish mental health from mental disorder. The problem of defining abnormal behavior via establishing just what is meant by normal behavior has proved extremely difficult. However, as chapter 5 outlines, several criteria have been proposed. One norm described behavior has proved extremely difficult. However, as chapter 5 outlines, several criteria have been proposed. One norm described behavior has proved extremely difficult. However, as chapter 5 outlines, several criteria have been proposed. One norm described in detail in your text is personal adjustment. An individual who was able to deal with problems effectively without serious anxiety or unhappiness or more serious symptoms is said to be well-adjusted. Personal adjustment as a norm has several serious limitations though. For example, it makes no reference to the individual's role in the group. How're we going to classify, for example, a typical politician or business person who engages in unethical practices. Either might be a successful, happy, well-adjusted individual. Obviously, the welfare of the group, as well as that of the individual, must be considered, which brings me to the next approach. 理科类段子:讨论“生物学” 2003.10 (40-42) 音频文件点击下载
Today, we are going to talk about a special way some plants respond to being invaded by pests. The plants react by emitting a chemical signal, which acts like a call for help. Let's take corn plants for example. Sometimes, caterpillars chew on the corn leaves. When the caterpillar saliva mixes with the chew portion of a leave, the plant releases a chemical cream that attracts wasps. The wasps respond to the signal by flying to the chewed on leave, and laying their eggs on the caterpillars. The caterpillars die in the next few days as the wasp offspring nourish themselves by feeding of them. Thus the corn plant prevents all its leaves from being eaten by the caterpillars. This chemical cream is specific. It's only released after the plant has detected the caterpillar saliva. A plant that is cut by in the other means does not give off the Sallie signal, nor doesn't undamaged plants. This also explains how a wasp can find a caterpillar in a huge field of corn. Soybean, cotton and probably many other plants use similar type of defense against pests. By enhancing this natural response in plants, researchers might reduce, some day even eliminate the need for chemical pesticide, which can cause ecological damage. For example, scientists might breed plants for this creaming trait, or they might transplant specific genes to increase the release of the chemical signals. 文科类段子:讨论“美国历史” 2003.10 (48-50) 音频文件点击下载 About 200 years ago, the United States economy was growing quickly, mainly because a booming trade in grain and cotton. This trade is grain and cotton went on near areas or at the coast, or near navigable rivers. It took place there because it was so expensive to transport goods over the roads that existed. They were muddy, narrow, and hard to travel on. At that time, don't forget there was only one continuous road that existed in the US, and it was made up of north to south local country roads, linked together to get one long road. Within a short time, the first east-to-west roads were built. They were called turnpikes. Private companies built these roads, and collected fees from all vehicles traveled on them. Eventually, a network of dirt, gravel or plank roadways connected some major cities and towns. But even these turnpike roads were still very slow, and traveling on them was too costly for farmers. They would spend more money to move their crops than they got by selling them. So, we see that even with some major improvement in roadways, farmers still had to rely on rivers to move their crops to markets.
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