揽瓜阁俱乐部第三期 Day1 2020.07.20
【社会科学-社交】 Covid-19 spurs single Japanese to look for love （432字 精读 必做篇）
He had always imagined he would get married someday. Then covid-19 hit. Yuto (not his real name), a 31-year-old hotel employee from the southern city of Kumamoto, found himself confined to his home, alone. He decided to accelerate his wedding plans, and signed up for an online match-making service to find the love of his life—fast.
Yuto is not alone. Since the pandemic broke out, more Japanese singles have been on the hunt for spouses. Sunmarie, a match-making agency, reported a 30% rise in inquiries in April compared with the year before. Both Sunmarie and o-net, a rival agency, have tried to adapt to the times, offering an online rendez-vous service since early April, when the government began curbing gatherings in much of the country. lmo, another firm, offers drive-through meetings, in which singletons can introduce themselves from their cars, in the empty car parks of wedding halls.
Cooped up in their homes alone for an extended period, singles are getting lonely—hence the surge in business for match-makers, explains Amano Kanako of nli Research Institute, a think-tank. With covid-19 dominating the news, lonely hearts are also increasingly anxious about the future: they want a partner with whom to face the unknown. “Those who vaguely thought about getting married one day are realising that the time is now,” says Kobayashi Jun of Seikei University.
This marks the reversal of a long trend. Marriage has been in decline for decades. More than 1m couples tied the knot each year in the early 1970s, but only 583,000 did last year. This is not just because the proportion of Japanese in their 20s and 30s (the age at which people most commonly wed) has fallen sharply. In 1970 only 2% of men and 3% of women had never married by 50. By 2015 those shares had climbed to 23% and 14%, respectively.
Interest in matrimony also surged after a terrible earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011. Memberships at match-making agencies soared. The steady decline in weddings was interrupted in 2012, when there were 7,000 more than the year before. The nature and scale of the earthquake and pandemic may differ, but their effect on the unmarried has been comparable, says Nagaoka Masamitsu of o-net. “People are stuck at home and have a lot of time to think about their future.”
Yuto from Kumamoto is already thinking about settling down with a 43-year-old Tokyoite he met online two months ago. Yet the rush to the altar (or shrine) may be short-lived. After the spike of 2012, there were 8,200 fewer weddings in 2013.
Source: The Economist
【社会科学-医疗】 New Study Suggests Ways to Stop Coronavirus’ Spread （346字 3分25秒 精听 必做篇）
先做精听再核对原文哦~
A recent study of coronavirus infections in Italy found that around 40 percent of cases showed no signs of infection, or symptoms. The findings suggest that asymptomatic cases are important in the spread of the virus.
The study was led by scientists at Italy’s Padua University and Imperial College London. The scientists looked at the Italian town of Vò. The town has about 3,200 people. It was put under quarantine for 14 days after having Italy’s first COVID-19 death on February 21.
An early, unedited version of the study was published in the scientific journal Nature on Monday.
The scientists said they tested 85.9 percent and 71.5 percent of the population of Vo’ at two different times.
In the first part of the study, which was done around the time the town’s quarantine started, researchers found 73 people were infected. That is about 2.6 percent of the population. In the second part of the study, which was done after the end of the quarantine, they found 29 people were infected. That is about 1.2 percent of the population.
In both parts of the study, about 40 percent of those who were infected did not have symptoms at the time of testing. They also did not develop symptoms afterwards. In other words, they were asymptomatic.
The study produced evidence that testing along with case isolation and community quarantines can stop local outbreaks quickly. Because all of the coronavirus cases found were quarantined, the researchers said, the disease was not able to spread quickly.
Andrea Crisanti is a professor at Padua. Crisanti was one of the leaders of the project.
“Despite ‘silent’ and widespread transmission, the disease can be controlled,” Crisanti said. “Testing of all citizens, whether or not they have symptoms, provides a way to...prevent outbreaks getting out of hand.”
Crisanti has become well known in Italy for his support of widespread testing. Crisanti said the success of Vo’s testing also guided wider public health policy in the Veneto Region, where it had “a tremendous impact on the course of the epidemic” there compared to other regions.
Source: VOA
【笔记格式要求】
精读笔记格式要求： 1.总结文章中心大意 2.总结分论点或每段段落大意 3.摘抄印象深刻或者觉得优美的句子 4.总结文章中的生词 5.记录阅读时间、总结时间、总时间
精听笔记格式要求： 1.逐句听写整篇文章 2.对照原文修改听写稿，标记出错原因 3.总结文章中心大意 4.总结精听过程中的生词 5.记录听写时间、总结时间、总时间
这里也给大家两点学习小建议哦~ 精读：如遇到读不懂的复杂句，建议找出句子主干，分析句子成分，也可以尝试翻译句子来帮助理解~ 精听：建议每句不要反复纠结听，如果听 5 遍都没听出来，那就跳过，等完成后再回听总结原因，时间宝贵，不要过于执着哦~
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发表于 2020-7-19 20:21:07
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