【每日阅读训练——速度4系列】【速度4-12】&【越障4-12】

fox0923

糊糊的越障速度来也~~~阅读绝对不能放下，大家加油啊~~

速度
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For Lots of People, Getting Older Means Getting Happier

By BriannaBlake
2010-8-23
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Old age may not sound exciting. But recentfindings offer good news for older people and for people worried about gettingolder.
Researchers found that people become happierand experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they sayby the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they werewhen they were eighteen years old.
The findings came from a survey of more thanthree hundred forty thousand adults in the United States. The GallupOrganization questioned them by telephone in two thousand eight. At that time,the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.
The researchers asked questions about emotionslike happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotionalstress.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatryand Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. Histeam found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages oftwenty-two and twenty-five.
The findings showed that stress levels droppedsharply after people reached their fifties.
Happiness was highest among the youngest adultsand those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feelingnegative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
The study also showed that men and women havesimilar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all agesreported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
The findings appeared in the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences.
Researchers say they do not know why happinessincreases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, theygrow more thankful for what they have and have better control of theiremotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
Professor Stone says the emotional patternscould be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changesin brain chemistry.
The researchers also considered possibleinfluences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. Butthey found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happinessand well-being related to age.
(And that's the VOASpecial English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. Tellus what you think about the relationship between happiness and age. You canpost comments on our website, 51voa.com, or on Facebook and Twitter at VOA LearningEnglish. I'm Barbara Klein.)
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Art Chimes | St. Louis, Missouri
August 22, 2011

Someone who eats well and is physically active,can be as healthy as a normal-weight person, despite carrying some extra kilos.
For years, we've been hearing about the dangers of obesity.Obese people are more likely to have heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes, andthey should try to lose weight, experts say.
But now a new study findsthat it's possible to be obese and healthy.
Doctors use a measure called BMI (body massindex) to measure obesity. It's an easy calculation based on height and weight,and if your BMI is over 30, you're considered obese.

A couple of years ago, Canadian researchers developed a more sophisticatedmeasure, called the Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS). It classifies obesepeople in five categories, or stages, based on risk factors such as bloodpressure, chest pain, and fatigue.

To evaluate the EOSS, Jennifer L. Kuk, PhD, of Toronto's York University, andcolleagues examined thousands of patient records from a clinic in Texas. Eachpatient was assigned to risk groups in the Edmonton system based on an averageof 16 years of medical history.

"When we did that we saw that the obese individuals who were categorizedin the low risk of the Edmonton Staging System, they were at a similar risk ofdying as compared to the normal weight people in that sample. And they're infact at lower risk for dying of cardiovascular disease," Kuk says.

Many of these obese-but-healthy people had struggled to lose weight, but Kuksays that may not be the best approach for someone who eats well and isphysically active, despite carrying some extra kilos.

"There are healthy obese individuals, and these healthy obese individualsmay not actually benefit from losing weight. Instead, we should focus on ahealthy lifestyle that includes exercise and a good diet, and maybe thesehealthy individuals should stop focusing so much on losing weight and justfocus on not gaining any more."

The Edmonton System was developed by researchers at the University of Alberta,and it is meant to be used alongside the traditional BMI scale. But perhapsbecause it is more complex than just using BMI, EOSS has been slow to gaintraction.
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FaizaElmasry | Washington, D.C.
August 23, 2011

Engineeringmajor Khang Nguyen, 22, checks his SmartyPig saving account every day and likessharing his saving goals with his family and friends online.
Young people now are often better known for impulsivespending than for saving money.

But new youth-oriented banking are offering clients the information and toolsthey need to become better money managers and to share their financialexperiences with other young people.
Alix Scott, 19, is working at a store this summer, savingmoney to pay for college next year.

"I have to save for all my college money because my parents, they can'tafford to co-sign on loans," she says. "So, I have to rely on my ownsavings."
Online piggy bank

But rather than put her money in a local bank, Scott opened an account on SmartyPig,a web-based banking service.

"When I do that, I overcome the impulses to just spend the money,"she says.

Michael Ferrari says, "SmartyPig is really all about helping people tosave for specific financial goals. It can be a wedding, a vacation, ani-Phone."
Michael Ferrari founded SmartyPig with a friend in 2007.After starting a college account for his new baby, Ferrari says he realized thepower of saving for a specific goal. Helping other savers stay focused on theirgoals is the idea behind his online piggy bank.

Ferrari explains how PigySmart works.

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"For example, I'm saving for a vacation," he says. "I want tosave $5,000. I want to meet this goal in three years. SmartyPig will actuallycalculate how much money you need to allocate every month. You don't have tomove it from your existing bank. We'll actually go in and withdraw those fundson the day you specify every month and we put it into your SmartyPig account,where they'll actually accrue interest, as well."

And, Ferrari says, the site also allows depositors to get outside help.

"erhaps a holiday or a birthday is coming up. Rather than getting a gift,your friends and family can actually contribute to any of your SmartyPig goals."
Sharing savings goals online

Twenty-two-year-old civil engineering major Khang Nguyen likes being able toshare his saving goals with his online community.

"I think it's actually a good thing that they are able to see it,"Nguyen says. "Like, you know a bunch of my friends after they find outabout what I do, they always come ask me for financial advice."

Online banking sites like SmartyPig are attracting a growing number of youngdepositors, who like the convenience and services. These personal financewebsites offer a variety of money management tools which help users track theirspending, set up a budget and consolidate their accounts.
And they all have a social media aspect, which appeals toyoung adults who are already comfortable sharing their personal informationonline.


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"There are all kinds of individuals out there who havetheir own blogs who are talking about money, creating videos, making infographics and are talking about money. You just see personal financesinformation in places that you wouldn't expect," says Janet Stauble,spokesperson for the personal finance website, bankrate.com.

She adds, "It's not likely that you might go to a friend and say, ‘Hey, Ipaid off $1000 on my credit card today,' but people write up blog posts aboutit and they explain how they did it, how much closer they are to theirfinancial goal, whatever it is."

As technology continues to evolve, she predicts more people will embrace theemerging electronic banking sites.
Online partnerships with banks

Steve Weisman, who lectures about financial issues at Bentley University inWaltham, Massachusetts, says the more innovative these sites are in providingtheir services, the more successful they will be in doing business alongsidetraditional banks or in cooperation with them.

"For instance, SmartyPig, they are not actually a bank, but they arepartnered with a bank," Weisman explains. "So what you're going tosee is big banks and little banks that are legitimate financial institutions,but not necessarily the most savvy when it comes to computers or the Internet,they will partner up with other companies that may be doing some of the webmaterial and other assistance, while the actual banking would be done through abank with which it is connected."

That collaboration, he says, will change the way Americans save in the future.


越障
(779 words)
Business inEgyptIs the revolution good for business?
Probably, but investorsare waryAug 13th 2011 | CAIRO | fromthe print edition
·        
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TUTANKHAMUN T-shirts are out;slogans celebrating Egypt’s democratic revolution are in. For 20 Egyptianpounds ($3.36), a vendor in Cairo’s Tahrir Square will sell you one showing araised fist and the Facebook logo—a reminder of how the protesters used socialmedia to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has uncounted millions ofsmall entrepreneurs. Most operate outside the law. Hernando de Soto, a Peruvianeconomist, once estimated that informal enterprises employ 40% more workersthan all of Egypt’s legally registered companies put together.Throat-constricting red tape is the reason. Mr de Soto found that it took onaverage 500 days to register a small bakery in Egypt, or ten years to obtainlegal title to a vacant plot of land. Small wonder most businessfolk opt towork without licences or legal protections. Few pay tax, either.
Forobvious reasons, statistics on the informal economy are hard to come by. No oneknows how many Egyptians have been put out of work since the uprising began inJanuary. But it is clear that tourism, which provides one job in seven and 11%of GDP, has been badly dented. International arrivals were 35% lower in Aprilthis year than the previous April, according to the government. In the firstquarter, the year-on-year drop was a calamitous 46%; this cost Egypt anestimated $2 billion.
In the summer, tourists from theGulf usually flock to Egypt. This year their numbers are down, not leastbecause the Gulf media—much of which are owned by princes—portray pro-democracyprotests as terrifyingly bloody. Five-star hotels in Garden City, Cairo’sdiplomatic area, have reduced their prices by 50% or more. Breaks in Sharm ElSheikh, a seaside resort that attracts more visitors than the pyramids, arealso heavily discounted.
The gloom will not last forever.Egyptian tourism has been wounded before, most nastily in 1997, when terroristskilled and mutilated 58 holidaymakers in the Valley of the Kings. In that case,tourist numbers fell for about a year. This suggests that Egypt’s mix of cheapsunshine and 5,000 years of history will eventually lure back budget-consciousEuropeans, who typically account for around two-thirds of visitors. In theshort term, however, the loss of jobs is alarming. Some 700,000 young Egyptiansenter the labour market each year. If they cannot find work, they may growrestless.
Political uncertainty is keepinginvestors away, at least for now. The first quarter of 2011 saw a net outflowof foreign direct investment of $163m. (In the last quarter of 2010, there wasa net inflow of $656m.) Foreign firms have not been pulling out of Egypt—theydon’t want to lose their foothold in the Middle East’s most populous nation. Ithas 85m people, roughly a quarter of all Arabs. The economic fundamentals arelargely unchanged: Egypt’s location at the crossroads between Europe, theMiddle East and Africa remains attractive. The country also has one of the Arabworld’s most diversified economies.
Foreign development banks, eager tohelp democracy succeed, are opening their purse-strings. The World Bank’sprivate-financing arm, the International Finance Corporation, said in late Julythat it would invest $50m in Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Egypt’slargest listed company, and would also lend $200m to one of OCI’s subsidiaries,a fertiliser firm. Citadel Capital, Egypt’s largest venture-capital firm, hassecured $21m from European development banks for an Egyptian river-transportfund.
But investors are still wary. Thecorrupt and brutal Mubarak regime styled itself as business-friendly. (Andindeed it liberalised investment rules and cut taxes, though it also stronglyfavoured cronies over independent businesspeople.) Now that the regime is gone,there is a danger of a backlash against all businesses, which are tarred byassociation. “Films portray everyone in a suit as evil,” sighs a banker.
Firmsare doing all they can to distance themselves from the old order. Advertisingbillboards praise Egypt’s youth and show small children, faces painted withEgyptian flags, alongside exhortations to buy new mobile phones. This canbackfire: Vodafone faced criticism in June after an advert linked it to the“people power” of the revolution. The real revolutionaries recall that theirphones and internet connections were cut off, on the government’s orders,during the clashes.
The revolution could make Egyptmore prosperous, if it leads to less corruption, stronger institutions, greaterdiaspora goodwill and a more motivated population. Citadel Capital issued astatement after Mr Mubarak was ousted arguing that democracy would be good forbusiness. Maybe so. The head of a medical-distribution company smiles thatbureaucrats are now treating people (such as himself) who run small businessesrather better. Before the revolution, he remembers, they only bothered to helpthe well-connected.

jxgzcly

第一次做速度训练,200多吃得消,300多,差好几行.

fox0923

1'40"
1'16"
怪了，难道记错时间了，为什么字数差不多时间却差这么多？
1'
56"
1'06"

由于旁边坐着的这位大哥实在是烟味太大，还不停的咽口水，一个字“恶”，最终导致糊糊分神~~~赶快撤离quiet room!btw，piggy bank这一篇我觉得可以放在作文里是不错的innovation和success的题材！

fox0923

第一次做速度训练,200多吃得消,300多,差好几行.

-- by 会员 jxgzcly (2011/8/26 0:20:36)

刚开始都不习惯，慢慢来，积少成多！

balapupu

1.1‘47’
2.1‘35’
3.0‘44‘
4.0’51’
5.1‘00’

daisyの小夢想

81s 新高哈哈
84s
65s
60s
62s

balapupu

1.T恤上的Logo反映了埃及革命的胜利。
2.埃及有很多的非法劳工，很多劳工都在编制之外，有的还要缴税。革命导致了很多人的失业。
3。这场革命对旅游业也有很大的冲击，影响了埃及的GDP，以前是怎样怎样现在时怎样怎样。
4。埃及的很多高级酒店和五星级酒店也纷纷打折。
5.许多的外国投资者因为埃及的政治局势不稳定而不去投资，也不利于埃及的经济发展。
6，但是有许多的银行，为了挽救埃及的经济，纷纷开始向一些公司注入资本。
7.但是还要许多商人担心现在的经济局势。
8.革命有利于埃及的经济繁荣，有利于小商家的发展。

南瓜0729

1‘38’’
1‘30’’
57’’
54’’
1‘05’’

sunnysunxiamen

2'04
1'50
53
1'13
1'18

kidvii

KID 先留个名，赶在抓老大和BAT前。哇嘎嘎。让你们每天都爬在我上面。讨厌。