Scientific American 60 Second Science听抄（有音频文件）

kelediguoUID: 149939

Got you.

kelediguoUID: 149939

2007-8-23 60-Second Psych

What do women want? Well, according to marketers, anything as long as it’s pink. From baby blankets to cell phones, the first step in moving female consumers is to have it pink wrapped. Well, research published this week in Current Biology might validate the practice although feminists may see red. Researchers from Newcastle University asked more than 200 people to choose their preferred color from a range of red, green to blue, yellow. They found that women across the board, strongly prefer the reddish hues, well the men, not so much. Further, they gave the subjects the Bem Sex Role Inventory that measures femininity and found that the more feminine you are, the more you prefer the reddish hues. Since the study was cross-cultural, scientists say the preference may be part of our nature. They speculated that in hunter-gatherer days, women, who may have gathered more than hunted, honed the skill for spotting red ripe fruit They also suggest women are more sensitive to blushed skin in order to better read emotional states. So the sensitivity to reddishness, they say, stuck and may explain the cliché of being pretty and pink.

[ 本帖最后由 kelediguo 于 2007-8-26 09:43 编辑 ]

sunxikai007UID: 2296833

The 1976 Mars viking landers did't find any lfe on the right planet, but maybe they weren't
looking right. Because at least one researcher thinks that 10% of Mars soil tested by the viking
could actually have bioligical orgin (?).The Dutch researcher Juke Havdcuber presented his ideas
on  August 24  at the meeting of EU planetary science congression passed them. One viking test measured unexplained arisie of O2 and CO2 which inhibiting soil sample .Havdcuber suggests(?) that incredible dry and cold surface soil might be home to living cells, such  cells however would be
need to be faver  () water and which could stay
liquid in harsh conditions. But if the viking landers have the school bible have the strange cells.
Their broken down products would in line with O2 and CO2  method. The biomass will then  present 10%  of Mars soil by weight which is interestingly comfortable to level's found in suman dust (?)

cuiwenliUID: 2297488

The 1976 Mars Viking landers didn't find any life on the red planet. But maybe they weren't looking right, because at least one researcher thinks that a tenth of a percent of the Martian soil tested by Vikings could actually had a biological origin. Dutch researcher Jop Cooker presented his idea on August 24th at the meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam. One Viking test measured unexplained the rises in oxygen and carbon dioxide when it was
incubating in soil samples. Cooker conjectures that incredibly in dry and cool
surface of Mars might be home to living cells. Such cells however would be      mixed with water and hydrogen peroxide which would stay liquid in harsh conditions. And if the Viking lander happened to scoop up any of these strange cells, their breakdown products would be in line with oxygen and carbon dioxide measured. The biomass will then represent a 10% of the Martian soil by weight, which is interestingly comparable level to found in some Antarctic permafrost.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

I saw two problems:

…the first step in wooing female consumers is to have it pink wrapped.

…the cliché of being pretty in pink.

Note: For those who are taking the TOEFL, “hunter-gatherer” is an important phrase and concept to keep in mind. That was how humans lived before the advent of agriculture in Mesopotamia, which was brought about by the abrupt changes in climate.

linkunkun7UID: 2196646

大家别忘了把字搞大点撒。。。看的时间比写的时间还长。。。;d:

colonel2007UID: 2309573

Episode 160: April 23, 2007

chuanweizuoUID: 2189837

This is going to surprise anybody who has even been shaken away by a quake in southern california. But geologists say that the Los Angeles basin is actually in a period of low seismic activity and has been for about the last thousand years. That's according to a research published in the september issue of the journal Geology. The seismic lull is marked by relatively smaller and fewer earthquakes, that's compared with other periods with a lot of rumbling and crumbling. The period of big seimic activity in the LA basin that ended 1,000 years ago lasted about 4,000 years. Long term data on seismic activity indicate that the calm period lasts about 1,500 to 2,000 years, which gives LA another 500 to 1,000 years off. Now the researchers are specifically referring to what's called the urban fault network, which is under the LA metropolitan area. It does not include the San Andreas fault, which can still throw the occasional bigger one around. About ten major San Andreas biggest happened to in a current LA basin lull. Nevertheless, if the current lull ends in the next millennium, LA's future could be very shaky.

[ 本帖最后由 chuanweizuo 于 2007-8-27 16:04 编辑 ]

liucirongUID: 2215759

August 27, 2007: 60-Second Science LA's Fault System Actually In Quiet Period

The "urban fault network" under the Los Angeles metropolitan area--which does not include the San Andreas fault--is actually in a period of relative quiet. Steve Mirsky reports.

This is gonna surprise anybody who has ever been shaked away(awake) by a quake in Southern Carlifornia. But geologists say that the Los Angeles basin is actually in a period of low seismic activity, and has been for about the last 1,000 years. That’s according to research published in the September issue of the Journal Geology. The size(seismic lull) is marked by relatively smaller and fewer earthquakes as compared with other periods with a lot of rumbling and crumbling. The period of big seismic activity in L.A. basin that ended 1,000 years ago, lasted about 4,000 years. Long term data on seismic activity indicate that the come(calm [kɑ:m]) period lasts about 1,500(fifteen hundred) to 2,000 years, which gives L.A. another 500 to 1,000 years off. Now the researchers are specifically referring to what’s called the “urban fault network” which is under the L.A. metropolitan area. It doesn’t include the San Andreas Fault, which can still through(throw) the occasional big one around. About 10 major San Andreas’ biggies happened during the current L.A. basin lull. Nevertheless, if the current lull ends in the next millennium, L.A’s future could be very shaky.

NEW WORD:
Seismic[ˈsaizmik] adjective
[only before noun] connected with or caused by earthquakes: seismic data / waves

Lull[lʌl] noun [usually sing.] ~ (in sth) a quiet period between times of activity: a lull in the conversation / fighting ◆ Just before an attack everything would go quiet but we knew it was just the lull before the storm (= before a time of noise or trouble).
verb (written)
[VN] to make sb relaxed and calm: The vibration of the engine lulled the children to sleep. ◆ He was lulled by the peaceful sound of the rain.
to make sth, or to become, less strong: [VN] His father's arrival lulled the boy's anxiety. [also V]

rumbling and crumbling
rumbling noun
(also used as an adjective) a long deep sound or series of sounds: the rumblings of thunder ◆ a rumbling noise ◆ (figurative) the rumblings of discontent
[usually pl.] things that people are saying that may not be true
crumble: verb
to break or break sth into very small pieces: [V] Rice flour makes the cake less likely to crumble. ◆[VN] Crumble the cheese over the salad.
[V] if a building or piece of land is crumbling, parts of it are breaking off: buildings crumbling into dust ◆ crumbling stonework ◆ The cliff is gradually crumbling away. ◆ They live in a crumbling old mansion.
[V] ~ (into / to sth)
~ (away) to begin to fail or get weaker or to come to an end: a crumbling business / relationship ◆ All his hopes began to crumble away. ◆ The empire finally crumbled into dust.

biggie noun
(informal) an important thing, person or event: This year is going to be the biggie in his career!

millennium   a period of 1 000 years, especially as calculated before or after the birth of Christ: the second millennium AD ◆ For millennia, it was accepted that the earth was at the centre of the universe.
(the millennium) the time when one period of 1 000 years ends and another begins: How did you celebrate the millennium?

basinnoun
(especially BrE) = WASHBASIN
a large round bowl for holding liquids or (in British English) for preparing foods in; the amount of liquid, etc. in a basin: a pudding basin
an area of land around a large river with streams running down into it: the Amazon Basin
(technical) a place where the earth's surface is lower than in other areas of the world: the Pacific Basin
a sheltered area of water providing a safe harbour for boats: a yacht basin

shaky adjective (shakier, shakiest)
shaking and feeling weak because of illness, emotion or old age: Her voice sounded shaky on the phone. ◆ The old man was very shaky on his feet. ◆ My legs still felt quite shaky.
not firm or safe; not certain: That ladder looks a little shaky. ◆ a shaky chair / table ◆ (figurative) Her memories of the accident are a little shaky. ◆ (figurative) The protesters are on shaky ground (= it is not certain that their claims are valid).
not seeming very successful; likely to fail: Business is looking shaky at the moment. ◆ After a shaky start, they fought back to win 32. ◆ The future looks shaky for the present government.
shakily adverb: 'Get the doctor,' he whispered shakily. ◆ Jill rose shakily to her feet.

Auditory discrimination:
shaked away(awake)
Long term data on seismic activity
come(calm [kɑ:m])
1,500(fifteen hundred)
occasional
through(throw)   through  [θru:]    throw [θrəu]
millennium    >>>








Los Angeles Enjoying 1,000 Year SeismicLull

Science Daily — The Los Angeles basin appears to be in a seismic "lull" characterized by relatively smaller and infrequent earthquakes, according to a study in the September issue of Geology.

By contrast, the Mojave Desert is in a seismically active period. Seismic activity alternates between the two regions, the study suggests.

The lull in the Los Angeles basin began 1,000 years ago, said the authors, led by James Dolan, associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Southern California.

"The past 1,000 years has been relatively quiet," Dolan said, referring to what he calls the "urban fault network" under the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

The claim will come as news to anyone who has lived through a big quake in Southern California.

But Dolan said that even the Northridge earthquake of 1994, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history at the time, was "a drop in the bucket" compared to the massive jolts that would strike the basin during a period of high seismic activity.

The study comes with some caveats. Among them:

* The urban fault network does not include the more distant San Andreas fault. Though the San Andreas is storing energy at a slower than average rate, a major quake along the fault is always possible. About 10 San Andreas "big ones" have occurred during the current lull on the urban fault network.
* The authors developed their theory from the discovery of several "clusters" of intense seismic activity in the geological record. It is not yet known if the clusters are statistically significant.

The authors studied the geological record going back 12,000 years. During that period, they found several clusters of seismic "bursts," with the most recent lasting 4,000 years and ending about 1,000 years ago. The seismic clusters were separated by periods of relative calm lasting about 1,500 to 2,000 years.

Remarkably, the lulls in the Los Angeles region corresponded with seismic clusters in the Mojave Desert, as described in 2000 by Thomas Rockwell of San Diego State University and his colleagues.

"When we're having earthquakes in L.A., generally we don't have as many earthquakes in the Mojave," and vice versa, Dolan said.

The study in Geology proposes a mechanism by which periods of high seismic activity alternate between the urban fault network and the Mojave Desert.

The two main cogs in the mechanism are the section of the San Andreas fault north of Los Angeles and the desert fault system known as the eastern California shear zone.

Rapid motion along one fault causes slower motion along the other, the authors suggest. During relatively rare periods when the San Andreas fault is moving slowly, the strain in the urban fault network drops accordingly, leading to a seismic lull in Los Angeles and to more seismic activity in the desert.

"The San Andreas is always dominant. It's always the big brother," Dolan said. "But at times the eastern California shear zone takes up its share of the load."

During the current lull in Los Angeles, major earthquakes in the eastern California shear zone have included the magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine of 1999, the 7.3 Landers of 1992 and the 7.6 Owens Valley of 1872.

Each packed four to 20 times the energy of the Northridge quake.

While all three quakes occurred in sparsely populated areas, Palm Springs and other desert communities lie close to the eastern California shear zone and could be vulnerable.

"These are very large earthquakes," Dolan said.

If the authors' theory is confirmed, detecting the start and end of a lull will become extremely important. Predicting the end of the current lull is impossible at present, Dolan said.

"We do know that the Mojave part of the eastern California shear zone is still storing energy much more rapidly than usual (by a factor of about two), so I would tend to doubt that the recent 1994 (magnitude) 6.7 Northridge and 1971 (magnitude) 6.7 San Fernando earthquakes indicate that we are coming out of' the current lull," he said.

Dolan studies fault systems in Southern California and in Turkey, whose simpler fault geography helps Dolan to understand the "extremely complicated place" that he calls home.

In a study published in Science in 2003, he estimated the size and frequency of past earthquakes on the Puente Hills fault, one of the Los Angeles-area faults currently in a lull.

The study found that all four major earthquakes on the Puente Hills fault in the past 11,000 years exceeded magnitude 7.0.

"We're stuck with living here, so we have to understand what we can about this system," Dolan said.

Dolan's co-authors were Charles Sammis, professor of earth sciences at USC, and David Bowman, associate professor of geological sciences at California State University, Fullerton.

Funding for the research came from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey through the Southern California Earthquake Center as well as from the California Department of Transportation and the City and County of Los Angeles.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Southern California.
Seismic[ˈsaizmik] adjective
[only before noun] connected with or caused by earthquakes: seismic data / waves

Lull[lʌl] noun [usually sing.] ~ (in sth) a quiet period between times of activity: a lull in the conversation / fighting ◆ Just before an attack everything would go quiet but we knew it was just the lull before the storm (= before a time of noise or trouble).
verb (written)
[VN] to make sb relaxed and calm: The vibration of the engine lulled the children to sleep. ◆ He was lulled by the peaceful sound of the rain.
to make sth, or to become, less strong: [VN] His father's arrival lulled the boy's anxiety. [also V]

basin a large round bowl for holding liquids or (in British English) for preparing foods in; the amount of liquid, etc. in a basin: a pudding basin
an area of land around a large river with streams running down into it: the Amazon Basin
(technical) a place where the earth's surface is lower than in other areas of the world: the Pacific Basin
a sheltered area of water providing a safe harbour for boats: a yacht basin

fault a place where there is a break that is longer than usual in the layers of rock in the earth's CRUST

metropolitan [ˌmetrəˈpɔlitən]

jolt: noun [usually sing.]
a sudden rough movement

caveat noun
(formal, from Latin) a warning that particular things need to be considered before sth can be done: Any discussion of legal action must be preceded by a caveat on costs.

clusternoun
a group of things of the same type that grow or appear close together: a cluster of stars ◆ The plant bears its flowers in clusters. ◆ a leukaemia cluster (= an area where there are more cases of the disease than you would expect) ◆ a consonant cluster (= a group of consonants next to each other in a word or phrase)
a group of people, animals or things close together: a cluster of spectators ◆ a little cluster of houses

cog 1.cog cogs
A cog is a wheel with square or triangular teeth around the edge, which is used in a machine to turn another wheel or part.
N-COUNT
2.cog
If you describe someone as a cog in a machine or wheel, you mean that they are a small part of a large organization or group.
Mr Lake was an important cog in the Republican campaign machine.

sparselysparse  [spɑ:s]

adjective
(comparative sparser, no superlative) only present in small amounts or numbers and often spread over a large area: the sparse population of the islands ◆ Vegetation becomes sparse higher up the mountains. ◆ The information available on the subject is sparse.
sparsely adverb: a sparsely populated area ◆ a sparsely furnished room
sparseness noun [U]

[ 本帖最后由 liucirong 于 2007-8-27 22:08 编辑 ]

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

This goes to surprise anybody who has been shaken away by a quake in southern California. But geologists say the Las Angeles basin is actually in a period of low seismic activity and it has been for last thousand years. That’s according to a research published in September issue of the journal of Geology. The seismic lull is marked by smaller and fewer earthquakes, as is compared with other periods with a lot of rumbling and crumbling. The period of big seismic activity ended a thousand years ago and lasted about four thousand years. Long-term data on seismicity indicated the calm period lasts for fifteen hundreds to two thousand years which gave L.A. another five hundred years off. Now the researchers are specifically referring to what is called urban fault network, which is under LA metropolitan area. It does not include the San Andreas fault which can still throw occasional big one around. About ten major San Andreas biggies happened during the current  LA basin lull. Nevertheless, if the current lull ends in the next millennium, the LA’s future could be very shaky.

kelediguoUID: 149939

2007-8-27
This is gonna surprise anybody who has ever been shaken away by a quake in southern California. But geologists say that the Los Angeles basin is actually in a period of low seismic activity, and has been for about the last thousand years. That’s according to research published in the September issue of the journal Geology. The seismic lull was marked by relatively smaller and fewer earthquakes. That’s compared with other periods with a lot of rumbling and crumbling. The period of big seismic activity in the LA basin that ended a thousand years ago, lasted about four thousand years. Long-term data on seismic activity indicate that the calm period lasts about 1500 to 2000 years which gives LA another 500 to 1000 years off. Now the researchers are specifically referring to what’s called the “urban fault network”, which is under the LA metropolitan area. It does not include the San Andreas fault which can still throw the occasional big one around. About 10 major San Andreas biggest happened during the current LA basin lull. Nevertheless, if the current lull ends in the next millennium, LA’s future could be very shaky.

linkunkun7UID: 2196646

kelediguo你也辛苦点把字搞大点撒~~~

Ivy_cyhUID: 2388835

看到大家准备的都好认真，我有点发怵。自己还要不要考了？

curlycuckooUID: 2114039

thanks!

deeperingUID: 2360981

总是要考试的，坚持听力总是有效果的