花式英语

Maryland Musician Holds Daily Concerts During Coronavirus Outbreak
隔离音乐家的每日音乐会

The spread of the new coronavirus has completely changed the daily routines of people around the world. Many are trying their best to find a "new normal" during a pandemic.

Musician Jodi Beder's "new normal" takes her to her home's front porch each afternoon. There, she sets up her music stand, sheet music for everything from Beethoven to the Beatles, and her cello -- a large stringed instrument that is held between the player's knees while the player sits.

At exactly 4 o'clock each day, Beder begins to play.Neighbors soon surround Beder's home. They stay at least two meters from each other, smiling and greeting each other from a safe distance.

Beder, who is 69, is a professional cellist. She has played in orchestras, folk groups and even a rock band. She currently works with a non-profit group that plays music for patients who are nearing death.


新闻来源：VOA

Belgium’s ‘Wonderchicken’ Believed to Be Ancestor of Modern Birds
比利时的小鸟祖先

The remains of a small bird are giving scientists a rare look at early ancestors of modern birds. Scientists believe it may be the oldest known fossil from this group of animals.

Researchers are calling the ancient creature "Wonderchicken." They say the fossil dates back to right before an asteroid hit the Earth, killing off dinosaurs and other creatures.

The researchers released a report describing a partridge-sized bird, whose scientific name is Asteriornis maastrichtensis. It lived in coastal wetlands more than 66 million years ago during Earth's Cretaceous Period.

The report appeared this month in Nature magazine.


来源：VOA

Millennials Are Economically Divided

经济分化的千禧一代

popular culture流行文化
entitled有权的，使享有特权的
Great Recession大萧条
debt负债
loan贷款
struggle努力

You can find a lot in popular culture about the generation of young people called millennials.

Millennials are often described in movies and television shows as feeling entitled. They act as if they have a right to the good things in life. Many millennials also are identified as jobless and more likely than other young people to be living with one or both parents.

The youngest members of this generation are in their middle 20s, while the oldest are nearly 40 years old. They lived through the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Many are weighed down with debt from student loans and have a hard time finding a good job in their field of study.

Some were strong candidates for such jobs, but instead accepted a lower-paying position. Today, those decisions and experiences continue to affect millions of millennials.

However, some young adults within the millennial age group have been able to succeed and done very well. There is a name for these young men and women: "mega-llennials."

Jason Dorsey is president and researcher at the Center for Generational Kinetics, a group based in Texas. He told VOA mega-llenials kept working and tried pulling themselves forward in the work force during hard economic times.

Dorsey added that mega-llenials are now further ahead compared to the rest of their generation "because they were still out there, producing...doing what they could do to make it happen."

There is a big difference between the mega-llennials and what have been called "me-llennials." Me-llennials are members of the generation that have still struggled professionally and are still working on finding their place in life.

新闻来源：VOA

Volunteers Produce 3D Printed Valves for Italian Coronavirus Patients

意大利3D打印氧气阀支援医院

A small Italian company has used 3D printing technology to quickly produce oxygen valves to treat some coronavirus patients.

Italy has been battling the world's largest number of cases of the new coronavirus outside of China.

Cristian Fracassi founded and heads the Italian start-up company Isinnova. He told the Reuters news agency that he heard about a shortage of the valves at a hospital near the northern city of Brescia. The area has had an explosion of coronavirus cases.

The devices are called Venturi valves. They are named after 18th century Italian physicist Giovanni Battista. The devices are used to connect patient masks to oxygen equipment. The oxygen masks are used to treat patients suffering from breathing problems.

 新闻来源：路透社

Students, Professors Push Back on the Growth of Online Education
师生对在线教育增长抱持隐忧

debate辩论
majority多数
instruction指导
concern关系
peer同辈
faculty教职


Education officials and industry experts are debating the future of online learning. The discussion is important because recently hundreds of universities in the United States have moved classes online because of the spread of the new coronavirus.


For Asha Choksi, the rise of internet-based or online study programs has led to major improvements in higher education.


However, recent research suggests the majority of college students and professors prefer in-person instruction. In addition, some experts are concerned that companies supervising online learning programs are not clear about the policies they have with the schools they serve.


Last year, the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research published two opinion studies on online higher education programs. Researchers asked over 40,000 American undergraduate students and 9,500 professors what they thought about these programs. In both groups, at least 70 percent of people said they prefer in-person instruction. 


"Students see in-class lectures as opportunities to engage with instructors, peers, and...content," the researchers wrote. "Faculty satisfaction with their overall technology experience has declined."
In-person learning is especially important in fields like healthcare and teaching. Online education can never really take its place, said Stephanie Hall. 


新闻来源：VOA

Vietnam Building Rapid Bus System in Ho Chi Minh City

越南在胡志明市建立快速公交系统

rapid快速

Vietnamese越南的

transportation交通

vehicles交通工具

Hanoi河内

Ho Chi Minh City胡志明市

unpredictable不可预测的

Ho Chi Minh City is building a bus rapid transport system in hopes of making public travel simpler.

Vietnamese people have many transportation choices. They use personal cars, and visitors to the country might 

pay for a bicycle-based vehicle. The company GoDee offers a car transport service, similar to Uber. 

GoDee also offers people a low-cost way to share a ride in bigger vehicles like vans.

The Vietnamese government wants people to use more public transportation. However, building projects for underground train systems in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have had repeated delays. Traditional buses are slow and unpredictable.

新闻来源：VOA

Smallest dinosaur of all time

亿年琥珀中现最小恐龙

hummingbird 蜂鸟

skull颅骨

amber琥珀

Mesozoic中生代

excavate挖掘

Myanmar缅甸

zircon锆石（告四声）

radioisotope放射性同位素

A hummingbird-sized dinosaur identified from a skull trapped in amber may be the smallest dinosaur from the Mesozoic Era ever found, according to a paper newly published in renowned scientific journal Nature. 

Scientists investigated the tiny, exceptionally well-preserved birdlike skull found in amber excavated from northern Myanmar's Hukawng Valley in 2016. 

Radioisotope dating of zircon crystals in the amber from this site suggests it was roughly 99 million years old. 

The skull is only 7.1 millimeters long, indicating the dinosaur was similar in size to the bee hummingbird – the smallest living bird.

新闻来源：ChinaDaily

新闻来源：http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2020/03/12/5418/

Experts Say Colleges Must Help Students Understand Internet Algorithms

专家强调大学必须帮助学生理解互联网算法

algorithms算法

leading领先

literacy能力，素养

entry入口

start with开始

vacation假期

Algorithms affect nearly every part of a person's experience on the internet, notes Margy MacMillan, a leading researcher with Project Information Literacy. She says it relates to how internet companies like Google and Facebook make money.

Search engines like Google are most people's entry to the internet, says MacMillan. If a person wants to find information about something, they usually start with Google's search bar. As soon as they start typing or choosing links, Google's algorithm starts gathering data about every choice users make.

Google uses that data to try to find the websites or information that most directly relate to what the user is looking for, MacMillan says. But companies also pay Google to post advertisements for products that could relate to users' search data. For example, if you search for places to take a vacation, you will likely start to see ads for travel companies, flights or hotels. There are also possible harmful uses of the software programs. 

新闻来源：VOA

Enough Sleep Could Reduce Risk of Injury, Study Finds

睡得多，受伤少？

A new study suggests that healthy adults who get at least eight hours of sleep a night may be less likely to experience common exercise-related injuries.

The study was based on information from over 7,500 United States soldiers in the Army's Special Operations Forces. About 95 percent of the study subjects were men.

The researchers found that soldiers who got no more than four to five hours of sleep a night were over two times as likely to report bone or muscle injury in the last year than those who slept eight hours or longer.

新闻来源：VOA