lingua franca

下載聲音檔請點我 一胎化之下的大陸，產生了許多社會現象。 一個月要價三十幾萬的豪華坐月子中心 與尿布奶瓶等 高檔的母嬰產品炙手可熱 六兜綜合症six pocket syndrome則成了 不可避免的現象。預知詳情 請參考本文並聆聽廣播 NEW FROM NPR Why Is China's Baby Care Industry Booming? by Frank Langfitt LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: And I'm Steve Inskeep, with a mystery about China. This is a country with a one-child policy- controversial 具有爭議性的 , but effective. It has held the fertility rate 生育率 of the world's most populous country 全世界人口最多 / 稠密的國家 to an average of 1.6 births per woman. That is lower than Norway, lower than Sweden, lower than the United States. But here's mystery : Why, with a stable number of births each year, is China's baby care business booming? NPR's Frank Langfitt explains from Shanghai. FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Chinese tradition dictates 規定 that new moms must spend their first month indoors 新手媽咪要坐月子 . Older generations 老一輩的 think this ...

  圖片William van der Vliet 圖片說明 一隻鴿子正在作算術題。 當牠啄一個圖像時(右圖)，圖像四周會出現一個正方形框(左圖) 圖片Damian Scarf 圖片說明 本圖顯示出鴿子會分辨不同圖形與數量 並作出正確的排序與簡單的算術 別看鴿子天生小頭一粒 牠們其實跟猴子一樣聰明 (這邊的聰明指的是簡單的算術 跟發明火箭與探測外太空無關) 紐約時報日前有一篇報導 顯示鴿子其實還蠻聰明的 雖說這些鳥兒要訓練一年才會做簡單算術題 不過結果已經讓科學家大感驚異 How Smart Is This Bird? Let It Count the Ways By JAMES GORMAN Published: December 22, 2011 By now, the intelligence of birds is well known. Alex the African gray parrot 非洲灰鸚鵡 had great verbal skills. Scrub jays 叢鴉 ( 一種藍色的鳥 ) , which hide caches of seeds 儲存 / 囤積種子 and other food, have remarkable memories. And New Caledonian crows 新克里多尼亞 烏鴉 make and use tools in ways that would put the average home plumber 指自己 DIY 修理家裡水管的人 to shame. Pigeons, it turns out, are no slouches 絕非等閒之輩 ( 也就是跟上述這些聰明的動物相比 ) 此字本義指懶散或是無精打采 either. It was known that they could count.( 鴿子會數數字 ) But all sorts of animals, including bees, can count. Pigeons have now shown that they can learn abstract rules ab...

下載聲音檔請點我 Avoiding The Tax Man Could Cost Italians Dearly From NPR News, it's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Guy Raz. Today, the leaders of France, Germany and Italy sat down to talk about the European economic crisis 歐債危機 . At the table was Italy's new prime minister 新任總理 , Mario Monti 蒙蒂 . Monti's government is struggling to convince the financial markets that Italy has a plan to pay its debts. Among other things, Monti has pledged 誓言 to crack down on 取締 a time-honored tradition 歷史悠久的傳統 in Italy: tax evasion 逃漏稅 . NPR's Jim Zarroli explains. JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Tax evasion, it's often said, is a national sport 全民運動 in Italy. Carlo Fiorio is an expert in public finance 公共財務 at the University of Milan. CARLO FIORIO: Of course, people are not proud of evading taxes, but they don't feel as morally obliged 在道德 ( 或義務上 ) 應該要 ( 繳稅 ) to pay taxes as probably other citizens in other countries. ZARROLI: Though exact statistics are hard to co...