全世界原著民陷危机 1）Indigenous People in Danger
语音:英式发音 适合跟读
语速:160词/分钟
关键词:UN, indigenous communities, life expectancy 
United Nations says in its first comprehensive report on the subject, that the 2)life expectancy of indigenous communities in several countries is much lower than for the rest of the population. It says the big difference in life expectancy is down to the wealth gap between indigenous people and their 3)compatriots.
More than 370 million people around the world are members of indigenous communities; in other words, 5% of the world’s population. But the UN says they’re in danger of disappearing. They blame this trend on poor health as a result of poverty. In several countries, indigenous people are likely to die well before their non-indigenous 4)peers. Take Australia and Nepal, for example. There some indigenous groups are likely to die 20 years before their fellow countrymen. In Canada, that life expectancy gap is 17 years. In Ecuador, it’s 13, and in New Zealand it’s 11.
联合国首份有关原著居民平均寿命的综合报告指出,在一些国家,原著居民的平均寿命远低于其他国民。报告称,造成这种巨大差异的原因是原著居民和他们同胞之间的贫富差距。
全世界有超过3.7亿的人属于原著居民,换句话说,他们占据5%的世界人口份额。然而联合国指出,他们面临灭绝的危险,而这种趋势的罪魁祸首是贫困引致的恶劣卫生条件。在好几个国家,原著居民的寿命比他们的非原著同胞要短得多。以澳大利亚和尼泊尔为例,一些原著居民的寿命比国内其余国民要短20年。在加拿大,这个差距是17年,厄瓜多尔是13年,新西兰是11年。
中国“蚁族”手记 China's "Ant" Villages
语音:美式发音 适合跟读
语速:160词/分钟
关键词:Tangjialing, college graduates, starting point 
On the 1)fringe of Beijing, Tangjialing village is wallpapered with fliers advertising jobs and cheap rooms for rent to college graduates who have moved in from across the country, all with a dream of making it big in the big city.
Twenty-six-year-old Yang Jinghai lives in an 11 m2 apartment at just $60 per month. He has a computer networking degree, a job selling mobile phone software, but wants to save enough to someday open his own business.
“It’s not hard to find a job in China,” he says, “but it’s really hard to find your ideal job.”
Yang is part of a new generation of educated 2)migrants in China who live on the urban edge. It’s estimated 40,000 recent graduates have crowded in to Tangjialing among just 3,000 locals. They commute up to four hours a day to work in the city center. One professor likens them to ants because they are relentlessly hardworking living in poor, 3)cramped conditions he calls “ant villages.” “Huge ant villages are appearing because of the increased availability of higher education,” he says. “The labor force is transforming but the country is still developing.” That means there are not enough jobs for multiplying numbers of graduates.
Six times as many students graduated from college in China in 2009 than a decade ago, and 14% of current graduates are unemployed. Those who are getting a paycheque aren’t necessarily well-paid. But, luckily, the cost of living in an ant village is affordable.
“I think Tangjialing is a starting point for many young people to take off and realize their dream,” says this one-time resident.
It’s certainly not the standard of living expected after a college education, but ant village 4)dwellers say they have to start somewhere.
北京市郊的唐家岭到处张贴着招聘和廉租房广告,这些广告的目标人群是从全国各地涌入北京、希望在这个大城市大展拳脚的大学毕业生。
26岁的杨靖海(音译)住在月租仅为60美元的11平方米的小房子里。拥有计算机网络方面学位的他现在从事手机软件销售工作,但他希望积攒足够的钱,将来可以开创自己的事业。
“在中国找一份工作并不难,” 杨靖海说,“难的是找一份理想的工作。”
杨靖海代表了居住在城市边缘的中国新一代受过教育的外来务工者。据估计,已有大约四万名应届毕业生涌入了当地人口仅为三千人的唐家岭。他们每天花长达四小时往返唐家岭和北京市中心的工作地。有一位学者将他们比作“蚁族”,因为他们不知疲倦地辛勤工作,居住环境却拥挤恶劣,这位学者把他们居住的地方称为“蚁村”。“蚁村的大量涌现是高等教育扩招的结果,”他说道,“劳动力转型了,但国家依然在发展中状态。”这意味着劳动力市场满足不了数量急剧上升的毕业生的需求。
2009年的中国大学毕业生人数是十年前的六倍,目前14%的应届大学毕业生没有工作。即便是有工作的,薪酬也不一定高。然而庆幸的是,“蚁村”的生活成本是可以承受的。
“我认为对许多年轻人来说,唐家岭是他们实现梦想和腾飞的起点,”这位曾经的唐家岭住户如是说。
这绝对不是一个大学毕业生所期待的生活标准,但“蚁族”说,他们总得有个地方作为起点。
快乐也能练出来? Americans in Search of Happiness
语音:美式发音 适合讨论
语速:170词/分钟
关键词:happiness, training, skeptical 
As we head into the New Year with an ongoing war and economic crisis, experts say a lot of Americans are in search of happiness and a more meaningful life. And it’s just not 1)in vogue to be blue, associate psychology professor Dr. Todd Kashdan says, “In our society being unhappy is not socially acceptable.”
Todd: When you ask someone, “Are you happy?” and they say, “Actually, I’m really 2)miserable when I’m happy.” There’s a lot of 3)cues there that this is not someone that I want to start talking to on a regular basis.
4)Proponents of positive psychology, which focuses on what makes people happy, say it’s easy to achieve with the proper training.
Andrew: The science says that you can improve your happiness and you can improve your 5)resilience.
Andrew Rosenthal is co-founder of happier.com, a web site that offers members positive psychology tools to help track and improve their happiness. He says, for starters, 6)jot down all the things you’re grateful for, recognize your strengths and 7)utilize them. If practiced regularly, positive psychologists say most people are guaranteed to be happier.
Andrew: Now for some people, maybe they can only learn to be 25% happier; maybe they’re pretty much set. Other people can really improve a lot.
Management professor Adam Grant is skeptical. He says although it’s been proven people can train themselves to be happier, he fears positive psychology is being used as a 8)blanket fix.
Adam: I wouldn’t feel very comfortable recommending a one-size-fit-all solution to any set of problems that a given individual is facing without understanding that person’s circumstances.
But possibly worth a try if being happier is your New Year’s resolution.
我们随着一场持续的战争和经济危机进入到新一年。专家称许多美国民众正在寻求快乐和更有意义的生活。忧郁可不是当下的时尚潮流,心理学副教授托德·卡什顿博士称:“不快乐是不为这个社会所接受的。”
托德:当你问别人“你快乐吗?”他们回答:“当我快乐时,事实上我内心极度忧伤。”我可以从这句话找到很多线索表明,这种人不是我常规下想与之展开谈话的人。
积极心理疗法关注的是让人们快乐的要素,该疗法的推动者们认为只要训练方法得当,人们很容易变得快乐起来。
安德鲁:科学证明你可以使自己变得快乐,变得神采焕发。
安德鲁·罗森塔尔是happier.com网站的创始人之一。其网站为会员们提供积极心理疗法,协助追踪和增强人们的快乐感。安德鲁说,刚开始的时候,人们可以罗列所有让自己感恩的事情,以及自己的优点,然后加以利用。积极心理疗法的专家称,如果经常训练,大多数人都会比之前更快乐。
安德鲁:现在某些人的快乐程度只能比之前提升大约25%,也许这是因为他们不再有太多提升的空间,但其余大多数人都能比从前快乐许多。
管理学教授亚当·格兰特持怀疑态度。他说虽然事实证明通过训练,人们比之前更快乐了,但他担心人们已把积极心理疗法当作“放之四海而皆准”的万能治疗模式。
亚当:还没了解清楚特定的个人情况,就以不变应万变的方法来应对所有的问题,这种做法我不推荐。
然而,如果变得更加快乐是你的新年愿望,这个方法不妨一试。
Comments 观点参考
● According to longtime happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Riverside, what can give us a lasting boost is how we think and behave. About 40 percent of our happiness is under our conscious control.
● I worry about positive psychology. Psychology must respect individual differences, and one-size-fits-all interventions are rarely helpful.
● You can be unhappy any time, any place. Moreover, life without unhappiness would probably be unbearable for it would have no light and no shadow, no day and no night, no loss and so no real gain, no sorrow and so no real joy.