Leisure Time第十三期

一、Global Vision

1、Water diversion project benefits 140m people

南水北调7年惠及1.4亿人

China's mega water diversion project has transferred nearly 50 billion cubic meters of water from major rivers in the south to the drought-prone north over the past seven years, said the company in charge of the project Sunday. It marked the seventh anniversary of the comprehensive operation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. The project has benefited 140 million people and optimized the economic development pattern of more than 40 large and medium cities.

12月12日是南水北调工程全面通水7周年。中国南水北调集团有限公司当日表示，南水北调工程全面通水7年来，已累计从南方的主要河流向干旱易发的北方调水近500亿立方米，受益人口达1.4亿人，40多座大中型城市的经济发展格局因调水得到优化。

The project has changed the water supply pattern in northern China, promoted the rehabilitation of rivers and lakes, optimized and adjusted the industrial structure, and produced enormous economic, social, and ecological benefits, said a Ministry of Water Resources official.

水利部相关负责人表示，南水北调工程全面通水7年来，改变了北方地区的供水格局，同时推动复苏受水区河湖生态环境，优化调整了产业结构，发挥了巨大的经济、社会和生态效益。

2、Long March family notches 400th launch

长征火箭迎来第400次发射

China lifted a Long March 4B carrier rocket on Friday morning to place several satellites into space, marking the 400th launch of the Long March family. The rocket blasted off at 8:11 am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The payloads in the mission－Shijian 6-05 satellites－are tasked with spatial environmental surveying and new technology demonstration.

12月10日8时11分，我国在酒泉卫星发射中心用长征四号乙运载火箭，成功将实践六号05组卫星发射升空，卫星将用于开展空间环境探测和新技术试验验证。这次任务是长征系列运载火箭的第400次飞行。

China launched its first carrier rocket－a Long March 1－in April 1970 to send its first satellite, Dongfanghong 1, or East Red 1, into space.

1970年4月，我国发射了第一枚运载火箭长征一号，将第一颗卫星东方红一号送入太空。

Since that first launch in 1970, the Long March carrier rocket series has carried out 92.1% of China's space launch missions. Over the past 51 years, the Long March series has sent more than 700 spacecraft into space. The overall success rate of the Long March fleet is 96.25%.

此后，长征火箭51年间实施了我国92.1%的航天发射任务，先后将700余个航天器送入太空，发射成功率为96.25%。

In the 400 launch missions by Long March rockets, the first three 100 launches were completed in 37 years, 7 and a half years, and more than 4 years, respectively. The latest 100 launch missions were carried out within only 33 months, since March 2019.

在400次发射里，前三个100次分别用时37年、7年半和4年多，而从2019年3月发射次数达到300次，到如今的400次，仅用了33个月。

3、Beijing 2022 releases second edition of Playbook

北京冬奥会新版防疫手册发布

With less than two months to go before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the organizing committee, together with the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee , published the second edition of the Playbook that outlines COVID-19 countermeasures for the Games on Tuesday.

距离北京2022年冬奥会开幕还有不到两个月的时间，国际奥委会、国际残奥委会和北京冬奥组委12月13日发布第二版《北京2022年冬奥会和冬残奥会防疫手册》，概述了冬奥会期间的新冠防疫措施。

The latest updates include information requested directly by stakeholders and from feedback received during various briefings held since October, with additional information about vaccinations; customs entry requirements; flight bookings; pre-departure testing; and the closed-loop system.

第二版《防疫手册》增加了各利益相关方关心的信息，以及10月以来多场吹风会上反馈的信息，在疫苗接种、海关入境要求、机票预订、出发前检测、闭环管理等方面，提供了更加详实的信息。

The Winter Olympic Games will take place between Feb 4 and 20, 2022, and the Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 4 to 13.

2022年北京冬奥会将于2月4日至20日举行，冬残奥会将于3月4日至13日举行。

二、Fun Stuff

1、Creature of habit 习惯性动物，一成不变的人

如果某人在日常生活中总是以同样的方式做同样的事情，就可以把此人比作 “creature of habit”，意思是 “一成不变、生活极有规律的人”。

例句

Roy is a creature of habit – he has to clean his teeth as soon as he gets out of bed.

罗伊生活非常有规律，他一起床就去刷牙。

I’m a creature of habit – I always have to eat a biscuit with my cup of coffee.

我是个习惯性动物，喝咖啡时总要吃块饼干。

She always has to buy a bucket of popcorn every time we go to the cinema – she’s such a creature of habit.

每次我们去看电影，她总是要买一桶爆米花，她真是一成不变。

2、Happy camper 心满意足的人，乐天派

表达 “happy camper” 的字面意思是 “快乐的露营者”，实际用来比喻 “对自己的处境，如工作或成就等感到非常满意的人”。

例句

Zhang Lei is very satisfied with the project he’s just finished. He’s a happy camper.

张磊对他刚刚完成的项目非常满意。他雀跃不已。

Cassandra loves her job. She’s always smiling in the office. She’s one happy camper.

卡珊德拉热爱她的工作。她在办公室里总是笑容满面。她是个乐天派。

You look like one happy camper now that you’ve finished writing your book!

你的书终于写完了，你看起来心情真好！

3、Off the wall 荒诞离奇

表达 “off the wall” 的意思是一件事物 “有点奇怪、不同寻常，甚至意想不到”，可以用来评价影视、戏剧作品或笑话等 “离奇，荒诞”。用在名词前时，需要在这个表达的词语中间加上连字符，即 “off-the-wall”。

例句

I like the comedian, but his jokes are a bit off the wall.

我喜欢那个喜剧演员，不过他讲的笑话有点怪怪的。

That film was so strange – I couldn’t understand it. It was so off the wall.

这部电影太奇怪了，我看不懂。真的很诡异。

The song is really funny. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, but I like off-the-wall things!

那首歌很有意思。我知道它不一定符合每个人的口味，但我就是喜欢怪诞的事物。

三、Encyclopedia of culture

1、Writing Brush 毛笔

More than 2,000 years ago, a general returned from hunting and was inspired by the tail of a rabbit.He cut off the tail and stuck it into a bamboo drain , making the first writing brush .

两千多年前，一位狩猎归来的将军，受到了一只兔子尾巴的启发。他把兔尾剪下来插入竹管，从此，第一支毛笔诞生了。

The pen holder is made of bamboo or bone, the nib is made hairs from sheep, rabbits or wolves. Unlike other writing tools, it is difficult to write with writing brushes. Writing han zi with soft mao bi represents oriental philosophy.

它用竹子或骨头做笔尖，把羊、兔或狼的毛捆扎成圆而尖的毛束作为笔头。在其它书写工具中，只有毛笔的质地是软的，这为书写增加了难度。用柔软的毛笔书写方正的汉字，正符合了东方的哲学精神。

It is regarded as a method to cultivate the mid and nature, and widely used among scholars.

中国文人用毛笔写字来磨砺意志。

Writing became an art called calligraphy with the birth of maobi. Mao bi is a friend of Chinese scholars making records of their knowledge an character.

毛笔的诞生，让写字成为一门艺术，即书法。毛笔像一位朋友陪在中国文人的身边，记录和见证着他们的学识和品格。

2、Journey to the West 西游记

Journey to the West is the most famous mythology in China. It was inspired by real historical events.

《西游记》是中国最著名的神话。它的灵感来自真实的历史事件。

A Buddhist monk named Xuanzang walked through the desert for more than 10,000 kilometers on his pilgrimage to India to obtain Buddhist sutra. His first disciple, named Sun Wukong, is a monkey with great magical powers. He is a righteous and brave hero who has mastered 72 methods of transformation. Unlike conventional heroes, it departs from tradition and fights for freedom. His tag is, “Hey, I’m coming!”. He defeated powerful demons on the pilgrimage and helped Xuanzang accomplish his objective with Zhu Bajie an monk Sha Wujing.

一个叫玄奘的和尚，在去印度朝圣的路上，穿越了一万多公里的沙漠，去获取佛经。他的第一个弟子名叫孙悟空，是一只神通广大的猴子。他正义、勇敢，会七十二变，是《西游记》中真正的大英雄。与传统英雄不同，它背离传统，为自由而战。他的口头禅是，“俺老孙来也！”。在取经的路上，他降妖除魔，与猪八戒、沙僧一起帮助玄奘最终到达西域，取得佛经。

The pilgrimage represents the discipline of Buddhism. Journey to the West tells stories about self-discipline and overcoming difficulties. It has a profound influence on the Chinese spirit.

求经之路，正代表着一个人的修行过程。《西游记》讲的是自律和克服困难的故事，它对中国精神有着深远的影响。

四、Life Answering Machine

In praise of slowness

And sometimes it takes a wake-up call, doesn't it, to alert us to the fact that we're hurrying through our lives, instead of actually living them; that we're living the fast life, instead of the good life. And I think for many people, that wake-up call takes the form of an illness.

对我们的健康，饮食，工作人际关系，环境以及生活的社区都产生了消极的影响。而有时候只要一声警示来提醒我们正在匆忙地度过我们的生命，而不是真正有意义的过生活；提醒我们我们在过快日子，而不是在过好日子。而我认为对很多人而言，那个警示铃常常是以疾病的形式出现。

You know, a burnout, or eventually the body says, I can't take it anymore, and throws in the towel. Or maybe a relationship goes up in smoke because we haven't had the time, or the patience, or the tranquility, to be with the other person, to listen to them.

疾病突然爆发，最后身体对你说“我再也受不了了。”然后就垮了。也许这个警示会在一场恋爱化为泡影后出现失败是因为我们抑或没有时间，抑或没有耐心，或是不能安静地陪着另一半，倾听他们的述说。

And my wake-up call came when I started reading bedtime stories to my son, and I found that at the end of day, I would go into his room and I just couldn't slow down -- you know, I'd be speed reading The Cat In The Hat. I'd be -- you know, I'd be skipping lines here, paragraphs there, sometimes a whole page, and of course, my little boy knew the book inside out, so we would quarrel.

而我的警示铃是在我开始为我儿子念睡前故事的时候响起的，我发现在一天结束之时，我走进他的房间，就是不能把自己的速度慢下来我会很快的念《戴帽子的猫》我会这儿跳过几句，那儿概括几句，有时几句话概括一整页的内容当然，我的小儿子对这本书倒背如流，所以我们就会争起来。当一个爸爸坐下来，为他的儿子读故事，

And what should have been the most relaxing, the most intimate, the most tender moment of the day, when a dad sits down to read to his son, became instead this kind of gladiatorial battle of wills, a clash between my speed and his slowness. And this went on for some time, until I caught myself scanning a newspaper article with timesaving tips for fast people.

这本最应该是一天中最放松，最亲密，最亲切柔软的时刻，反而变成了这种角斗士般关于意志的争斗；变成了他要快我要...不，是我要快他要慢而引起的冲突而且这种情况持续了一段时间，直到我读了报纸上的一篇文章是为追求快速的人提供的省时窍门。

And one of them made reference to a series of books called The One-Minute Bedtime Story. And I wince saying those words now, but my first reaction at the time was very different. My first reflex was to say, Hallelujah -- what a great idea! This is exactly what I'm looking for to speed up bedtime even more. But thankfully, a light bulb went on over my head, and my next reaction was very different, and I took a step back, and I thought,

其中一个窍门引用了一系列丛书作参考，叫做“一分钟的床前故事。”而我，现在真不愿意承认但是我那时的第一反应和现在非常的不同。我的第一反应是说，“哈利路亚——这是个多么棒的点子！这正好能帮我把床前故事讲的更快一些。”但还好，我头脑一清醒，而我的下面的反应就非常不同了，我退回一步想，

Whoa -- you know, has it really come to this? Am I really in such a hurry that I'm prepared to fob off my son with a sound byte at the end of the day? And I put away the newspaper -- and I was getting on a plane -- and I sat there, and I did something I hadn't done for a long time -- which is I did nothing. I just thought, and I thought long and hard. And by the time I got off that plane, I'd decided I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to investigate this whole roadrunner culture, and what it was doing to me and to everyone else.

“停，真的达到这种地步了吗？我真的忙到这种地步，要在一天结束的时候，用一分钟故事来敷衍我儿子？”然后我把报纸拿开我那时正在飞机上，我坐在那儿，做了一件我很久没做过的事情——那就是我什么都没做。我就只是在思考，深思了很久时间。而当我下飞机的时候，我决定我要对此做些什么。我要研究整个的速食文化，以及这个文化对我，对其他人都产生了什么影响。

And I had two questions in my head. The first was, how did we get so fast? And the second is, is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down? Now, if you think about how our world got so accelerated, the usual suspects rear their heads. You think of, you know, urbanization, consumerism, the workplace, technology. But I think if you cut through those forces, you get to what might be the deeper driver, the nub of the question, which is how we think about time itself. In other cultures, time is cyclical. It's seen as moving in great, unhurried circles. It's always renewing and refreshing itself.

在我脑海中产生了两个问题。第一个问题是，我们怎么变得这么快的？第二个问题是，有没有可能慢下来，或者，我们想慢下来么？现在，假如你思考我们的世界是如何变得如此加速向前的，通常都怀疑是下面这些引起的我们会想到城市化，消费主义，工厂，技术。但是我想，如果你透过这些方面，你会思考到可能是更深层的驱动力问题，这个问题的核心，就是我们如何看待时间本身。

播音主持：田金桐 李依珊 陈泽润 孙玉颖

责任编辑：管  博

责任审核：芦文慧