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1.VOA常速
【Potomac Named Most Endangered River】
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TEXT:The conservation group American Rivers says the Potomac River that runs through Washington is the most endangered river this year in the United States. The organization says that pollution in the Potomac is decreasing water quality, threatening marine life and will become worse if Congress rolls back national clean water protections.
The Potomac River is seen by hundreds of thousands each day as it flows under bridges and past memorials. It is used for recreational activities, and provides drinking water for five million people.
Before the Potomac reaches Washington, it runs through farmland in four states, and continues on to the Chesapeake Bay, the country's largest estuary.
All along its course, pollution undermines the river's water quality, says American Rivers President Bob Irvin.
"It flows through farmland, where pesticides are running off from the fields, where farm waste is running into the streams," said Irvin. "Then as it makes its way down through the urban area of Washington, DC, we have runoff from our streets, and when it rains really hard we have raw sewage flowing into the river."
That runoff concerns Don Boesch, head of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He says it is creating dead zones where aquatic plants and marine life cannot survive.
"It's got low light penetration and sometimes lowest levels of oxygen in the water," Boesch noted.
He says before the river can become healthier, the nutrient runoff must be controlled.
"These are good things that stimulate life in the river, but they are actually in excess, so they cause lots of negative problems in the river," Boesch added.
A nearby coal powered electrical plant will close soon, but until then, it is putting toxic substances into the water and changing the habitat, says Whit Overstreet, with the environmental group, Potomac Riverkeepers.
"They discharge hot water back into the river that wouldn't be there naturally, which can be problematic for aquatic life," Overstreet noted.
Scientists have also found that chemicals appear to be causing intersexed fish - especially male fish with female traits. But fishing guide Steve Chaconas says he thinks the Potomac has improved from the filthy river it was years ago.
"The fish are very vibrant," said Chaconas. "People are picking up after themselves, finally!"
American Rivers warns the Potomac and other rivers could backslide if the Clean Water Act of 1972 is weakened, a distinct possibility, says Irvin.
"Congressmen from various parts of the country, representing big agricultural interests and industry interests, are trying to weaken the act, trying to prohibit the federal government from protecting, for example, small headwater streams and wetlands, and from regulating the use of pesticides on farmland," Irvin explained.
Clean water advocacy groups are calling on Congress to kill any legislation that erodes those vital protections.
2.VOA慢速
【Worried That People Are Laughing at You?】
TEXT:This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Imagine this situation. You pass a group of people. The people are talking to each other. You cannot hear what they are saying. But suddenly they start laughing. What would you think? Would you think they were laughing at something funny that one of them said? Or -- be honest with yourself -- would you think they were laughing at you? Yes, you.
Being laughed at is a common fear. But a major study published in two thousand nine found that this fear is not the same around the world. It differs from culture to culture.
People in Finland were the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence were making fun of them. Less than ten percent of Finns in the study said they would think that, compared to eighty percent of people in Thailand.
Some people in the study said they felt unsure of themselves in social situations but hid their feelings of insecurity. Others said they avoided social situations where they had been laughed at before.
The study found that people in Turkmenistan and Cambodia were more likely to be in the first group. They would hide their feelings of insecurity if they were around other people's laughter. But people in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan were more likely to try to avoid such situations if they felt they had been laughed at before.
Shy people often avoid situations that would force them into close contact with other people. They worry that something they say or do will make other people laugh at them. But some people worry much more than others. They may have a disorder called gelotophobia . Gelos is a Greek word. It means laughter. Phobia means fear. This fear of laughter can be truly sad for those who live with it. It can affect how they lead their lives.
In the study, a team from the University of Zurich led more than ninety researchers from around the world. They wanted to understand the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. Another purpose of the study was to compare the levels of fear of being laughed at in different cultures. The researchers surveyed more than twenty-two thousand people in forty-two different languages. The findings appeared in the scientific journal Humor.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. Is shyness a serious problem for you or someone you know? It was for a university student who asked people in our audience for advice on how to deal with it. You can find out what they said at 51voa.com-- where you can also read, listen and learn English with our stories. I'm Faith Lapidus.
参考译文：这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
想象一下这样的场景，你从一群人面前走过，这些人在互相交谈，你听不到他们在说什么。但他们突然大笑起来，你怎么想呢？你会认为他们是因为其中一个人说得好笑的事而大笑吗，或者，老实说，你觉得他们在笑你吗？
被取笑是一种常见的恐惧。但2009年发表的一项重大研究表明，这种恐惧在全世界因文化不同而有差异。
芬兰人最不容易相信面前笑的人是在笑自己，研究中只有不到10%的芬兰人说会这么想，而泰国有80%的人会这么想。
研究中的一些人说，他们在社交场合会感到不安，但会隐藏这种不安全感。还有人说会避免到曾经被取笑的地方。
研究发现土库曼斯??坦人和柬埔寨人更可能属于第一类人，如果周围的人在大笑，他们会隐藏不安感。但在伊拉克、埃及和约旦，如果觉得自己曾被取笑过，人们更愿意避免这种场合。
害羞的人避免到那些迫使自己与人接触的场合，他们担心自己所说所做的一些东西会引人笑。但也有人会更担心，他们可能会患上被笑恐惧症（gelotophobia）。Gelos是个希腊词汇，意思是“笑声”，这种对笑声的恐惧对这些人来说很悲惨，会影响到这些人的生活。
来自苏黎士大学的团队带领全世界90多名研究者进行了这项研究，他们希望弄清楚正常害羞和真正的被笑恐惧症之间的差异。研究还希望能对比不同文化中害怕的不同水平，研究者调查了使用42种不同语言的2.2万多人。研究结果发表在科学杂志《幽默》上。
本VOA慢速译文由可可英语Sunny提供
