This is a download from BBC Learning English. To find out more, visit our website. 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. com. 本文來自BBC Learning English。如需獲得更多內(nèi)容請訪問我們的網(wǎng)站。BBC Learning English. com 英語六分鐘節(jié)目。 Catherine: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Catherine… 大家好，歡迎收聽英語六分鐘，我是凱瑟琳。 Neil: And I'm Neil. Do you know, Catherine, someone actually talked to me on the underground this morning! 我是尼爾。你知道嗎凱瑟琳，今早在地鐵上，居然有人跟我聊天了！ Catherine: No, really? 不會吧，真的嗎？ Neil: Yeah. 真的。 Catherine: Wow! I should perhaps point out that talking to someone you don't know on the Tube is quite unusual behaviour in London! So, Neil, what did they say? 天??！或許我應(yīng)該說一下，在倫敦，如果你和不認(rèn)識的人在地鐵上聊天，那太異常了。尼爾，他們跟你說了什么？ Neil: Well, they said what a lovely day it was, great to see the sun shining in London – something along those lines. But it was actually nice to chat instead of sitting there with a frown on my face, fiddling with my phone. 他們說今天天氣不錯，今天的倫敦陽光明媚，真讓人高興等類似的話。與其坐在那，愁容滿面地玩著手機(jī)，還不如這樣開心地聊聊天呢。 Catherine: Which is what you probably always do to pass the time on public transport, Neil. 你經(jīng)常在公共交通上這樣打發(fā)時間吧，尼爾。 Neil: Yes, it is - me and thousands of others. But it got me thinking… if it makes me feel better to talk to people on the way to work, why don't I – and other commuters in the city – do it more often? 是的，包括我在內(nèi)，很多人都這樣認(rèn)為。不過，這讓我想到：如果在上班的路上，和別人聊天會讓我感覺更好的話，為什么我們這些通勤者卻沒有經(jīng)常這樣做呢？ bbc6fz206.jpg Catherine: Well, that's a good question, Neil, and maybe we'll find some answers in the show, because today we're talking about why cities make us so rude. And I have a question for you: when we have a positive interaction with somebody, our body releases a chemical. But what's the name of this chemical? Is it…a) melatonin? b) oxytocin? Or c) thyroxin? 這個問題問得好。也許你能在今天的節(jié)目中找到答案，因?yàn)榻裉煳覀円務(wù)摰木褪?，為什么城市讓我們變得如此無禮。我有一個問題要問你：我們在與別人積極互動時，我們的身體會釋放一種化學(xué)物質(zhì)。這種化學(xué)物質(zhì)叫什么？a) 褪黑素？b) 催產(chǎn)素？還是c) 甲狀腺素？ Neil: I don't know, but I'm going to say a) melatonin. 我不知道，但我想選a) 褪黑素。 Catherine: Well, we'll see if you were right or not later on in the show. But did you know, Neil, that an organisation called Talk to me London has created these Tubechat badges that you can wear to show that you're happy to talk to a stranger. Maybe you should get one! 好的，稍后我們再看你的回答是否正確。你知道嗎，一個名叫Talk to me London的組織發(fā)明了一些地鐵聊天徽章，如果你戴著該徽章就表示你樂意跟陌生人聊天。也許你該戴一個。 Neil: Yeah, maybe I should. But the thing is, people in big cities are often scared to start a conversation with a stranger because, well, you don't know what might happen. 嗯，或許吧。但問題是，大城市的人們經(jīng)常害怕和陌生人交談，因?yàn)槟悴恢罆l(fā)生什么。 Catherine: That's true. Now, let's listen to Dr Elle Boag, a social psychologist at Birmingham City University here in the UK. She agrees that people can view cities as threatening places. 沒錯。我們來聽聽伯明翰城市大學(xué)的社會心理學(xué)家艾麗·博格博士的看法。她贊同人們將城市視為有威脅性的地方。 When we step off the metro or onto a crowded city street our brain becomes hyper vigilant to the perception of threats around us – we're just one small person in a very large set of other people, in a large body of people. This then leads to behaviours that are insular and defensive. We're persistently looking for potential threats around us, and this then makes us not give eye contact, this will reduce the likelihood that anybody will say hello. It's a protective mechanism by which we can survive our journey to whence we're going, which makes us all sound really really rude to one other. 當(dāng)我們走下地鐵，或走進(jìn)擁擠的城市街道時，我們的大腦就會對身邊的威脅保持警惕——在這一大群人中，我們很渺小。這就導(dǎo)致我們要保護(hù)自己，從而把自己孤立起來。我們不斷尋找身邊潛在的威脅，從而不會與外界有眼神交流，那么別人與我們打招呼的可能性也就較少了。無論走到哪里，這種自我保護(hù)機(jī)制都能讓我們在旅途中存活，這也讓我們看起來很粗魯。 Catherine: Dr Elle Boag there. And hyper vigilance means being extremely watchful of what's going on around you. People can behave unpredictably, and like Dr Boag says, you're just one person in a crowd of others and you just don't know who might be dangerous. 以上是艾麗·博格博士的觀點(diǎn)。異常警惕是說我們對周圍的事物非常警惕。人們的行為不可預(yù)見，就像艾麗·博格博士所說的，你只是人群中的一員，你不知道誰是危險的。 Neil: Yeah, I see what you mean. And the fact we are constantly on the lookout for potential threats, well, it affects our behaviour. 恩，我明白你的意思。事實(shí)上我們總是密切關(guān)注著周圍潛在的威脅，從而我們的行為也受到了影響。 Catherine: That's right. And as a protective mechanism we avoid speaking to or making eye contact with other people. So we become insular – which means inward looking. 沒錯。我們避免和他人聊天，也不和他人進(jìn)行眼神交流，這就是我們的保護(hù)機(jī)制。所以我們把自己孤立起來——只關(guān)注自己。 Neil: It sounds awful! But actually, I know people who moved to London in order to be anonymous – to blend in with the crowd– and not have to talk to people! 這樣很不好！但我知道有些人來倫敦的目的就是想要無聲無名地融入到人群中，無須跟他人交談。 Catherine: Well, if you grow up in a small town, it can feel claustrophobic – which means not having enough space to feel comfortable. You know, you can't do anything without the whole community knowing about it. You may have nosey neighbours. 如果你在小城鎮(zhèn)長大，會患幽閉恐懼癥——沒有足夠舒適的空間。你知道的，不管你做了什么，整個社區(qū)都會知道的。你的鄰居也許愛多管閑事。 Neil: And a nosey person shows too much interest in other people's business. 愛多管閑事是說對別人的事太過感興趣。 Catherine: Now, it's good to point out that people living in cities have stuff to do. And it's not necessarily rudeness that stops people from chatting– it's about efficiency – getting to work on time, getting things done. Let's hear from Thomas Farley, writer and broadcaster, and expert on manners, for more on this. 居住在城市里的人們都有事可做，這一點(diǎn)很好。而且不與別人交流未必就是粗魯行為。這事關(guān)效率——按時做完工作。我們來聽聽作家、廣播員兼禮儀專家托馬斯·法利的觀點(diǎn)。 The cost of living in cities is higher, the success quotient is higher, it's a place where you hustle to survive, and if you are not hustling, and I mean that literally and figuratively, you are not able to survive and thrive. So we often don't have much time for chitchat. I think we just all need to be mindful that it's not a deliberate disregard or somebody trying to be rude on purpose – it's simply that people have a destination to be. 城市生活的成本較高，成功系數(shù)也較高。在城市里，你要有拼勁才能存活，如果你不拼的話，你將無法在這里生存和發(fā)展。所以我們根本沒有時間閑聊。我們都要注意，我們并不是故意無視他人，也不是有意對他人無禮。我們只不過都有自己的目標(biāo)罷了。 Neil: So what does Thomas Farley mean by success quotient, Catherine? 托馬斯·法利說的成功系數(shù)是什么？ Catherine: Success quotient means your ability to be successful in work, relative to the average person, and Thomas Farley is saying that in cities people have higher success quotients. 成功系數(shù)是說你在工作上取得成功的能力，托馬斯·法利說，生活在城市里的人們有著更高的成功系數(shù)。 Neil: Cities are also competitive places so people have to hustle to survive. Do we hustle, Catherine? 城市里也是充滿了競爭，要想生存下來，就要有拼勁。我們拼嗎，凱瑟琳？ Catherine: I don't think we hustle, Neil. Hustle means to work aggressively to make money. 我覺得我們不拼。Hustle是指為了賺錢而使勁工作。 Neil: We do have plenty of time for chitchat, though. And chitchat, by the way, means unimportant conversation. That's what we do! 但我們有很多閑聊的時間。閑聊是指不重要的對話。我們現(xiàn)在就在閑聊！ Catherine: What we do isn't chitchat, Neil! It's highly informative and instructional! Now, I think it must be time to hear the answer to today's quiz. Do you remember, I asked: when we have a positive interaction with someone, our body releases a chemical. What's the name of this chemical? Is it…a) melatonin? b) oxytocin? Or c) thyroxin? 我們并沒有閑聊，尼爾！我們的談話很有教育意義和指導(dǎo)意義！現(xiàn)在是時候揭曉今天問題的答案了。你還記得嗎，我的問題是，當(dāng)我們與他人積極互動時，我們的身體會釋放一種化學(xué)物質(zhì)。這種化學(xué)物質(zhì)叫什么？a) 褪黑素？ b) 催產(chǎn)素？ 還是 c) 甲狀腺素？ Neil: And it's a) melatonin – I'm absolutely sure. 我很確定是a) 褪黑素。 Catherine: Sorry! The correct answer is b) oxytocin – a hormone commonly known as the love drug. It reduces fear, increases trust between people, and evokes feelings of contentment. 不好意思！正確答案是 b) 催產(chǎn)素，一種荷爾蒙，通常被稱作愛情靈藥。它能減少恐懼，增加人們之間的信任，激發(fā)人們的滿足感。 Neil: Now, here are the words we learned today: 我們來看看今天學(xué)到的單詞。 hyper vigilance 異常警惕 insular 孤立的 claustrophobic 幽閉恐懼癥的 nosey 好管閑事的 quotient 系數(shù) hustle 奔忙 chitchat 閑聊 Catherine: That's the end of today's 6 Minute English. Don't forget to join us again soon! 今天的六分鐘英語就到這里了。我們下期再會！ Both: Bye! 再見。 6 Minute English from the BBC. BBC英語六分鐘。