The world this week - Politics
Having seized control of Afghanistan, the Taliban told women to ______________, supposedly for their own _______.
America and other countries _______ their citizens not to go to Kabul airport _______ the imminent threat of a terrorist _______.
The Taliban _______ that there would be “consequences” if American troops remained beyond the evacuation deadline of August 31st.
Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s _______ president, turned up in the United Arab Emirates. A group of _______ in the Panjshir Valley continued to resist the new regime.
The World Bank suspended funding to Afghanistan, in part over _______ that the Taliban would interfere with development projects ______________ women.
The IMF has already halted payments to the country. America and other countries _______ almost all of Afghanistan’s $9bn in foreign reserves.
Experts ______________ a looming economic crash.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as Malaysia’s prime minister following the resignation of the unpopular Muhyiddin Yassin.
Mr Ismail Sabri comes from the same circle of ______________ who backed the previous government, which mishandled the pandemic.
He was picked by Malaysia’s king, who wants him to face a _______ of confidence in parliament.
Joe Biden nominated Nicholas Burns to be his ambassador to China.
Mr Burns ______________ a role in the State Department during the presidency of George W. Bush and is a former American ambassador to NATO.
Mr Biden also nominated Rahm Emanuel, a chief of staff under Barack Obama, as ambassador to _______.
America’s Supreme Court overruled Mr Biden’s _______ to allow asylum-seekers at the Mexican border into the United States while their cases ______________.
Mr Biden had suspended an order from Donald Trump that _______ the asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico.
The court said _______ must be reinstated, because Mr Biden’s action was probably “arbitrary and capricious”.The world this week - Politics
本周国际要闻——政治
Having seized control of Afghanistan, the Taliban told women to stay at home, supposedly for their own safety.
在夺取了阿富汗的控制权后，塔利班要求女性待在家中，说是为了她们的安全。
America and other countries advised their citizens not to go to Kabul airport because of the imminent threat of a terrorist attack.
美国和其他国家建议本国公民不要去喀布尔机场，因为有恐怖袭击的威胁。
The Taliban warned that there would be “consequences” if American troops remained beyond the evacuation deadline of August 31st.
塔利班警告说，如果美军在8月31日的撤离最后期限之后继续驻扎，将会造成一定“后果”。
Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s former president, turned up in the United Arab Emirates.
阿富汗前总统阿什拉夫·加尼现身阿联酋。
A group of fighters in the Panjshir Valley continued to resist the new regime.
庞吉夏河谷地的一群战士仍在抵抗新政权。
The World Bank suspended funding to Afghanistan, in part over concerns that the Taliban would interfere with development projects aimed at women.
世界银行暂停了对阿富汗的资助，部分原因是担心塔利班会妨碍针对妇女的发展项目。
The IMF has already halted payments to the country.
国际货币基金组织已停止向该国汇款。
America and other countries froze almost all of Afghanistan’s $9bn in foreign reserves.
美国和其他国家冻结了阿富汗几乎全部90亿美元的外汇储备。
Experts warned of a looming economic crash.
专家警告称，经济崩溃即将发生。
Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as Malaysia’s prime minister following the resignation of the unpopular Muhyiddin Yassin.
不得人心的穆希丁·亚辛辞职后，伊斯梅尔·萨布里·雅各布宣誓就任马来西亚总理。
Mr Ismail Sabri comes from the same circle of politicians who backed the previous government, which mishandled the pandemic.
伊斯梅尔·萨布里来自支持上届政府的政客圈子，而上届政府对疫情处理不当。
He was picked by Malaysia’s king, who wants him to face a vote of confidence in parliament.
他是由马来西亚国王挑选的，国王希望他接受议会的信任投票。
Joe Biden nominated Nicholas Burns to be his ambassador to China.
乔·拜登提名尼古拉斯·伯恩斯为他的驻华大使。
Mr Burns was appointed to a role in the State Department during the presidency of George W. Bush and is a former American ambassador to NATO.
伯恩斯在乔治·W·布什担任总统期间被任命为国务院官员，曾任美国驻北约大使。
Mr Biden also nominated Rahm Emanuel, a chief of staff under Barack Obama, as ambassador to Japan.
拜登还提名巴拉克·奥巴马政府的幕僚长拉姆·伊曼纽尔为驻日大使。
America’s Supreme Court overruled Mr Biden’s decision to allow asylum-seekers at the Mexican border into the United States while their cases are heard.
美国最高法院驳回了拜登允许墨西哥边境的寻求庇护者在案件审理期间进入美国的决定。
Mr Biden had suspended an order from Donald Trump that directed the asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico.
拜登中止了唐纳德·特朗普命令寻求庇护者在墨西哥等待的命令。
The court said the order must be reinstated, because Mr Biden’s action was probably “arbitrary and capricious”.
法院表示，该命令必须恢复，因为拜登的行为可能是“武断且任性的”。Face-masks and covid-19
Helpful humidity
As well as filtering air, face-masks may boost the immune system.
Face-masks help ________ the spread of SARS-COV-2, the virus that ________ covid-19. Several studies ________ the more surprising finding that, even if wearers do become infected, their disease is usually ________. Now Joseph Courtney and Ad Bax, a pair of researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, think they may have ________________ why. As they report in the Biophysical Journal, it comes down to humidity, the immune system, and the ________________ of mucus.
At first glance, there may not seem much of a mystery to unravel. Masks cut the number of infectious particles entering the ________________. One might expect, ________________, that severe disease would be less likely. But it is not so. One ________________ which predicts disease severity is how far viral particles make it into a person's lungs. Cheap cotton face-masks struggle to block ________________ aerosols, which are the most likely to penetrate deeply. Dr Courtney and Dr Bax wondered if something else might explain their ________________.
One of the body's first lines of defence against airborne pathogens ________________ the "mucociliary clearance mechanism". Sticky mucus in the nose and respiratory tract snares viruses and bacteria. Little hairs known as cilia push the mucus into the ________. From there it is swallowed and potent stomach acids destroy the invaders. But this mechanism relies on the relevant body parts staying moist.
That is harder in winter, for as air ________________, its capacity to hold waterfalls. Lower humidity tends to dry out the respiratory tract. This is one reason why many upper-respiratory viruses, such as influenza, flourish in the winter.
Dr Courtney and Dr Bax speculated that masks may help keep things damp. They reasoned that, as a person exhales, water vapour would condense on the inside of ________. Then, upon inhalation, dry air passing through the mask would collect the deposited water and bring it back into the respiratory tract and lungs. That could be handing a mask-wearer's immune system a ________________.
________________ test their idea, the researchers checked several masks at 37°C, 22°C and 8°C. They ________________ a sealed box packed with sensitive instruments, and worked out humidity levels in their upper respiratory tracts. They found that, although all masks increased humidity levels ________________, the heavy cotton mask did best of all. In the hottest room it boosted the relative humidity of inspired air by over 50%, ________________ breathing without a mask. In the cold room, that number rose to 300%. (The other masks recorded figures of between 150% and 225%.) That suggests that, besides filtering out ________________ some of the viral particles floating about in the air, masks help keep a person's snot levels ________ high.Face-masks and covid-19
口罩和新冠
Helpful humidity
有用的湿度
As well as filtering air, face-masks may boost the immune system
口罩除了过滤空气，还可以增强免疫系统
Face-masks help reduce the spread of SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes covid-19. Several studies have reported the more surprising finding that, even if wearers do become infected, their disease is usually milder. Now Joseph Courtney and Ad Bax, a pair of researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, think they may have worked out why. As they report in the Biophysical Journal, it comes down to humidity, the immune system, and the protective powers of mucus.
口罩有助于减少导致新冠的SARS-COV-2(新型冠状病毒)的传播。一些研究报告了更为惊人的发现：即使口罩佩戴者被感染了，他们的症状通常也比较轻。目前，马里兰州贝塞斯达国家卫生研究院的两位研究员约瑟夫·考特尼和艾德·巴克斯认为他们可能已经找到了原因。他们在《生物物理学杂志》上发表的报告称，这归结为湿度、免疫系统和黏液的保护能力。
At first glance, there may not seem much of a mystery to unravel. Masks cut the number of infectious particles entering the nose and mouth. One might expect, therefore, that severe disease would be less likely. But it is not so. One vital factor which predicts disease severity is how far viral particles make it into a person's lungs. Cheap cotton face-masks struggle to block the smallest aerosols, which are the most likely to penetrate deeply. Dr Courtney and Dr Bax wondered if something else might explain their protective effect.
乍一看似乎没有什么神秘的事物需要揭开。口罩可以减少进入口鼻的传染性颗粒，因此人们可能会认为感染严重疾病的可能性会降低。但事实并非如此。预测疾病严重程度的一个重要因素是病毒颗粒进入人体肺部的距离。廉价的棉质口罩很难阻挡最小的悬浮微粒，而这些悬浮微粒最有可能渗透到深处。考特尼博士和巴克斯博士想探究是否有其他原因可以解释它们的保护作用。
One of the body's first lines of defence against airborne pathogens is known as the "mucociliary clearance mechanism". Sticky mucus in the nose and respiratory tract snares viruses and bacteria. Little hairs known as cilia push the mucus into the throat. From there it is swallowed and potent stomach acids destroy the invaders. But this mechanism relies on the relevant body parts staying moist.
人体抵抗空气传播病原体的第一道防线被称为“黏液纤毛清除机制”。鼻子和呼吸道里黏黏的粘液会吸引病毒和细菌，被称为纤毛的细小毛发会将粘液推入喉咙，粘液在喉咙处被吞下，之后强有力的胃酸摧毁入侵者。但这一机制依赖于一点：相关身体部位要保持湿润状态。
That is harder in winter, for as air gets colder, its capacity to hold waterfalls. Lower humidity tends to dry out the respiratory tract. This is one reason why many upper-respiratory viruses, such as influenza, flourish in the winter.
在冬天更难，因为随着空气变冷，它容纳水分的能力会减弱。湿度较低会使呼吸道变得干燥。这就是许多上呼吸道病毒(如流感病毒)在冬季肆虐的原因之一。
Dr Courtney and Dr Bax speculated that masks may help keep things damp. They reasoned that, as a person exhales, water vapour would condense on the inside of a mask. Then, upon inhalation, dry air passing through the mask would collect the deposited water and bring it back into the respiratory tract and lungs. That could be handing a mask-wearer's immune system a significant advantage.
考特尼博士和巴克斯博士推测，口罩可能具备保持湿润的功效。他们推断，当一个人呼气时水蒸气会在口罩内部凝结，被吸入后通过口罩的干燥空气会收集积水并将其带回呼吸道和肺部。这可能会给戴口罩者的免疫系统带来很大的好处。
Keen to test their idea, the researchers checked several masks at 37°C, 22°C and 8°C. They breathed into a sealed box packed with sensitive instruments, and worked out humidity levels in their upper respiratory tracts. They found that, although all masks increased humidity levels to some extent, the heavy cotton mask did best of all. In the hottest room it boosted the relative humidity of inspired air by over 50%, compared with breathing without a mask. In the cold room, that number rose to 300%. (The other masks recorded figures of between 150% and 225%.) That suggests that, besides filtering out at least some of the viral particles floating about in the air, masks help keep a person's snot levels healthily high.
为了验证他们的想法，研究人员在37°C、22°C和8°C的温度下检验了几种口罩。他们向一个密封的盒子里呼气，盒子里装满了敏感的仪器，然后计算出他们上呼吸道的湿度。他们发现，虽然所有的口罩都在一定程度上增加了湿度，但厚重的棉质口罩效果最好。在最热的房间里，戴棉质口罩呼吸与不戴口罩呼吸相比，它使吸入空气的相对湿度提高了50%以上。在寒冷的房间里这一数字上升到了300%。(其他口罩的记录数字在150%至225%之间。)这表明，口罩除了能过滤掉空气中漂浮的部分病毒颗粒外，还能让人的鼻涕保持在非常高的健康水平。They might appear cutesy, but a pair of robots that ________________ recently at the Ford Motor Company's Van Dyke Transmission Plant, in Detroit, are practical working machines.
They may, indeed, ________________ the future of automation. Putting robots into factories is hardly a new idea— some 2.4m of them are already at work in ________ around the world.
But most of these are little more than giant arms, bolted ________ to the ground, that weld and paint things. Those few that have the mobility to ________________ like delivering components do so by scooting along on wheels.
The new devices at Van Dyke are rather different sorts of beasts. They can walk. This pair of bright-yellow quadrupeds look a bit like dogs, prompting one to be ________ Fluffy and the other Spot (which ________ moniker is also the official name given to this model of robot by the firm that manufactures them, Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of SoftBank). The pair are not there to ________ the factory's human workers, though, but rather to perform an important task that Ford hopes will ________ it a ton of money.
With laser scanners mounted on their backs, Fluffy and Spot can scamper around the 200,000 square-metre plant collecting data. Those data will be ________ to build a detailed computer model of the entire manufacturing operation. This sort of ________ is called a digital twin, and Ford's engineers will use it to ________________ how to rearrange the production line to produce a new gearbox. Over the years, factory plans ________________ date as things are moved around and new equipment is brought in.
Surveying the transmission plant by hand would take weeks and cost some $300,000. Ford reckons that Fluffy and Spot, which can both ________ stairs and crawl into hard-to-reach areas, will cut the time required by half and ________________ for "a fraction of the cost".
Although Ford is leasing the robots, Boston Dynamics has now put them ________________ for $75,000 a pop. At that price they would soon pay ________________ doing tasks like the one being undertaken in Van Dyke. The Spot range is the first of Boston Dynamics's walking robots to be commercialised. More such machines are starting to ________ from other firms and research groups. Some are also quadrupeds. Others are bipedal.
The two-legged sort can be more agile and, if equipped with arms as well, are better ________ to tasks like picking things up or operating controls. What all of these machines have in common is that they ________—forgive the pun—a huge step forward in robot locomotion.They might appear cutesy, but a pair of robots that turned up recently
最近，在福特汽车公司位于底特律的范戴克变速器厂
at the Ford Motor Company's Van Dyke Transmission Plant, in Detroit, are practical working machines.
出现了一对机器人，它们看起来可能很可爱，但却是实用的工作机器。
They may, indeed, point to the future of automation. Putting robots into factories is hardly a new idea—
的确，它们可能预示着自动化的未来。将机器人投入工厂并不是什么新想法——
some 2.4m of them are already at work in plants around the world.
其中约240万台机器人已经在世界各地的工厂中投入使用。
But most of these are little more than giant arms, bolted firmly to the ground, that weld and paint things.
但其中大部分都不过是牢牢固定在地面上的巨大手臂，用于焊接和涂漆工作。
Those few that have the mobility to manage tasks like delivering components do so by scooting along on wheels.
那些能够移动管理递送组建等任务的少数机器人是通过在轮子上快速移动来完成任务的。
The new devices at Van Dyke are rather different sorts of beasts. They can walk.
范戴克变速器厂出现的新设备是相当不同的类型，它们可以行走。
This pair of bright-yellow quadrupeds look a bit like dogs, prompting one to be nicknamed Fluffy and the other Spot
这两个亮黄色的四脚机器看起来有点像狗，一只被戏称为Fluffy，另一只叫Spot
(which latter moniker is also the official name given to this model of robot by the firm that manufactures them, Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of SoftBank).
（后一个名字也是制造它们的公司Boston Dynamics（软银分公司）给这个机器人模型取得官方名字）。
The pair are not there to amuse the factory's human workers, though,
它们在工厂里可不是为了娱乐工厂的人类员工，
but rather to perform an important task that Ford hopes will save it a ton of money.
而是为了完成一项重要的任务，福特公司希望因此能节省一大笔钱。
With laser scanners mounted on their backs, Fluffy and Spot can scamper around the 200,000 square-metre plant collecting data.
它们的背部装有激光扫描仪，Fluffy和Spot可以在20万平方米的工厂快速奔跑着收集数据。
Those data will be employed to build a detailed computer model of the entire manufacturing operation.
那些数据将用于建造整个制造操作的详细计算机模型。
This sort of model is called a digital twin, and Ford's engineers will use it to work out how to rearrange the production line to produce a new gearbox.
这种模型被称为数字映射，并且福特的工程师将用它来研究如何重新安排生产线以生产一种新的变速箱。
Over the years, factory plans get out of date as things are moved around and new equipment is brought in.
多年来，随着物品的转移和新设备的引进，工厂计划已经过时。
Surveying the transmission plant by hand would take weeks and cost some $300,000.
人工勘测传输工厂将耗时数周，耗资约30万美元。
Ford reckons that Fluffy and Spot, which can both climb stairs and crawl into hard-to-reach areas,
Fluffy和Spotdo都可以爬楼梯，也能爬进难以到达的地方，
will cut the time required by half and complete the job for "a fraction of the cost".
福特认为它们能够将所需时间减半，并以“小部分成本”完成这项工作。
Although Ford is leasing the robots, Boston Dynamics has now put them on sale for $75,000 a pop.
虽然福特正在租用这些机器人，但Boston Dynamics现在以每台7.5万美元的价格出售它们。
At that price they would soon pay for themselves doing tasks like the one being undertaken in Van Dyke.
以这样的价格，他们很快就能为自己做的任务买单，比如在范戴克变速器厂中进行那项任务。
The Spot range is the first of Boston Dynamics's walking robots to be commercialised.
Spot系列是Boston Dynamics第一款商业化的行走机器人。
More such machines are starting to appear from other firms and research groups. Some are also quadrupeds. Others are bipedal.
越来越多的此类机器开始出现在其他公司和研究团体中。一些也是四脚的，一些是双脚的。
The two-legged sort can be more agile and, if equipped with arms as well, are better suited to tasks like picking things up or operating controls.
两腿类型可以更加敏捷，并且如果配上臂膀，就更适用于捡东西或操控等任务了。
What all of these machines have in common is that they represent—forgive the pun—a huge step forward in robot locomotion.
这些机器的共同点时它们代表着——恕我直言——机器人移动上的巨大进步。
