英国新闻听力 情人节卡片“以吻封缄”

Today is Saint Valentine's Day. Bosses at the Dutch mail service have realized that they have some seriouscompetition from social media. After all, why go to the trouble of posting a card when you can flirt¹ online instead. So our correspondent Anna went to find out how the post men and women are trying to keep the Valentine's Day card tradition alive.

We are inside a huge sourcing office in Amsterdam. It’s one of the biggest in the Netherlands. This week,the Dutch post service has been offering many conscious romantics and incentive² to share their love the good old fashioned way. All Valentine’s cards will be delivered free of charge provided they are “sealed with a kiss”. Jennifer the intern³ here is twenty-three years old. So how do the young people do it these days?

Yeah. Facebook and sending pictures to each other on WhatsApp. That’s more common to do that, not sendingValentine’s cards actually.

So will you be sending a Valentine’s card this year or do you think receiving any?

Well, I hope I will receive some. Today I have sent some to my friends and my boyfriend, and to my parents.

So it’s actually gone viral. That’s kind of ironic⁴ that something so traditional which take off on social media.

Yeah. The whole world is getting more quicker. And the real attention to each other is slipping away. And I think we have lost ourselves a little bit with all the social medium. And we are trying to get it back. The number of Valentine’s cards will be more than the last year. I think we will increase about seven percents. And mostly I hope that through the whole year, people are embracing sending greeting cards again.

Put down your smart phone and let the love come through.

Now researchers in California have given details of a telescope that they are building in an attempt to study a mysterious and powerful cosmic force called “dark energy”. This is accelerating the expansion of the universe driving galaxies⁵ ever further from each other. Our science correspondent Palab Gosh has visited the laboratory where it’s been put together.

The focus of research here has been shifting away from subatomic physics toward the stars. I’m climbing up some stairs leading to a laboratory that was once used to detect mysterious stuff called antimatter. We can see they are building a metal frame.

So the discovery of what we call “dark energy” was one of the greatest discoveries in physics. 

今天是圣瓦伦丁节。荷兰邮局的领导们意识到了来自社交媒体的激烈竞争。说到底，能在网上调情，为什么还要费心寄卡片呢？那么，邮局工作人员如何把情人节送卡片的传统延续下去呢？本台记者安娜前去一探究竟。

我们现在位于阿姆斯特丹的一家大型采购中心里面，它是荷兰最大的采购中心之一。本周，荷兰邮局精心推出了许多的浪漫的招式，鼓励人们用古老的方式传达爱意。情人节卡片一律免邮费，前提是“以吻封缄”。这里的实习生詹妮弗几年23岁，他们这些年轻人都怎么过情人节呢？

是的。上“脸书”，用WhatsApp传照片。这是更加常见的方式，我们都不送情人节卡片。

那你今年会送情人节卡片吗？或者期待收到卡片吗？

嗯，我希望收到一些卡片。今天我给好朋友、男朋友和父母都寄了卡片。

所以说这个活动的扩散速度很快。想不到这么传统的东西在社交媒体上也能火起来。

是的。这个世界节奏越来越快了，人们彼此之间真正的关心在逐渐消失。我觉得我们在社交媒体中有点自我迷失了。但我们正在努力找回过去。情人节卡片的销售量将超过去年，我认为会有7%的增长。我最希望看到的是，在接下来的一年时间里，人们都能重温互送贺卡的快乐。

放下手机，让爱通行。

日前，加利福尼亚研究人员详细展示了他们正在研制的一台望远镜，该望远镜用于研究一种神奇而强大的宇宙力——“暗能量”。这种能量正在加速宇宙的扩展，使得星系之间的距离越来越远。本台科学记者帕拉博·高什参观了研制望远镜的实验室。

这里的研究重点正逐渐从亚原子物理学转向研究恒星。拾阶而上，我来到了曾经用来探测神奇的反物质的实验室。我们可以看到，他们正在打造一个金属框架。

我们发现的所谓“暗能量”是物理界最伟大的发现之一。

1 flirt   

v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者

参考例句：

• He used to flirt with every girl he met.过去他总是看到一个姑娘便跟她调情。
• He watched the stranger flirt with his girlfriend and got fighting mad.看着那个陌生人和他女朋友调情，他都要抓狂了。

2 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

3 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

4 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

5 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。