【推荐1】Music tends to get stuck in our heads. Sometimes a tune(曲调)stays on our thoughts and then plays, and replays, which seems never to end. This interesting phenomenon, commonly called “earworm”, becomes a subject explored by scientists. Earworms can run around our heads from several minutes to numerous hours. As the melody(旋律)repeats, it becomes stuck in our mind. Even though our ears do not hear the tune, our brain continues to play it.

Earworms often take the form of song pieces rather than entire songs, and the song is usually a familiar one. Researchers are uncertain why some songs are more likely to get stuck in our heads than others, but everyone has their own tunes. Often those songs have a simple, pleasant melody and charming, repetitive lyrics(歌词), such as popular commercial jingles and slightly annoying radio hits. Recent or repeated exposure to a song or even a small part of a song can also cause earworms, as can word associations, such as a phrase similar to the lyrics of a song.

How people deal with their earworms depends on how they feel about them. Those with positive feelings about their stuck songs prefer to just “let them be” while those with negative feelings turn to more behavioral responses, such as singing, talking, or even praying. They are also looking at whether everyday activities help, like going for a run or doing a crossword. For them, getting an unwanted tune out of their head is a relief. But of course the song that cures you might just end up being the next one that gets stuck.

【推荐2】Good morning. The program today is about music. The word “music” comes from the Greek word “muse”. The Muses are the goddesses of the arts. Music is only one of the arts. It is like the spoken language, but it uses sounds. Today’s program brings together music from different corners of the world. Who invented music? Who sang the first song? No one knows exactly the answers to these questions. But we know that music plays an important part in almost everyone’s life. Babies and young children love to hear people singing to them. When they are a little older, they like to sing the songs they have heard. When children go to school, their world of music grows. In the middle grades students take music lessons. When they reach high school, they become more and more interested in listening to pop music.

The records we have chosen for you today are from American country music, Indian music, pop music and so on. Music has different meanings for everyone. It can make people happy or it can make them sad. Music is now heard everywhere, in shops, on buses and at home. In this program we shall study the language of music. We shall be trying to find out more about how music works. We shall try to find out how music says what people feel. It is worth making the effort. Only then can we say why one piece of music is good and another is bad.

Now, here comes the music today. I shall explain why they are all good music...

【推荐3】Wearable sensors (传感器) could one day interpret the gestures in sign language and translate them into English，providing a high­tech solution to communication problems between deaf people and those who don't understand sign language.

Engineers at Texas A & M University are developing a wearable device that can sense movement and muscle activity in a person's arms. The device works by figuring out the gestures a person is making by using two sets of sensors：one that responds to the motion of the wrist and the other to the muscular movements in the arm. A program then wirelessly receives this information and changes the data into the English translation. “Most of the technology was based on vision­based or camera­based solutions,” said study lead researcher Roozbeh Jafari，an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A & M University.

These existing designs, Jafari said，are not enough，because often when someone is talking with sign language，he or she is using hand gestures combined with specific finger movements.“I thought maybe we should look into combining motion sensors and muscle activation，”Jafari told Live Science. “And the idea here was to build a wearable device.”

The researchers have built a system that can recognize words that people use most commonly in their daily conversations. Jafari said that once the team starts expanding the program，the engineers will include more words that are less frequently used，in order to build up a more substantial vocabulary.

One drawback of it is that the system has to be “trained ” to respond to each individual that wears the device，Jafari said. This training process involves asking the user to repeat or do each hand gesture a couple of times，which can take up to 30 minutes to complete.

【推荐1】A raised eyebrow, a puzzled look or a nod of the head are just a few of the facial expressions computers could soon be using to read people’s minds.

An emotionally aware” computer being developed by British and American scientists will be able to read an individuals thoughts by analyzing a combination of facial movements that represent underlying feelings.

“The system we have developed allows a wide range of mental states to be identified just by pointing a video camera at someone, “ said Professor Peter Robinson of the University of Cambridge.

He believes the mind-reading computer’s applications could range from improving people’s driving skills to helping companies tailor advertising to people’s moods(心情).

“Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something, a future where mobile phones, cars and Web sites could read our mind and react to our moods,” he added.

The researchers, who are developing the technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, also hope to get it to accept other inputs such as posture(姿势)and gesture.

“Our research could enable Web sites to tailor advertising or products to your mood,” said Robinson. “For example, a Webcam(网络摄相机) linked with our software could process your image, encode the correct emotional state and send information to a Web site.” It could also be useful in online teaching to show whether someone understands what is being explained and in improving road safety by determining if a driver is confused, bored or tired.

“We are working with a car company, and they believe this will be employed in cars within five years,” Robinson said, adding that a camera could be built into the dashboard(仪表板).

【推荐2】Beijing Opera, as one of Chinese traditional opera forms, is regarded as the national opera of China and well received all over the world.

Beijing Opera arose in the late 18th century with a history of more than 200 years whose origin can date back to some old local operas, especially the Anhui Opera. It became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. Now it's the biggest kind of opera in China, whose popularity spread all over the country, becoming the most popular dramatic (戏剧的) form on Chinese stage.

There are four basic methods employed in a Beijing Opera performance: chang, nian, zuo, da. Generally speaking, chang means singing, and nian recitation (背诵) and oral communication, while zuo means the facial and body expressions and acting and da is Chinese Kungfu. Beijing Opera also has four main types of performers namely Sheng, Dan, Jing and Chou. Sheng and Dan mean the main roles in the opera. The painted face, in Chinese called 'jing', is a name for the role of the man that has some special characteristic or appearance. Chou is easily understood from the role's name as a clown with an ugly appearance, who is to provide light relief and comedy.

In recent years, Beijing Opera has tried to make some changes, including improving the performance quality. Widely spreading all over China with great influence, Beijing Opera contains the spirit of Chinese national culture, but the shortage of funding has become a big problem as the form enters the 21st century. There is no doubt that it is a treasure of Chinese culture!

【推荐3】Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers tried to conquer(征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.

In the 1840s the main crop, potatoes, was affected by disease and about 750，000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage(短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived(复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

【推荐1】The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare’s time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms.

In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an enough working knowledge for each situation.

The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the various needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological (气象的) and airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies . Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West.

【推荐2】Book lovers all over the world have read, enjoyed, and appreciated some of the most famous writers of all times. And today compiling them in a list is a great pleasure.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Fondly known as The Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare has been perhaps the most revered British poet, playwright, and author in English literature, who has been a great influence on the literature, art culture, films and theatre since time immemorial. Some of his famous works include, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.

Jane Austen (1775-1817): Jane Austen, a romantic fiction writer from British, published many of her books anonymously (匿名地). Her books usually revolved round women, family, and marriage and through her books she highlighted the fact that if a woman wants to feel secure emotionally, socially and financially she needs to find the right man in her life. Her books are termed as classic today with some of them finding a place in the school syllabus as well. Some of her famous works include Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870): Who can forget Charles Dickens while compiling the list of most famous British writers? An author of the Victorian Era, Dickens wrote fiction and non-fiction novels, short stories, poems and plays and some of his famous works include, A tale of two cities, Great expectations, David Copperfield, and The Adventures of Oliver Twist.

J. K. Rowling (1965): A list of famous British authors will be incomplete without the mention of the contemporary author J.K., Rowling, who has brought the youth and the children "back to reading” in this day and age of computers and Internet. She has become a rage the world over with the Harry Potter Series, which have sold more than four hundred million copies, the world over.

【推荐3】"Carers" are all sorts of people with so many different caring roles. I know this only too well from attending my severely ill mother as a teenager, to having main carer responsibility for my Nanna for her last ten years, to now as a father caring for my disabled son.

But more importantly, I was also cared for. My dad had died when I was four, so after my mum died, it was my amazing Nanna and Grandad who took me in. Because they were my grandparents, I never really thought of them as "carers"，and I don't think they did either. Back then, I probably didn9t even know what 66kinship（亲属关系）carer" meant

It wasn't easy for them. My mother's long illness and early death nearly broke them. I used to think looking after me helped them deal with their heartbreak. But the truth is, they helped me get over my mum's death. Surrounding me with unquestioning love, they were classic kinship carers.

Working as a lawyer, I've helped a surprisingly large number of kinship carers over the years—mostly grandparents, fighting the system for their precious grandchildren. I like to think I go the extra mile, which helped them face the challenges. More than 180,000 children across the UK are being raised by kinship carers today, but the huge challenges facing them are too often forgotten by politicians and policymakers.

What my Nanna and Grandad did—and what kinship carers across the UK are doing today—is amazing. They are giving a loving home to these children, while reducing the stress on the formal care system― ven though it may add difficulties to their own life. We can't thank and support them too much.