During an interview for one of my books, my interviewer said something I still think about often. Annoyed by the level of distraction in his open office, he said, “That’s why I have a membership at the coworking space across the street —so I can focus. "His comment struck me as strange. After all, coworking spaces also typically use an open office layout. But I recently came across a study that shows why his approach works.

在为我的一本书接受采访时，采访者说了一些我仍然经常想到的话。因为对开放式办公室分心的程度感到恼火，他说，“这就是为什么我在街对面的共用空间拥有会员资格——这样我就能集中精力。”他的说法让我感到奇怪。毕竟，共用空间通常也使用开放式办公室布局。不过我最近看到了一项研究，才明白他的方案为什么有效。

The researchers examined various levels of noise on participants as they completed tests of creative thinking. They were randomly divided into four groups and exposed to various noise levels in the background, from total silence to 50 decibels,70 decibels, and 85 decibels. The differences between most of the groups were statistically insignificant; however,the participants in the 70 decibels group—those exposed to a level of noise similar to background chatter in a coffee shop-significantly outperformed the other groups. Since the effects were small, this may suggest that our creative thinking does not differ that much in response to total silence and 85 decibels of background noise.

研究人员在参与者完成创造性思维测试时，检查了他们身上不同程度的噪音。他们被随机分为四组，暴露在不同的背景噪音水平下，从完全安静到50分贝、70分贝和85分贝。大多组之间的差异没有统计学意义；然而，在70分贝组中，那些暴露在类似于咖啡馆背景聊天的噪音水平下的参与者明显优于其他组。由于影响很小，这可能表明我们的创造性思维对完全安静和85分贝的背景噪音的反应没有太大差异。

But since the results at 70 decibels were significant, the study also suggests that the right level of background noise—not too loud and not total silence—may actually improve one’s creative thinking ability. The right level of background noise may interrupt our normal patterns of thinking just enough to allow our imaginations to wander, without making it impossible to focus. This kind of "distracted focus" appears to be the best state for working on creative tasks.

但由于70分贝的结果显著，这项研究还表明，适当的背景噪音水平——不要太大，也不要完全安静——实际上可能会提高一个人的创造性思维能力。适当的背景噪音可能会干扰我们正常的思维模式，足以让我们的想象力四处发散，而不会让我们无法集中注意力。这种“注意力分散”似乎是从事创造性任务的最佳状态。

So why do so many of us hate our open offices? The problem may be that, in our offices, we can't stop ourselves from getting drawn into others’ conversations while we’re trying to focus. Indeed, the researchers found that face-to-face interactions and conversations affect the creative process, and yet a coworking space or a coffee shop provides a certain level of noise while also providing freedom from interruptions.

那么，为什么我们中有这么多人讨厌开放式办公室呢？问题可能是，在我们的办公室里，当我们努力集中注意力时，我们无法阻止自己被其他人的谈话所吸引。事实上，研究人员发现，面对面的互动和对话会影响创作过程，而一个共用空间或咖啡馆在提供一定程度的噪音的同时，也提供了免受干扰的自由。

2020年高考英语全国卷2 - 阅读理解C

When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline?

几乎每个人都有手机，那为什么超过一半的澳大利亚家庭仍在为座机付费？

These days you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.

如今，在澳大利亚很难15岁以上的人几乎个个有手机。实际上，很多小孩子口袋里都有。几乎每个人都可以随时随地拨打和接听电话。

Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones, according to a survey. Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it's not really necessary and they're keeping it as a security blanket - 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.

然而，根据一项调查，55%的澳大利亚人家里有座机，只有略高于四分之一（29%）的人只依赖智能手机。在那些仍有座机的澳大利亚人中，三分之一的人认为不是真的需要座机，只是把它当作一条安全毯——19%的人说他们从来不用，另有13%的人保留它是为了应付紧急情况。我认为我的家庭属于这一类。

More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor - only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who've perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn't the only factor; I'd say it's also to do with the makeup of your household.

超过一半的澳大利亚家庭仍然选择使用座机。年龄自然是一个因素——Y一代中只有58%仍然偶尔使用座机，而婴儿潮一代中有84%的人可能50年来一直拥有相同的家庭号码。年龄不是唯一的因素；我想这也和你的家庭构成有关。

Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).

这样拥有年轻家庭的X一代，比如我和我的妻子还是认为拥有一部座机比为每个家庭成员提供一部手机更方便。说实话，只有婴儿潮一代的父母会打我们的座机，在我们拿起电话之前，我们会玩一个游戏，猜猜谁在打电话（来电显示会让我们失去乐趣）。

How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?

你有多喜欢你的座机？它们还要多久才能走上煤气路灯和早上送牛奶的老路？

When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn’t cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion enthusiast are trying to bring back the market for fur made from nutria.

当你想给环保人士的假日购物清单增加些什么时，你可能不会想到皮毛。但是一些生态学家和时尚发烧友们正试图恢复海狸鼠皮毛的市场。

Unusual fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn have showcased nutria fur made into clothes in different styles. “It sounds crazy to talk about guilt-free fur – unless you understand that the nutria are destroying vast wetlands every year,” says Cree McCree, project director of Righteous Fur.

新奥尔良和布鲁克林的不同寻常时装秀展示了海狸鼠皮毛制成的不同风格的服装。“谈论没有罪恶感的皮毛听起来很疯狂——除非你知道海狸鼠每年都在破坏大片湿地，”Righteous Fur（正义皮毛）项目总监克里·麦克里说。

Scientists in Louisiana were so concerned that they decided to pay hunters $5 a tail. Some of the fur ends up in the fashion shows like the one in Brooklyn last month.

路易斯安那州的科学家非常担心，他们决定付给猎人每尾5美元。一些皮毛最终出现在时装秀上，比如上个月布鲁克林的时装秀。

Nutria were brought there from Argentina by fur farmers and let go into the wild. “The ecosystem down there can’t handle this non-native species. It’s destroying the environment. It’s them or us,” says Michael Massimi, an expert in this field.

海狸鼠是皮毛农场主从阿根廷带到这里并放生的。“那里的生态系统无法应对这种非本土物种，它正在破坏环境”，这一领域的专家迈克尔·马西米说。

The fur trade kept nutria in check for decades, but when the market for nutria collapsed in the late 1980s, the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy.

几十年来，皮毛贸易一直控制着海狸鼠数量，但是20世纪80年代末海狸鼠市场崩溃后，这些猫一样大小的动物疯狂繁殖。

Biologist Edmond Mouton runs the nutria control program for Louisiana. He says it’s not easy to convince people that people that nutria fur is green, but he has no doubt about it. Hunters bring in more than 300,000 nutria tails a year, so part of Mouton’s job these days is trying to promote fur.

生物学家埃德蒙·莫顿负责路易斯安那州的海狸鼠控制。他说要让人们相信海狸鼠皮是绿色的并不容易，但他对此毫无疑问。猎人们每年带来超过30万条海狸鼠尾巴，所以莫顿现在的部分工作就是推广皮毛。

Then there’s Righteous Fur and its unusual fashions. Model Paige Morgan says,“To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them – I think that’s going to be a massive thing, at least here in New York.” Designer Jennifer Anderson admits it took her a while to come around to the opinion that using nutria fur for her creations is morally acceptable. She’s trying to come up with a label to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.

还有Righteous Fur和它不同寻常的时尚。模特佩奇·摩根说，“给人们一个没有罪恶感的选择，让他们可以穿着，而不用被人往身上泼油漆——我认为这将是一件大事，至少在纽约是这样。”设计师詹妮弗·安德森承认，她花了一段时间才意识到，用海狸鼠皮制作作品在道德上是可以接受的。她正尝试给海狸鼠时尚贴上环保标签。