美樂蒂的成長旋律(學習天地)

從國外網上下載的超短篇英語聽力練習小品

菠菜,我要吃菠菜.菠菜給予我力量.每次被狂揍之後,某一個瞬間,大力水手Popeye以迅雷不及掩耳之勢吞下一罐菠菜.隨後,肱二頭肌開始急劇的膨脹,膨脹到與體型極其不對稱.擺幾個健美造型後,把反動人物打的落花流水.當然,這是動畫片大力水手的情節.那菠菜究竟有沒有那麼神奇呢?一起來看看吧...

         The Strength of Spinach?

Don: Yaël, have you ever heard of Popeye the Sailorman? Whenever he is getting beaten up he eats some spinach and becomes really strong. His muscles bulge out and everything.

Yaël: I do burst your bubble Don. But eating spinach has nothing to do with strength.

D: Popeye is a lie?

Y: Not a lie, exactly. See, some time in the 1920s it was reported that a half cup of cooked spinach has thirty-four milligrams of iron, which is a lot. Iron is important because it carries oxygen in the blood. We need oxygen for energy; without enough of it people become weak and tired.

D: So spinach does make you strong, or at least puts extra pep in your step.

Y: Well, it might if it did have much iron. It turns out that the thirty-four milligrams was a typo. A half cup of cooked spinach really has only three point four milligrams of iron. Plus, spinach is actually worse than other iron-containing vegetables because it has a chemical that blocks most of its iron from being absorbed by the blood.

But when the typo was published the idea caught on that spinach was a muscle-building vegetable. That’s where the idea for Popeye came from.

D: So now I have to came up with another point.

Y: Or, how about just being happy with who you are!

D: Or, maybe I'll learn koradji.

Y: Whatever!

菠菜的神力?

Don: 你有聽說過大力水手波沛嗎?每次他被痛打的時候，他就會吃菠菜，吃完了之後他就變得非常強壯——肌肉凸出，一切的一切,變得好強壯啊!

Yaël: Don，我可就要打破你的幻想了!吃菠菜與變得強壯根本就沒什麼聯繫。

D: 波沛是一個謊言?

Y: 確切地說，不是謊言。在上世紀20年代，有報導稱，每半杯已烹飪菠菜含有34毫克鐵元素，含量相當的高。由於在血液中的運氧功能，鐵元素頗為重要。氧是人類的動力之源——一旦缺氧，人類便會變得虛弱、易疲乏。

D: 因而，菠菜確實能讓人強壯——至少能積存下多餘的精力。

Y: 嗯，如果鐵元素的含量很多的時候確實如此。事實證明，那34毫克的鐵元素是排版的錯誤——每半杯已烹飪菠菜僅含3.4毫克鐵元素。再者，事實上菠菜還不如其他含鐵的蔬菜好。原因在於，菠菜含有一種化學物質會大大的阻礙鐵元素被血液吸收。

但是，當34毫克的“版本”出來的時候，人們就認定了菠菜有助於肌肉的塑成。這就是大力水手波沛的得來呐!

D: 那麼也就是說，我得重去找其他的方法啦!

Y: 抑或，就高高興興的做你自己!

D: 或者，我還可以去學巫術!

Y: 這個就要看你自己啦!

Good News: Hot Chocolate Is Good for Your Heart!

巧克力熱飲有益心臟    

 http://picosong.com/yvYc  試聽mp3                      

Drinking green tea all the time may get a little boring,but it's helping me stay healthy. Antioxidants fight cancer and heart disease. I heard that fruit juices like cranberry juice also contain a lot of antioxidants.But I don't like cranberry juice.

Fruits and vegetables in general are a great source of antioxidants, but if you’re not in the mood for fruits and vegetables, what about drinking some hot cocoa?

Hot cocoa contains 2-3 times the amount of antioxidants that green tea does, and twice as much as red wine. You can, of course, get the antioxidant benefits of cocoa in other forms too, such as in candy bars and other desserts.

But your average cup of cocoa contains a lot less saturated fat than a regular chocolate bar. And you can cut down fat and sugar more by using skim milk and an artificial sweetener.

What’s more, though you could drink your cocoa cold, researchers recommend hot cocoa because the heat tends to trigger more antioxidants than cold cocoa

  一直喝綠茶可能會讓人覺得厭煩，但是它能幫助我保持健康。抗氧化劑能對抗癌症和心臟病。我聽說果汁像紅莓汁也含有豐富的抗氧化劑。可我不喜歡紅莓汁。

水果和蔬菜通常都含有大量的抗氧化劑，但是，如果你不喜歡水果或蔬菜的話，來杯巧克力熱飲怎麼樣?

熱可哥飲料所含抗氧化劑是綠茶的2-3倍，同時是紅酒的2倍。當然沒你也可以以其他方式獲得可哥中的抗氧化劑，比如可哥糖和其他一些甜點。

一杯可哥飲料所含的飽和脂肪要比巧克力少得多。並且可以使用脫脂奶和人工甜味劑減少脂肪和糖。

更重要的是，儘管你可以喝冷的可哥飲料，但研究人員還是建議喝熱飲。因為熱度能夠產生更多的抗氧化劑。

待續...

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