2月7日午间英语新闻：印度新人将举办元宇宙婚礼派对

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Covid-19 vaccines don't affect male fertility
接种新冠疫苗不会影响生育能力

Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 won’t affect a couple’s chances of getting pregnant, but contracting the coronavirus could impair male fertility. Those are the main conclusions of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, refuting a common myth about the vaccine and sending a warning to men who avoid it. 
接种新冠疫苗不会影响一对夫妇的受孕几率，但是感染新冠病毒可能会损害男性的生育能力。这个结论来自于美国国家卫生研究院资助的一项研究，该研究驳斥了关于疫苗的普遍误解，并向拒绝接种疫苗的男性发出提醒。

Researchers at Boston University studied more than 2,000 couples and found no differences in their chances of conception if either partner was vaccinated compared to unvaccinated couples. But the couples’ chances of conceiving decreased slightly if the male partner had contracted the virus 60 days or less before a menstrual cycle, an indication of diminished male fertility. One possible reason for that, researchers theorized, is the likelihood that coronavirus infection would cause a fever, which has been known to reduce sperm count.
波士顿大学的研究人员对2000多对夫妇进行了研究，发现与未接种疫苗的夫妇相比，接种疫苗的夫妇受孕的几率没有差异。但是，如果男性伴侣在女性月经周期前60天内或更短时间内感染了新冠病毒，夫妇的受孕几率会略有下降，这表明男性伴侣生育能力有所下降。研究人员推测，一个可能原因是感染新冠病毒可能会导致发烧，而众所周知，发烧会减少精子数量。

重点词汇
1、contract
英 /ˈkɒntrækt; kənˈtrækt/  
美 /ˈkɑːntrækt; kənˈtrækt/
v. 患上，感染；（使）收缩，缩小；签合同，订立契约；订立婚约（或盟约）；欠负（债）
n. 合同，契约；<非正式>暗杀协议；（桥牌）定约墩数；婚约，订婚

2、refute
英 /rɪˈfjuːt/  美 /rɪˈfjuːt/ 
v. <正式> 驳斥，批驳；<正式> 否认，辩驳

3、fertility
英 /fəˈtɪləti/  美 /fərˈtɪləti/ 
n. 可繁殖性，生育能力；肥沃，富饶；（思想的）丰富，多产

Cats clinch title of urban China's favorite pet
猫咪成最受欢迎的都市宠物

China has seen an increase in pet ownership over the years, with people increasingly choosing cats. As of last year, there were about 58 million pet cats in China's urban households, compared with some 54 million pet dogs. Cats become the subject of viral memes and videos. Many cat lovers online also identify themselves as "cat slaves" and "cat sniffers", publicly professing their pet preference. 
近年来，中国的养宠人士有所增加，越来越多人选择养猫。截至去年，中国城市家庭中约有5800万只宠物猫，而宠物狗约为5400万只。猫咪成了表情包和短视频的主角。许多爱猫人士在网上还自称"猫奴"和"吸猫者"，公开表示他们的喜爱。

Researchers attribute the fast growth of cat pets to the lifestyle in Chinese cities, with some experts also suggesting the feline’s popularity with the young generation's pursuit of individuality. Many city dwellers have busy lives and relatively smaller accommodations, thus making cats their ideal companions — it's easy to raise cats, unlike dogs, which require more attention and outdoor activities. Young people are looking for freedom and spontaneity in their lives, and the habits of cats are more suited to their needs.
研究人员将养猫人士激增归因于中国城市的生活方式，一些专家还指出，猫咪受欢迎与年轻一代对个性的追求有关。许多城市居民生活繁忙，住宿面积相对较小，因此猫是理想的伴侣——养猫很简单，不像养狗需要更多的关注和户外活动。年轻人在生活中寻求自由率性，猫的习性更适合他们的需求。"

重点词汇
1、cat slaves
猫奴

2、cat sniffers
吸猫者

3、companion
英 /kəmˈpænjən/  美 /kəmˈpænjən/ 
n. 同伴，伴侣；（受雇照料老人或病人的）陪护；成对的物品之一；同甘共苦的伙伴；（用于书名）指南，手册；伴星；最低级爵士
v. 陪伴

Couple plans India's first ‘metaverse marriage'
印度新人将举办元宇宙婚礼派对

As Covid-19 forces families across India to downsize or cancel their traditionally large-scale weddings, one couple has found a venue unaffected by restrictions: the metaverse. Dinesh Sivakumar Padmavathi and Janaganandhini Ramaswamy from Tamil Nadu, where wedding gatherings are currently limited to 100 people, have invited 2,000 people to their virtual reception next month. 
新冠疫情迫使印度各地的新人简化或取消传统的盛大婚礼，然而一对印度夫妇却找到了一个不受防疫限制措施影响的场所——元宇宙。来自泰米尔纳德邦的帕德玛瓦帝和拉姆丝瓦米邀请2000人下个月参加他们的虚拟婚礼派对。在泰米尔纳德邦，目前婚礼聚会人数不得超过100人。

And as self-professed "Potterheads," or fans of Harry Potter, the pair have opted for a Hogwarts-themed party that guests can attend via their phones, tablets or laptops. The legal wedding ceremony will still take place physically in front of close friends and relatives in Ramaswamy's village in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district. But afterward, the couple will log on to join their reception, which is costing 150,000 Indian rupees to design, develop and host.
这对自称是哈利波特粉丝的新人将选择举办一个霍格沃茨主题婚礼派对，宾客们可以通过手机、平板电脑或笔记本电脑来参加。合法的线下婚礼仍然会在泰米尔纳德邦克里斯赫纳吉里市拉马斯瓦米村，在亲朋好友的见证下举行。但是接下来，这对新人将会登陆元宇宙举行婚礼派对，设计、开发和举办这场派对共耗资15万印度卢比(约合人民币1.3万元)。

重点词汇
1、downsize
英 /ˈdaʊnsaɪz/  美 /ˈdaʊnsaɪz/ 
vt. 裁减人数，减少人手；以较小尺寸设计；缩小尺寸

2、metaverse

元宇宙；3D虚幻世界; 尤指通过网络扮演角色游戏创造的世界

3、rupee
 卢比

Face masks make people look more attractive
戴口罩让人看上去更有魅力

There have been precious few positives during the Covid pandemic, but British academics may have unearthed one: People look more attractive in protective masks. Researchers at Cardiff University were surprised to find that both men and women were judged to look better with a face covering obscuring the lower half of their faces. In what may be a blow for producers of fashionable coverings – and the environment – they also discovered that a face covered with a disposable-type surgical mask was likely to be deemed the most appealing. 新冠疫情期间的正面新闻少之又少，然而英国学者们却给我们带来了一则积极的讯息，那就是戴口罩会让人看起来更有魅力。卡迪夫大学的研究人员惊讶地发现，在脸的下半部分被遮住时，男性和女性看上去都更有魅力了。研究人员还发现，戴一次性外科口罩的脸被认为最有吸引力，这也许对时尚口罩的生产商和环境都是一个打击。

The first part of the research was carried out in February 2021, by which time the British population had become used to wearing masks in some circumstances. Forty-three women were asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 the attractiveness of images of male faces without a mask, wearing a plain cloth mask, a blue medical face mask, and holding a plain black book covering the area a face mask would hide. The participants said those wearing a cloth mask were significantly more attractive than the ones with no masks or whose faces were partly obscured by the book. But the surgical mask – which was just a normal, disposable kind – made the wearer look even better.
研究的第一部分是在2021年2月开展的，当时英国人已经习惯在某些情况下佩戴口罩。研究人员让43名女性分别给不戴口罩、戴棉布口罩、戴蓝色医用口罩或用黑色书盖住下半部分脸的男性颜值打分，最低1分，最高10分。参与者表示，戴棉布口罩的人比不戴口罩或一部分脸被书遮住的人看起来有魅力得多。但是戴一次性普通外科口罩的人看起来最有魅力。

重点词汇
1、unearth
英 /ʌnˈɜːθ/  美 /ʌnˈɜːrθ/ 
v.  (经努力) 发现；发掘，使出土，揭露；从洞中赶出（动物，尤指狐狸）

2、obscure
英 /əbˈskjʊə(r)/  美 /əbˈskjʊr/
v. 遮掩，遮蔽；使费解
adj. 难以说清楚的，模糊的；鲜为人知的；未被查实的；费解的
n. 某种模糊的或不清楚的东西