【798-801】乐观可以保护士兵免受慢性疼痛&世上最老野鸟又成了母亲&空中客车公司停止制造世上最大客机&韩国女性反对美容压力
AS IT IS
Optimism May Protect Against Chronic Pain in Soldiers
February 14, 2019
FILE - U.S. Soldiers scan the area during a combined joint patrol in Manbij, Syria, Nov. 1, 2018.
A new study finds American soldiers who showed strong optimism before deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq were less likely to develop long-term pain.
And those who felt more pessimistic were 35 percent more likely to report back pain, joint pain and headaches.
Those are the findings of a recent report in JAMA Network Open.
Afton Hassett is a researcher from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She said, “We found that optimism was protective for soldiers even when they were exposed to combat.”
The researcher added, “The most surprising thing was that even after we took into consideration (things) such as education, (and) marital status… the effects of optimism were still powerful.”
While optimism may seem like something that is natural and cannot be learned, Hassett said it could be developed.
“We don’t want to blame people for not being optimistic enough,” she advised. “But maybe we need to think about identifying soldiers who have low levels of optimism and perhaps help them with some pre-deployment programs.”
Hassett and the team of researchers examined information from 20,734 U.S. Army soldiers. About 37 percent of them reported pain in at least one new area of the body after deployment.
All had filled out questionnaires before deployment that measured their levels of optimism. One of the questions was, “If something can go wrong for me, it will.” Soldiers who already had some sort of pain before deployment were not included in the study.
The research also included information on the level of combat experienced by the soldiers. This included information like finding dead bodies, seeing people killed or wounded, feeling in great danger of being killed, using a gun in combat, experiencing an explosion or a car crash.
While the new study looked only at the development of long-term, or chronic, pain in the military, Hassett said it is not just about soldiers. She said there are many studies that link optimism to pain.
Dr. John Hache teaches pain medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. He agreed the study could help with learning about chronic pain.
Hache added that the study suggests it might be possible to protect against chronic pain conditions.
I’m Susan Shand.
The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
optimism – n. a belief that all is well
pessimism – n. the belief that things will probably go wrong chronic – adj. without end
expose – v. to show
combat – n. meeting the enemy in a war
AS IT IS
World’s Oldest Wild Bird Is a Mother Again
February 14, 2019
In this 2018 photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is Wisdom, the world's oldest known breeding bird with a chick sits in a nest at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial. (Bob Peyton/U.S. Fish and
The oldest known wild bird in the world has become a mother again.
American wildlife officials said the egg of a Laysan albatross named Wisdom opened earlier this month. It happened at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, northwest of Hawaii.
Wisdom is at least 68 years old and has raised at least 31 baby birds, or chicks. Wisdom was first identified as an adult in 1956.
Wisdom and her mate, Akeakamai, have been returning to the refuge to lay and hatch eggs since 2006. Laysan albatrosses mate for life. They lay one egg a year.
Beth Flint is a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She told the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper, “Wisdom is rewriting history about our understanding of survivorship, how long birds live, and how often they breed.”
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is home to about 3 million seabirds, including around 1 million Laysen albatrosses.
The birds can also be found near Mexico and Japan. The albatrosses spend most of their lives flying over the ocean. They feed on squid and fish eggs. They can fly as far as 2,500 kilometers away from home to look for food. Biologists say they always return to the places of their birth to lay eggs and raise their young.
After an egg is laid, albatrosses take turns sitting on it to keep it warm. This lasts for about seven months. It is a process called incubating.
The young chicks fly out to sea about five months after they hatch.
Kelly Goodale is a biologist at the refuge. She says Midway Atoll contains “countless generations and families of albatrosses.”
She says that when Wisdom returns to the refuge, she is “surrounded by what were once her chicks and potentially their chicks.”
I’m Ashley Thompson.
Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on the Associated Press and the Honolulu Advertiser reports. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
chick - n. a baby bird
hatch - v. (bird) to come out of an egg
breed - v. to produce young birds, animals, etc...
potentially - adv. capable of becoming real
AS IT IS
Airbus to Stop Making World’s Largest Passenger Plane
February 14, 2019
The Airbus A 380 performs its demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show, in Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, Friday, June 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
European aircraft maker Airbus has announced it will stop making the world’s largest passenger airplane.
The French-based manufacturer said Thursday it plans to stop making the Airbus A380 in 2021. The A380 made its first test flight in 2005 and began carrying passengers two years later.
The A380 is the largest commercial airplane operating today. The plane has two full levels of seating and normally is equipped to carry at least 500 people.
The announcement came after the company experienced major drops in demand and sales of its A380 in recent years.
In the latest decision, Emirates – Airbus’ largest buyer of the A380 – chose to cut the number of aircraft it had already ordered. Airbus officials said Emirates’ decision left the company with no “order backlog” to support continued production of the plane.
Airbus chief Tom Enders said the decision to end the A380 program was a “painful” one. “We’ve invested a lot of effort, a lot of resources, a lot of sweat...but we need to be realistic.”
The decision could affect up to 3,500 jobs. It already cost Airbus about $523 million in losses in 2018, the company said.
Airbus said it would enter talks with labor unions in coming weeks over jobs that could be affected. Most of the positions at risk are in France and Germany, but workers in Spain and Britain also could be affected.
In a statement, the head of Emirates said the airline had been a strong supporter of the A380 from the beginning. It said the plane had become a favorite among many passengers and crew members. The decision to cancel the orders marked “the reality” of the current situation, the statement said.
Emirates said it had reached a new $21.4 billion deal with Airbus to replace some of the A380 orders with A350 wide-bodies and smaller A330 planes.
Airbus has promised airline companies it will keep supporting the more than 230 A380s currently in operation.
At first, many industry experts expected the A380 to outlast the Boeing 747, which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. But many major airlines are increasingly turning to more mid-size planes to support regional flights.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. His story was based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. George Grow was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
commercial – adj. related to buying and selling things
backlog – n. planned work in progress but not yet completed
sweat – n. liquid produced through the skin
regional – adj. relating to a particular area
AS IT IS
South Korean Women Object to Beauty Pressure
February 14, 2019
For years, Park I Seul either ate too little or too much as she worked toward her dream of becoming a fashion model.
But she is not tall enough or thin enough to be a model in usual fashion shows. And she is not big enough to be a plus-size model.
Park believed that the only way to meet South Korea’s beauty ideals was for her to deny who she truly is.
In South Korea, a woman weighing over 50 kilograms is considered by many to be big, no matter how tall she is. Park herself weighs 62 kilograms. She is 165 centimeters tall.
That is far from the ideal model body of 170 centimeters in height and 40 to 48 kilograms in weight.
Park, who is 25, has decided to call herself a “natural-size model.” She defines it as a model with the same kind of body you see in daily life, as opposed to a difficult-to-reach ideal. She has started a YouTube channel, where she introduces styles for women who look more like her than the models in magazines.
Park said, “I used to think that my fat body wasn’t the real me and that living in such a body wasn’t my real life. I kept denying myself. I believed that my life would only become happy after I lost weight." She added, “I’ve come to think that I look good enough just the way I am.”
Sohn Hee-jeong is a researcher at the Institute of Gender Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul. She says more Korean women are now willing to challengesocietal demands of their looks.
Cha Ji Won is an example. The 24-year-old runs a YouTube channel called “Korean Womyn.” She publishes videos of her daily life. She wears comfortable clothes and does not worry about her hair or makeup. Cha says she eats whatever she wants and does not think about how much fat she is eating.
Cha told the Associated Press, “I hoped that by letting other women know that there is someone like me, I could remind them that they don’t have to care too much (about how they look) and spend so much money and time on their appearance.”
Hong is an 18-year-old high school student. She recently objected to a series of classes at her all-girls school. The classes included “Makeup for college freshmen,” ″Fashion styling for college freshmen” and “How to make a healthy body figure.” The classes were removed after Hong and other students told reporters about them.
A 2015 Gallup Korea report found that about one-third of South Korean women between the ages of 19 and 29 said they had had plastic surgery – procedures to change their physical appearance.
Park Jiehyun works at Cosmopolitan Korea, a popular fashion magazine. She said, “I think (South Korean women) want to look perfect." She added, “They believe they should have a nice body and skin, beautiful eyes, nose and mouth, and even sleekhair with a perfect hairline."
But Park says rising feminist movements and changing values are redirecting how beauty is presented. In its December issue, Cosmopolitan Korea put a popular South Korean comedian, Lee Young-ja, on the cover. Lee is larger than most of the models the magazine has put on its cover.
But changes are still slow to reach professional workplaces. A 2018 employment survey from the Korean company Saramin found that female job seekers are often judged more for their looks than male job seekers.
Choi Min Jeong still remembers when her supervisor told her that she had to work harder because she was not as beautiful as one popular South Korean actress.
Choi, who worked at a company that produced drinks, said, “Although he said it as a joke, I thought it was ridiculous that he said it when ... my job was unrelated to appearance.”
Kwon Su Jeong worked for 24 years with Asiana, a major South Korean airline. Kwon is currently on leave from Asiana so she can work in Seoul’s city council. She says Asiana often demands female flight attendants to follow much more strict dress rules than males.
“They control everything, from your hairstyle to the color of your lipstick and nails to the length and shape of your earrings,” Kwon said.
Asiana strongly denied that it makes unfair demands or puts pressure on its employees to look a special way.
Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on Associated Press news report. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
ideal - n. an idea or standard of perfection
style - n. a particular form or design
challenge - v. to question the action or authority
comfortable - adj. allowing you to be relaxed
makeup - n. substances such as lipstick or powder used to make someone's face more attractive
figure - n. the shape or form of a person's body
sleek - adj. smooth and shiny
survey - n. an activity in which many people are asked questions in other to gather information