obo

China sets limit on Spring Festival SMS

春节期间，为打击垃圾短信，中国的手机用户们需要减少拜年短信的数量。 Mobile phone users in China will need to limit the number of Chinese New Year text messages they send during Spring Festival as part of a crackdown on spam messages.

去年6月，中国三大手机运营商签订协议，规定同一手机每小时发送短信数量不得超过200条，每天不超过1000条。超出以上数额的手机将被暂停短信服务一周。 An agreement among the country's three main mobile network operators last June stipulates that if the number of messages sent from a phone number reaches 200 within an hour or 1,000 within a day, the phone's message service will be suspended for a week.

节假日和周末，只要不超过每小时500条，每天2000条，用户不会被锁定。 For holidays and weekends, the allowable limit will increase to 500 hourly and 2,000 every day, it said.

中国电信科技委主任韦乐平在接受《中国日报》采访时称，即便在春节期间，打击垃圾短信的工作也会继续。 Wei Leping, chief-engineer from China Telecom told China Daily that even during Spring Festival, the crackdown on spam messages will continue.

“即便采取了这么严格的措施打击垃圾短信，很多人仍能收到很多垃圾短信。”韦乐平说。 "Even though such strict measures to fight against junk messages are taken, many people still receive tens of such messages," Wei said.

据国家工业和信息化部数据统计，截止2008年底，手机用户平均每周收到10条垃圾短信，也就是说，2008年共发送垃圾短信3亿多条。 Mobile phone subscribers received about 10 spam messages every week by the end of 2008, which means more than 300 million unwanted messages were delivered that year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

其中，最常见的垃圾短信来自房地产、零售、交通、旅游业。 The most common type of spam includes promotions for real estate, retail, traffic and tourism industries.

考虑到垃圾短信的危害，一些手机用户同意限制短信数量。 Considering the harm of spam messages, some phone users support the limitation on message numbers.

辽宁师范大学研究生孙倩很支持这项服务。 Sun Qian, a postgraduate at Liaoning Normal University, said it was a good service.

“普通人1小时内发短信数量很少能超过100条，即使在节假日也不大可能，除非对方是垃圾短信制造者或骗子。”孙倩说。 "A normal person rarely sends more than 100 messages within an hour even during holidays, unless he or she is a spammer or a cheater," Sun said.

然而，Adobe公司的销售员李冬却说：“身为销售员，春节期间我不得不向客户发送成千上万的短信。运营商没有权利因为我发送太多短信就暂停我的短信服务。” Li Dong, a salesman at Adobe said: "As a salesman, I have to send thousands of messages to my clients during Spring Festival. The operators have no right to close my text message service because I deliver too many messages."

官方数据显示，去年7天的春节假期中，中国手机用户共发送180亿条短信。预计今年该数字会有所增加。 Official figures show Chinese mobile phone users sent 18 billion text messages during last year's 7-day Spring Festival holiday, and the figure is expected to increase this year.

韦乐平表示，运营商无权阅读用户的短信内容，因此无法辨别是否属于垃圾短信。 Wei said operators did not have the right to read short messages and decide which was junk and which was not.

截止去年7月份，中国大陆地区手机用户数量约7亿人。 There were about 700 million mobile users on the Chinese mainland as of July last year.

obo 发布在 每日记事  |  发布时间: 05:06PM Feb 23, 2010  |  评论[0]

Chinese gender imbalance will leave millions of men without wives

中国社会科学院的一项调查显示，中国13亿人口中，新生儿性别比例失调是目前最严重的人口问题。 A study by the government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences named the gender imbalance among newborns as the most serious demographic problem for the country's population of 1.3 billion.

“性别选择性人工流产现象仍很严重，农村地区尤为如此，”那里重男轻女风气最浓。研究指出，导致性别失衡的原因很“复杂”。 "Sex-specific abortions remained extremely commonplace, especially in rural areas," where the cultural preference for boys over girls is strongest, the study said, noting the reasons for the gender imbalance were "complex".

据《环球时报》报道，研究员王光州（音译）表示，倾斜的出生率会导致低收入男性很难娶到老婆，同时也会导致夫妻双方年龄差距的加大。 A researcher, Wang Guangzhou, said the skewed birth ratio could lead to difficulties for men with lower incomes in finding spouses, as well as a widening age gap between partners, according to the Global Times.

该报援引另一位研究员王跃升（音译）的话说，中国较贫困地区的大龄未婚男性可能被迫晚婚或者“光棍”一生，这很可能“打断家族体系”。 Another researcher quoted by the newspaper, Wang Yuesheng, said men in poorer parts of China would be forced to accept marriages late in life or remain single for life, which could "cause a break in family lines".

“在农村，40岁以上的剩男将很难讨到老婆。随着年龄增长，他们会更多依赖于社会保障，而可依赖的家庭资源却变得越来越少。”王先生说。 "The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40 years old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on," said Mr Wang.

研究还指出，导致这一现象的主要原因包括国家的计划生育政策（限制公民生育子女的数量）以及不完备的社会保障制度。 The study said the key contributing factors to the phenomenon included the nation's family-planning policy, which restricts the number of children citizens may have, as well as an insufficient social security system.

这种现状导致人们想要男孩，因为人们普遍认为成年男性更有希望赚到大钱，因而更有能力照顾年迈的父母。 The situation influenced people to seek male offspring, who are preferred for their greater earning potential as adults and thus their ability to care for their elderly parents.

《环球时报》援引国家人口和计划生育委员会数据称，在男性过剩地区，诱拐、贩卖女性现象十分猖獗。 The Global Times said abductions and trafficking of women were "rampant" in areas with excess numbers of men, citing the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

报道称，这些地区的非法婚姻和强迫卖淫问题也很严重。 Illegal marriages and forced prostitution were also problems in those areas, it said.

专家指出，自然情况下，男女性别比例的正常范围为103-107(女=100)。但据《环球时报》报道，在2005年，该比例为119比100。 Authorities put the normal male-female ratio at between 103-107 males for every 100 females. But in 2005, there were 119 boys for every 100 girls, the newspaper said.

然而，《晚镜报》报道，研究发现，在某些地区，男女比例高达130比100。 However, the study said that in some areas the male-female ratio was as high as 130 males for every 100 females, a report by the Mirror Evening newspaper said.

obo 发布在 每日记事  |  发布时间: 04:59PM Feb 23, 2010  |  评论[0]

Being an adult at home

怀着盼望回家过年的心情，大一新生们在火车站排了几个小时队来买票。几天后，他们挤进一列拥挤的火车，想象着家中的美味和那些即将在到家后感受到的浓浓情意。基于这些，他们表示，回家再周折也是值得的。 Freshmen, eager to get home for the Chinese New Year, queue up at the railway station for hours. Days later, they squeeze into a crowded train and dream of the home-cooked meals and love they'll enjoy once they arrive home. This, they say, makes all the trouble of getting home worthwhile.

但很多大一新生开始发觉自己的家不再像记忆中的那样。异地生活已使得他们接触到一种全新的，自由的生活方式。而在他们刚刚迈入家门几个钟头内，他们便开始怀念自由的生活。家务活以及唠叨的父母可能会使得同学们的寒假美梦破灭掉。 However, many freshmen come to find that home is not exactly how they remembered it. Living away from their parents has exposed them to a new life of freedom – one that within hours of arriving some begin to miss. Household chores and nagging parents are just a few of the things that can ruin students' winter fantasies.

“父母还是像对待高中生一样对待我。”山东大学大一学生，19岁的宋颖抱怨到。“每天我都是在他们的牢骚声中度过的。” “[My parents] still treat me like I was in senior high,” Song Ying, a 19-year-old freshman at Shandong University, complained. “I get an earful [from them] every day.”

在离开湖北老家后的第一个学期中，宋颖很想家里的一切——从家常菜到公交车。她痛苦流涕，渴望能睡在自己家中的床上。于是，她一考完试就奔回家中，自以为一切还是老样子。但显然，她错了。 During her first semester away from her Hubei home, Song missed everything – from her parents cooking to the city bus. She cried and ached to sleep in her own bed. So, upon finishing her exams, she fled home, thinking everything would be just as it used to be. Boy, was she wrong.

现在，为了“挣脱所有的限制”，她整天都呆在朋友的家中。就像在学校时那样，她时不时地上网更新SNS社区中的好友资料，饭是有一顿没一顿地吃，觉是昏天黑地地睡。 Now, she spends entire days at a friend's home to “avoid all the restrictions”. She logs online to update friends' profile on SNS, skips meals and sleeps in – just like she did on campus.

而在北京交通大学大一新生罗瑞琪的家中，情况变得更加糟糕。与宋颖的行动不同，19岁的罗瑞琪决定挑战父母的规矩，来争取自己作为一个成年人的权力。 Things have been even more tense at home for Luo Ruiqi, a 19-year-old freshman at Beijing Jiaotong University. Instead of moving to a friend's house, though, he has decided to challenge his parents' rules for his right to be an adult at home.

罗瑞琪说，当父母抱怨他在卫生间呆太久时，他觉得“受够了”便发了一通脾气。尽管对自己的态度深感愧疚，但他仍坚持认为自己已经长大，可以按自己的方式生活了。 When they complained about the amount of time he spent in the toilet, Luo said he decided “enough is enough” and lost his temper. He feels guilty about his attitude, but he still argues that he is grown up enough to live by his own rules.

“不管在哪，我只想过我自己的生活。”罗瑞琪说。 “I just want to live my own way of living, wherever I am,” said Luo.

应届毕业生们很了解宋颖和罗瑞琪的遭遇。王凯2008年毕业，现在北京工作。他表示，同学们应该珍惜这段和家人相处的时光，“尽量表现的好些。” Recent graduates like Wang Kai know what Song and Luo are going through. But Wang, who graduated in 2008 and now works in Beijing, says students should cherish the time spent with their family and “just try to be nicer.”

王凯说，第一次从大学回家时自己和他们表现得一样，但现在，在距家乡1500公里外的湖南，他对当初的举动懊悔不已。他现在意识到父母是出于好意。他说，回头想想，“过去大学时的生活方式真的很不健康。 Wang says he acted the same way when he first returned home from college, but now, living 1,500 km away from his hometown in Hunan, he regrets his behavior. He realizes that his parents meant well. And, looking back, he says that “the way of living that we got used to on campus is not that healthy anyway”.

同时，父母们要比你想的善解人意得多。“他们独自在异地生活，肯定特别艰苦。再说我之前也去过那儿。”罗瑞琪的父亲说。“我们只是想保证它们健康快乐。我们可能有时太多虑了。” Parents, meanwhile, are more understanding than you might think. “Living on their own in a strange place can be harsh –we've been there before,” said Luo's father. “We want to make sure that they are healthy and happy. Sometimes maybe we just worry too much.”

对于和儿子之间矛盾，老罗笑了笑说，“这根本不是问题，再说他是我儿子；我们总是可以解决问题。” As for the tension that's arisen between father and son, Luo senior laughed and said, “It's not a problem at all – he's my son; we work things out, always.”

obo 发布在 每日记事  |  发布时间: 10:54AM Feb 21, 2010  |  评论[1]

Men feel less guilt

“我们最初的假设是：不论未成年人还是成年人，女性对罪恶的感知都更强烈，她们对人际关系的敏感程度也更高。”研究负责人、西班牙巴斯克地区大学研究员伊西娅尔－埃切瓦利亚说。 "Our initial hypothesis was that feelings of guilt are more intense among females, not only among adolescents but also among young and adult women, and they also show the highest scores for interpersonal sensitivity," says Itziar Etxebarria, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

该研究刊登在西班牙《西班牙心理学杂志》上。研究人员对三个年龄群的360名人展开调查（156名青少年，96名年轻人和108名成人），询问他们在什么情况下最有负罪感。每组被调查人员的男女人数均等。同时，研究人员还用"戴维斯同情关怀表"测试调查对象的人际关系敏感度，并专门编制一套问卷来测试调查对象在人际间感知负罪感的能力。 The research, published in the Spanish Journal of Psychology, was carried out using a sample from three age groups (156 teenagers, 96 young people and 108 adults) equally divided between males and females. The team of psychologists asked them what situations most often caused them to feel guilt. They also carried out interpersonal sensitivity tests -- the Davis Empathetic Concern Scale, and a questionnaire on Interpersonal Guilt, created purposely for this study.

研究人员在对比男性和女性对某种行为负罪感强度高低时发现，各年龄组女性得分均大大高于男性。“这一现象在40岁至50岁年龄组里尤其突出，”埃切瓦利亚说。 When it came to comparing the measurements of intensity of habitual guilt of these groups, the researchers saw that this score was significantly higher for women, in all three age groups. "This difference is particularly stark in the 40-50-year-old age group," points out Etxebarria.

数据显示，青少年及年轻女性普遍比同年龄男性得分高。“这和某些教育实践有直接关系。这些实践对女性要求偏多，尽管与大众信仰相违背，这些实践仍被应用。”科学家称。 The data also suggest that female teenagers and young women have higher scores than males of the same age. "This is caused by certain educational practices, which demand more of females, and which are sometimes still in use despite belief to the contrary," claims the scientist.

与此同时，研究人员们还发现了性别差异--与行为负罪感相似--在两组人际关系敏感度数据中，在40－50岁年龄组中男性的敏感度接近女性。 The authors also found gender differences -- similar to those noted for habitual guilt -- in the two indices of interpersonal sensitivity, although in the 40-50 age bracket the men's levels came closer to women's.

男性的人际关系敏感度（尤其是25－33岁的男性）“相对较低”。 The interpersonal sensitivity of men (especially those aged between 25-33) is "comparatively low."

负罪感的种类 Types of guilt

最常见的负罪感多因为自己的行为对他人造成了伤害。因此，人们对那些被自己伤害的人产生移情作用也实属正常，而这也就让我们在认识到自己为他人带来痛苦时产生负罪感。 The most common forms of guilt are related to situations where we cause harm to others. Stemming from this, it is normal that this arouses feelings of empathy for the people we may have harmed, which tend to turn into feelings of guilt when we recognize that we are responsible for their suffering.

伊西娅尔－埃切瓦利亚此前的一个调查分析了人们负罪感的经历，主要区分以下两种情形--深有同感的一方（在某种程度上为被自己伤害的人感到抱歉），另一种就是焦虑不安、咄咄逼人的（不安、侵略型）。 A previous study, also headed by Itziar Etxebarria, analyses people's experiences of guilt, differentiating two components -- one of these being empathetic (sorrow for the person we have harmed in some way) and the other anxious-aggressive (unease and contained aggression).

对那些成长环境中充满责备，以及言行举止受到严格规范、特别是侵害的人们来说，后一种负罪感更常见。“很明显，这种负罪感在女性中更为强烈，尤其是年长的女性。” 埃切瓦利亚表示。 The anxious-aggressive kind of guilt is more common in people who have been raised in a more blame-imposing environment, and who are governed by stricter rules about behavior in general and aggression in particular. "It seems obvious that this component will be more intense among women, and especially in older women," says Etxebarria.

在四五十岁群体中，这种负罪感的增多解释了该年龄群行为负罪感强度的明显区别。“而这个年龄段恰恰是男性人际关系敏感度接近女性的阶段。”她解释说。 The greater presence of this component among women, above all those aged between 40 and 50, explains the marked differences in the intensity of habitual guilt in this age group, "just at the age when males move towards females in the two indices of interpersonal sensitivity analysed," she explains.

“必须通过教育和一系列社交途径降低女性负罪感太重的焦虑情绪，同时提高男性对人际关系的敏感程度。”埃切瓦利亚说。 "Educational practices and a whole range of socialising agents must be used to reduce the trend towards anxious-aggressive guilt among women and to strengthen interpersonal sensitivity among men," concludes the researcher.

obo 发布在 每日记事  |  发布时间: 10:52AM Feb 21, 2010  |  评论[1]