C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- 那头游了一万五千公里的鲸鱼 Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- 悬崖上发现的两个无名新物种 Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- 螯里藏着太阳的虾 A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- 澳大利亚败给鸸鹋的战争 In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- 原来黑猩猩也有口音 A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- 用奶酪做抵押放贷的银行 An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- 为什么到了午饭时间你的地图就会错 Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- 你的皮肤从未停止发出的光 Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- 到底是什么把你的话带过大洋 Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- 你睡觉时穿越国境的酒店 On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- 首尔藏了半个世纪的河 Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- 星期天仍然要求的东西 An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- 住在一栋楼里的小镇 Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- 一家咖啡馆,两个国家 In the Belgian Dutch town of Baarle, the international border runs straight through streets, houses, and... Audio
- 国王几乎没来得及见到的城堡 Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- 走过海底 Twice each day, the tide withdraws for kilometres along the Wattenmeer coast, inviting walkers onto the... Audio
- 你的手机没坏,只是冷了 A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- 十公里高空 Passenger jets cruise about ten kilometres up not for the view but because that is where thin air starts... Audio
- 比帝国还长寿的蜂蜜 Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- 挣脱锁具的章鱼 An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- 石圈与早班船 The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- 九十天的谷子 In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- 礁石上的聚会 Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- 用手边的东西造出来的 On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- 风暴下的村庄 At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- 炉火旁的椅子 A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- 船靠岸了 Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- 雾在她身后合拢 On her last afternoon, Polly climbs high over the whole island one more time before fog rolls in from the... Audio
- 一座接在火山上的村子 Walking through the village, Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant... Audio
- 天亮就埋下的晚餐 Beside a steaming lake, Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below,... Audio
- 一个火山口,两种颜色 Polly finds an ancient volcanic crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined... Audio
- 两次被认定消失的鸟 Deep in an old laurel forest, Polly searches for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found nowhere else... Audio
- 欧洲最后的两座茶园 Polly lands on a terraced hillside where one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe still uses... Audio
- 九座岛,三大板块 Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and finds a coastline of black... Audio
- 波莉坐公交车 One nervous first ride, a capybara who has seen it all, and the exact moment a new neighborhood starts... Audio
- 波莉问路 Twenty minutes of proud wandering, one patient owl, and the discovery that a single question is worth more... Audio
- 波莉点一杯咖啡 A rainy afternoon pushes Polly into the corner cafe, where a badger with a bow tie, a first coffee order,... Audio
- 波莉逛市集 Berta keeps her promise and walks Polly through the Saturday market, where a spiky fruit, a chatty goat,... Audio
- 波莉认识新朋友 On moving day, Polly meets Berta the bear watering her geraniums, and a chat over the fence turns into a... Audio
- 攀登最干燥之地 Polly arrives at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama, the driest place on Earth, where four enormous... Audio
- 符拉迪沃斯托克 Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the Trans-Siberian's 9,289 kilometres, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- 阿穆尔河 Polly reaches the Russian Far East on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering... Audio
- 贝加尔湖 Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest, and... Audio
- 穿越乌拉尔山脉 Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- 雅罗斯拉夫斯基车站 Polly boards the Rossiya, the flagship train of the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Moscow's Yaroslavsky... Audio
- 告别意面 Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus, who presses one arm against the glass exactly opposite where... Audio
- 自我编辑者 Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- 披萨与悠长午餐 Polly takes the long lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules behind... Audio
- 能看见的皮肤 Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- 思考的身体 Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- 那不勒斯湾 Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, the world's oldest marine... Audio
- 离开山谷 Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas at the visitor centre and lifts off west out of Yosemite, leaving behind... Audio
- 冰川点上的银河 Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- 俯冲猎鹰 Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive after seeing one launch from El Capitan, learning about the... Audio
- 与巡护员托马斯同行 Polly rides shotgun with Ranger Tomas Rodriguez through Yosemite for a morning, learning how rangers... Audio
- 山谷之上 Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, taking in the U-shaped glacial geology, El Capitan with... Audio