每日新闻播报（December 21）

>Musk opens underground tunnel
马斯克测试'地下高速路'
Elon Musk unveiled his underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday, allowing reporters and invited guests to take some of the first rides in the revolutionary albeit bumpy subterranean tube - the tech entrepreneur's answer to what he calls "soul-destroying traffic". Guests boarded Musk's Tesla Model S and rode along the tunnel. The demo rides were considerably slower - 64 km per hour - than what Musk says the future system will run at: 240 km per hour. The car jostled significantly during the ride, which was bumpy enough to give one reporter motion sickness. Musk touted the newly finished 1.83 km tunnel segment as a breakthrough in low-cost, fast-digging technology being pioneered by his nascent tunneling firm, the Boring Company.
埃隆•马斯克18日揭开了他打造的地下交通隧道的神秘面纱，允许记者和受邀嘉宾成为这条尽管颠簸但颇具革命性的地下管道的首批乘客。这位科技企业家希望借助这种地下隧道来治愈他所说的"破坏灵魂的交通"。客人们登上一辆特斯拉Model S，沿着隧道兜风。尽管马斯克表示，未来这一轨道系统的时速将达到240公里，但试乘时汽车的时速要慢得多，仅为64公里。汽车在行驶过程中颠簸不已，导致一名试乘的记者开始晕车。马斯克称赞这段新建的长1.83公里的隧道是他初创的隧道挖掘公司"无聊公司"在低成本、快速挖掘技术上的突破。

>Parrot uses Alexa to order
鹦鹉操控语音助手购物
A mischievous parrot who was booted from an animal sanctuary for his foul mouth has found a friend in Amazon's Alexa device. Rocco, an African gray, was caught using the voice assistant to play his favorite music, tell jokes and even order snacks. Thankfully the device's parental lock system prevented the clever boy from actually purchasing any items - which included strawberries, ice cream and even a kettle. Owner Marion Wischnewski said she took the parrot in after he was removed from a sanctuary operated by the UK's National Animal Welfare Trust for swearing too much. Rocco, who was taught to curse by a previous owner, is evidently loving his new home, interacting with Alexa up to 40 times a day and mastering countless household sounds. He can make various mobile ringtones, the beep of the microwave and the squeaking of the refrigerator door, as well as the sound of an ice cream van or a reversing truck, according to Wischnewski.
一只因为说脏话被动物收容所扫地出门的淘气鹦鹉在亚马逊的Alexa设备中找到了知己。非洲灰鹦鹉罗科被发现用语音助手Alexa播放它最喜欢的音乐、讲笑话甚至订购零食。所幸Alexa的家长锁系统阻止了这只聪明的小家伙真的买下任何商品——包括草莓、冰淇淋甚至还有一只水壶。罗科的主人玛丽昂•维什涅夫斯基表示，罗科因为说太多脏话而被英国国家保护动物基金会运营的一家收容所扫地出门后，她收养了这只鹦鹉。罗科是从原来的主人那里学会说脏话的。它显然非常喜欢自己的新家，每天与Alexa互动多达40次，还精通日常生活中的各种声音。维什涅夫斯基称，罗科能模仿好几种手机铃声、微波炉的哔哔声、冰箱门的咯吱声以及冰激凌车和卡车倒车的声音。

>Alien life might be purple
外星生命可能是紫色的?
The conclusion of a new research paper suggests that the first life on Earth might have had a lavender hue. In the International Journal of Astrobiology, microbiologist Shiladitya DasSarma of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and postdoctoral researcher Edward Schwieterman at the University of California, Riverside, argue that before green plants started harnessing the power of the sun for energy, tiny purple organisms figured out a way to do the same. There is even some evidence that modern purple-pigmented salt-loving organisms called halophiles might be related to some of the earliest life on Earth, which thrived around methane vents in the ocean. Alien life could be thriving in the same way, the researchers said.
一篇新研究论文的结论指出，地球上最早的生命可能拥有薰衣草的颜色。马里兰大学医学院微生物学家希拉迪蒂亚•达斯萨尔马和加利福尼亚大学里弗赛德分校博士后研究员爱德华•施维特曼在《国际天体生物学杂志》上发表论文指出，在绿色植物开始吸收太阳光以获取能量之前，微小的紫色生物体就已经在这么做了。甚至有一些证据表明，被称为"嗜盐菌"的紫色喜盐现代微生物可能与地球上某些最早的生命形式有关，这些生命曾经在海洋中的甲烷喷口附近旺盛生长。研究人员说，外星生命可能在以同样的方式繁衍。

>2.9M to sit postgrad exam
研究生报考人数达290万
A total of 2.9 million Chinese will sit the national entrance exam for postgraduate studies from Dec 22 to 24, the Ministry of Education said Wednesday. The ministry has released numbers of telephone hotlines on its website to receive public tip-offs regarding cheating on the postgraduate entrance exam and other violations. A few suspects have been seized for exam-related fraud amid a nationwide crackdown ahead of the entrance exam, said the ministry.
全国硕士研究生招生考试将于本月22日至24日举行。教育部19日表示，全国考研总人数达290万。教育部已在官网上公布群众举报研究生招生考试期间作弊及其他违规违法行为的热线电话号码。教育部称，研究生招生考试前夕，全国开展打击涉考诈骗的专项行动，已抓获多名犯罪嫌疑人。

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