英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

Kate Barrett, 36, has written a thank you letter to the burglars who broke into her house and apologised for not having "particularly expensive tastes".

36歲的凱特．巴瑞特寫了一封感謝信給闖入她家的竊賊，並且為沒有「特別昂貴的品味」致歉。

"Dear Burglars, Thanks for popping by the other night and we’re sorry we didn’t have more for you to take", she wrote in the letter.

「親愛的小偷，謝謝那晚突然來訪，抱歉我們沒有更多東西讓你們可拿」，她在信中寫道。

She wrote that she and her partner, Dan Owens, were "disappointed" the thieves had ignored her VHS video and cassette collection.

她寫道，小偷忽視她收藏的VHS影帶和卡帶，讓她和她的伴侶丹．歐文斯感到「失望」。

"As you now know, we don’t have particularly expensive tastes so there’s no need to come in again, unless you would like to take my collection of VHS videos and cassettes - Dan is very disappointed you didn’t take these first time round."

「如你們現在所知的，我們沒什麼特別昂貴的品味，所以沒必要再來，除非你們會想拿走我收藏的VHS影帶和卡帶。丹很失望你們第1次上門時沒拿走這些東西。」

The couple were both away and Miss Barrett got home first to discover the "ransacked" house.

這對情侶當時都出門了，巴瑞特先回到家，發現「被洗劫」的屋子。

Africans were treated Sunday to a spectacular solar eclipse that swept across the continent, while sky-gazers in the United States and Europe also glimpsed the rare phenomenon.

非洲人對週日那場壯麗的、橫掃（非洲）大陸的日蝕感到驚艷，同時在美國與歐洲盯著天空看的人也一瞥那罕見的景象。

A total eclipse could be seen over parts of Africa and one of the best views was in northern Kenya’s Sibiloi national park, where a few hundred tourists gathered on the edge of the desert lake Turkana.

全程日蝕在非洲大部分地方都看得見，最棒景觀之一是在肯亞北部的錫比羅伊國家公園，在那裡數百名遊客聚集在沙漠中的圖爾卡納湖畔。

Alongside the tourists were colourfully dressed Kenyans from the Turkana, Rendile and Dasanach tribes who cheered as the sky darkened.

伴隨遊客的是穿得五彩繽紛的肯亞人，（他們）來自圖爾卡納、蘭戴爾與達撒那哈部落，在天色變暗時歡呼起來。

But dramatic weather almost spoilt the show, with sandstorms, rain, a rainbow and heavy cloud all minutes before the eclipse, a photographer said.

但戲劇性的天氣幾乎毀了這場秀，日蝕前的沙塵暴、雨水、一道彩虹及厚重的雲層都記錄下來了，一名攝影師說。

These incredible pictures show the majesty and awe-inspiring beauty of last night’s solar eclipse.

這些不可思議的照片顯示昨晚日蝕的莊嚴與令人心生敬畏的美。

It is not a myth - women really are better than men at multitasking, at least in certain cases, a study says.

這不是迷思：女人真的比男人更擅長同時處理多項事務，至少在某些情況下是如此，一份研究指出。

Men were slower and less organised than women when switching rapidly between tasks in tests by UK psychologists.

英國心理學家所做的測驗中，在數個任務間快速轉換時，男人的動作比女人慢，而且比較沒有條理。

Both sexes struggled to cope with juggling priorities, but men suffered more on average, according to the paper in the journal BMC Psychology.

男、女性都要費很大心力才能同時應付多項要務，但平均來說，男人吃的苦頭較多，根據這份發表在「生物醫學中心：心理學」期刊的報告。

It says： "The question now is why? And is it all types of multitasking or only certain situations?"

報告說：「現在問題是，為什麼？是所有形式的多工都這樣，還是只有某些情況下是如此？」

The researchers hope to encourage more research on a topic which they say has attracted "astonishingly few" studies - considering how often the "women vs men" debate crops up in conversation.

鑑於日常談話中常出現這種「女人與男人相比」的爭論，研究人員希望鼓勵更多研究探討這個他們所說「令人驚訝地乏人問津的」議題。

The amount of time asthma patients spend soaking up the sun may have an impact on the illness, researchers have suggested.

氣喘病患浸沐在太陽下的時間量，可能對這種疾病有影響，研究人員表示。

A team at King’s College London said low levels of vitamin D, which is made by the body in sunlight, was linked to a worsening of symptoms.

倫敦國王學院研究團隊說，身體接收陽光製造出維他命D，而維他命D量低，與氣喘症狀惡化相關。

Its latest research shows the vitamin calms an over-active part of the immune system in asthma. However, treating patients with vitamin D has not yet been tested.

他們的最新研究顯示，維他命可鎮定氣喘時免疫系統過度活躍的部分。然而，以維他命D治療病患迄今未經測試。

People with asthma can find it hard to breathe when their airways become inflamed, swollen and narrowed. Most people are treated with steroids, but the drugs do not work for all.

有氣喘病的人在氣管發炎、腫脹與收縮時，可能會呼吸困難。多數患者接受類固醇治療，但類固醇並非對每個人都有效。

新聞辭典

Does a 600-year-old Chinese map prove that Christopher Columbus was not the first international explorer to navigate the New World?

一張有600年歷史的中國地圖，能證明哥倫布不是第一個航向新世界的國際探險家嗎？

’The traditional story of Columbus discovering the New World is absolute fantasy, it’s fairy tales," Gavin Menzies, 76, the author of "Who Discovered America?" said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

「傳統的哥倫布發現新世界之說完全是空想，不實之言，」76歲、「誰發現了美洲」一書作者加文．孟席斯在接受每日郵報訪問時如此表示。

Menzies says that the Chinese map, found in a bookstore and created in the 18th century, is attributed to Chinese Admiral Zheng He and shows a detailed map of America dating back to 1418. That would place Zheng He’s efforts some 70 years ahead of Columbus. In fact, Menzies says Columbus used a copy of Zheng He’s map to plot his own voyage.

曼尼茲說，那張在一家書店內被發現、18世紀製作的地圖，被認為最早出自中國航海家鄭和之手，顯示在1418年就有關於美洲的詳盡地圖。這讓鄭和比哥倫布早70年就發現新大陸。事實上，孟席斯說，哥倫布拿了一張鄭和地圖的複本來策劃他的航海之旅。

However, not everyone is sold on the theory. Menzies has been derided as a "pseudo-historian" by critics, who say his claims are grandiose and not based in historical fact.

然而，並非所有人都買這理論的帳。孟席斯一直被批評人士嘲諷是「偽歷史學家」，認為他的說法出於浮誇而非根據史實。

新聞辭典

fairy tale：名詞，童話；謊言。