Opening up a Can of Laughter

想笑時就開一「罐」笑聲吧！

【摘要2020.2.6.蘋果】

Canned laughter is the recording of fake laughter that you hear in the background of some older sitcom shows. The people you hear aren’t actually a live audience laughing at the joke. These sounds were recorded at an earlier time.

Charles Douglas, a TV sound engineer, came up with the idea in the 1950s. He became frustrated with live TV audiences because he felt they laughed at the wrong times. So, he experimented with adding canned laughter. Douglas got good results, and soon after, canned laughter became a standard in the TV industry.

罐頭笑聲是你在一些較老的情境喜劇中會聽到的錄製假笑聲。你聽到的事實上並非一群現場觀眾聽到笑話的笑聲。這些聲音是更早之前就錄好的。

查爾斯•道格拉斯是一位在 1950年代想出這點子的電視音效工程師。他對電視節目現場的觀眾感到懊惱，因為他覺得他們都在錯的時間點笑。因此，他實驗了加入罐頭笑聲。道格拉斯獲得良好成效，而很快地，罐頭笑聲成了電視產業的標準配備。

生活必備字詞

laughter n. 笑，笑聲（不可數）
sitcom n.情境喜劇（situation comedy 略稱）
become / be frustratedwith...　　對..感到懊惱╱挫折╱灰心
All of us were frustrated with the result of the project.

In Nairobi, recycling poo is cleaning up the slums

在奈洛比，回收糞便讓貧民區變乾淨

【摘要2020.2.6.自由】◎孫宇青

"When I started, there was poop in bags everywhere," said Ricky Ojwang in Mukuru, a Nairobi slum where he has worked to improve sanitation since 2012. "People would use bags because there were no toilets, and they would fling them out the window."

2012年開始在（肯亞首都）奈洛比穆庫魯貧民區改善衛生條件的瑞奇．歐伊旺說：「一開始，到處都是裝糞便的袋子。因為沒有廁所，所以人們用袋子，而且用完就往窗外丟。」

Less of these "flying toilets" befoul the cramped alleyways of Mukuru these days, thanks in part to eco-friendly lavatories managed by Ojwang and his team.

這種弄髒穆庫魯狹窄巷弄的「飛行廁所」，近來已較少見，有一部分得歸功於歐伊旺和團隊設置的環境友善廁所。

Instead of being flung out the window, the waste collected from these toilets is taken to a facility outside Nairobi and recycled into fertilizers.

不同於從前會被扔出窗外，從廁所蒐集的排泄物，會被送往奈洛比郊外一處設施回收，並製成肥料。

As people pour into cities, slums rise faster than governments can lay sewage lines, build toilets or develop systems for managing waste. So Sanergy, the enterprise behind the sanitation scheme, uses waterless toilets instead, which don’t rely on sewers.

隨著人們大舉遷入城市，貧民區增加的速度比政府鋪設污水管路、蓋廁所或建置排泄物處理系統還快。因此，支持這項衛生計畫的企業「生能潔」改採無水廁所，如此便毋須仰賴污水管。

Residents pay about $8.50 a month for the toilet, regular cleaning and waste collection, or land owners cover the cost on their block.

居民每月繳交約8.5美元（約260元台幣）的使用費，包含定期清潔和排泄物蒐集，或由地主支付其街區的費用。

新聞辭典

befoul：動詞，弄髒；誹謗。例句：The mayor’s reputation was befouled by plenty of scandals.（市長的名聲因一堆醜聞而敗壞。）

cramped：形容詞，狹窄的。例句：I managed to put another bookshelf in the cramped room.（我設法在狹小的房內放置另一組書架。）

fling：動詞，扔；丟。例句：He flung the basketball out of the window.（他把籃球扔出窗外。）