2009年9月18日 星期五

Wrests Title Of Sleeping Giant, wake-up call, wrestle

France Wrests Title Of Sleeping Giant

When he won the presidential election two years ago, Nicolas Sarkozy urged the French to get up early and work more to earn more.

A study released Monday suggests they missed the wake-up call.

France is the industrialized country where people spend the longest periods sleeping, according to a series of surveys on social habits conducted by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development.

The French sleep a daily average of 530 minutes, compared with 518 for Americans and 469 for Koreans -- the OECD's 'most awake' nation, according to the study.

In an era of globalization, the amount of time spent at work has been declining gradually in the OECD's 30 member nations over the past three decades, according to the surveys, which were conducted in 2006.

The report shows, however, that sharp cultural differences remain in how people spend their time when they don't work.

True to the cliche, the French spend more than two hours eating every day -- about twice the time Americans devote to swallowing their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Who are the couch potatoes of the OECD?

Mexicans spend 48% of their leisure time watching television or listening to the radio, compared with 44% for Americans and 28% for German people, the OECD report shows.

In contrast, Spaniards are the most addicted to sports: They spend 12% of their leisure time practicing sports, compared with 5% for Americans and 2% for Turks.

When they don't sleep or eat, the French hold another OECD record: They have 30 annual days of mandatory paid leave. That compares with 20 in the U.K. and 10 in Japan.

There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.

As for overall leisure, Norwegian men and women have about the same amount of free time each day.

In Italy, however, men have nearly 80 daily minutes more leisure time than women. On an annualized basis, that means 444 hours or 18.5 days.

'Much of the additional work of Italian women is apparently spent cleaning the house,' according to the report.

David Gauthier-Villars

法國勇奪“酣睡的巨人”稱號
年前﹐當薩科齊(Nicolas Sarkozy)贏得總統競選時﹐他督促法國人早點起、多工作、多掙錢。

但週一公佈的一項研究顯示﹐總統的號召被法國人當成了耳旁風。

Getty Images
據總部位於巴黎的經濟合作和發展組織(Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development)針對社會習慣所作的一系列調查顯示﹐法國是工業化國家中人們睡眠時間最長的一個。

研究顯示﹐法國人平均每天的睡眠時間為530分鐘﹐高於美國人518分鐘。而經合組織成員國中最警醒的國家要算韓國﹐人們的平均睡眠時間為469分鐘。

2006年開始進行的這個系列調查顯示﹐在全球化時代﹐經合組織30個成員國的人們過去30年來花在睡眠上的時間在逐漸減少。

不過﹐報告顯示﹐在如何消磨業餘時間方面﹐不同文化的人群存在著顯著差異。

也許是老生常談﹕法國人每天花在吃飯上的時間超過兩小時﹐大約是美國人的兩倍。

經合組織國家中﹐哪國人窩在沙發上看電視的時間最長﹖

經合組織的報告顯示﹐墨西哥人將48%的閒暇時間用來看電視或聽收音機﹐美國人這個數字是44%﹐德國則是28%。

相比之下﹐西班牙人對體育運動最痴迷﹐他們將12%的閒暇時間用於體育鍛煉﹐而美國人和土耳其人的這個比例分別是5%和2%。

除了吃飯和睡覺方面的紀錄﹐法國人在經合組織成員國中還擁有一項紀錄﹐那就是他們的強制帶薪年假有30天。英國和日本的帶薪年假分別是20天和10天。

美國沒有強制帶薪年假。

在總的休閒時間方面﹐挪威男性和女性每天可自由支配的時間相等。

而在意大利﹐男性每天比女性的閒暇時間多出近80分鐘﹐全年總計多出444小時﹐也就是18.5天。

報告稱﹐意大利女性的額外勞動有很大一部分顯然是花在打掃房間上面了。


Google Aims to Wrest Display Ads From Yahoo
By MIGUEL HELFT and STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
The company will introduce a long-awaited system that will instantly match ad buyers with ad sellers when a customer visits a Web site.



wrest
tr.v., wrest·ed, wrest·ing, wrests.
  1. To obtain by or as if by pulling with violent twisting movements: wrested the book out of his hands; wrested the islands from the settlers.
  2. To usurp forcefully: wrested power from the monarchy.
  3. To extract by or as if by force, twisting, or persistent effort; wring: wrest the meaning from an obscure poem.
    1. To distort or twist the nature or meaning of: wrested the words out of context.
    2. To divert to an improper use; misapply.
n.
  1. The act of wresting.
  2. Music. A small tuning key for the wrest pins of a stringed instrument.

[Middle English wresten, from Old English wrǣstan, to twist.]

wrester wrest'er n.

<– Back to results

wrestle PhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhonetic Hide phonetics
verb [I or T]
to fight with someone (especially as a sport) by holding them and trying to throw them to the ground:
He has wrestled professionally for five years.
The police officer tackled the man and wrestled him to the ground.

wrestler PhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhonetic Phonetic PhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhonetic Hide phonetics
noun [C]
a person who wrestles as a sport

wrestling PhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhoneticPhonetic Hide phonetics
noun [U]
a sport where two people fight and try to throw each other to the ground
See picture .



沒有留言: