美国国家公共电台 NPR Yes, Cat Yoga Is A Thing Now, And It's Pretty Purrfect

Yes, Cat Yoga Is A Thing Now, And It's Pretty Purrfect 

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And now, towards the end of what has been a cat-tentious (ph) - I mean contentious² - very contentious political season, we have something to help you relax - cat yoga. Really, it's a thing, at least in Birmingham, Ala., as Melanie Peeples reports.

MELANIE PEEPLES, BYLINE³: I bring you today the Greater Birmingham Humane⁴ Society's first-ever cat yoga class.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)

PEEPLES: Yes, it is filled with women - 13 of them, to be exact, not counting the instructor⁵. And yes, someone is wearing cat leggings. Another has cat earrings⁶ and cat ear barrettes. And someone's boyfriend is sitting over by the door, on his phone. The women have paid $10 each for yoga instructor Carla Jean Whitley to lead them through poses like downward-facing dog.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)

PEEPLES: Sorry - downward-facing cat - set to, well, not your average yoga music.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT")

CARLA JEAN WHITLEY: (Singing) Everybody, everybody, is a cat. Everybody, everybody wants to be cats. Meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.

PEEPLES: Singing breaks out occasionally, but that's OK because everybody who came here is here for more than just yoga, which is good because cats make really terrible fellow yoga students. They scamper⁷ on your mat, drink from your water bottle and decide to sit down and bathe themselves underneath⁸ you during poses. Speaking of poses, remember the guy in the corner whose girlfriend dragged him here? Josh Scarborough spent the whole class texting his roommates about the kitten named Sweet-ums that camped out in his lap.

JOSH SCARBOROUGH: I'm trying to convince my roommates, but...

WHITLEY: You know, the adoption⁹ fee is only $10 today.

SCARBOROUGH: I - I have $10, so it's probably going to happen.

WHITLEY: Today is the last day of that special.

SCARBOROUGH: All right, it's happening, yeah. They haven't told me not to, so I'm going to.

PEEPLES: So he decided¹⁰ to take Sweet-ums home. And that, along with fundraising, was really the whole purpose of cat yoga.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAT PURRING)

PEEPLES: Don't you feel better now? For NPR News, I'm Melanie Peeples.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

5 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

6 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 scamper   

v.奔跑，快跑

参考例句：

• She loves to scamper through the woods of the forest.她喜欢在森林里的树林中穿梭嬉戏。
• The flash sent the foxes scampering away.闪光惊得狐狸四处逃窜。

8 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

9 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。