带你穿梭时光的阅读伴侣 | Timeline
One big complaint about current news coverage is that there’s not enough context — an article or TV report might tell you what happened today, but it gives you no understanding about the history that led up to today’s news.
今天和你分享一款阅读app -- Timeline, 如它自己的slogan一样，它的特点是: News in context
Context, 背景知识, 对我们英语学习者的阅读理解非常重要。往往让我们一头雾水的不是某个生词，某个语法，而是背景 -- 这个事件产生的源头是什么? 有哪些事件推动了这个观点的发展? What's behind the headlines? What has shaped the world?
和其它news aggregator不同的是: Timeline, 如它的名字一样, 带领我们穿梭时空，从一个时间点跳脱出来看一看这条时间线。
To understand where we are today, we need to understand how we got here. Timeline puts our world in context, deepening the way we understand news and information today.
这也是我们阅读、学习的目的: "to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these pieces and build new ideas."
这款App的市场总监Spencer Chen说:
The news that we read today is only the tail-end of many important events in history that shaped the events of today. Timeline enables readers to discover all these key facets of a news story and offers readers much richer context and understanding of the news. And in some ways, the team’s vision is less about seeing a big gap in the news app category but more about seeing a bigger (and natural) evolution with the best ways news and information is to be consumed by everyday consumers.
如果你经常阅读《经济学人》一类的报刊，你会发现Timeline是一个背景信息利器。这样的交叉阅读对阅读理解能力的提升很有帮助 -- Timeline的信息梳理和展示就是提取重点信息、总结能力(the brief)的模范。
举一个例子:
在最新的一期The Economist中，封面文章分析了中、俄、美三国的角力, 文章一开始就对俄罗斯军事介入叙利亚，插手中东政治作了简单的背景介绍。
如果你想进步一了解俄罗斯和叙利亚的那些年，Timeline是一个绝佳的工具。
Timeline除了Lastest stories; most popular整合版块之外，共有10个话题分类: US, world, pop-culture, technology, science-enviorment,music, entertaiment, business, health, sports.
Timeline背后有一个强大的编辑团队来负责内容，话题和文字质量还是有保障的。
Our award-winning editorial team creats original, meaningful and media-rich content that connects past to present in an intuitive and immersive experience. Timeline is advancing the way we consume news, providingessential historical context that deepens our knowledge of the forces that shape the present.
Timeline免费、不需要翻墙，访问速度流畅，有一些细节很赞: 有一些关键字提供了弹出窗口来解释, 而 且可以很方便的分享给他人。
Timeline也有网页版可以访问，地址是www.timeline.com
那么什么时候读呢? Timeline的Newsletter订阅回复邮件上有一个好玩的“阅读方式指南”
How you fit it into your daily routine is up to you, but here are a few ways you (and your friends) can enjoy Timeline:
把阅读当成生活中的一部分，利用碎片时间点滴积累 -- 学英文也是这样。推荐一个每天一句的口语练习公众号「愉悦了没」, 每天用一分钟的时间学一句口语. 运营者Yuyu余悦是我的朋友, 靠谱有趣，如果你有口语上的问题也可以问他。