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Voting In The U.S. Electoral College; Exploring Ancient Rock Paintings; Planning For Future Offices; Schooling Santas.

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hi, I`m Carl Azuz. Welcome to CNN 10 on this December 15th. Across the United States votes were cast yesterday in the

2020 U.S. presidential election. But Carl, you might be asking.

Didn`t that happen on November 3rd? Yes. But Americans do not directly choose their president, they choose electors. Members of the Electoral

College who cast the final votes for president and those electors met nationwide yesterday to formally certify each state`s results. This is all

part of the Constitutional election process that happens every four years. It`s getting more attention this time around because the results of the

2020 presidential election have been disputed.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden won the projected vote on election day. States were expected to certify this Electoral College win on Monday and

those Electoral College votes will be sent to Congress which will formally count them next month. So is he officially the president-elect? Some

experts say yes.

That a candidate formally gets that title when the 50 states electoral votes are certified but others say that happens when Congress officially

counts them. Either way, Congress will have completed that step on January 6th.

When we produced this show yesterday though, President Donald Trump had not conceded the election. He says he`s the rightful winner though he has
 

concede [kənˋsid] v. 承认失败

authorized the government to start the transition process to the next administration. The lawsuits that the president and his supporters have

filed have not been successful in overturning the results from several states. And yesterday, those states moved forward in making their results

official.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the United States, the popular vote doesn`t directly determine who becomes president. Under the Electoral College system, each

state gets a certain number of electors based on how many representatives it has in Congress and those people cast the official votes for president.

Historically, electors have overwhelmingly voted for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state but they can stray. If they do, they`re
 

stray [stre] v. 犯错误；入歧途

called faithless electors. Faithless electors have never changed the outcome of an election but they have popped up over the years.

For example in 2016, 10 electors didn`t vote for the candidate who won their state. There are 33 states with laws that require electors to vote

for a pledged candidate but most of them don`t have any penalty for voting another way. Some states impose a fine. Some cancel the vote and replace

the elector. Then some count it as a criminal charge. In July 2020, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states could enforce these laws.
 

unanimously [jʊˋnænəməslɪ] adv. 无异议地；全体一致地

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these nations is the only one that`s covered partially by the Amazon rainforest? Colombia, Panama, Chile or Paraguay.
 

Paraguay [ˋpærə͵gwe] n. 巴拉圭（南美洲之一国名）

On this list, Colombia is the only nation that`s touched by the Amazon rainforest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly there`s an overlap between people and these mega herbivores. It tells us that this artwork was drawn at that time period. So
 

herbivore [ˋhɝbə͵vɔr] n. 食草动物

this is a great chronological marker that leads to some of the earliest people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Couple weeks or a couple months maybe. That`s how long we expected to be producing this show from our remote studio when we were sent home in

March. But as the coronavirus pandemic has stuck around, we`ve more or less settled into a very different workflow.
 

stick around 逗留；停留；待上一阵子

workflow 工作流程

And one question being asked by people across corporate America and beyond is how long will this continue? Some companies tried this long before the

pandemic struck. Yahoo once had a work from home option that the company did away with in 2013. Same thing for some IBM workers who were asked to

come back to the office in 2017 but will the changes of 2020 become more permanent even after the pandemic finally goes away?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This will be a working from home went mainstream right around the world. This was a how to work from home video that I made all

the way back in March. I thought this might be the way of things for a couple of months. Wow, did I get that wrong. As we reach the end of 2020,

many of us haven`t returned to the office.

We`re still on Zoom, Skype, Webex, Slack. While video conference fatigue has set in for some, others are happy with this new way of working.
 

set in 开始；到来

Twitter is one company that`s embraced the change and is allowing some employees to choose to work from home permanently.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Had about 80 percent of our employees working four or five days in the office, so pretty much full time in the office. And one,

very small percentage, single digits of people who were working full time remote and that`s almost flipped.

We`ve done these surveys coming back out of it. We have in the single digits people want -- who want to spend four or five days in the office and

much more in terms of almost a third of our workforce want to be actually full time remote. Actual productivity has remained pretty steady but

people`s perception is increasing as they figure this out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Productivity is critical. Ninety percent of workers surveyed in the UK said they would like to continue working from home often

or all the time. However, only 70 percent felt they were as productive or more so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we`ll be moving to more -- more hybrid forms of working. But people do actually work a lot more at home than they used to

be before the pandemic. So it has ushered in a major change, I think, in the landscape in terms of how we work, when we work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The shift to remote has had a devastating impact on local economies. Cafes, bars and shops are reliant on office workers who

may never go back to their offices from nine to five, five days a week. Companies could reduce their office space or give up expensive leases all together.
 

lease [lis] n. 租约，租契；租赁

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we`re seeing from many of our clients are people choosing to work from home perhaps two maybe three days a week. That`s

still the requirement of the office. But people will come into it for a different reason.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The great work from home experiment has sparked long term change in the way that we work but isn`t for everyone whether it`s

unsuitable home environments, noisy children or in my case wayward pets. Some of us will be hoping to get back to the office in 2021.
 

wayward [ˋwewɚd] adj. 任性的；刚愎的，倔强的；难捉摸的，反复无常的；不规则的

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Crazy to think of 2019 as a simpler time. When kids could just walk up to Santa, sit on his lap and get their pictures taken while they told

him what they wanted for Christmas. Now there are masks, face shields, plexiglass, sometimes computer screens between jolly young people and the jolly old elf.
 

jolly [ˋdʒɑlɪ] adj. 快活的，高兴的

elf [ɛlf] n.（神话中）淘气的小鬼，小精灵；顽皮的小孩

But as everyone involved hopes this is the first and last year for scenes like this, they`re still finding creative ways to drum up Christmas magic.
 

drum up 竭力招揽（生意等）

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do have my Merry "Christmask". So what when I`m out and about I can mask up then make everyone else feel safe as well.
 

out and about 能够外出走动的

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He`s been "iceolating" in the North Pole for 11 months. Now, Santa`s ready to get back to business with a little

help from his friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ho! Ho! Ho!

STEWART: This year many of Santa`s grottoes are closed due to COVID-19.
 

grotto [ˋgrɑto] n. 洞穴，石室

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- we`re through. We`re through.

STEWART: Which means Santa`s helpers, who kindly step in when he`s busy, are having to learn some new skills.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to a slightly different but still wonderful Santa School.

STEWART: Santa HQ is an app allowing to Zoom chat with Santa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ho! Ho! Ho! Very good indeed. Now what we need to do is just scale it down slightly. Ho! Ho! Ho!

STEWART: It`s run by the Ministry of Fun, one of the biggest Santa recruitment firms in the UK who see plenty of benefit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get to see Santa in his home. You get longer with him because normally there`s a queue and there`s lots of people who want to
 

queue [kju] n.（人或车辆等的）行列，长队

see the great man and it`s much more personal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know it will be slightly different but by using video, our oldest technology, we can see our family no matter where they are in

the world.

STEWART: And you can see Santa too, now he`s Zoom ready. Anna Stewart, CNN, reporting from Santa`s London Office in the UK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ho! Ho! Ho!

(END VIDEO TAPE)

AZUZ: One of them says he always wears gloves and uses "Santatizer". That`s "Santastic". You could say it "sleighs" me. Now he probably won`t catch

coronavirus up on the house top but Mommy better not be caught kissing him. Because whether you have a White Christmas, a Blue Christmas or a Holly

Jolly one, "Navidad" would be anything but "Feliz" about that.

I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10. Pine Forest High School sounds pretty picturesque, especially this time of year. Shout out to our viewers in

Fayetteville, North Carolina. We have three shows to go before we wrap up for 2020.

END