Larks and owls

Larks 2 and owls 4

NB: This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript 5

 

Dan: Hello and welcome to this week’s 6 minute English. I’m Dan Walker Smithand today I’m joined by Kate.

Now Kate, would you say you’re more of a morning or an evening person?

Kate: I’d say I’m definitely a morning person. I love going to bed early and gettingup early.

Dan: OK, well that makes you a lark 1. People who are better in the morning arek nown as ‘larks’, after the famously early-rising birds. And people who arebetter at night are sometimes known as ‘owls（猫头鹰）’ or 'night-owls', after the birds which tend to come out at night.

Kate: That’s an interesting theory. How about you? Are you a morning or a night person?

Dan: I’m definitely an owl 3. I go to bed very late and I love staying in late in themorning. I just don’t deal with daytime at all.

Kate: Oh, so we’re complete opposites(对立) then.

Dan: Yup.

Kate: Well, apparently 6 around half the world’s population are naturally co-ordinatedto wake up early or late. It’s in our genetics or make-up, like our eye-colour orheight.

Dan: So this week’s question to you Kate is: on average how many hours do adults sleep each night? Is it:

a) 6 and a half hoursb) 7 and a half hoursc) 8 and a half hoursKate: Well I think that the recommended amount of sleep is somewhere betweenseven and eight hours. But I’m sure that most people don’t get that amount, soI’m going to go for a, six and a half.

Dan: OK, we'll see if you're right at the end of the programme.

Kate: Now, a person's natural rhythm of sleep is known as their body clock. This is what regulates(规定，调节) what time you wake up and when you feel tired. Variations inyour body's temperature affect tiredness, so some people are naturally morealert or awake during the morning hours, and others are more productive late atnight.

Dan: Before we had electricity, our sleeping patterns were basically decided 7 by thesun. We would get up at dawn, when the sun rises, and fall asleep at dusk,when the sun goes down.

Kate: But now unfortunately the pressures of work and society mean that most of usdon't follow our natural body clocks or the rhythm of the sun, so we often don'tget enough sleep.

Dan: Now we're going to hear now from sleep specialist Professor Till Roennebergon how modern working life is affecting our sleep patterns. You'll hear theword optimally 8, which means 'in the best way' and also the words internaland external.

Kate: Internal means located inside, and external refers to anything happening onthe outside – in this case inside or outside the human body.

So have a listen. How are people who naturally stay up late affected 9 by modernworking hours?

Extract 1We have to be aware of the fact that the very late people are actually on a permanentshift working schedule, because they have to get up against their body clock and theydon’t perform optimally, and so forth 10, very often they don’t get enough sleep.

Because what’s happening is that the signal that allows people to fall asleep comes fromthe internal body clock, whereas the signal on work days to get up comes from anexternal clock.

Dan: OK, so owls - people who naturally wake up late and stay up late – can often feel tired because they're working against their body clock. They don’t performoptimally because they haven't had enough sleep.

Some people compare the experience to jet lag – what do they mean by that Kate?

Kate: Well jet lag is the tiredness you feel after you've been on a flight and havetravelled to a different time zone. So when Professor Roenneberg here calls theexperience of living on a different cycle to your work companions a 'social jetlag', he means it causes the same sort of tiredness that you get after a longflight.

Extract 2If you fly from New York to London, you are in a completely new light/dark cycle;you’re flying somewhere else. And that earlier sunrise will make your clock adapt toexactly the London time. But with a social jet lag, it’s your internal and external timesthat are out of sync, and nothing in the conditions of light or darkness will change. Andtherefore you will stay like this all your life.

Kate: It sounds miserable 11; you're essentially 12 not co-ordinated – or out of sync – withthe time zone you're in, so you're tired all the time. Sync is short forsynchronised, which means to happen at the same rate or speed. So if something's out of sync(不同步), it's happening at the wrong pace.

Dan: We also heard the words internal and external again, this time referring totime-zones.

Now the best way to adapt your body clock to a new routine is with light. Ifyou're not great in the mornings, try to get out into the sunlight as soon aspossible. And if you get tired in the evenings, you should try to spend sometime outdoors then.

Kate: So here's the British sleep scientist Russell Foster talking about the affect of light on our body clock. Can you tell me how much brighter sunlight is thanartificial light?

Extract 3 If we look at the average amount of light in the home environment or the officeenvironment, it’s extremely low. So, for example, shortly after dawn, natural sunlight,even in the UK, is some 50 to 100 times brighter than average office-lighting or homelightingconditions. And by noon natural light is some 500 to 1,000 times brighter.

Kate: So it would take an awful lot of artificial light to adjust your body clock in thesame way sun can.

Dan: OK we’re almost out of time, so let’s go over some of the vocabulary we’vecome across today:

owl and larkbody clockdawn and duskinternal and externaljet lagsynchroniseout of syncDan: And finally Kate, back to today's question: I asked you how much sleep adultsget to sleep each night?

Kate: And I went for a, six and half hours, because I’m sure people don’t get enoughsleep these days.

Dan: Well I read that apparently it’s seven and a half hours. But I certainly don’t getthat and don’t think most people do either.

Kate: Interesting. Well I aim for about ten, but I rarely get that either.

Dan: Well, from all of us here at BBC Learning English, thanks for listening, sleepwell, and goodbye!

Kate: Goodbye!(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

 

点击收听单词发音  






1
lark

  
 


n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏


参考例句：





He thinks it cruel to confine a lark in a cage.他认为把云雀关在笼子里太残忍了。
She lived in the village with her grandparents as cheerful as a lark.她同祖父母一起住在乡间非常快活。












2
larks

  
 


n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了


参考例句：





Maybe if she heard the larks sing she'd write. 玛丽听到云雀的歌声也许会写信的。 来自名作英译部分
But sure there are no larks in big cities. 可大城市里哪有云雀呢。” 来自名作英译部分












3
owl

  
 


n.猫头鹰，枭


参考例句：





Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。












4
owls

  
 


n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )


参考例句：





'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句












5
transcript

  
 


n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书


参考例句：





A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。












6
apparently

  
 


adv.显然地；表面上，似乎


参考例句：





An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。












7
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。












8
optimally

  
 


最佳


参考例句：





In the classic script for a Cartel, the group sets a unified optimally exploiting price structure. 按照卡特尔的传统范本，这个集团制定出一个统一的最有利于剥削的价格结构。 来自辞典例句
RF power LDMOS with a trench drift region is optimally designed. 对射频功率LDMOS槽形漂移区的结构进行了优化设计。 来自互联网












9
affected

  
 


adj.不自然的，假装的


参考例句：





She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。












10
forth

  
 


adv.向前；向外，往外


参考例句：





The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。












11
miserable

  
 


adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的


参考例句：





It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。












12
essentially

  
 


adv.本质上，实质上，基本上


参考例句：





Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。