时间:2019-02-16 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力文摘 English Digest


英语课

  Most people who hold babies know that the moment babies go to sleep, they seem to gain weight. Of course, a baby’s weight doesn’t really change when they fall asleep, so why does the limp, floppy 1 weight of a sleeping baby seem greater than it actually is?

A sleeping baby in your arms feels heavier because you must constantly adjust your own movements to compensate 2 for their floppiness 3. Your muscles work harder to carry a child who’s asleep, and your brain perceives this increase in work as an increase in the child’s weight, though, of course, the weight of the baby stays the same.

To picture this, think about carrying a twenty-pound bag of water. You would continually have to rearrange how you were holding that bag to make up for how the weight shifted due to the water sloshing around.

In a similar way, you must continually adjust how you are holding or carrying a sleeping baby because they aren’t able to control their own muscles to maintain a steady posture 4. Their inability to control their posture and movements makes them floppy, just like that bag of water.

Now, freeze your twenty-pound bag of water. Though it would be cold and slippery, it would feel lighter 5 because it is a solid weight that doesn’t require you to constantly make minute adjustments in order to carry it. This is how you perceive the weight of a conscious person.

Babies aren’t the only ones who seem heavier when they go limp. Dogs and cats also seem to gain weight when they go to sleep. And political protesters take advantage of this phenomenon by completely relaxing their muscles when police try to drag them away from a protest.

limp:无精神的

floppy:松软的

slippery:滑的



adj.松软的,衰弱的
  • She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
  • Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗?
vt.补偿,赔偿;酬报 vi.弥补;补偿;抵消
  • She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
  • Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势
  • The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
  • He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣,摆出一副打架的架势。
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级
  • The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色,色调明朗了一些。
  • The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。
学英语单词
alaskane
antebellum
apoxesis
apple turnover
aquabib
Arago's rotation
articulatin
Avaxim
bagpiper
balseria (panama)
beauseigneur
bone mineral
brachial fold
Brekken
Brunei Town
built-in error correction
catchcries
centuplications
Chagos Trench
chart level
circlec method
content element
cross-assimilation
crossover valve
crown rent roll
decoupled zero
discharge of storm sewage
drilling people
earcaps
engine lifting bracket
faint heartedness
film boiling range
Frand partial dislocation
Gillmore needle
Gonorhynchus
granitational equilibrium
Grecian slipper
Greffen
hackings
harmonic range
herb simons
home machine
hydrocenids
hypodiastole
incipient error
infectious particle
jiu zhang suan shu(nine chapters on mathematical method)
Karlowitz
kat-
L(alpha)-argentite
labiodentally
load dispatching centre
mansarts
Mary L.
mattoirs
mdrc
meter in system
mortgage finance
neurite
oracle
organic accelerator
part-number
permit for transportation of the customs
petroselinolic acid
Peucedanum violaceum
phase slowness
pillow block bearing cup
preapp
printing computer
proper efficient solution
pyroacids
replevy
rice soil
round ligament rupture
scapulocoracoidea
Scheffer stroke
sectioning method
set much store by
skin pass mill
Somatmpin
South-South Conference
spetows
stablemate comparison
Strobilanthes compacta
Sulcus calcarinus
Swertia conaensis
swiveling unloading flap
system of axes
tactick
technifermion
Tetrachilomastix intestinalis
the interaction
the performance
to table a proposal
underground layer
university computing company
velo
ventilation pipe on roof
ventral cell
walking through