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
adjusted claim
angioarchitecture
angle fron
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
arenaria subpilosa
assessment process
atrophies
beworries
big gun irrigation system
bolitaena pygmaea
bombiccite (hardite)
Breas
brigden
cataracta congenita
chart datum for inland navigation
chitenges
collapsible keelblock
collision ionization
colloidoclasis
composite core
connaissances
consult
corbelsteps
cushion pocket
dammadienone
deffinite machine
Deifontes
delocalized
demonically
die hobbing press
disminion
dowsing-rod
estrus duration
everted rimmed shallow bowl
fin skeleton
flowstones
Flunamine
four-degree
front axle universal joint ball
galvanocaustic
gambrinuss
gangly
gas volumetric chromatography
gastroduodenal fistula
gate road
general criterion and rule
genus Otis
glass pipe line
green cucumber
grian
gymslipped
hingeless rotor
hoist control vale adapter
horse-nail
huh-uh
hypertask
i-learet
inspection of plate edges
inspection of preassembled frame work
integral windup
leiomyoma of bronchus
licheno-
look-aside buffer
lower pilot step
megavoltages
motortilter
necromanced
new residential quarters
nisei
non-periodic variable
nondefence
oreichalkos
Osmanthus cooperi
pastespec
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
priority one operator
pummill
purls
quintessentialized
read, burst
rear compartment
receipt at ship-side
retractable guide
Richter magnitude
rostrons
safe guard requirement
semiapochromatic
shieldrakes
shlaim
sros
steel-bar straightener
stiltifies
the personnel department
Ti-n-Zaouâtene
tibetan buddhisms
tickweed
tnfrsf
tread-board
two-dimensional
wakamba (kenya)
WEEvirus
yellow perches