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
abbotsfords
acceptable price range
acoustic paper
acrophores
admission of
aftergases
Alaska-Hawaii standard time
An Nafud
anti-symmetric
antony tudors
atomic radii
avocat
Buntok
carry over file
chemistry of Venus
clustering tendency
colloid stabilizer
crushed stone aggregate
Culex vagans
cutoff approximation
dark eyes
Debye attraction
degassing phase
diverging
double seam end
dtu (data terminal unit)
Du Nouy(ring) tensiometer
elastatinal
electrical instruments and techniques
emergency launch
Epimedium chlorandrum
experimental gynecology
filum terminale
foreign principal
gallabiyah
gallivan
gas expansion thermometer
gelataneous
gland water seals
gnathothorax
have a game with sb.
holkeris
homely fare
hotel plan
huced
humidity gauge
impedance void meter
indeliable
inscyde
ionization coupling
jettison
jocosity
Kent
Kvanefjord
labo(u)r of love
levels off
London Communication Committee
lucchese
Malavalli
man-managements
melodramatically
membranae vestibularis
micelium
millimetric wave band
minimaxity
mud-field
multilayer sorption
neoxanthops lineatus
orientomycin
over suppressing
persons engaged
pharyngoscopic
philogynists
pneumatic filling
pressure receptor
Price-discounting
quotation in foreign currency
radiant power detector
recoilless gun
reversed emulsion drilling fluid
rubber leg separator
scads
scaling of model
self-rewards
Shamoon
slick style
Soleymān Kalay
strip condition
synovial cell
tabinet
tegmen cruris
thro
top clamp
unit built machine
urban attraction
urothoid
verbal satuation
very experienced
Vianaidae
Wakema
William Saroyan