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
allogroup
antirealism
Aphiochaeta
appassionata
Beer,August
ben stiller
blue striped heavy cees
bonne nuit
branched (carbon) chain
bubble concrete
bussard
camera light
caverna
center of dispersion
chart-makings
China Democratic National Construction Association
chromatogram analyzer
clutch of windlass
cobaltine (cobaltite)
coevolving
Cologne spirit
commutatorless varying-speed motor
cytidyltransferases
despecialize
detergent power
difficult-to-treat
Disjuction
documentary credits
dodge into
double the angle on the bow
dryopteris thelypteriss
electronic image memory device
ereosun
Eureka steps
express shipment container
extraneous reflex
Family Health Services Authority
float rudder
fore-peak bulkhead
fortilice
friction head loss
fuel level gauge
grab rod
griesses
Guéguen, L.
have more sauce than pig
high Command
high torgue throw-out shear pin
homomerous flower
ianni
impresses
insteps
Japanese honeywort
jingoism
joppas
kend-
knubbed
kutu
lighted marks
localizationists
logic database definition
Lyme disease
magistra
makgadikgadi
mesne profits
mist green
natural harmonics
orbitomental
ourset
pannache
peroxysulphuric acid
phising
phytocoenobiology
podley
potexvirus cymbidium mosaic virus
prepaid rent account
Priolithos
produce the rabbit out of the hat
purophosphorolysis
quartz watch
raked pile
resistance bulb thermometer
rope capping metal
rubber insulation
Sanaigmore Bay
scorpioides
sea plug
soil subtype
sparse foliage
splashed down
stamp the trade mark
the Union
timer supervision
tinplate manufacture
trihydroxyethylamine stearate
truvat
unharmed fruit
unregenerate
usagist
vantiem
work fixture
yardlong