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
4-Methylumbelliferylphosphate
achromatic figure
arch buttress
bag seraper
Ban Na Thom
Ban Yang Hom
batsheva dance company
beats in
beer-soaked
bocher
BOL
bottom priming
bucket attachment
bummel
corn exchange
cryptotoxic
dash thermometer
diester
discreetly
dismayings
drag image
earthy tripolite
ember-goose
end store jewel
equifinality
euchromatin
eugene ormandies
floating claim
fluid friction
friction based twisting system
full secured liabilites
gain equalized optical amplifier repeater
gas discharging radiation counter tube
genus campephiluss
give-and-takes
glucocorticoid response elements
heredities
Herzogenburg
Heteroscelus
homojunction laser
hot set hammer
inferred zero
ionic susceptibility
keyword search
kinetic energy head
Kornwestheim
latent-virus infection
law of obligation
lead screw
leukokininase
local entities
log printer
longhair
lymphogranulomas
magnetic poetry
maraffis
mass organization
matchless
method of laminae
modem audio loopback control
mohrias
moris
mumak
naawi
NMPNC
non-confocal resonator
non-tariff barriers
nonelastomeric
Norman Mattoon Thomas
NSC-5053
Obura
Omnised
outlet sump
paddle boats
Periyār L.
pintel
pinwheel garnet
Piratini
polycrystallite
populin
pulsation phase
risk of isomerization
sao miguel
self electrode
sell something for a mess of pottage
sheet cakes
source language symbol
specific parachor
stand alone type
stencil paint
sulphurs
the italian job
thermionic conversion
torrefied
tris-cyclopentadienyl-cyclohe-xyloxy-uranium
Tusibron
upheavers
utopianly
vagil benthons
water-cooled screw conveyor
windfallen
Wǒlhyon-ri