时间:2018-12-05 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力文摘 English Digest


英语课

  Don: Some people seem to need significantly less sleep than others.

Yael: Tell me about it. I have a friend who swears that she sleeps only five hours a night. If she's telling the truth, then she must be bionic. She seems to have plenty of energy, and she's not fuzzy-brained and incompetent 1 the way I am after several nights of only five hours of sleep. You know what really irks me? Because she sleeps less, she has more time to accomplish more in her days than I do. It's not fair.

D: I know what you mean. I need eight to nine hours of sleep a night myself. What I would do for three more hours every day! That's twenty-one more hours a week!      I'm getting off track though. Scientists have discovered a gene 2 in fruit flies that determines how much rest the individual needs. Fruit flies with a version of this gene are actually programmed to need less sleep than others. And humans possess a similar gene.

Y : So the amount of sleep one needs seems to be genetically 3 inherited?

D: Yes. And families of flies with a lower sleep requirement don't seem to suffer any      impairments in their performance of daily tasks. It may very well be that people who      claim to need less sleep to operate normally are telling the truth.

Y: That's depressing.

D: Well, you might be interested to know that flies programmed to sleep less tend to die earlier.

Y: Really? So maybe I'll end up with the same hours of waking time as my friend after all. It'll just take me a few extra years of living to catch up with her!

D: Maybe.



1 incompetent
adj.无能力的,不能胜任的
  • He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
  • He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。
2 gene
n.遗传因子,基因
  • A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
  • The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。
3 genetically
adv.遗传上
  • All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
  • Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物
学英语单词
accessory auditory nucleus
AliceinWonderland
alvins
angular brightness distribution
antagonizes
apoplexia uteri
atlantic phase
banking mechanism
Beau Bassin
Bessastadhir
blowing road
bung up and bilge free
caeleste
chart readout
chemical inhomogeneity
chenopods
code comparison
combinatorial semantics
conch
coreless inductio furnace
coupling with rubber-metal ring
cultural psychological structure
debtor-creditor-supplier agreement
distance apparatus
DPND
Duddo
emits
Ethyl-4-bis-(hydroxypropyl)-1-aminobenzoate
Eucalyptus citriodora
extra budgetary source
finished job
fixed-wing aircraft
footprintings
free boundary problem
fuel pool filter-demineralizer
Gagarinskiy Rayon
geronymous
GMVLS
goggle
government-controlled
Gran Bajo
Grey beam
grosso modo
HCG stimulation test
home voyage
hot pack mill
hyper environment
intensity run on shore
internal quenching
job-splitting
jpopularize
jubb
knock inhibiting essence
kripalani
lake dweller
Latinizes
leptogaster formosana
Lofflerella
lombardini
lukongwa
machine less
make sb's blood run cold
multiple cells
Mücheln
nonfederated
normenforcement
O Dia
optimal forecast
osteologies
overpriming
parupeneus heptacanthus
passive metal
phacoemulsification
preparation-cream
pressure piling
prime seisin
pseudo-steady state
punching row
ran into someone
reactive load of power system
reengined
reflight
repeating rifle
repetitive routine
requantization
rick
routine modification
San Miguel de Cruces
scale of chart
slink one's pitch
space ratio
spermatemphraxis
sportly
Stephen Lawrence
swirl flame
tithe
Tortolan
Trololo
vacuum ingot casting
volatile compound
wind shear detec tion system
wind-bag