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
adjustable single-end wrench
ageing units
alan-lewis
anti-lock braking system
athletic centre
Bass method of tooth brushing
blood spectrum
blue whiting
Bodoland
bryamyoin
bryoxiphium novagicum (brid.)mitt.
burson knit
cere
Charminster
chonge
Comarapa
containment hydrogen control system
contrary evidence
cool
cosmic spherule
demerit
dialectical-school
diphtheroid bacillus
dirt-pipe
Dolosal
doping-task gas
dynamic centering
e-manufacturing
electric impulse
erythema gyratum
extra-axial skeleton
faget
federal income tax accrued
flame-cutting nozzle
fordyce
gear on worm
Green Mong
half value
headstarts
highly-concentrated
in the safe
infrared origin
inherent buoyance material
jantily
jernegan
keep nix
Keioside
laser aerocamera
lava-like
make - up artist
makebates
malaco-zoology
masement
Maxim's
mechanical route indicator
monosomaty
myotherapist
narrow-leaved
nitroglycol
pandemonism
participation
pastorical
Peralejos
phase contrast microscopy
plain water filled roller
planospiral
prayer plants
pulsing transformer
Pyrazinopyrimidines
quali-pop
sandyachtsman
separate heterodyne reception method
sewen
sherfey
shrink-off
siege engine
snail-like
soperpalite
squential testing
Stafford knot
stay-at-work mom
stepronin
stood between
sufferfest
sugarings
surface contamination
symmetrical shunt-type thermoammeter
synspecific
T-IMP
tail suction
take it outside
take-off thrust rating
tammy wynettes
tape-recordings
thallium trifluoroacetate
throw off one's disguise
tier-type poultry cage
Torvsjö
unblocked set
Web office
winter variety
woods oyster