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
a & i
abominating
acceleration lane
adhesine
Afragola
al majann
Al Qawnas
anhydrite region
antifly
arms deals
ascaps
assailing thieves
attiga
avalanche lilies
batch output converter
be superseded by
Beathing
belt cover
boys of summer
calshots
Canterbury gallop
capital of Lebanon
chanty
charbroiling
cliticisation
continental ton
copareolatin
coriolopsis neaniscus
credit card system
curved bottom chord
cyclical sterility
daniel barenboim
delighter
digital stepping recorder
drip curtain
dummy cylinder
elevator area
enamelite
feltries
food-aid
free-field room
gas-phase
giga-second
gmsas
goard
grid-controlled tube
handing drop culture
harcums
hardens
hinterlander
instrument landing system and TACAN
internal branchia
Ipatieff, Vladimir Nidolayevich
kcbp
lead bismuth alloy
Levally L.
light grease
matching key on propeller shaft
methylcoumarone
mileage
neural fuzzy agent
new packing
non-embolic
nosepicking
nul points
overincarceration
paying shell
peat coal
ph-dependence
physogyra lichtensteini
Pitarpunga L.
plongeurs
positive ion bombardment
reaction gas chromatography
reactor cutback power
recessus membranae tympani posterior
ribbon lenticular
riser bush
road trips & tours
Schmidt layer
scissor jack
shogaols
small driving motor
software-only
Starting Heat
submarine cable code
subverteth
superannuant
supply equipment
Tambillos, Nev.de los
tangible atmosphere
tauscher
the last resort
tiebreak
topographic texture
traunters
trenck
uncountable aggragate
usage alert
visual value
waveshape circuit
well acknowledged