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
acid-proof slab
air bacteria
all kind kept in stock
ancient chinese literature
angular leaf spot of tobacco
arteriae anastomotica
bacterial wilt of cucumber
barnard
basal spacing
be in gaol
belyaev
Black Mountain
blackcurranties
capillary isoelectric focusing
CCGC
cephalalgia reflexa
Claerwen Res.
collective ownership by the working people
contact height
dad burn
dewatering setup
Dieciocho de Julio
differential flow indicator
eigenpotentials
exogenous variate
exoroot nutrition
fact sheet
fiscal institution
fixed duty
footlid
formula of capitalization
full-wave amplifier
gas-distributing channel
gentiana davidii formosana
genus cimexes
get cold feet
glitter
gorals
green linnet
heteromorphic chromosomes
high temperature rapid firing
high-rank graywacke
holguin
hyperwriting
interganglionic branches
interior syndrome
kmet
Kyowamycin
large scaled cartography
lay steel
Louys, Pierre
made yourselves understood
magics up
make meat of someone
marine surveyor
middle C
miscible drive
multicycle data entry
nuclei tuberes
oleum rosmarini
ooparts
Oude-Tonge
parametric subroutine
pecuniary reward
Polygala tricornis
private affair
projectionometer
protolignin
quantit ative heredity
rames
rereplications
rollens
somatic radiation damage
something's up
spiral bevel gear milling machine
St-Sever-Calvados
Statute Theory
steps type seal
storehouses
subluxationofatlantoaxialjoint
subrogated
sweeps up
sympathetic neuroblast
tapered screw press
tavels
theta temperature
thiamines
tombaugh
transfer between orbits
trap nest
trapezia digitalis
Trinidad and Tobago dollar
turnover of receivable
ultrasonic interferometer
unwindase
upper-mantle
urethrographically
Vaglio Basilicata
velarize
veran
vesiglandin
woman's reason