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
account verification
alliss
allophony
ambiguity indicator
Anopheles multicolor
aspiration pump
athenia
black lead brush
buformin
Bureau of Standards
bypass heat treatment
canoe filament
centric maxillomandibular relation
cephalin
chain-fittings
chirata
Cliff L.
cobalt-manganese spar
command papers
commutating pulse
complementary circuit
constant price line
coolwater
crossplay
curve of shearing force
de jure population
Deiters'cells
discographical
Djombo
dod (the department of defense)
duschak
earth-current meter
ecological party
economic dislocation
elastokinetics
electronic temperature control system
empty cell process (wood preservation)
face-to-face communication
factor XIII
fine structure genetic map
fixed failure number test
free safety
friendship bench
fuel atomizer
Gaillard, Lake
gangsman
geothermic degree
grass factor
haematomma ochrophaea (muell.arg.)
hailing
heptenedicarboxylic acid
hunter greens
hyporeactive
iaru (international amateur radio union)
Ilya Of Murom
labviews
landfyrd
landline teletypewriter
latterly
lawick
limit height
loco weeds
lollapalooza
marbleised
mullet
nelumbiaceous
neurenteric pore
nominalizes
off line storage
overjumped
ozone temperature sensor
Paucartambo, R.
perpendicular magnetization
Phenidylate
photoelectric nephelometer
precision in picture specification
prorennin
pumping speed
Quanto Swap
Qunayy
raytown
regulation band
saccharocoria
Saxeville
schizoid
slip opinion
slopestyle
social constraint
sorrels
sort key
spermoplasm
spinmaster
spriggy
synthetic resin paint
transference number of ions
trap rejection
unphysiologic activation factor
vezon
wellknown
Wilsall
yoko onoes
zygomatic crest