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
advertising and general publicity expenses
alpha-wave
alphagrams
ancestor
anodie oxidation treatment
bankette
Beduins
bend the bow of Ulyesses
bile alcohol
chain of industry
chelatase
Cinque Ports
Columbia, C.
cross-path current
culprits
desamido-NAD
diamond weave
discontinuous absorption
Dogtoothgrass
drag by the ear
ear-protector
electeth
epithelial rest
equilibrium spheroid
eslate
family Droseraceae
floating base
flower-arranger
genesiological immunology
genus pomatomuss
gyroma
harbo(u)r superintending officer
hazzards
Honaz
horn buttons
I-League
Indocalamus longiauritus
inflation-related adjustment
instument light
internal contracting brake
Janupap
jean-
jobbing press
john stuart mills
justice-seeking
Kirillovskoye
knick-knackery
langmaids
Lawson, Mt.
lgc
loud pedals
mean solar day
mercosur
meritorious cause of action
Miscannthus
moving average disturbance
multiple spark system
munford
myaskovsky
Nectanebo I
nuclear rotational quantum number
O indicator
onsay
paste content
Petern's method
plutonium silicide
Prachatice
Prey Khmêr
private-aid public housing
radices rubiae
refiltered oil
reise
repeating
Rocca di Mezzo
rock grab
run a red light
saccharum bengalenses
Sambava
self lubricating sheave
single-energy reactor
sodium carbonate peroxide
sphaerocarpuss
stratiform water
subbase course material
substanceness
swin arm
swine influenza bacillus
tidy-up
top and twin-side bottom heading method
transaction-processings
trash dumps
tree form
unlabelled compound
vena cerebellums
vikna (vikten is.)
want one's bread buttered on both sides
water-holding pore
wevo
white-collar
xylosuria
yum
Zagra