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 lump in one's throat
abmortal
AC excitation
AddressLine
aerotonometry
aluminium piston alloy
antigastrin
arbor virus
bar viscometer
Beprochine
Blackfan
brachialis muscle
branchialia
cajeputene
Campanella, Pta.
clean air act of 1967
cock-disc
cold cathode indicator tub
concrete pile jetting
contactless contactor
contactor controller
cooperative coordinator
crewman
cross-sensitization
Cyanastraceae
drowsing
elastoviscous
endocrine glands
Enugu Ngwo
evaluative thinking
exungulated
fast-medium
figured-fabric looms
friction, sliding
Grangousier
graphical programming system
Heave away!
heteroblastic
homocon
illegal payment
infared
infrared optical material
invariant (phase)system
Jack in the pulpit
jaw j-carrier system
joint promotion
kirkward
legume inoculation
leopard rock
lesser flood
leyer
loose up
macura
make the ascent of
map specifications
mingxia
misgoing
mufcs
Nyalikungu
oildom
oxidation-reduction equipment
package holiday
panel type switchboard
pass sentence on sb
Pomeranian Lakeland
ponderating
possessor bona fide
power of judgement
precipitative filter
put someone to the wall
raphe palpebralis lateralis
Regente Feijó
resuscite
roll turning shop
saccharinum
sciagram
scream
shise
Sierksrade
slides out
Spanished
spread sheet
state-dependent
subject of examination
subtransient time constant
sulfatidate
summer-day
suprasil
surface soil
SYTs
tempering gulf stream effect
termed saddle stone
tetraethylpyromellitate
twi-formed
undernamed
wash transaction
watch tv series
water spray cooling
wee-willy
Windows Image
yarn length counter
yellow ironweed