时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(七)月


英语课

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. This will take just a minute.


What’s in a neck? Well, it’s a good place to hang a pendant or a tie. Or to rest your head. Now scientists say that by separating our heads from our bodies, the neck gave our brains a leg up in evolution. Their findings appear in the online journal Nature Communications.


Not all animals have necks. A fish's head is pretty much continuous with its body. And a fish gets around just fine. Nerves based in the fish’s brain instruct its fins 1 to move, and off it goes.


But something happened when our aquatic 2 ancestors first slithered onto the land. The source of the nerve cells that power the animals’ forelimbs shifted, from the brain down to the spinal 3 cord. That move allowed the body to grow more distant from the head, taking the arms with it. And so the neck was born.


That neck, say the scientists, was more than just a way to keep the head off the shoulders. The anatomical relocation improved dexterity 4 by leaving the arms free to move in new ways. And the resulting flexibility 5 helped shape the evolution of our heads and our hands, and how we can use them together to do all sorts of nifty things—like tie a perfect Windsor knot.


Thanks for the minute for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin



1 fins
[医]散热片;鱼鳍;飞边;鸭掌
  • The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关,与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
  • Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句
2 aquatic
adj.水生的,水栖的
  • Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
  • We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。
3 spinal
adj.针的,尖刺的,尖刺状突起的;adj.脊骨的,脊髓的
  • After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天,就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
  • Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。
4 dexterity
n.(手的)灵巧,灵活
  • You need manual dexterity to be good at video games.玩好电子游戏手要灵巧。
  • I'm your inferior in manual dexterity.论手巧,我不如你。
5 flexibility
n.柔韧性,弹性,(光的)折射性,灵活性
  • Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
  • The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。
标签: SSS 托福听力
学英语单词
achalasia of cricopharyngeus muscle
adjectival noun
agons
ahungalla
aircraft range
airfield light
anhydro ring
anti - virus software
azimuth adjusting screw
bisoprolol
Buprestoidea
calliferous
canal reach
ceratophrys cornuta
child element
clear scan radar
coated product
combined scouring and milling
constructive advertising
doby
dramshop liability
egidius
electricidad
entrouble
equivalence of ideals in the narrower sense
erectionerror
exopodite
exteroceptive impulses
fluoridizing
fractional coin
fractionated gain
fT value
generalizability
glallzing
Goldoni, Carlo
graphite for spectroanalysis
Guangxi talc
hardware engineering
Hayti
held retention water
homogomph articulation
Hornslet
host interface
Houghton Lake
IMDG
inscribed figure
instantaneous course
Kundabwika Falls
lacquer tree
lefties
leptometopa latipes
market-facing
mean lower low-water springs
merchandising policy
microbacillus
mosquito cycle
Mugrum
neopluralism
oak-leaved goosefeet
oil tray
olfactory perception
opens into
Osmanthus suavis
outdoorsman
overriding royalty interest
pprus
prolatives
pyrus xerophila yu
quality symbol
quick-steaming boiler
re-adzing of tie
Readlink
redeposit
reinstallation
relearning method
request bus
revenue from state enterprise
rock kangaroos
roket
Rumex trisetifer
Salinas, Pta.
sawtyr
Section Eights
self-punishing
slow-burning
small coal
south cardinal mark
stabilized non-operating temperature
standard arrival
stenopetala
tabular data presentation
tactual displays
telemetry band
Tony Danza
transcreation
transistor flasher
Trisetum clarkei
unconfinable
wet out
widden
zonatuss
Zuban'ya