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
3BT
abductor pollicis longus
AC resistivity instrument
additional nitration
advertising strategy
anica
anpa
anti-corrosive quality
associated corpuscular
asteroid zone
bastard operator from hell
be common knowledge
big gun irrigation system
bump that
capillary viscometer(viscosimeter)
capital increment tax
Ceriodaphnia
clara
clip art
clutch release bearing sleeve
colorer
complacentially
corecognition
Delyatyn
demutualizes
dextrosulfenidol
disappearence potential spectroscopy
dispersive medium
dorr mill
doublewire system
elliptic function field
enhanced type FET
ergopinacol
family Nymphaeaceae
forced harlotry
functions of purchasing department
good condition
Gymnadenia crassinervis
halimous
hard chromium (electro)plating
hindering of dislocation
Honokahua
hsi shih
in-person
infrared heat
insteadfast
Kalotype
knee length
lacrimal lithiasis
lambis scorpius
land-based pollution source
Landsteiner's rule
law of symmetry
layers of status and authority
liking me
maximum likelihood extraction
memoranda of association
microcontrol sequencing system
monoplasmatic
Mulgedium tataricum
narrow-band absorption
naude
non-holonomic constraint
nonlinear viscous flow
oluseyi
onset and rime
oxidative product
part writing
person enjoying a gien right
pinchcocks
pocket the affront
polyglycerol polyricinoleate
popular verdict
protein repletion
pull-off pole
Quakerish
radioisotopictracer
saddle-back coping
Sancho IV
scienters
septemvirates
signores
sole-toe-flexion reflex
sounding gear
straight pedicellaria
submetallic lustre
subpercolating
symmetrical wavelet
tetrandrous
tips
took a liking to
transformation coefficient
transporter
twin lens
two worlds
unopenable
us weekly
very high resolution radiometer
well-fended
xanthochroous
xy
zip file