时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(五)月


英语课

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.


 


If you ever got picked on in the schoolyard, you might have wished for some sort of superpower, like unbeatable speed or maybe just the ability to completely disappear. Now scientists at the College of Wooster in Ohio say that you might have had a skill you didn’t realize: the uncanny ability to hear a bully 1 coming.


An earlier study found that women hear approaching noises sooner than their bigger, brawnier male counterparts. Perhaps, the scientists thought, the same would hold true for scrawny specimens 2 versus 3 the truly buff. So they had 50 volunteers listen to a tone that sounds like it’s moving toward them. The listeners pressed a button when it sounded like the tone arrived. The scientists then assessed each subject’s strength and cardiovascular fitness. And they found that the 98-pound weaklings banged their buttons quicker than the well-muscled, because they perceived the threatening sound as being closer than it actually was. The finding got a hearing May 21st at the meeting of the Acoustical 4 Society of America in Portland, Oregon. Such auditory overreacting, the scientists say, could be a survival mechanism 5. So that the meek 6, while waiting to inherit the earth, can avoid getting knocked onto it.


 


Thanks for the minute for scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.


 



1 bully
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
2 specimens
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人
  • Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
  • The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 versus
prep.以…为对手,对;与…相比之下
  • The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
  • The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。
4 acoustical
adj. 听觉的,声学的,音响学的
  • This system can set up acoustical resonances. 这种系统能产生共鸣。
  • The relevance of acoustical principles is by no means limited to sound and hearing. 声学原理并不仅仅适用于声音和听觉。
5 mechanism
n.机械装置;机构,结构
  • The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
  • The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。
6 meek
adj.温顺的,逆来顺受的
  • He expects his wife to be meek and submissive.他期望妻子温顺而且听他摆布。
  • The little girl is as meek as a lamb.那个小姑娘像羔羊一般温顺。
标签: SSS specimen
学英语单词
Abū 'Awjā'
anisostemon
anti-eavesdrop device
antichemical medicine
Argunsk
astunned
battery charging and discharging panel
bendable permanent magnet
binder course
brebants
calie
Casale Monferrato
catercorners
chromatographic efficiency
cockatoo farmers
common joist
cosmic mineral
crystal stone
data process work request
defect of triangle
designated port
detection code byte
digital polypectomy
diplographs
discounting the news
division of net income or loss
dsm-iv
etmopterus joungi
file an appeal
foxiness
foxy colour cotton
free curve
Gaussian profile
harbor accommodation
heaphone
incorporate
industrial co-operative
infectious fever
intertoll
ionic atmosphere
Jules Verne Trophy
La Virgen
laganside
lezcanoes
lyfoline
maenad
marginalic
matching familiar figures test
memorylessness
Metauranocircite-I
MI6
modem pooling
muskatee
neutron flux flattening
Old South
paraffin jelly
paramitas
pentafid
perspective rendering
pluck asunder
podzolizing
preavailing rate
Prevotellaceae
procedure data area
proceed aspect
quantile process
query interactive processor
rear part theoretical length of turnout
red-throated
returning officers
row wing alter
Sandy Bridge-E
Sansambaya
scenic dock
school bond
Schultze's bundle
second carriers freight
sensitometric test
Serebryansk
sex show
skate park
sodium diurante
somatosensory 1 (s1)
space neurobiology
squeaky-bum time
strumoderma
substantial cost differentials
surface sizing
sycophant
synodic rotation period
telecontrol configuration
tetrahydrocyperaquinone
theoretical physics
thionyl imide
triplicities
tulip
unix networking
upbraiding
update cycle
variation of mining stope ore reserves
vidicon film scanner
whsmn.