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
acoustic attenuation
address the chair
addressing mode bit
African elephants
after journal
Akar-Bale
annulus pressure operated tester(apot)
audio / video
balled planting
Bathylagus
be overcome with
beegum
biobusiness
boucard
boxed
by-pass steam dump
citharids
collective noun
complimentally
concerneth
condenser performance test
conditionalness
Congregationist
contrarotating drum
cornerlike
counter nut
crace
crossbusing
crystal counters
cushionborne mode
damaru
deltaic-sheet trap
deoxyribonucleoproteins
detrital deposit
Dreise, Theodore
dull-eyes
EFVC
electrodynamometer type instrument
Euclidean color space
finite character
frictional soil
fructose intolerance
galluss
harakat al-jihad al-islami al-filastinis
hit a bull's eye
Holzknecht's space
imaginal buds
incontinence of pigment
incorrigibility of data
intercluded
Jephcott method
Jorge, Cachoeira
lanthanum manganate
Leeton
Lindner's tests
liturgicians
man-god
mean relative fluctuation
millimeter wave measurements
mimela confucius formosana
molpadia changi
Morelos, Estado de
motor field
no trouble
non-deterministic automata automation
normal monotone context sensitive web grammar
number of working hours based on maximum load
obligado
outrigger jack cylinder
p.wk.
paper winder
personal computer memory card industry association
phaneroplasmodium
polysulfide rubber latex
positional notations
potential target customer
prawn curry
residential structure
resultant drag
reversing limit valve
royall
schedule feeding
sight-reading
soldering turret
stewers
stone grinder
szkely
take snuff
tankwagons
the NYSE LIFFE
tiarellas
titanides
tonco beans
totonicapan
touch the ground
true process average
tuberculous tracheitis
Ubondo
valve adjusting screw
vascular compression
wet-weathers
Yang-do