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
antenna illumination
ash trees
audit notification
balancing valve
Balmaha
bamboozlable
bankstown
because a vision softly creeping
Bouguer's halo broken bow
Brewster's law
bring follow in the rear
calcaneo-astragaloid
calcium oxalate stone
cantilever type boring machine
Chamaeleon
chorionic carcinoma
civil law system
clearance goods
colating
concrete cube test
continuation character
cussed out
cyma reversas
dark-ages
delta delta connection
dew drop
diarylethane liquid crystal
discards
double-sided hood
dry labbing
dull bit
eagle-gazette
Eupatorium capillifolium
exogamy
faggin'
flop about
focal curve
fully homing missile
gay
glamorizers
Godel's incompleteness theorem
going up to
grass-cloth
hand flag
hard-bill
Heilmann comb
high rubber mixing
Hinuma-gawa
humouristically
Husserl, Edmund
hypothalamic inhibiting hormone
ich.
in the wars
induced polarization
inland forwarding expenses
intercarrier frequency
International Tonnage Measurement Convention
latent menstruation
listily
maculatus
mantle-crust mix
marking harness
material consideration
microminiature welder
multiplication of matrices
nass-fish
necessitarianism
non-communal
nonair
notifiable disease
one way circuit
orotic
overland transportation cargo insurance
playins
proportional spacing machine font
psoriasin
retroperistaltic
rock-climbing
scalably
school-goer
sds-pages
semi-starvation
semiperiodic solution
sensibleness
sesbans
sheikhas
spearing
standard cost clearing
standardization principle
steam-cooked
stir it up
street main
sudomotor
Tamami
tractus iliotibialis
tyre press
unstiffened member
violation of international law
virtual processor
viscosity loss
vocs
wolvertons