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
admissible deviation of supply volt- age
afteroperation
agkistrodon acutus
ample supply
annulospiral endings
Ariyoshi Sawako
assistant controller
autothermostat
biblical mythologies
bifus
boat - billed heron
boate
bring something into relief
cgp
civil obligation
cocirculations
combination scale
combinatorial optimization problem
control quantity
diacatholicon
diastereo-isomerism
disinfection of egg surface
down one's street
drawing press
Dupplin Moor, Battle of
dysesthetic
easy filling
ecosystem type
eights
electronic codebook mode
esothyropexy
general paralysis
Gewalan
grossed me out
gulosarmentoglucoside
hell-fire
hemorrhagic sarcoma
hereditary benign epidermic cell
hiate
igap
indictabilities
instadeath
inter library loan
intermediate drivage
IPBD
isoelectric ph
Jesus Christs
job controller
jubilently
junhee
kosam
light absorbing matrix
Longmire operation
mercury cooled reactor
merit systems
metaproteomics
nkunda
outlives
ox-eyed
palaeogeology
panfries
perisplancchnitis
permanent-magnet field generator
platinized asbestos
postero-lateral episiotomy
Pull in your ears neck !
quasi stationary
redundant safety related system
reentry condition
reform of farmtools
relative projective module
relegate to
research octane number
ripple rejection
Roaillan
rohferment
sanitary sewer manhole
seasoned salt
section forces
seiger
selectivity of radiation
sequential index
shinn
shooting trouble
single point mooring port
spacer sleeve
Stenogastrinae
stoups
strey
tachardina theae green et mann
take pains to do sth
territorial divisions
Theseus
thorough-girt
throuble
us wrote
v-gene reactivation(streisinger 1956)
washed emitter technology
water-cooled rotor
water-logged area
Yushania polytricha