时间:2018-12-27 作者:英语课 分类:一起听英语


英语课

起得晚睡得晚,拥有这种睡眠特质的人被称为“夜猫子”


 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010


Page 1 of 5


Dan: Hello and welcome to this week’s 6 minute English. I’m Dan Walker Smith


and today I’m joined by Kate.


Now Kate, would you say you’re more of a morning or an evening person?


Kate: I’d say I’m definitely a morning person. I love going to bed early and getting


up early.


Dan: OK, well that makes you a lark 1. People who are better in the morning are


known as ‘larks’, after the famously early-rising birds. And people who are


better at night are sometimes known as ‘owls 2’ or 'night-owls', after the birds


which tend to come out at night.


Kate: That’s an interesting theory. How about you? Are you a morning or a night


person?


Dan: I’m definitely an owl 3. I go to bed very late and I love staying in late in the


morning. I just don’t deal with daytime at all.


Kate: Oh, so we’re complete opposites then.


Dan: Yup.


Kate: Well, apparently 4 around half the world’s population are naturally co-ordinated


to wake up early or late. It’s in our genetics or make-up, like our eye-colour or


height. 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010


Page 2 of 5


Dan: So this week’s question to you Kate is: on average how many hours do adults


sleep each night? Is it:


a) 6 and a half hours


b) 7 and a half hours


c) 8 and a half hours


Kate: Well I think that the recommended amount of sleep is somewhere between


seven and eight hours. But I’m sure that most people don’t get that amount, so


I’m going to go for a, six and a half.


Dan: OK, we'll see if you're right at the end of the programme.


Kate: Now, a person's natural rhythm of sleep is known as their body clock. This is


what regulates what time you wake up and when you feel tired. Variations in


your body's temperature affect tiredness, so some people are naturally more


alert or awake during the morning hours, and others are more productive late at


night.


Dan: Before we had electricity, our sleeping patterns were basically decided 5 by the


sun. We would get up at dawn, when the sun rises, and fall asleep at dusk,


when the sun goes down.


Kate: But now unfortunately the pressures of work and society mean that most of us


don't follow our natural body clocks or the rhythm of the sun, so we often don't


get enough sleep.


Dan: Now we're going to hear now from sleep specialist Professor Till Roenneberg


on how modern working life is affecting our sleep patterns. You'll hear the


word optimally 6, which means 'in the best way' and also the words internal


and external. 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010


Page 3 of 5


Kate: Internal means located inside, and external refers to anything happening on


the outside – in this case inside or outside the human body.


So have a listen. How are people who naturally stay up late affected 7 by modern


working hours?


Extract 1


We have to be aware of the fact that the very late people are actually on a permanent


shift working schedule, because they have to get up against their body clock and they


don’t perform optimally, and so forth 8, very often they don’t get enough sleep.


Because what’s happening is that the signal that allows people to fall asleep comes from


the internal body clock, whereas the signal on work days to get up comes from an


external clock.


Dan: OK, so owls - people who naturally wake up late and stay up late – can often


feel tired because they're working against their body clock. They don’t perform


optimally because they haven't had enough sleep.


Some people compare the experience to jet lag – what do they mean by that


Kate?


Kate: Well jet lag is the tiredness you feel after you've been on a flight and have


travelled to a different time zone. So when Professor Roenneberg here calls the


experience of living on a different cycle to your work companions a 'social jet


lag', he means it causes the same sort of tiredness that you get after a long


flight.


Extract 2


If you fly from New York to London, you are in a completely new light/dark cycle;


you’re flying somewhere else. And that earlier sunrise will make your clock adapt to


exactly the London time. But with a social jet lag, it’s your internal and external times 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010


Page 4 of 5


that are out of sync, and nothing in the conditions of light or darkness will change. And


therefore you will stay like this all your life.


Kate: It sounds miserable 9; you're essentially 10 not co-ordinated – or out of sync – with


the time zone you're in, so you're tired all the time. Sync is short for


synchronised, which means to happen at the same rate or speed. So if


something's out of sync, it's happening at the wrong pace.


Dan: We also heard the words internal and external again, this time referring to


time-zones.


Now the best way to adapt your body clock to a new routine is with light. If


you're not great in the mornings, try to get out into the sunlight as soon as


possible. And if you get tired in the evenings, you should try to spend some


time outdoors then.


Kate: So here's the British sleep scientist Russell Foster talking about the affect of


light on our body clock. Can you tell me how much brighter sunlight is than


artificial light?


Extract 3


If we look at the average amount of light in the home environment or the office


environment, it’s extremely low. So, for example, shortly after dawn, natural sunlight,


even in the UK, is some 50 to 100 times brighter than average office-lighting or homelighting


conditions. And by noon natural light is some 500 to 1,000 times brighter.


Kate: So it would take an awful lot of artificial light to adjust your body clock in the


same way sun can.


Dan: OK we’re almost out of time, so let’s go over some of the vocabulary we’ve


come across today: 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010


Page 5 of 5


owl and lark


body clock


dawn and dusk


internal and external


jet lag


synchronise 11


out of sync


Dan: And finally Kate, back to today's question: I asked you how much sleep adults


get to sleep each night?


Kate: And I went for a, six and half hours, because I’m sure people don’t get enough


sleep these days.


Dan: Well I read that apparently it’s seven and a half hours. But I certainly don’t get


that and don’t think most people do either.


Kate: Interesting. Well I aim for about ten, but I rarely get that either.


Dan: Well, from all of us here at BBC Learning English, thanks for listening, sleep


well, and goodbye!


Kate: Goodbye! 



1 lark
n.云雀,百灵鸟;n.嬉戏,玩笑;vi.嬉戏
  • He thinks it cruel to confine a lark in a cage.他认为把云雀关在笼子里太残忍了。
  • She lived in the village with her grandparents as cheerful as a lark.她同祖父母一起住在乡间非常快活。
2 owls
n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )
  • 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋,”我说,“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
  • The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句
3 owl
n.猫头鹰,枭
  • Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
  • I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚,经常半夜后才睡觉。
4 apparently
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
5 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
6 optimally
最佳
  • In the classic script for a Cartel, the group sets a unified optimally exploiting price structure. 按照卡特尔的传统范本,这个集团制定出一个统一的最有利于剥削的价格结构。 来自辞典例句
  • RF power LDMOS with a trench drift region is optimally designed. 对射频功率LDMOS槽形漂移区的结构进行了优化设计。 来自互联网
7 affected
adj.不自然的,假装的
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
8 forth
adv.向前;向外,往外
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
9 miserable
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的
  • It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他,这是可耻的。
  • Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。
10 essentially
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上
  • Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
  • She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
11 synchronise
n.同步器;v.使同时发生;使同步
  • As they fly, they synchronise their wing beats. 飞行时,它们翅膀的拍打是同步的。
  • The apps will synchronise with your ipad and download the latest content automatically.这些程序会与你的ipad同步,并自动下载最新的内容。
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Alizay
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