【一起听英语】梦游症

 梦游症是会遗传的。

Alice: Hello, I'm Alice…

Stephen: And I'm Stephen.

Alice: And this is 6 Minute English! This week we’re talking about sleepwalking.

Have you ever walked in your sleep, Stephen?

Stephen: I don’t think so, but I’ve been known to tell stories in my sleep.

Alice: Oh, fascinating. This is a new development by scientists in the United States

that shows that sleepwalking is genetic 2 – it’s passed on from parent to child.

They’ve been looking at the genes 3 of four generations of a family who have a

lot of sleepwalkers. But before we find out more, I have a question for you,

Stephen. What do the letters REM stand for? And it’s not just the name of an

American pop group….

Stephen: REM – that’s something to do with sleep?

Alice: It is – does it stand for:

a) rapid eye movement

b) random 4 eye movement or

c) relative eye movement

Stephen: I’m going to guess a) rapid eye movement. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 2 of 6

Alice: As usual, I won’t tell you the answer now – we’ll find out at the end of the

programme! So let’s hear more about what it’s like to be a sleepwalker. Here’s

Margaret Brand, a woman who often spends several hours a night sleepwalking:

Insert 1: Margaret Brand

Sometimes I was just back in bed and didn’t know that I’d sleepwalked. But I’d wake

up in the morning and find that things had been moved or eaten or forgotten – and it

had to be me because I was the only person in the flat. Other times I would wake up,

usually in the kitchen. I took medication – on one occasion, three 20ml doses of

morphine.

Alice: Margaret Brand said that she moves or eats things when she’s sleepwalking,

and she once took medication – drugs - while she was asleep.

Stephen: She says on one occasion, she took doses of morphine.

Alice: That’s dangerous. There are also other instances when sleepwalking can put the

person or other people in danger. Dr Dev Banerjee is a sleep expert at the

Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, in the UK. He says that there have been

occasions when sleepwalkers have injured themselves, or even got into their

cars to drive:

Insert 2: Dr Dev Banerjee

I think (for) the majority of those that sleepwalk (it) is fairly harmless and quite novel

actually, but there are a proportion who do injure themselves, fall down the stairs. I’ve

got someone from Bristol who put his hand through a glass window and severed 5 his

radial artery 6. Not only just injuries, but risks of injuries such as getting out of the house,

onto the street. There have been cases, I think in America, where people got into their

car and drove down a freeway. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

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Alice: Dr Dev Banerjee, who says that usually sleepwalking is harmless – even novel

– unique and quite amusing.

Stephen: What else do scientists know about sleepwalking, Alice?

Alice: They know it’s pretty common. One in five children sleepwalk and one in ten

adults. And there’s a new development by scientists in the United States that

shows it runs in families – it’s genetic.

Stephen: It is passed on from parent to child in a person’s genes. Genes control which

features identify a person.

Alice: Scientists examined the DNA 7 – the genetic code of a family of four generations

who suffer from sleepwalking, and found that they carried a defective 8 gene 1,

chromosome 9 20.

Stephen: A defective gene – that’s a gene which has a fault. DNA is the complicated

code that makes a human unique and is carried from generation to generation.

Alice: Once the defective gene has been identified it means it could be easier to find

treatments and tests for sleepwalkers. People that carry the defective gene have

a 50-50 chance of passing it onto their children.

Stephen: 50–50 - that means they have an equal chance of either inheriting the gene or

not inheriting it! 50 per cent vs per cent.

Alice: Here’s the BBC’s Health Reporter, Michelle Roberts: 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 4 of 6

Insert 2: Michelle Roberts

DNA analysis of the 22 relatives, from the great-grandparents downwards 10, located the

chromosome where the fault lies. Sleepwalkers with these genes on chromosome 20, had

a 50-50 chance of passing them onto their children. More work is needed to see if the

discovery will explain all cases of sleepwalking, but in the meantime, the researchers say

it should help them to develop tests and treatments.

Alice: The BBC’s Health Reporter, Michelle Roberts, who says more work is needed

to see if the discovery of the sleepwalking gene will help explain all cases of

sleepwalking. Well, that’s all we have time for today, Stephen – but before we

go, what did you think about REM?

Stephen: I guessed that it stands for ‘rapid eye movement’.

Alice: And you’re right. It’s the stage of sleep where your eyes move around a lot –

and it’s about 20-25% of your total sleep apparently 11.

Stephen: Well, don’t say you don’t learn anything new on 6 Minute English!

Alice: Exactly, Stephen. And before we go, because you did so well answering the

question, would you mind reading some of the words and phrases we’ve heard

today?

Stephen: Yes of course:

sleepwalk

genetic

genes

doses of medication

harmless 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011

Page 5 of 6

it runs in families

 generations

defective

50-50

Alice: Thanks so much for that, Stephen. We hope you’ll join us next time on "6

Minute English".

Both: Bye.