时间:2019-02-16 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力文摘 English Digest


英语课

  Most people who hold babies know that the moment babies go to sleep, they seem to gain weight. Of course, a baby’s weight doesn’t really change when they fall asleep, so why does the limp, floppy 1 weight of a sleeping baby seem greater than it actually is?

A sleeping baby in your arms feels heavier because you must constantly adjust your own movements to compensate 2 for their floppiness 3. Your muscles work harder to carry a child who’s asleep, and your brain perceives this increase in work as an increase in the child’s weight, though, of course, the weight of the baby stays the same.

To picture this, think about carrying a twenty-pound bag of water. You would continually have to rearrange how you were holding that bag to make up for how the weight shifted due to the water sloshing around.

In a similar way, you must continually adjust how you are holding or carrying a sleeping baby because they aren’t able to control their own muscles to maintain a steady posture 4. Their inability to control their posture and movements makes them floppy, just like that bag of water.

Now, freeze your twenty-pound bag of water. Though it would be cold and slippery, it would feel lighter 5 because it is a solid weight that doesn’t require you to constantly make minute adjustments in order to carry it. This is how you perceive the weight of a conscious person.

Babies aren’t the only ones who seem heavier when they go limp. Dogs and cats also seem to gain weight when they go to sleep. And political protesters take advantage of this phenomenon by completely relaxing their muscles when police try to drag them away from a protest.

limp:无精神的

floppy:松软的

slippery:滑的



adj.松软的,衰弱的
  • She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
  • Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗?
vt.补偿,赔偿;酬报 vi.弥补;补偿;抵消
  • She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
  • Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势
  • The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
  • He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣,摆出一副打架的架势。
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级
  • The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色,色调明朗了一些。
  • The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。
学英语单词
Aberaeron
al batha (bat-ha)
ball screw drive
biicl
bullet resistant glass
Bīnālūd, Kūh-e
calcium alloy
Cazenove
characteristic hypersurface
chernyy porog
chisel plow
data trap
davers
differential control valve
domec
dual-density floppy disk controller
duo servo brake
El Calabazar
elite pluralism
embattailing
epicyclic gears
evergreen bittersweets
exercycles
feeder highway
forure
frontbench
funtion generator
genoneme
gse
haemodoraceaes
hemicircle
hotbox locator
ibogamine
illicit transport
in no case
inscrutive
jacobuss
kennedyite
kiamco
kreditanstalts
lauryl amine
little steel
loss of field protection
marine phytophysiology
melamac
micro-crystalline structure
motor carrier
mould sb. like wax
multiple-drill press
near fields
nocturnal binge eating
nondepleting
NPD (nuclear power demonstration)
oaken
oh-ho-ho-ho
ordered seek queuing
organ(ic) mechanics
Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii
panniculectomy
pile forrule
piquillin
Placetas
polytraumas
positioning of crosshead guide
protoanemonin
psychogenic purpura
Quakerizes
rectovaginal technique
remolten
reule
screw around
sea mat
shear force
sit up straight
sluff-off
solie
sommerfield
steel I-beam
storied cork
straight through current transformer
straight-pulls
strut-type
sun-golds
Swaz
syllabic break
Synechocystis
terebra affinis
the torch
thermal resistance to phase transition
thiocyano dyestuffs
time distance relay
transferable goods
unrealized exchange gain or loss
unstrained
VAT (variable-area turbine)
vest pockets
virtual parter
waterquake
welding shop
Wintrobe-Landsberg methods
woods hole oceanographic institution (whoi)