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
a.cabrera
absolent
acclimatising
active only
adhesive for corrugated fibreboard
admoving
all-or-none learning
aluminum-magnesium alloy powder
amillennialistic
anchorage-dependent growth
ankle strap
artery needle
at remainder of the reproductive stage
atresia uteri
being sb under subjection
binary switch
bluish-red
centre-runner
combatant commander
corona discharges
crowbars
Dalton's atomic theory
daucine
deep weathering
deintegrate
delayed instinct
Densborn
departmental estimate
dilated
end-of-data marker
enthronisation
euonymous alatuss
Eustrongylus visceralis
exgenito-viviparity
filicaulis
Fish and Chip
forwarding receipt
fourth-centuries
gamaliel
globefish
go overboard about
group transmission
harbaughs
have a dash at
heavy-duty thread
heavy-grade territory
home ports
horse-way
hot rinsing cell
hyperaemia
immurings
index dispersion
indirect moxibustion
inductive heating
inverted flare joint
Kaegudeck L.
Kilgour R.
Laverne
lead perchlorate
lecturer
Lithocarpus paniculatus
loosen your grip
metazoons
microgrids
monzogabbro
multisection
needle indicator
neural sheath
nicetal
nunsting
pallet shipment
Parson's steam turbine
parure
pimpinella argnta diels
plated bale
poly(propylene glycol)
post acceleration
quiescent layer
Rabi
raygun
recoverings
repolymerized
rocking chair battery
semidiagrammatic
shattered dreams
sixthers
solutio
spasmolytol
structure management
supracomposite
sync tip level
tallied up
tomskaya oblast
train destination indicator
transfer voltage ratio
Trojan points
truncus aortae
Tuao
vacuum plant
vulcanization accelerator DOTG
weight-balanced abutment
wimpishnesses