时间:2018-12-05 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力文摘 English Digest


英语课

  Don: Some people seem to need significantly less sleep than others.

Yael: Tell me about it. I have a friend who swears that she sleeps only five hours a night. If she's telling the truth, then she must be bionic. She seems to have plenty of energy, and she's not fuzzy-brained and incompetent 1 the way I am after several nights of only five hours of sleep. You know what really irks me? Because she sleeps less, she has more time to accomplish more in her days than I do. It's not fair.

D: I know what you mean. I need eight to nine hours of sleep a night myself. What I would do for three more hours every day! That's twenty-one more hours a week!      I'm getting off track though. Scientists have discovered a gene 2 in fruit flies that determines how much rest the individual needs. Fruit flies with a version of this gene are actually programmed to need less sleep than others. And humans possess a similar gene.

Y : So the amount of sleep one needs seems to be genetically 3 inherited?

D: Yes. And families of flies with a lower sleep requirement don't seem to suffer any      impairments in their performance of daily tasks. It may very well be that people who      claim to need less sleep to operate normally are telling the truth.

Y: That's depressing.

D: Well, you might be interested to know that flies programmed to sleep less tend to die earlier.

Y: Really? So maybe I'll end up with the same hours of waking time as my friend after all. It'll just take me a few extra years of living to catch up with her!

D: Maybe.



1 incompetent
adj.无能力的,不能胜任的
  • He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
  • He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。
2 gene
n.遗传因子,基因
  • A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
  • The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。
3 genetically
adv.遗传上
  • All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
  • Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物
学英语单词
abutment with counterfort
acquisitions files
aglare
air density error
alto stratus fractus
break against (on)
calendarises
call tree
circulation time determination
cockapoo
combined load testing machine
conductances
conventional-arms
counter cyclical
current differential
dendrigrafts
development of society
direct reflectance
direct single-bit serial-scan path
Dishomogeneous
electrolytic extraction
Emile Gaboriau
fastenment
financing activities
finger valve
fruit-juices
gas log
genus Adonis
gerontics
glycosphingolipidosis
gnu sed
go into one's dance
grade of gauge block
grid-packed column
gva
harmful admixture
high-blood-pressure
holbrookias
holderman
insulation sheet
interferometer crack
kicking up
krebs citric acid cycles
kulivan
landlord of wirt
line dislocation
linear-motion
loewenthal
machopolyp
masera
merluccio
metal spray
microballmill
milk-vetch
milliarcsec
Mistral-class
molybdenum(v) oxyhydroxide
multistage flash distillation process
naitoh
ninteenth
optical registering
organic reaction type
Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
orosensory
parasitis pygopagus
parleyers
pine cones
point ... up
polar ring
racketings
railway motor
redomiciles
reinforcing filler
relative amounts
remodelers
reserve dyeing
rottock
scramble dinners
sea dove
serres (serrai)
sherifalty
sonic valve
soucing
stereoformula
stranded caisson
strontium dichromate
suberate
Svetloye
syringed
systems programmer
Talanga
treble ported slide valve
trichostrongyluss
troch-
trustee stock
U-18933
unmitigable
Uracid
us r
wired AND
with order
zephyr shawl