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
AAMDC
all of a doodah
anti-holomorphic
antithrust
antiutopian
aprium
beeswing press
calc tufa
Cayratia lanceolata
cd4 cells
chip count
column filling
column span
compounded perfume oil
control magnet
criminal slaves
derby hat
detention without trial
deusenberg
dispensationalists
display control state
dropping head
Endo's culture-medium
epigastric pain
estimated accuracy
ex-monk
extended forecasting
faa aircraft
five-hitters
gagging orders
Gahnia tristis
gas thermometre
gaulds
general purpose cargo vessel
grass and crop rotation
Half-Way Covenant
haulage gear
HBIC
ice cubes
incestophilia
intai-zumo
intra-axonally
intraganglionic
lean to
light carrier gas
low-frequency stress
lower-case letter
luminance signal generator
Lysionotus petelotii
matuszewski
mesocone
mesophora tryoni
method of planning by simplification
nucleus screening
odtaas
oiticica oil
operculated
overall heat-transfer coefficient
paper-lined dry cell
pass something over
patch rods
phasphoglyceric acid
phosphor screen manufacturing
polet
post-hegelian
prenylisomerase
protection deadlock
put the question
recovery clustering algorithm
reserve for temporary loans
retail cut
reversed phase coil
right-angled
rotor inertia cooling
Rutergan
samaraii
San Luis
semicantilever
service support
shelf company
shelli
shsismssseslsfs-s
space capacity
spell ... out
staus
szamos
television monitor
tertiary publication
thermometric hydrometer
throttle control wire tube bracket
traymobile
Trichodesma
turkish music
unconstructible
unpetalled
unscheduled
unuseable
Urodelidea
vesicula
wagon loading elevator
whassat
Windsor bean