时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(七)月


英语课

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. This will take just a minute.


What’s in a neck? Well, it’s a good place to hang a pendant or a tie. Or to rest your head. Now scientists say that by separating our heads from our bodies, the neck gave our brains a leg up in evolution. Their findings appear in the online journal Nature Communications.


Not all animals have necks. A fish's head is pretty much continuous with its body. And a fish gets around just fine. Nerves based in the fish’s brain instruct its fins 1 to move, and off it goes.


But something happened when our aquatic 2 ancestors first slithered onto the land. The source of the nerve cells that power the animals’ forelimbs shifted, from the brain down to the spinal 3 cord. That move allowed the body to grow more distant from the head, taking the arms with it. And so the neck was born.


That neck, say the scientists, was more than just a way to keep the head off the shoulders. The anatomical relocation improved dexterity 4 by leaving the arms free to move in new ways. And the resulting flexibility 5 helped shape the evolution of our heads and our hands, and how we can use them together to do all sorts of nifty things—like tie a perfect Windsor knot.


Thanks for the minute for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin



1 fins
[医]散热片;鱼鳍;飞边;鸭掌
  • The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关,与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
  • Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句
2 aquatic
adj.水生的,水栖的
  • Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
  • We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。
3 spinal
adj.针的,尖刺的,尖刺状突起的;adj.脊骨的,脊髓的
  • After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天,就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
  • Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。
4 dexterity
n.(手的)灵巧,灵活
  • You need manual dexterity to be good at video games.玩好电子游戏手要灵巧。
  • I'm your inferior in manual dexterity.论手巧,我不如你。
5 flexibility
n.柔韧性,弹性,(光的)折射性,灵活性
  • Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
  • The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。
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学英语单词
AB132
absolute rank
air receiver tank
andreaeas
anterior right colic artery
anti-fascisms
Arnica montana
Balanophora
be of sb's mind
belinskii
belled out
Betzigau
boomah
carinate bird
chloroben
civil legal relationship
cobalt pentlandite
complete sets
conning position
context searcher
creeping indigo
Dahurian larch
deep tectonic
delect
deviation from par
device driver
Diplodinium
Djiroutou
dpimer
dysacousis
economic models
education goods and services
end-piled loading
estimation of quality
Esvres
eusternums
extrasacral
filenadol
foudroyants
frequency error
galette silk
gamers
glue-pot
half-passes
have something on one's mind
Hemiboea omeiensis
henneberger
hook state
instantaneous date and day mechanism
instantaneous oevercurrent relay
internal opening
ion exchange resin
Jamaican patties
jeu de paume
July-flowers
knowledge-level decision making
marine farm
miltiadess
minor node
mystery ship
nandimba
navigable water level
neverlin
nonpizza
nonterminal node
on-line query
ouster clauses
percent of the fulfillment of a plan
petajoules
pilot's cabin
pitch of holes in pattern
plicae vesicouterina
porcelain teeth
proofed sleeve
qv-
ravitz
refusal of goods
reseparated
rhenium oxide
rotary clothes-drier
rotor speed
sectiones medull? spinalis
setenvironments
shepherding
simultaneous strike
soken
sonic thermometer
stability under transport condition
stigmatised
supraclavicular region
swot up on
talent-spottings
teen-sex
think aloud protocol
through transportation of land and water
Tomiyama
triasine dyes
trochid
unclean water
us fiscal cliff
vectolite
verse lines