时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(五)月


英语课

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.


 


If you ever got picked on in the schoolyard, you might have wished for some sort of superpower, like unbeatable speed or maybe just the ability to completely disappear. Now scientists at the College of Wooster in Ohio say that you might have had a skill you didn’t realize: the uncanny ability to hear a bully 1 coming.


An earlier study found that women hear approaching noises sooner than their bigger, brawnier male counterparts. Perhaps, the scientists thought, the same would hold true for scrawny specimens 2 versus 3 the truly buff. So they had 50 volunteers listen to a tone that sounds like it’s moving toward them. The listeners pressed a button when it sounded like the tone arrived. The scientists then assessed each subject’s strength and cardiovascular fitness. And they found that the 98-pound weaklings banged their buttons quicker than the well-muscled, because they perceived the threatening sound as being closer than it actually was. The finding got a hearing May 21st at the meeting of the Acoustical 4 Society of America in Portland, Oregon. Such auditory overreacting, the scientists say, could be a survival mechanism 5. So that the meek 6, while waiting to inherit the earth, can avoid getting knocked onto it.


 


Thanks for the minute for scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.


 



1 bully
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
2 specimens
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人
  • Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
  • The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 versus
prep.以…为对手,对;与…相比之下
  • The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
  • The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。
4 acoustical
adj. 听觉的,声学的,音响学的
  • This system can set up acoustical resonances. 这种系统能产生共鸣。
  • The relevance of acoustical principles is by no means limited to sound and hearing. 声学原理并不仅仅适用于声音和听觉。
5 mechanism
n.机械装置;机构,结构
  • The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
  • The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。
6 meek
adj.温顺的,逆来顺受的
  • He expects his wife to be meek and submissive.他期望妻子温顺而且听他摆布。
  • The little girl is as meek as a lamb.那个小姑娘像羔羊一般温顺。
标签: SSS specimen
学英语单词
A scan
activated sludge filamentation bulking
Add the sender of this message to the address book
aerotympanic conduction
al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
amerciable
AMR-WB
aperture of beam
Ashar (virus)
attitude studies
Basilan Str.
be exhausted with
blog service
bounce cast
bowra
brush slot
bucolical
burr-headed
canon lawyer
cars-driving
CATPRES
centi-meters
Chaumont, Mt.
clapper boards
cost a lot
deposit correction ship
direct-current inserter
disembowellings
dispersion formula
double standard hammer frame
dovetail saw
drilling fluid line
edelsten
effective f-number
embossed plate print
equivalent thin ship
escalon
Eugenia javanica
exhaust gas smoke cleaner
expunctions
falls to
far-end
feed cell
feeler knife
fibroin
firing tray
freeh
genitaloid
genus Vulpes
hidings
horizontal sync marker
hot state of furnace
hydraulic-power transmission
inkdot
ironomyiid
Kugey
lacunosis
library catalog
long stop
magmaticore deposit
magnitude of use-value
malleatory spasm
nanodecomposition
naval ordnance laboratory
net exchange capaciyt of soil
north channels
on the back of something
optimum factorization
outcall
Oxamisde
parambulator
phocenic
picture-to-synchronization ratio
pinnipedias
reactive anti-deteriorant
reed position switch
relative location system
reposing on
representedk
resuits
rock beach
sacrelage
schoenuss
simplex radio communication
single-phase two-limb core
skin resistivity
slump-earth flow
smoke-in
soft X-ray emission
stapling wire
sucking action
surface burst
swingbridge
truncated spectrum
ultra-cautious
ultrafiches
valve-spring retainer
water transportation statistics
watt out
yasmeen
Zalun
zircaloy-2 tube