时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:初学者听力文摘精选


英语课

It’s time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writes:

又到了我们查看《科学一刻》栏目读者来信的时候了,一位听众这样写道:



Dear A Moment of Science,

亲爱的《科学一刻》栏目,



My husband works a night shift, and I’m worried that it might be affecting his health. He sleeps during the day, but somehow that doesn’t seem the same as getting a good night’s rest. Am I worrying unnecessarily, or not?

现在我丈夫在值夜班,我很担心这样会影响他的健康。他现在都是白天睡觉,但不知怎么回事,这样休息的效果看似不如晚上休息那么好。我的担心是否有必要呢?



Actually, burning the midnight oil, as it were, may raise the risk for depression and some learning deficits 1. But not only because people who work at night don’t get enough sleep. According to one study, scientists think it’s also because of too much exposure to light.

实际上,熬夜会增加人们罹患抑郁的风险,,并且会导致学习能力不足。但是,这并不完全是因为在晚间工作的人们没得到足够的休息。根据一项研究,科学家们认为过多地暴露在光线下也是原因之一。



Wait–why would being exposed to light be a problem?

等一等 - 为什么暴露在光线下会成为问题呢?



Because it raises the levels of stress hormones 2 in the body, hormones that have been linked to depression and to slower cognition. Now, it’s worth noting that the study was done on mice. And although mice are sensitive to overexposure to light in ways similar to people, how humans react to light is not identical to mice.

因为光线会使得人体内应激激素水平增加,这种激素是与抑郁情绪和缓慢的认知有联系的。现在,值得注意的是,这项试验是在小白鼠身上进行的。尽管小白鼠对于过度暴露在光线下的敏感反应与人类相似,但人类对光线的反应与小白鼠还是不尽相同的。



Still, though, it’s also worth considering that humans evolved over millions of years rising with the sun and going to sleep when it got dark. It’s only relatively 3 recently, with the advent 4 of artificial light, that we began being exposed to light at all hours of the day and night.

同时,人类在几百年来的进化过程中形成的日出而作日落而息的生活习惯也是值得考虑的一个因素。但是,由于近代人造光的发明,人类开始日日夜夜暴露在光线下。



Night work

夜间工作



So it’s not such a radical 5 notion that being up at night in the light when the body is built to be asleep in the dark could have some detrimental 6 effects.

因此,人们在本该休息的夜间暴露在光下工作会产生一定的不利影响,这并不是一种激进的思维方式。



The science on the question is still evolving, but the bottom line is that there’s some reason to be wary 7 of being too much in the light.

在这个问题上,科学知识仍在继续发展和壮大,但是过多地暴露在光线下这个问题还是需要人们警觉的。

 



1 deficits
n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 );赤字;亏空;亏损
  • The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句
2 hormones
adv.比较...地,相对地
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
3 advent
n.(重要事件等的)到来,来临
  • Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
  • The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。
4 radical
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
5 detrimental
adj.损害的,造成伤害的
  • We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
  • He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。
6 wary
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的
  • He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
  • Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头,突然警惕起来。
学英语单词
achromatic correction spacer
air-and-screen cleaner
aluminium magnesium alloy
anti-Zionistic
atmospherical pressure filling machine
auditive tube (or eustachian tube)
back gage
be insensitive to
beyond ... vision
bioplasms
boehly
brachet
cheatable
chlorophenates
Chrysopsis mariana
colored pavement
communication aid
congruence
contact ion pair
Corazon
cuauhtmoc
discretionary controls
disodium inosinate
dolomite fines
draw round
estrin-phase
euflavine
evolutional system branch
Fintushel-Stern knot
Fixmbr
format code
Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August
full carrier single-sideband emission
furgeson
Gaybrook
gazetted officer
Government of God
graphite floatation
graphite shield(ing)
great cardiac vein
hazelnutlike
hibas
hot-water bag
hypsographic curve
infra-eye
jespers
jointless construction
lafontant
lancie
ledder
letter of credit charges
line turnaround
loop colostomy
lose them
m. tibialis posterior
manual sorting
mind map
mixed paralyses
modal value
N-pole
neutralizing harmony
new series
nongs
observin'
open top roll housing
overyielding
peri-endothelial cell
pharmacosiderosis
phenylquinine
polydeoxy-guanylate-ribonucleotide
postpartum breeding
praise someone to the sky
problem-behaviour graph
quasianisotropy
ramming moulding machine
real-time rendering
retentionists
retronecine-N-oxide
return and allowance book
riverain
Sangsado
satellite orbit supervising
scormin
seawater encroachment
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov
serially balanced sequence
shortening of the melting period
simple random samples
simulated collision warning
slowish
spot blotch
starch alkali
switch rail of special section
tax regulations
tetrapodisis
the act of union
UAT
ultrasonic imaging technique
unwive
venae diploicae temporales
walkway clearance
welcome