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新东方背诵文选 Lesson 17:Evolution of sleep

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Evolution of sleep


Sleep is very ancient. In the electroencephalographic sense we share it with all the primates and almost all the other mammals and birds: it may extend back as far as the reptiles.
There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and dreamless, depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are statistically much more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much more likely to experience dreamless sleep. In dream sleep, the animal is powerfully immobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external stimuli. Dreamless sleep is much shallower, and we have all witnessed cats or dogs cocking their ears to a sound when apparently fast asleep. The fact that deep dream sleep is rare among pray today seems clearly to be a product of natural selection, and it makes sense that today, when sleep is highly evolved, the stupid animals are less frequently immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones. But why should they sleep deeply at all? Why should a state of such deep immobilization ever have evolved?
Perhaps one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be found in the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in genera seem to sleep very little. There is, by and large, no place to hide in the ocean. Could it be that, rather than increasing an animal's vulnerability, the University of Florida and Ray Meddis of London University have suggested this to be the case. It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to be quite on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep. The point seems particularly clear for the young of predatory animals. This is an interesting notion and probably at least partly true
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original [ə'ridʒənl]

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adj. 最初的,原始的,有独创性的,原版的

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aquatic [ə'kwætik]

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n. 水生动物,水草 adj. 水生的,水中的,水上的

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rare [rɛə]

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adj. 稀罕的,稀薄的,罕见的,珍贵的
ad

 
external [ik'stə:nl]

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adj. 外部的,外面的,外来的,表面的
n.

 
initiative [i'niʃətiv]

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adj. 创始的,初步的,自发的
n. 第一步

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hint [hint]

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n. 暗示
v. 暗示,示意

 
unresponsive

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adj. 无反应的;反应迟钝的

 
function ['fʌŋkʃən]

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n. 功能,函数,职务,重大聚会
vi. 运行

 
extend [iks'tend]

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v. 扩充,延伸,伸展,扩展

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prey [prei]

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n. 被掠食者,牺牲者
vi. 捕食,掠夺,使

 

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