本集内容

Study launched on sleep deprivation 科学家发起睡眠不足对大脑影响的研究

Meet the world’s ugliest dog 来一睹“世界最丑狗”的风采

文字稿

We spend nearly a third of our lives asleep. It's vital for our physical and mental health. But, we’re getting less sleep than ever. British neuroscientist Adrian Owen based in Ontario, believes this may be having a serious effect on our brainpower. I joined volunteers at Western University, Ontario, trying out his online test designed to assess reasoning, memory and decision making. To demonstrate how tiredness may affect those, we stayed up until 4am and then had just four hours’ sleep. Most of our scores went down compared to the night before. After a normal night’s sleep my brain was functioning well. The bright orange blobs are areas of increased activity. And this is the scan done after four hours’ sleep. This study should reveal how much sleep we need for our brains to be at their best.

我们生命中近三分之一的时间都在睡觉。睡眠对于我们的身心健康来说至关重要。但是，我们的睡眠时间比以往任何时候都要少。在加拿大安大略省工作的英国神经科学家阿德里安·欧文认为，这一现状可能正严重影响我们的智力。我加入了安大略省韦仕敦大学（Western University）的志愿者团队，并试做了这位科学家设计的旨在评估推理、记忆和决策水平的在线测试。为了展示疲劳是怎样影响上述能力的，志愿者们熬夜至清晨四点，接着只睡了四小时。与前一晚相比，大多数人的分数都有所降低。经过一宿正常的睡眠之后，我的大脑又开始有效地运转了。这一团亮橙色显示的是大脑活跃度增加的区域。而这个图像是在我们睡了四小时后扫描的。该研究将给我们揭示要使大脑达到最佳工作状态所需的睡眠时间。

This Neapolitan mastiff called Martha has been crowned as the World's Ugliest Dog 2017 in California. Martha and her owner Shirley Zindler picked up the $1, 500 prize. The big-jowled crowd-pleaser will now be flown to New York for media appearances. It's the 29th year of the competition, which typically includes lots of dogs that have been rescued from shelters. The contest aims to raise awareness of the adoption of dogs. The animals are loving companions and seem to enjoy the adoration of the fans.

这只叫玛莎的那不勒斯獒在美国加州“2017世界最丑狗大赛”中摘得桂冠。玛莎和她的主人雪莉·辛德勒共同赢得了1500美元的奖金。这只下颌垂满赘肉的开心果将会被飞去纽约，好在众多媒体前亮相。该比赛在今年迎来了第29届，参赛选手中很多只狗都曾来自宠物收容中心。举办这项比赛的目的是提高人们收养狗的意识。这些狗不仅是人类的知心良伴，它们也似乎很享受粉丝们的仰慕。

词汇

brainpower
脑力，智力

crowd-pleaser
令众人高兴的人，开心果

练习

请从以下词汇中选择适当的答案来完成句子。注意：你可能需要改变单词的时态来完成句子。

brainpower / crowd-pleaser

1. The appearance of Beyoncé in the music festival was a real ______.

2. Learning a second language can boost ______, scientists believe. The US researchers from Northwestern University say bilingualism is a form of brain training – a mental "work out" that fine-tunes the mind.

答案

1. The appearance of Beyoncé in the music festival was a real crowd-pleaser.

2. Learning a second language can boost brainpower, scientists believe. The US researchers from Northwestern University say bilingualism is a form of brain training – a mental "work out" that fine-tunes the mind.