【英语时差8,16】打嗝……打嗝……为什么我们会打嗝？

We’ve all experienced them at one time or another, often right after a big meal. A normal bout¹ of hiccups³ usually lasts only a few minutes and may contain up to seventy individual “hics.” Unlike coughing or sneezing which can help clear your airways⁴, hiccups seem to serve no beneficial function in the human body. What’s the story behind these strange convulsions? Two separate things happen to your body when you hiccup². The muscles in your diaphragm, which normally control your breathing, contract with a sudden jerk. This causes a sharp intake⁵ of breath. At the same time, your vocal⁶ cords contract to stop this breath, resulting in a loud “hic.” This is all caused by a misfire in the nerves that control your diaphragm. These nerves run from your neck to your chest, and any unusual pressure or irritation⁷ along this length can cause a misfire. Hiccups are often triggered by overeating, gulping⁸ your food too quickly, or eating something too hot or too cold. Stress can also cause hiccups. There are many folk remedies for hiccups, but none seems to work for everyone. Such remedies include holding your breath, breathing into a paper bag, or drinking a glass of water without breathing. It’s possible that by depriving the diaphragm muscles of oxygen, these remedies force them to resume a more normal breathing pattern. Other remedies include pulling your tongue, sucking a lemon, or having a friend startle you. What these remedies have in common is that they trick your nervous system with a diversion, perhaps shocking the nerves that control the diaphragm into normal behavior. No one knows exactly why these remedies sometimes work. It’s extremely rare, but severe cases of hiccups do occur. If you have persistent⁹ hiccups that simply refuse to go away, you should probably consult a physician.

1 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

2 hiccup   

n.打嗝

参考例句：

• When you have to hiccup,drink a glass of cold water.当你不得不打嗝时，喝一杯冷水就好了。
• How long did he hiccup?他打嗝打了多久？

3 hiccups   

n.嗝( hiccup的名词复数 )；连续地打嗝；暂时性的小问题；短暂的停顿v.嗝( hiccup的第三人称单数 )；连续地打嗝；暂时性的小问题；短暂的停顿

参考例句：

• I cannot find a rhyme to "hiccups". 我不能找到和hiccups同韵的词。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can we rhyme 'hiccups'with 'pick-ups'? 我们能把‘hiccups’同‘pick－ups’放在一起押韵吗？ 来自辞典例句

4 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

5 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

6 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

7 irritation   

n.激怒，恼怒，生气

参考例句：

• He could not hide his irritation that he had not been invited.他无法掩饰因未被邀请而生的气恼。
• Barbicane said nothing,but his silence covered serious irritation.巴比康什么也不说，但是他的沉默里潜伏着阴郁的怒火。

8 gulping   

v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的现在分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住

参考例句：

• She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸，躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• And you'll even feel excited gulping down a glass. 你甚至可以感觉到激动下一杯。 来自互联网

9 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。