英语听力精选进阶版 13736

Sleepy teenagers

Summary

19 April 2012

Teenagers are renowned¹ for enjoying lengthy² lie-ins in the morning. But contrary to popular belief, their reluctance³ to get out of bed may not be just down to laziness alone.

Reporter

Jenny Hill

Report

This bedroom is a battleground. Morgan's 17, and like most other teenagers, she struggles to surface.

Noelle Delaney, Mother:

Some days it is very difficult…you know I have to go in there two, three times. I have been known to pull her by her feet out of her bed.

Morgan Delaney, Student:

It's too early to get up in the morning, especially in the winter when it's quite dark out. It just seems like you're getting up in the middle of the night, you just want to be back in bed.

And that's why sleep scientists studied Morgan and her friends for two weeks. These wrist-mounted sensors⁴ monitored their every move – waking and sleeping.

Analysis of that data surprised the scientists. They found that consistently the teenagers get just six and a half hours sleep a night. Most adults need at least eight. When the clocks moved forward to British Summer Time the youngsters got even less – just six hours a night. 

Joanne Bower⁵, University of Surrey:

You've got something inside you called your circadian rhythm [body clock] which insures the same thing happens the same time every day and one of those things is the secretion⁶ of melatonin which is the hormone⁷ that makes you sleepy. Now for an adult you expect that to be early evening, in teenagers it happens much later so even if you put your teenager in bed at say ten at night it may be that they don't secrete⁸ their melatonin until midnight, one o'clock, so they're staring at the ceiling just not sleepy.

Consistent sleep deprivation⁹ can affect concentration, memory or even mood. The scientists behind this study say more research is needed because, like Morgan, most teenagers have busy lives - what they're not getting is enough rest.

1 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

2 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

3 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

4 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

5 bower   

n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽

参考例句：

• They sat under the leafy bower at the end of the garden and watched the sun set.他们坐在花园尽头由叶子搭成的凉棚下观看落日。
• Mrs. Quilp was pining in her bower.奎尔普太太正在她的闺房里度着愁苦的岁月。

6 secretion   

n.分泌

参考例句：

• Is there much secretion from your eyes?你眼里的分泌物多吗？
• In addition,excessive secretion of oil,water scarcity are also major factors.除此之外，油脂分泌过盛、缺水也都是主要因素。

7 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

8 secrete   

vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘

参考例句：

• The pores of your body secrete sweat.身上的毛孔分泌汗液。
• Squirrels secrete a supply of nuts for winter.松鼠为准备过冬而藏坚果。

9 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。