【英语时差8,16】擦一擦

 You stick yourself with a pencil, or maybe get pinched in a closing door.   Your first response is a little cry and a flinch¹ that draws the hurt place away from the source of pain -- two behaviors which are easy to understand. But what about the next thing you do -- rubbing the area where you got the ouch? Why do that?

You might think the last thing you would want to do with a sore spot is touch it. In fact, the reason rubbing reduces the pain of minor² sticks and bruises³ is that you aren't actually rubbing the hurt area itself; or, if your hand does cross over it, you won't tend to focus on that spot. Rather, you rub the immediate⁴ area all around the hurt. This works to diminish the pain by signalling a great many nerve fibers⁵ to fire in the same immediate vicinity, thus "drowning out" those nerve fibers which are sending the "ouch" signal.

Think of a stadium full of people: each person represents one of the nerve fibers in your arm. If fifty of them are shouting "ouch!" and a hundred and fifty are silent, the "ouches" have it. Not so, however, if fifty are shouting "ouch" and a hundred and fifty are saying "rub." Although the pain signal itself has not been altered, its overall perceived effect will not be as intense.

Why don't two pinches cancel each other out, then? Rubbing is especially effective at drowning out small pain signals precisely⁶ because it is not the same kind of signal -- that is, an acute, localized message.  

1 flinch   

v.畏缩，退缩

参考例句：

• She won't flinch from speaking her mind.她不会讳言自己的想法。
• We will never flinch from difficulties.我们面对困难决不退缩。

2 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

3 bruises   

n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was covered with bruises after falling off his bicycle. 他从自行车上摔了下来，摔得浑身伤痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pear had bruises of dark spots. 这个梨子有碰伤的黑斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

6 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。