新概念第四册课文原文及翻译|新概念第四册课文翻译及学习笔记Lesson19

【课文】
　　First listen and then answer the following question.
　　听录音，然后回答以下问题。
　　What is going on when a person experiences rapid eye-movements during sleep?
　　It is fairly clear that the sleeping period must have some function, and because there is so much of it the function would seem to be important. Speculations about its nature have been going on for literally thousands of years, and one odd finding that makes the problem puzzling is that it looks very much as if sleeping is not simply a matter of giving the body a rest. 'Rest', in terms of muscle relaxation and so on, can be achieved by a brief period lying, or even sitting down. The body's tissues are self-repairing and self-restoring to a degree, and function best when more or less continuously active. In fact a basic amount of movement occurs during sleep which is specifically concerned with preventing muscle inactivity.
　　If it is not a question of resting the body, then perhaps it is the brain that needs resting? This might be a plausible hypothesis were it not for two factors. First the electroencephalograph (which is simply a device for recording the electrical activity of the brain by attaching electrodes to the scalp) shows that while there is a change in the pattern of activity during sleep, there is no evidence that the total amount of activity is any less. The second factor is more interesting and more fundamental. Some years ago an American psychiatrist named William Dement published experiments dealing with the recording of eye-movements during sleep. He showed that the average individual's sleep cycle is punctuated with peculiar bursts of eye-movements, some drifting and slow, others jerky and rapid. People woken during these periods of eye-movements generally reported that they had been dreaming. When woken at other times they reported no dreams. If one group of people were disturbed from their eye-movement sleep for several nights on end, and another group were disturbed for an equal period of time but when they were no exhibiting eye-movements, the first group began to show some personality disorders while the others seemed more or less unaffected. The implications of all this were that it was not the disturbance of sleep that mattered, but the disturbance of dreaming.
　　CHRISHER EVANS The stuff of dreams from The Listener
　　【New words and expressions 生词和短语】
　　speculation n. 推测
　　literally adv. 确实
　　odd adj. 奇特的
　　tissue n. 组织
　　plausible adj. 似乎有理的
　　hypothesis n. 假说
　　electroencephalograph n. 脑电图仪
　　electrode n. 电极
　　scalp n. 头皮
　　psychiatrist n. 精神病学家
　　punctuate v. 不时介入
　　jerky adj. 急动的
　　disorder n. 失调
　　implication n. 含意，暗示
　　【课文注释】
　　1.not simply a matter of...不仅仅是……。
　　①simply a matter of+doing sth
　　例句：I think it's simply a matter of the attack being weakened.
　　我看这根本就是因为进攻削弱了的缘故。
　　②simply a matter of time，只是时间问题。
　　例句：It' s simply a matter of time before the rebels are crushed.
　　把这些叛乱分子镇压下去只是迟早的事。
　　2.in terms of muscle relaxation and so on，从是肌肉得到放松等方面来看。
　　in terms of，从……方面看，就……而言。
　　例句：In term of money, he's quite rich, but not in term of happiness.
　　就钱来说他很富有，但就幸福来说就不然了。
　　3.to a degree，在一定程度上，相当。
　　①You use expressions such as to some degree, to a large degree, or to a certain degree in order to indicate that something is partly true, but not entirely true.
　　例句：These statements are, to some degree, all correct.
　　这些论断从某种程度上来说是对的。
　　②by degrees：gradually，逐渐地。
　　例句：By degrees their friendship grew into love.
　　他们的友谊渐渐发展成爱情。
　　4.then perhaps it is the brain that needs resting? 这是一个陈述句的语序，但句尾加问号，表示说话人对这种观点有把握但需进一步证实。
　　5.a plausible hypothesis，有道理的假设。
　　①An explanation or statement that is plausible seems likely to be true or valid.似乎正确的，似乎有道理可信的(借口、陈述等)。
　　例句：He trotted out a most plausible story, but most of us were inclined to doubt the truth of it.
　　他提出了一个听起来很有道理的说法，但我们大多数人对此都持怀疑态度。
　　②If you say that someone is plausible, you mean that they seem to be telling the truth and to be sincere and honest.(指人)能说会道的(尤指为行骗)。
　　例句：She was so plausible she would have deceived anyone.
　　她巧舌如簧-，把谁都能骗倒。
　　6.were it not for two factors，这是省略了if的条件句，可译作“如果不是下面两个因素的话”。
　　7.several nights on end，一连几夜。
　　on end：连续地。
　　例句：It has been raining for days on end.
　　一连好几天连续下雨。
　　8....it was not the disturbance of sleep that mattered, but the disturbance of dreaming. 这是一个表示否定的强调句，把强调结构"it was not...that"去掉，句子仍然成立，只是语气减弱了："The disturbance of sleep doesn't matter, but the disturbance of dreaming matters."
　　【参考译文】
　　很清楚，睡眠必然具有某种作用。睡眠占去那么多时间，所以其作用似乎还是很重要。人们对睡眠作用的种种猜测，确实有数千年之久。一项使人对这个问题感到困惑的奇怪的发现是，睡眠在很大程度似乎并不仅仅是为了使身体得到休息。“休息”，从使肌肉得到放松等方面来看，只要稍微躺一躺，甚至坐一坐就能达到。人体组织在一定程度上有自我修补和自我恢复的能力，有张有弛地连续活动时，其功能。事实上，睡眠状态下仍有着基本的活动量，以防止肌肉活动停止。
　　如果睡眠的功能不是在于使身体得到休息，那么也许是让大脑得以休息?若不是下面两点，这种假使似乎是有道理的。第一点，脑电图记录仪(不过是一种把电极接到头皮上记录脑电活动的仪器)显示，人在睡眠时大脑活动的方式有变化，但没有迹象表明，其活动总量有任何减少。第二点更有意思，也更重要。前些年，美国一位精神病学者发表了一篇报告，报告中记录了眼球在睡眠时的活动情况。他指出，平常人的睡眠周期中不时伴有一阵阵奇怪的眼球队活动，这些活动有的飘忽而缓慢，有的急剧而快速。在眼球活动期间被叫醒的人都说自己在做梦;在其他期间叫醒他们，则说没有做梦。如果有两组人，一组人连续几夜在眼球队活动时被叫醒;另一组人也是连续几夜被叫醒，但是在眼球队没活动时被叫醒的。结果，第一组人开始出现性格失常，而第二组人似乎没受什么影响。这一切暗示我们：睡眠受到干忧没关系，而做梦受到干忧是有问题的。

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