Porpoises

There has long been a superstition among mariners that porpoises will save drowning men by pushing them to the surface, or protect them from sharks by surrounding them in defensive formation. Marine Studio biologists have pointed out that, however intelligent they may be, it is probably a mistake to credit dolphins with any motive of life-saving. On the occasions when they have pushed to shore an unconscious human being they have much more likely done it out of curiosity or for sport, as in riding the bow waves of a ship. In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress. If, as has been reported, they have protected humans from sharks, it may have been because curiosity attracted them and because the scent of a possible meal attracted the sharks. Porpoises and sharks are natural enemies. It is possible that upon such an occasion a battle ensued, with the sharks being driven away or killed. Whether it be bird, fish or beast, the porpoise is intrigued with anything that is alive. They are constantly after the turtles, the Ferdinands of marine life, who peacefully submit to all sorts of indignities. One young calf especially enjoyed raising a turtle to the surface with his snout and then shoving him across the tank like an aquaplane. Almost any day a young porpoise may be seen trying to turn a 300-pound sea turtle over by sticking his snout under the edge of his shell and pushing up for dear life. This is not easy, and may require two porpoises working together. In another game, as the turtle swims across the oceanarium, the first porpoise swoops down from above and butts his shell with his belly. This knocks the turtle down several feet. He no sooner recovers his equilibrium than the next porpoise comes along and hits him another crack. Eventually the turtle has been butted all the way down to the floor of the tank. He is now satisfied merely to try to stand up, but as soon as he does so a porpoise knocks him flat. The turtle at last gives up by pulling his feet under his shell and the game is over.

  • porpoise / ˈpɔːpəs / A porpoise is a sea animal that looks like a dolphin.
  • superstition / ˌsuːpəˈstɪʃən / Superstition is belief in things that are not real or possible, for example magic. 迷信
  • mariner / ˈmærɪnə / A mariner is a sailor. 海员; 水手
  • drowning / draʊn / If you say that a person or thing is drowning in something, you are emphasizing that they have a very large amount of it, or are completely covered in it. 淹没于
  • beaver / ˈbiːvə / A beaver is a furry animal with a big flat tail and large teeth. Beavers use their teeth to cut wood and build dams in rivers. 海狸
  • ashore / əˈʃɔː / Someone or something that comes ashore comes from the sea onto the shore. 到岸上地
  • mattress / ˈmætrɪs / A mattress is the large, flat object which is put on a bed to make it comfortable to sleep on. 床垫
  • the scent of xxx
  • intrigued / ɪˈntriːgd / If you are intrigued by something, especially something strange, it interests you and you want to know more about it. 感兴趣的
  • turtle / ˈtɜːtəl / A turtle is any reptile that has a thick shell around its body, for example a tortoise or terrapin, and can pull its whole body into its shell. 龟
  • indignity / ɪnˈdɪɡnɪtɪ / If you talk about the indignity of doing something, you mean that it makes you feel embarrassed or unimportant. 侮辱
  • snout / snaʊt / he snout of an animal such as a pig is its long nose. (动物的)长鼻子
  • shove / ʃʌv / If you shove someone or something, you push them with a quick, violent movement. 猛推
  • aquaplane / ˈækwəˌpleɪn / a single board on which a person stands and is towed by a motorboat at high speed, as in water skiing (由快艇牵引的)滑水板
  • oceanarium / ˌəʊʃəˈnɛərɪəm / a large saltwater aquarium for marine life 大型水族馆
  • swoop / swuːp / If police or soldiers swoop on a place, they go there suddenly and quickly, usually in order to arrest someone or to attack the place. 突袭

  • butt / bʌt / If a person or animal butts you, they hit you with the top of their head. 用头撞

  • there has long been xxx

  • xxx have pointed out that xxxx

  • xxx for dear life

The stuff of dreams

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. In l960 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 not 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.

  • plausible / ˈplɔːzəbəl / An explanation or statement that is plausible seems likely to be true or valid. (解释或叙述) 看似合理的
  • hypothesis / haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs / A hypothesis is an idea which is suggested as a possible explanation for a particular situation or condition, but which has not yet been proved to be correct. 假设
  • scalp / skælp / Your scalp is the skin under the hair on your head. 头皮
  • punctuate / ˈpʌŋktjʊˌeɪt / If an activity or situation is punctuated by particular things, it is interrupted by them at intervals. 不时打断
  • peculiar / pɪˈkjuːlɪə / If you describe someone or something as peculiar, you think that they are strange or unusual, sometimes in an unpleasant way. 不寻常的; 古怪的
  • bursts / bɜːst / A burst of something is a sudden short period of it. (突然的) 一阵

  • jerky / ˈdʒɜːkɪ / Jerky movements are very sudden and quick, and do not flow smoothly. 急促而不流畅的

  • the stuff of xxx

  • it is fairly clear that xxx

  • not simply a matter of

  • it was not the xxx that mattered，but the xxx