课程咨询
托福培训

扫码免费领资料

内含托福全科备考资料

更有免费水平测试及备考规划

托福培训

扫码关注掌握一手留学资讯

回复XDF免费水平测试

托福听力练习-科学美国人60秒:尼安德特人

2017-06-13 09:27:00来源:网络

点击查看>>科学美国人60秒音频:尼安德特人

  科学美国人60秒听力练习:尼安德特人

  科学美国人60秒英文文本

  CT scans reveal that the brains of Neandertal babies had the same elongated shape as those of modern human babies. But whereas modern humans' brains become rounder as they mature, Neandertals retained the elongated shape throughout their lives. Karen Hopkin reports

  Modern human babies are essentially learning machines. After birth, their brains grow in leaps and bounds, allowing infants to lay the groundwork for future social and cognitive achievement. But it wasn’t that way for Neandertals. At least in terms of the shape of their brains, Neandertal newborns pretty much coasted into adulthood.

  Scientists have shown that Neandertal brains are about the same size as ours. Yet our Paleolithic brethren are not known for having been great scholars. To probe this cognitive conundrum, researchers took CT scans of 11 Neandertal brains, including one newborn. And they compared these images to those of modern humans.

  They found that baby braincases are similar in size and shape, regardless of their parentage. All are elongated, most likely to smooth passage through the birth canal. But modern human baby brains grow more globular in the first year of life, changes that reflect a massive wave of neural development. That phase change is absent in Neandertals, whose brains retain that extended newborn shape throughout their lives. The results appear in the journal Current Biology. [Philipp Gunz et al., "Brain development after birth differs between Neanderthals and modern humans"]

  It’s not clear whether our well-rounded brains made us the pointy-headed intellectuals we are today. But they do make us look spiffy in a cap and gown.

  —Karen Hopkin

  中文翻译请点击下一页

托福辅导

关注新东方在线托福

托福机经·Official题目练习

考前重点突破·听说读写海量资料

更多资料
更多>>
更多内容

免费获取托福备考大礼包

微信扫描下方二维码 立即领取

托福辅导
更多>>
更多公益讲座>>
更多>>
更多资料