Why Do People Shrink?[卫生类职称英语教材]
Did you ever see the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? It’s about a wacky dad (who’s also a scientist) who accidentally shrinks his kids with his homemade miniaturizing invention.Oops!
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For older people,shrinking isn’t that dramatic or sudden at all.It takes place over years and may add up to only an inch or so off of their adult height2(maybe a little more,maybe less).And this kind of shrinking can’t be magically reversed,although there are things that can be done to stop it or slow it down. 2
There are a few reasons.As people get older,they generally lose some muscle and fat from their bodies as part of the natural aging process.Gravity(the force that keeps your feet on the ground)takes hold3,and the bones in the spine,called vertebrae,may break down4 or degenerate, and start to collapse into one another5. 3 But perhaps the most common reason why some older people shrink is because of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis occurs when too much spongy bone tissue (which is found inside of most bones)is broken down and not enough new bone material is made. 4 Bones become smaller and weaker and can easily break if someone with osteoporosis is injured.Older people—especially women,who generally have smaller and lighter bones to begin with7一are more likely to develop osteoporosis.As years go by,a person with osteoporosis shrinks a little bit.
Did you know that every day you do a shrinking act,too?You aren’t as tall at the end of the day as you are at the beginning.That’s because as the day goes on,water in the disks of the spine gets compressed(squeezed)due to gravity,making you just a tiny bit shorter.Don’t worry,though.
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词汇：
shrink v.萎缩；缩小；使缩小 accidentally adv.意外地
magically adv.魔术般地 spine n.脊椎
vertebra n.椎骨 osteoporosis n.骨质疏松
disk n.盘、板 wacky adj.古怪的；疯了似的
oops int.哎哟 muscle n.肌肉
gravity n.地心引力,重力 degenerate vi.退化
spongy adj.松软的,不结实的 compress v.压缩；浓缩
注释：
1.The kids spend the rest of the movie as tiny people who are barely visible while trying to get back to their normal size.：这部电影接下来讲的就是这些小得几乎看不见的孩子们设法恢复原来身高的故事。
2.an inch or so off of their adult height：比他们是成人时的高度缩小一英寸左右
3.take hold：生根；固定；确立下来；紧抓不放
4.break down：损坏,坏掉,出毛病
5.collapse into one another：萎缩在一起
6.end up：结束,告终
7.to begin with：原先,本来
练习：
A.They end up6 pressing clo
