雅思阅读材料之冬天保暖的十个小知识

Although you might already know that a space heater is a great way to heat up a room, or that UGG is apparently the shoes of 2013, there are other important warming techniques you might be getting wrong, or perhaps new ones you simply had no idea existed.

可能你已经知道，冬天里用小型取暖器是使房间变得温暖的一个重要方法，UGG也是今年冬天必备。但其实你可能误解了一些保暖技巧，或者还有些你压根儿不知道的新法子。

Below are 10 things that'll help you avoid having to do this all winter.

接下来，小编就要给大家提出10个小小的建议，避免你在今年冬天走入“保暖误区”。

1. Alcohol doesn't make you any warmer.

喝酒并不能使你感到暖和。

The reason why you feel warm while drinking alcohol is that your blood vessels dilate and send warm blood away from your core and towards your skin. This effect is only temporary and in the end significantly decreases your body's ability to fight the cold.

在你喝酒时感到暖和是因为你的血管舒张，将温暖的血液从心脏输送到你的皮肤。这种效果你只能暂时感觉到，身体的抗寒能力会急速下降。

2. But you might warm up by eating gingerbread cookies.

也许吃些姜饼曲奇会让你感到暖和些。

There's a reason we tend to associate gingerbread with the cold of wintertime -- people traditionally believed the herb to stimulate the body and increase blood circulation.

我们倾向于把姜饼和寒冷的冬季联系在一起的原因之一是：传统观点认为姜可以刺激身体、加快血液循环。

3. Feeling cold is all in your mind.

觉得冷只是你心中的感觉而已。

Meditating can make you warmer. Scientists in Singapore have discovered that core body temperature can be increased by using certain meditation techniques.

冥想会让你更暖和。新加坡的科学家们发现，通过使用某些冥想技巧可以提高身体的核心体温。

4. Loneliness can lower your body temperature.

孤独感会降低你的体温。

It's no fun to be ignored, but a pair of researchers at the University of Toronto say that lack of social contact can lead to physical consequences. In other words, giving someone the "cold shoulder" can actually make them feel colder.

被人忽视总是很没劲的，但多伦多大学的研究员发现，缺乏社交很可能会导致身体的反应。也就是说，冷淡对待别人真的会让他们觉得更冷。

5. Hot drinks might actually cool you off.

喝热饮实际上会使你体温下降。

When having a hot drink, nerve receptors in your tongue signal to the rest of your body that something "hot" is coming and you need to start sweating.

当你喝热饮时，舌头上的神经感官会把“热”的信息传递到身体的其他部位，这样一来你就得出汗了。

6. You don't catch a cold because of cold weather.

是因为天气寒冷，才没让你感冒。

Exposure to lower temperatures doesn't give you a cold by itself. The rise in sickness and colds in the winter months is typically linked to people spending more time indoors, which allows germs to transfer between people more easily.

其实身处低温环境中并不会使你感冒。冬季月份生病和感冒的增多，主要是因为人们更多时间呆在室内，使得细菌更容易传播。

7. Your body heat isn't mostly escaping through your head.

体热并不是大部分都由头部散发的。

Naturally the most heat escaped from the uncovered area. In reality, you lose about 7 to 10 percent of your body heat from your head, which is about the same amount of surface area your head accounts for.

正常情况下，大部分体热未覆盖的身体部位散发出去的。事实上，只有7-10%的体热是由头部散发出去的，差不多正是头部的占身体的表面面积的比率。

8. Men and women actually do feel cold at different temperatures.

男、女性真正感到寒冷的温度是不同的。

Turns out that men tend to have more muscle mass than women, who typically have a higher fat ratio. Muscle is good at producing heat and fat is good for storing it, giving the advantage to men, who tend to have more muscle mass and lower body fat percentages.

事实证明，男性往往肌肉更多，而女性则通常脂肪较多。肌肉能产生热量，脂肪则能储藏热量。所以男性因为肌肉更多身体中脂肪比例更低，所以比较占便宜。

9. If your ancestors during the Ice Age lived in the north, you do have an advantage against the cold.

如果你的祖先在冰川时期居住在偏北的地方，你在抗寒方面就会有些优势。

Having ancestors who lived in northern climates predisposes many people to better handle the cold.

如果祖先是生活在北方气候环境下的，那么你就能更好地抵御寒冷。

10. Wearing white might actually be the warmest color.

白色实际上可能是最温暖的色调。

Black clothing absorbs heat from the sun and white clothing reflects it, but the common wisdom that white should be worn in summer and darker clothes in winter might need to be rethought.

黑色衣着易吸收太阳光热，而白色则是反射，这是没错。但夏穿白、冬穿黑的普遍穿衣思想可能就要重新考虑下了。

White's function as a reflector also appears to apply to body heat, meaning that wearing it may trap your natural heat close to your body in looser fitting clothes, like a jacket.

白色的反射作用同样适用于身体热量方面，这也就意味着， 穿夹克类宽松合适的白色衣服，可以“困住”你身体附近的自然热量。

Bonus: The cold weather can help you lose weight.

额外福利：寒冷天气可以帮你减肥。

In cold temperatures the body works harder to warm itself up, not only burning more calories while working out but activating brown fat, which burns them more efficiently than white fat.

在寒冷天气里，身体得更加努力地保持温暖，这样不仅能燃烧更多的卡路里，并且能激活消耗能量的褐色脂肪。与白色脂肪相比，褐色脂肪能更有效地燃烧卡路里。