VOA慢速英语，作为国际英语学习者的重要资源，通过清晰缓慢的发音与简洁的词汇，为初学者及中等水平学习者搭建了通往流利英语的桥梁。它不仅帮助提升听力理解能力，还丰富了词汇量，增强了语感，是学习地道英语表达不可或缺的工具，对全球英语学习者的语言提升至关重要。让我们一起进入今天的VOA慢速英语听力训练：词汇故事Sleep。

英文原文

Sleep, it's important to our mental and physical health. From a quick catnap to long deep beauty sleep, we have many expressions to describe sleep. Of course, cats sleep for many hours during the day. That's why we call a short period of sleep, preferably in a warm spot of the room, a catnap. The purpose of a catnap is different from that of a power nap. We take power naps during the middle of a work day to help us get more work done. But we take a cat nap because the sun feels so good and our pillow feels so soft that we simply must close our eyes for a few minutes, like a cat.

睡眠对我们的身心健康至关重要。从短暂的小憩到长时间的深度美容觉，我们有很多词汇来描述睡眠。当然，猫在白天会睡上好几个小时。这就是为什么我们把在房间里温暖的地方小睡片刻称为“catnap（打盹）”的原因。打盹的目的与小憩是不同的。我们在工作日午休时会小憩一会儿，以便完成更多的工作。但我们打盹是因为阳光如此明媚，枕头如此柔软，以至于我们就像猫一样，不得不闭上眼睛小憩几分钟。

If you had a really tough week at work, you might want to sleep in on the weekend. This means you sleep later than usual. Teenagers are especially known for sleeping in when they don't have school. It's not hard to understand where we get some of our sleep expressions. For example, when we are tired, we may say we need to get some shut eye. You can only sleep when you shut your eyes. Although I have heard stories about people who sleep with their eyes open, which can look kind of creepy. When we use this expression, please note that it is singular. We just say "shut eye" and not "shut eyes."

如果你在工作上度过了非常艰难的一周，你可能会想在周末睡个懒觉。这意味着你比平时起得晚。青少年在没有课的时候尤其喜欢睡懒觉。我们的一些睡眠表达方式是怎么来的，这不难理解。例如，当我们累了的时候，我们可能会说自己需要“小憩一下（get some shut eye）”。你只有在闭上眼睛的时候才能睡觉。虽然我听说过有人睁着眼睛睡觉，但看起来有点吓人。当我们使用这个表达时，请注意它是单数形式。我们只说“shut eye”，而不是“shut eyes”。

If you are feeling tired, you might need to catch some Z's. Z is the sound we use to represent sleeping. So to catch some Z's simply means to sleep. Now, sometimes we fall asleep when we don't mean to. We might nod off while sitting somewhere and waiting, like in a doctor's office or on the train after a long day of work. A nod is the up and down movement of the head. That head movement is what happens when you nod off while sitting. Your head drops down, and you fall asleep.

如果你感到疲倦，你可能需要“小憩一下（catch some Z's）”。Z是我们用来代表睡觉的声音。所以“小憩一下”的意思就是睡觉。有时候，我们会在不经意间睡着。我们可能会在等候时坐着睡着，比如在医生的办公室或工作了一天后在火车上。点头是指头部的上下运动。当你在坐着的时候打盹，就会发生这种头部运动。你的头会垂下来，然后你就会睡着。

Now, we might take a short snooze during the day to get a little rest. And if we had a late night, we might need to hit the snooze alarm or snooze button a couple of times before actually getting up. This lets us get a little more shut-eye. Most of these expressions are for the short rests we take during the day, but not when we actually go to bed at night. We have a whole different set of other expressions just for that.

现在，我们可能会在白天小睡一会儿来休息一下。如果我们晚上睡得很晚，我们可能会在真正起床前多次按下“小睡闹钟”或“小睡按钮”。这能让我们多睡一会儿。这些表达方式大多指的是我们白天进行的短暂休息，而不是晚上真正上床睡觉的时候。对于晚上上床睡觉，我们有一套完全不同的表达方式。

You can simply turn in. This just means to go to bed for the night. When you fold down the blankets to get into bed, you are turning down the bed. Some people are just too tired to fuss with turning down blankets. They might say, "It's late, I'm going to crash." This means they are so tired that they feel like they need to fall or crash onto the bed. Young people are very fond of this expression.

你可以简单地“就寝（turn in）”。这意思就是晚上睡觉。当你把毯子折下来上床睡觉时，你就是在铺床。有些人太累了，以至于懒得铺床。他们可能会说：“很晚了，我要睡了。”这意味着他们太累了，感觉需要倒在床上。年轻人非常喜欢这个表达。

If you hit the sack or hit the hay, you are officially going to bed for the night. A sack is a big bag, like the bag that rice comes in. Word historians say that in earlier days, people would fill sacks with something soft, like feathers, and make it a pillow. And hay is the kind of dried grass that farmers put down for some farm animals to sleep on. It is actually quite comfortable. In fact, a long time ago, some beds were filled with hay. Maybe you are one of those lucky people who drift off to sleep quickly as soon as your head hits the pillow. As soon as your head hits the pillow, you are out like a light. This means you fell asleep in the time it takes to turn off the light.

如果你“上床睡觉（hit the sack or hit the hay）”，那你就正式准备晚上睡觉了。sack是一个大袋子，就像装米的袋子。词汇历史学家说，在早些时候，人们会用柔软的东西（比如羽毛）装满袋子，然后做成枕头。hay是农民为一些农场动物睡觉而铺的干草。它实际上很舒服。事实上，很久以前，有些床是用干草填充的。也许你是那些幸运的人之一，只要头一碰到枕头就能迅速入睡。只要你的头碰到枕头，你就“睡着了（out like a light）”。这意味着你在关灯的同时就睡着了。

For some other people, sleep might not come so fast. Some people might need to listen to peaceful music or read a book to help them fall asleep. Others might need to count sheep. When you count sheep, you imagine cute little sheep jumping over a fence. The scene is so relaxing and counting sheep is so boring that you will soon be sawing logs.

对于其他人来说，入睡可能没有那么快。有些人可能需要听舒缓的音乐或看书来帮助入睡。另一些人可能需要“数羊（count sheep）”。当你数羊时，你会想象可爱的小羊跳过栅栏。这个场景如此放松，数羊如此无聊，以至于你很快就会“呼呼大睡（sawing logs）”。

以上便是VOA慢速英语听力训练：词汇故事Sleep相关内容，希望能帮助你提升听力！