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We have known for a long time that flowers of different plants open and close at different time of day.This is so familiar that there seems to be no need to ask the reason for it.Yet no one really understands why flowers open and close like this at particular times.The process is not as simple as we might think,as recent experiments have shown.In one study,flowers were kept in constant (连续的) darkness.We might expect that the flowers,without any information about the time of day,did not open as they normally do.In fact,they continued to open at their usual time.This suggests that they have some mysterious (神秘的) way of knowing the time.Their sense of time does not depend on information from the outside world; it is,so to speak,inside them,a kind of “inner clock”.This discovery (发现) may not seem to be very important.However,it was later found that not just plants but also animals —including man —have this “inner clock” which controls the working of their bodies and influences (影响) their activities.Men,then,are also influenced by this mysterious power.Whether we wish it or not,it affects such things in our life as our need for sleep,our need for food.In the past,this did not matter very much because people lived in natural condition.In the modern world,things are different; now there are spacemen,airplane pilots and,in ordinary life,a lot of people who have to work at night.It would be very useful,then,to know more about the “inner clock”.Such ordinary things as flowers might help us understand more about ourselves. 译文： 长久以来,我们知道不同植物的花开放与闭合的时间各异.我们认为这是理所当然的事,所以没有人深究.但没有人真正理解为什么花会在特定的时候开放与闭合.最近的一些实验表明,花开放与闭合的过程没我们想的那么简单.在一项研究中,我们把花长时间放在黑暗里,并预计由于没有了时间的参考,花不会正常开放或闭合.但事实上,花继续在正常的时间里开放了.这项研究表明,花通过一些未知的方式来了解时间.花不靠外物来感知时间,所以可以说在花的内部有一个“生物钟”.这项发现或许不太重要.但是,人们后来发现,不仅植物,包括人在内的动物也有“生物钟”.生物钟控制动物的身体并影响着它们的活动.由此看来,人同样也受到这股神秘力量的影响.不管我们是否愿意,生物钟影响了我们生活中的一些事,比如对睡觉,吃饭的需求.在过去,人们居住在大自然里,生物钟没那么重要.而现今,在现代化社会里,情况变了.对于太空人,民航飞行员和必须常常在夜间工作的人来说,多多了解生物钟十分有用.像花的开放与闭合这类司空见惯的事情,或许能让我们更深入的了解自己.