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  3. Biological rhythms make us a different person at 9 AM from we are at 3 PM. Here’s a guide to when you work better, feel better,

Biological rhythms make us a different person at 9 AM from we are at 3 PM. Here’s a guide to when you work better, feel better,

admin2009-06-24  25
问题     Biological rhythms make us a different person at 9 AM from we are at 3 PM. Here’s a guide to when you work better, feel better, think better.
    Every fall, Jane, a young mother and part-time librarian, begin to eat more and often feels sleepy. Her mood is also darker, especially when she awakens in the morning; it takes all her energy just to drag herself out of bed. These symptoms persist until April, when warmer weather and longer days seem to lighten her cravings for food and sleep.
66.______.
    All living organisms, from mollusks to men and women, exhibit biological rhythms. Some are short and can be measured in minutes or hours. Others last days or months. The peaking of body temperature, which occurs in most people every evening, is a daily rhythm. The menstrual cycle is a monthly rhythm. The increase in sexual drive in the autumn—not in the spring, as poets would have us believe—is a seasonal, or yearly, rhythm.
    The idea that our bodies are in constant flux is fairly new—and goes against traditional medical training. In the past many doctors were taught to believe the body has a relatively stable, or homeostatic, internal environment. Any fluctuations were considered random and not meaningful enough to be studied.
    As early as the 1940s, however, some scientists questioned the homeostatic view of the body. Franz Halborg, a young European scientist working in the United States, noticed that the number of white blood cells in laboratory mice was dramatically higher and lower at different times of day. Gradually, such research spread to the study of other rhythms in other life forms, and the findings were sometimes startling. For example, the time of day when a person receives X-ray or drug treatment for cancer can affect treatment benefits and ultimately mean the difference between life and death.
    This new science is called chronobiology, and the evidence supporting it has become increasingly persuasive. Along the way, the scientific and medical communities are beginning to rethink their ideas about how the human body works, and gradually what had been considered a minor science just a few years ago. is being studied in major universities and medical centers around the world. There are even chronobiologists working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as well as for the National institutes of Health and other government laboratories.
67.______.
    Because they are easy to detect and measure, more is known of daily—or circadian (Latin for "about a day")—rhythms than other types. The most obvious daily rhythm is the sleep-wake cycle. But there are other daily cycles as well, temperature, blood pressure, hormone levels. Amid these and the body’s other changing rhythms, you are simply a different person at 9 AM from you are at 3 PM. How you feel, how well you work, your level of alertness, your sensitivity to taste and smell, the degree with which you enjoy food or take pleasure in music—all are changing throughout the day.
    Most of us seem to reach our peak of alertness around noon. Soon after that, alertness declines, and sleepiness may set in by mid-afternoon.
68.______.
    Long-term memory is different. Afternoon is the best time for learning material that you want to recall days, weeks or months later. Politicians, business executives or others who must learn speeches would be smart to do their memorizing during that time of day. If you are a student, you would be wise to schedule your more difficult classes in the afternoon, rather than in the morning. You should also try to do most of your studying in the afternoon, rather than late at night. Many students believe they memorize better while burning the midnight oil because their short-term recall is better during the wee hours of the morning than in the after- noon. But short-term memory won’t help them much several days later, when they face the exam.
69.______.
    Your manual dexterity—the speed and coordination with which you perform, complicated tasks with your hard—peaks during the afternoon hours. Such work as carpentry, typing or sewing will be a little easier at this time of day.
    What about sports? During afternoon and early evening, your coordination is at its peak, and you’re able to react the quickest to an outside stimulus like a baseball toward you at home plate. Studies have also shown that late in the day, when your body temperature is peaking, you will perceive a physical workout to be easier and less fatiguing—whether it actually is or not. That means you are more likely to work harder during a late-afternoon or early-evening workout, and therefore benefit more from it. Studies involving swimmers, runners, shot-putters and rowing crews have shown consistently that performance is better in the evening than in the morning.
    In fact, all of your senses—taste, sight, hearing, touch and smell—may be at their keenest during late afternoon and early evening. That could be why dinner usually tastes better to us than breakfast and why night lights irritate us.
    Even our perception of time changes from hour to hour. Not only does time seem to fly when you’re having fun, but it also seems to fly even faster if you are having that fun in the late afternoon or early evening, when your body temperature is also peaking.
    While all of us follow the same general pattern of ups and downs, the exact timing varies from person to person. It all depends on how your "biological" day is structured and how much of a morning or night person you are. The earlier your biological day gets going, the earlier you are likely to enter—and exit—the peak times for performing various tasks. An extreme morning person and an extreme night person may have circadian cycles that are a few hours apart.
70.______.

A. Each of us can increase our knowledge about our individual rhythms. Learn how to listen to the inner beats of your body; let them set the pace of your day. You will live a healthier—and happier—life.
B. By contrast, we tend to do best on cognitive tasks—things that require the juggling of words and figures in one’s head—during the morning hours. This might be a good time, say, to balance a checkbook.
C. With their new findings, they are teaching us things that can literally change our lives while helping us organize ourselves so we can work with our natural rhythms rather than against them. This can enhance our outlook on life as well as our performance at work and play.
D. Your short-term memory is best during the morning—in fact, about 15 percent more efficient than at any other time of day. So, students, take heed when face with a morning exam, it really does pay to review your notes right before the test is given.
E. After a time, the rhythms resynchronize and the problems disappear. But the various rhythms follow different time schedules in returning to normal. Thus, one rhythm may adjust within a matter of hours while another may require many days.
F. Joseph, a 48-year-old engineer for a Midwestern computer company, feels cranky early in the morning. But as the day progresses, he becomes friendlier and more accommodating.

选项
答案D
解析 本题较为容易，因为后面一段第一句指出：Long-term memory is different，表明前面一段即填入段落中分析的应当是与long-term memory(长期记忆)相对的short—term memory(短期记忆)。选项中只有D涉及到了这一点。
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