首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The nature of sleep and the role it plays in our lives has long fascinated science and been the focus of many studies and a grea
The nature of sleep and the role it plays in our lives has long fascinated science and been the focus of many studies and a grea
admin
2011-02-08
64
问题
The nature of sleep and the role it plays in our lives has long fascinated science and been the focus of many studies and a great deal of research.
A. The benefit of receiving enough sleep is essential to our inner well-being. Not enough sleep, however, means that we lack the opportunity to restore ourselves physiologically, emotionally and cognitively. It affects our mood and can result in behaviour and performance problems. When we sleep, our bodies rest but our brains are active. Sleep lays the groundwork for a productive day ahead. Although most people benefit the most from eight hours of sleep each night, this is not always what they manage to achieve. Men get slightly less sleep than women during the week (6.7 hours/night vs. 7.0 hours /night), but have fewer sleep problems, according to recent Sleep in America polls conducted annually by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF).
B. According to current scientific thought, the human body is pre-programmed for sleep. At nightfall, cells in the retina (a light sensitive membrane connected to the eye by the optic nerve) send a sleep signal to a cluster of nerve cells in the brain. These nerve cells are concentrated together in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and are located in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus which helps regulate body temperature. The SCN is also known as the circadian clock. This biological "clock" relays the message to other parts of the brain which then signals the body that it is time to sleep. For instance, the pineal gland, also located in the hypothalamus, produces a substance called melatonin, which lowers body temperature, and causes drowsiness.
C. A great deal of the information we now know about sleep and the physiological changes it causes in the brain can be traced back to the invention of the electroencephalogram in the 1950s. This machine allowed scientists to record the feeble electric currents generated on the brain without opening the skull and to depict them graphically onto a strip of paper. Brain-wave function could be examined and scientists could thereby observe sleep from moment to moment. In the 1970s it became possible for scientists to make assumptions about the role that correct breathing plays during sleep with the development of the technology to measure respiration. It was here that science really began to understand the nature of sleep and the role it plays in people’s lives.
D. As well as uncovering the physiological changes occurring during sleep, The New England Journal of Medicine reported that sleep concerns were a public health threat as serious as smoking and in the years since, medical researchers have linked sleep disorders with many life-threatening diseases. Even though more than 70 million Americans have a sleeping problem, most cases go undiagnosed and untreated, so the true economic and sociological damage caused by these disorders is unknown although, the economic cost is conservatively estimated to be billions of dollars a year in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Breathing problems during sleep represent by far the greatest proportion of sleep disorders and cause the most concern, with studies showing that between 50% and 80% of stroke and heart failure patients have breathing problems during sleep.
E. Scientific studies have found that children who are identified as snorers or those who have poor sleeping patterns at around the age of four or five, scored lower than average in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests, not only during the sleep deprivation period but subsequent to that. There are also suggestions that ongoing sleep deprivation in adults can cause permanent damage.
F. Teenagers can have peculiar sleep requirements. It has always been known that adolescents spend more time sleeping than adults, but science has only recently isolated the reasons for this. Research now shows that growth hormones are secreted during slow-wave sleep and teenagers do indeed, need more of this kind of sleep than at any other stage in their lives. Chronic lack of sleep among teenagers means that as a group they are more likely to use stimulants and experience negative mood swings. Statistics also indicate that young drivers are responsible for more than one-half of fall- asleep crashes.
G. However, it is not just young people who pay the price for lack of proper sleep. Workers are robbing themselves of sleep in order to increase productivity in both their social and working lives. In recent years, however, the identification of driver fatigue as the possible cause of 1/3 of all accidents provides some indication of the price we are paying for such a trade-off. Extensive scientific research indicates that chronic tiredness has been the cause of environmental disasters, nuclear mishaps and several well-documented near misses in the air. Scientists are beginning to argue that the lengthening of the working day is harming workers, their families and society. In the long run, productivity will suffer.
H. As a reaction against this disturbing trend, there has been increased support for regulation of the number of hours worked by employees in demanding jobs, such as doctors, nurses, pilots, bus drivers and truck drivers. Legislation is being drafted to limit work hours, thus forcing companies to become instrumental in changing work cultures to ensure employees are getting enough rest and leisure time in order to avoid chronic tiredness and its devastating consequences.
Choose the statement (I-X) below that best summarises each paragraph (A-H) in Reading Passage 2.
Write your answers in boxes 20-27 on your Answer Sheet.
NOTE: there are more statements than paragraphs so you will not use them all.
LIST OF SUMMARY STATEMENTS
I The negative effects of chronic sleep deprivation have tragic consequences.
II There are many advantages to getting sufficient sleep.
III Current medical research maintains that sleep is critical to early development.
IV Technological advances contributed significantly to sleep research.
V Efforts are being made to decrease the incidence of work-related accidents and
disasters.
VI Sleep problems affect a significant percentage of the population and have far-reaching
consequences.
VII Lack of the right kind of sleep can affect behaviour.
VIII Physiological changes occur to create sleep.
IX Sleep has an important function in our daily lives.
X The electroencephalogram revolutionised sleep research.
Paragraph A ______
选项
答案
IX
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/TOVO777K
本试题收录于:
雅思阅读题库雅思(IELTS)分类
0
雅思阅读
雅思(IELTS)
相关试题推荐
Thisproblemrequiresyoutofindasquarerootofanumberaswellasanumbersquared.Thesquarerootof64is8(64iscalle
Apollof2,000studentswastakenbeforeCentervilleCollegechangedthenameofitsmascot.All2,000studentsindicatedwhich
Apollof2,000studentswastakenbeforeCentervilleCollegechangedthenameofitsmascot.All2,000studentsindicatedwhich
Thenumber0.001ishowmanytimesgreaterthanthenumber(0.0001)2?
PERCENTOFTHE300PEOPLEINGROUP1ANDTHE400PEOPLEINGROUP2WHOHAVESELECTEDAILMENTSThenumberofpe
Theintegervisgreaterthan1.Ifvisthesquareofaninteger,whichofthefollowingnumbersmustalsobethesquareofan
Thesumofnintegersisgreaterthan48.Iftheaverage(arithmeticmean)ofthenintegersis1.2,whatistheleastpossible
A、Thegravitationalattractionofsupernovasadjacenttotheregionofthechimney’sformationB、Theeffectofentropyonthere
Forgenerations,NativeAmericansusedmythsandlegendstoexplainthemysteriousworldaroundthem.Onesuchetiologicalmyth
随机试题
在PowerPoint2003中,一篇演示文稿中允许使用________________种设计模板。
奶牛,产奶量下降,但乳房和乳汁无肉眼可见的变化,乳房体细胞数为7.5×105个/mL。该牛最可能发生的疾病是
药品包装不得夹带的材料()
房地产营销渠道的功能有(),以及风险承担等。
[2004年第56题]有防水要求的建筑地面在铺设防水材料后的蓄水检验中,下列哪条符合要求?
以下有关行政的生效规则描述不正确的是()
确定股东是否有权领取本期股利的截止日期是()。
生态文明建设,是指人类在利用和改造自然的过程中,主动保护自然,积极改善和优化人与自然的关系,建设健康有序的生态运行机制和良好的生态环境。建设生态文明,是关系人民福祉、关乎民族未来的长远大计。建设社会主义的生态文明,就是要
在直接交换方式中,局域网交换机只要接收并检测到目的地址字段,就立即将该帧转发出去,而不管这一帧数据是否出错。帧出错检测任务由______设备完成。
A、TRUEB、FALSEA
最新回复
(
0
)