Some researchers contend that sleep plays no role in the consolidation of declarative memory(i.e., memory involving factual info

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问题 Some researchers contend that sleep plays no role in the consolidation of declarative memory(i.e., memory involving factual information). These researchers note that people with impairments in rapid eye movement(REM)sleep continue to lead normal
line lives, and they argue that if sleep were crucial for memory, then these individuals
5 would have apparent memory deficits. Yet the same researchers acknowledge that the cognitive capacities of these individuals have never been systematically examined, nor have they been the subject of studies of tasks on which performance reportedly depends on sleep. Even if such studies were done, they could only clarify our understanding of the role of REM sleep, not sleep in general.
10 These researchers also claim that improvements of memory overnight can be explained by the mere passage of time, rather than attributed to sleep. But recent studies of memory performance after sleep—including one demonstrating that sleep stabilizes declarative memories from future interference caused by mental activity during wakefulness—make this claim unsustainable. Certainly there are memory-
15 consolidation processes that occur across periods of wakefulness, some of which neither depend on nor are enhanced by sleep. But when sleep is compared with wakefulness, and performance is better after sleep, then some benefit of sleep for memory must be acknowledged.
Description
The passage presents and then rebuts two arguments made by researchers who question the contribution of sleep to the consolidation of declarative memory(memory involving factual information). The first argument is that people with impairments to REM sleep continue to lead normal lives. In response, the passage says that these researchers themselves acknowledge the absence of systematic study of such individuals’ cognitive abilities, study that would be necessary in order to fully support the researchers’ claim. The passage also points out that the researchers’ claim applies only to REM sleep rather than to sleep in general. The second claim is that improvements of memory that occur overnight might be explained merely by the passage of time. In response, the passage cites research findings that demonstrate the role of sleep in stabilizing declarative memory.
The importance of the study mentioned in lines 12-14 is that it

选项 A、reveals the mechanism by which declarative memory is stabilized during sleep
B、identifies a specific function that sleep plays in the memory-consolidation process
C、demonstrates that some kinds of mental activity can interfere with memory consolidation
D、suggests that sleep and wakefulness are both important to memory consolidation
E、explains how the passage of time contributes to memory consolidation

答案B

解析 The question asks what "the importance of the study mentioned in lines 12-14" is. The study is described as having shown that sleep stabilizes declarative memory from future interference caused by mental activity during wakefulness. This protection of memory from interference is the "specific function" played by sleep mentioned in Choice B. Therefore, Choice B is correct. Choice A is incorrect: there is no description of any mechanism, or specific process, by which declarative memory is stabilized. Although Choices C, D, and E each involve issues connected with the study, those connections are all tangential.
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