Passage Four
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:
There are many ways to help improve your health like eating healthy food, taking exercise andgetting medical help. But the easiest and cheapest way to improve your health is to sleep for eighthours or more every night. The general sleeping rule is that the younger you are, the longer sleep youneed. But regardless of age, some people need to sleep more while for some a few hours is enough.
More and more people in the world are not sleeping enough. According to the World HealthOrganization, over half the people in the world may be sleep-deprived. Having less sleep not onlymakes people feel tired but also causes accidents. In the United States alone, sleepy drivers cause at
least 100,000 traffic accidents every year. Sleep problems can also cause medical problems such ashigh blood pressure.
Why are so many people sleep-deprived? Part of the reasons may be cultural. In the Americanculture, people put a higher value on work than on sleep. Sometimes you can hear some people sayproudly that they only sleep for four or five hours every night. It seems that the less you sleep, themore work you'll do.
How do we teach these people to learn the value of sleep? Perhaps they may listen to the adviceof Dr. James Maas, an expert in sleep. He says,"Sleep is like a credit card. When you sleep less,you are only borrowing time. You always have to pay it back. The more hours you don't spend onsleep, the more hours you should spend on sleep to 'pay back'the hours on your 'sleep credit card'."
For those who value work more than sleep, they should listen to what a famous person oncesaid,"Don't think you will do less work because you sleep during the night. That is a foolish ideawhich is held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to do more."
According to the author, the easiest and cheapest way to improve health is to______.
根据第一段第二句“But the easiest and cheapest way to improve your health is to sleep foreight hours or more every night.”可知，作者认为最容易又花钱最少的改善健康的方法是每天晚上睡八个小时或者更多。故选D。
What does the underlined word "sleep-deprived" mean in Paragraph 2?
根据第二段第一、二句“.…are not sleeping enough…over half the people in the world maybe sleep-deprived.”可知，世界上有越来越多的人睡眠不足，据世界卫生组织所说，世界上超过一半的人可能睡眠不足。由此可推知，sleep-deprived与not sleeping enough所表达的意思相近，意为“睡眠不足的”,C项(睡得少)与其意思最为接近。A项意为“睡个好觉”;B项意为“对睡眠感到兴奋”;D项意为“对睡眠感兴趣”,这三项均不符合题意。故选C。
According to Dr. James Maas, what is sleep like?
根据倒数第二段中James Maas博士所说的话中的"Sleep is like a credit card."可知，James Maas博士认为睡眠就像一张信用卡。a clock:一个时钟；a report:一份报告；a credit card:一张信用卡；a piece of paper:一张纸。故选C。
What do the words of the famous person mean in the last paragraph?
根据最后一段中一位名人所说的话"Don't think you will do less work because you sleepduring the night...You will be able to do more.”可知，不要认为晚上睡觉会导致你少做工作，它反而会让你能够做更多的工作。由此可推知，晚上睡觉是有益的。故选B。
What is the best title for the passage?
通读全文可知，本文主要论述了睡眠对于健康和工作的重要性，也就是睡眠的价值，所以A项最适合作本文标题。B项意为“健康的价值”;C项意为“睡眠少的危害";D项意为“睡觉的方法",这三项均不符合题意。故选A。