阅读理解 People often complained about not getting "a good night's sleep" , but sleep patterns differ from person to person. Most adults require six to eight hours of sleep to function well, while others survive on only a few hours. Still, most people today think of sleep as one continuous period of downtime. This is not the way people used to sleep. According to researchers in earlier times, people divided sleep by first sleep a few hours, waking up, then going back to sleep.
Before the 18th century, people had no gas or electricity in their homes. Fire, candles, or oil lamps were the common forms of lighting. This lack of artificial lighting in homes contributed to people's sleep patterns. It made sense for people to go to bed early. If you live in this time period, you might be a hard-working farmer, and you would come home, eat and quickly fall into bed exhausted. You would probably go to sleep at 9: 00 or 10: 00 P.M. In this first period of sleep—called first sleep—you would typically sleep until midnight or shortly afterwards.
Halfway through the night during a period some call the watch, or watching period. When you came out of first sleep, you would stay in bed and relax quietly. You might talk with a bedfellow, meditate on the day's events or the meaning of a dream, or just let your mind wander. If you enjoyed writing or drawing, you might get out of bed to write a poem or story or draw a picture.
Then you would start to feel sleepy, so would return to bed and fall asleep again for your second sleep. This period would continue until early morning when daylight arrived. Again, with no artificial lighting in homes, people naturally woke up early to take advantage of sunlight.
Today, human may consider divided sleep a strange habit, but sleep researchers say that it is actually a more natural sleep pattern. Dr. Thomas Wehr of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has studied human sleep. He thinks that modern sleep problems occur because the orderly, natural way of sleep is breaking through the more recent continuous sleep pattern. Wehr and other scientists believe that artificial lighting has altered the way people sleep. In a research study, he asked 15 adults to rest and sleep in darkness for 14 hours (from 6: 00 P.M. to 8: 00 A.M.). At first, the subjects took a few hours to get to sleep, and then slept 11 hours a night. Then overtime, they switched to divided sleep. They fell asleep for about 3 or 5 hours in the evening, stay awake for an hour or two and then slept again for four hours till early morning.
Unlike the people in the study, we modern humans generally do not practice divided sleep. However, many of us have the experience of waking up in the middle of the night. We usually consider this a sleeping "problem" , but perhaps we should look at it as natural behavior. Divided sleep may be the way we should all be sleeping. A first sleep followed by a relation period and a second period of sleep could help all of us to beat the stress of our fast-paced lives.
单选题 What is the main idea of the text?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】主旨题。文章第一段就指出过去人们的睡眠方式与现在不同——在过去人们采用分段睡眠模式。从第二段开始全文围绕过去的两段式睡眠模式展开,详细介绍这种睡眠模式。故本题选B。
单选题 What is the main purpose of paragraph 2-4?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推断题。原文第二至第四段主要描述了分段睡眠的各个阶段,A项“解释在分段睡眠期间会发生什么”符合题意。B项“给出一种关于分段睡眠模式的观点”,原文第二至第四段主要是客观描述,而并非给出一种主观的观点,故排除。C项“描述18世纪以前的农民生活”和D项“解释18世纪以前的作者和艺术家的生活”均以偏概全,故排除。故本题选A。
单选题 In paragraph 5, what does the research study suggest about divided sleep?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。根据第五段中的“…human may consider divided sleep a strange habit…”可知A项“分段睡眠是一种奇怪的睡眠方式”是一些人的观点,而不是这次研究的结论,故排除。根据第五段中的“…but sleep researchers say that it is actually a more natural sleep pattern…”可知分段睡眠是一种更自然的睡眠模式,B项“对人类来说分段睡眠是一种自然的睡眠模式”符合题意。C、D两项表述与原文不符。故本题选B。
单选题 What conclusion does the writer make about divided sleep?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。根据最后一段中的“We usually consider this a sleeping‘problem’,but perhaps we should look at it as natural behavior”可知A项“这是一种睡眠问题”不是作者得出的结论。根据最后一句“A first sleep followed by a relation period and a second period of sleep could help all of us to beat the stress of our fast-paced lives”可知B项“也许能帮助人们应对日常压力”正确。根据最后一段中的“Divided sleep may be the way we should all be sleeping”可知C项“并非对每个人来说都是最好的睡眠模式”错误。根据最后一段中的“we modern humans generally do not practice divided sleep”可知D项“即使在现代也很常见”错误。故本题选B。
单选题 Which of the following is NOT true according to the text?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。A项说法过于绝对。根据倒数第二段中的“Wehr and other scientists believe that artificial lighting has altered the way people sleep”可知B项说法正确。根据倒数第二段中的“…human may consider divided sleep a strange habit…”和最后一段中的“…we modern humans generally do not practice divided sleep”可知C项说法正确。根据倒数第二段中的“…modern sleep problems occur because the orderly, natural way of sleep is breaking through the more recent continuous sleep pattern…”可知D项说法正确。故本题选A。