The Earth"s daily clock, measured in a single revolution, is twenty-four hours. The human clock,【C1】______, is actually about twenty-five hours. That" s 【C2】______ scientists who study sleep have determined from human subjects who live for several weeks in observation chambers with no【C3】______of day or night. Sleep researchers have【C4】______other surprising discoveries as well.We spend about one-third of our lives asleep, a fact that suggests sleeping, 【C5】______eating and breathing, is a fundamental life process. Yet some people almost never sleep, getting by on as 【C6】______as fifteen minutes a day. And more than seventy years of【C7】______ into sleep deprivation, in which people have been kept 【C8】______for three to ten days, has【C9】______ only one certain finding: Sleep loss makes a person sleepy and that" s about all; it causes no lasting ill【C10】______ . Too much sleep, however, may be 【C11】______ for you. These findings【C12】______some long-held views of sleep, and they【C13】______questions about its fundamental purpose in our lives. In【C14】______, scientists don"t know just why sleep is necessary. Some scientists think sleep is more the result of evolutionary habit than【C15】______actual need, Animals sleep for some parts of the day perhaps because it is the 【C16】______thing for them to do: it keeps them【C17】______ and hidden from predators; it"s a survival tactic. Before the advent of electricity, humans had to spend at least some of each day in【C18】______and had little reason to question the reason or need for【C19】______. But the development of the electroencephalograph and the resulting discovery in 1937 of dramatic【C20】______ in brain activity between sleep and wakefulness opened the way for scientific inquiry in the subject.
【答案解析】解析:考查语法知识。句子的谓语是is,空格处缺的必然是一个连词或关系词。B.what是关系代词,在从句中作表语,符合题意。what引导的这个表语从句比较复杂:who study sleep是定语从句,修饰scientists;定语从句who live for several weeks…day or night修饰先行词human subjects。故B.what为正确答案。because是连词,表示原因。其他两项明显不符合题意,故排除。
【答案解析】解析:考查短语辨析。此处句意为“睡眠研究者们还______了其他令人惊讶的发现”。come up against指突然或意外碰到困难或反对等,come down to“归结为”,come up with“提出,拿出,发现”,come up to“比得上,达到”。根据意思,C.come up with符合题意,为正确答案。
单选题
【C5】
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析:考查介词辨析。空格处的介词体现的是sleeping和eating and breathing的关系。从上下文得知“睡眠是最重要的生命过程”。根据我们的常识,吃饭、呼吸和睡眠一样重要。故B.like符合题意,为正确答案。with“和,跟;随着;关于”,unlike“不像”,as“作为,以…的身份”,均不符合题意。
单选题
【C6】
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析:考查上下文语义。此处句意为“然而一些人几乎从来不睡觉,一天______1 5分钟就可以了”。根据前文的提示almost never sleep,我们可直接选出正确答案A.little。其他三项均不符合题意,故排除。
【答案解析】解析:考查介词辨析。此处句意为“一些科学家认为,与其说睡眠是进化习惯的结果,倒不如说是实际需要的结果”。than前后的结构必然是平行对称的,所以可以很容易地补全空格前省略掉的词,即:the result of evolutionary habit than(the result)of actual need,故D.of符合题意,为正确答案。
单选题
【C16】
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析:考查形容词辨析。此处句意为“动物在一天中的某些时候睡觉,可能是因为睡觉对于它们来说是______的事”。根据下文的hidden from predators(躲开食肉动物),it’s a survival tactic(这是一条生存策略)可知B.best符合题意,为正确答案。
【答案解析】解析:考查名词辨析。此处句意为“在发明电以前,人们至少在每天的某些时候不得不生活在______中”。根据上文Before the advent of electricity(在发明电以前)和常识,可以直接选出正确答案C.darkness。coldness“冷,冷淡”,warmth“温暖,暖和”,shade“阴凉处,背阴”,均不符合题意,故排除。