Question

Burning the midnight oil before an exam or interview has an opposite effect according to a research which found that sleep is necessary for memories to be “downloaded” into the brain.

“A good night’s sleep within 30 hours of trying to remember a new task is a necessary condition of having good recall（回憶）in the weeks ahead,” scientists have found.

“We think that getting that first night’s sleep starts the process of memory consolidation（加強）,” said Robert Stickgold, a sleep researcher at Harvard Meidical School who conducted the latest study.

“It seems that memories are normally washed out of the brain unless some process nails them down. I feel uncertain that sleep is one of those things that do the nailing down,” Professor Stickgold said.

Professor Stickgold’s team trained the 24 people to tell direction of three diagonal bars（斜線）shown for a sixtieth of a second on a computer screen full of horizontal stripes（水平線）.

Half the subjects were kept awake that night, while the others slept. Both groups were allowed to sleep for the second and third nights so make up for any differences in tiredness between the volunteers（志愿者）.

Those who slept the first night were much better at remembering the task while the second ground showed no improvement in spite of enjoying two nights of catch-up sleep.

A further study by scientists at the Medical University at Lubeck Germany showed that memories are laid down in two stages during the night. The first is during the deep, so-called “slow wave” sleep, which usually takes place in the first half of the night. The second, and less important stage happens during the period of dreaming or “rapid eye movement (REM)”. When people don’t sleep well in the first half of the night, their memory consolidation is almost the same as having no sleep at all.

1. Which of the following statements is correct according to Paragraph 1?

  A. It is necessary to burn the midnight oil before an exam or interview  

B. Sleep speeds up the loss of memory

  C. Man should have a good sleep if he wants to keep a good memory

  D. Staying up late will make you better prepared for an exam or interview

2. It can be inferred from Paragraph 4 that _____.

  A. some process helps memories to be washed out of the brain

  B. professor Stickgold is doubtful about whether sleep can make memories better

  C. some memories normally influence the function of the brain

  D. sleep improves the condition of memories

3. How was the research conducted by Professor Stickgold?

  A. The subjects were divided into two groups 

B. All the subjects were kept awake for 3 nights

  C. One group slept at the first night but was kept awake the next two nights

  D. One group was kept awake for 3 nights but the other slept for the second and third nights

4. The best title of this passage is _____.

  A. Sleep is Necessary for Memories  B. The Importance of the First Stage of Sleep

  C. Studies Made By Scientists About Sleep  D. The Scientists’ Achievement in Sleep Research

Answer 1

CDAA