10.Few of us make money by losing sleep.But three graduate students at Brown University in Providence built a company around sleep deprivation (睡眠不足).
Jason Donahue,Ben Rubin and Eric Shashoua were working late nights in Brown's business and engineering schools.They began thinking about ways to sleep better.They discovered they weren't alone in burning the midnight oil.Around 20% of Americans get less than six hours of rest a night.
The friends imagined a smart alarm clock that could track how much time people spend in the most restorative (有回復作用的) stages of the sleep cycle:REM (rapid eye movement) and deep sleep.What would it cost to design such a thing?Five years of research,20employees,﹩14million and a whole lot of doubting from investors and scientists.
Their company,Zeo,based in Newton,Mass,launched its product in June,2009.The Zeo device uses a headband with tiny sensors (傳感器) that scan your brain for signs of four sleep states-REM,light,deep and waking sleep.The smart alarm clock displays a graph of your sleep pattern and wakes you as you're not in REM sleep (which is when you're least groggy).In the morning you can upload the data to the company's Web site,and so track your sleep over time.Most of the feedback comes in the form of Zeo's ZQ score showing how well you've slept.
"Zeo allows people to unlock this black box of sleep,"says Dave Dickinson,a health-care CEO.
Whether any of this actually improves sleep is up to the consumer,who will also need to make lifestyle changes like cutting out alcohol before bedtime or caffeine after 3pm.
For now the company is selling Zeo online only.Dickinson also plans to spread it to countries such as Australia,where sleep deprivation approaches US levels.
56.Who will support Zeo?B
A.People full of imagination.
B.People suffering sleeping problems.
C.People having access to the Internet.
D.People having bad lifestyles.
57.Why did the three graduate students imagine a smart alarm clock?C
A.To wake them up on time in the morning.
B.To earn enough money for their study.
C.To improve the quality of people's sleep.
D.To enjoy their life while working at night.
58.To design the Zeo device,the three graduate studentsA.
A.spent much time and money
B.were widely supported by scientists
C.worked by themselves all the time
D.a(chǎn)ttracted many investors
59.What can we know from the passage?B
A.Zeo has a direct effect on users'lifestyles.
B.It needs more personal efforts to make Zeo function better.
C.A large quantity of Zeo devices have been sold in Australia.
D.Consumers can go to the Zeo company to purchase Zeo in person.
分析 本文是一篇科教類閱讀,主要介紹了一種可以幫助人們改善睡眠的Zeo頭環(huán).
解答 56-59.BCAB
56題答案:B考查細節(jié)推理,根據(jù)文章第四段的The Zeo device uses a headband with tiny sensors (傳感器) that scan your brain for signs of four sleep states-REM,light,deep and waking sleep.(Zeo使用一個附帶微型傳感器的頭環(huán)來掃描你的大腦四種睡眠狀態(tài)的信號--REM、輕度、深度、睡眠清醒)及倒數(shù)第二段的Zeo allows people to unlock this black box of sleep.(Zeo使人們解開睡眠的黑匣子)可知Zeo對于遭受睡眠困擾的人是有幫助的,故本題答案為B選項.
57題答案:C考查細節(jié)推理,根據(jù)文章第二段的They began thinking about ways to sleep better.(他們開始思考改善睡眠的方法)可知本題答案為C選項.
58題答案:A考查細節(jié)推理,根據(jù)文章第三段的Five years of research,20employees,﹩14million and a whole lot of doubting from investors and scientists.(20位員工5年的研究、140萬美元的費用還有來自投資者與科學家的種種質(zhì)疑)可知本題答案為A選項.
59題答案:B考查細節(jié)推理,根據(jù)文章最后一段的Whether any of this(Zeo) actually improves sleep is up to the consumer,who will also need to make lifestyle changes…(是否Zeo真的能改善睡眠取決于消費者--他們也需要對生活方式做出改變…)可知本題答案為B選項.
點評 本文是一篇科教類閱讀,題目涉及多道細節(jié)理解題,做題時結(jié)合原文和題目有針對 性找出相關(guān)語句進行仔細分析,結(jié)合選項選出正確答案.推理判斷也是要在抓住關(guān)鍵句子的基礎(chǔ)上合理的分析才能得出正確的答案.