雅思阅读真题（Part 2）
Part 2 · 考频：中频 · 最近考试：2024.2.3
A
We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. Indications from both science and history suggest that the eight-hour sleep may not be a natural or inborn pattern for humans. In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted research which implies just that.
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答案：scientific evidence that divided sleep is a natural phenomenon
原文定位：Indications from both science and history suggest that the eight-hour sleep may not be a natural or inborn pattern for humans. In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted research which implies just that. Wehr kept a group of people in a darkened room for 14 hours a day for a month;by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. First they slept for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep
答案：an analysis of old documents to discover sleep patterns
原文定位：In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech University in the US published a paper drawn from 16 years of research, revealing historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct periods of time each night. Ekirch's research found more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern - in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from the ancient Greeks to tribes in Nigeria
答案：historical reasons why interrupted sleep became uncommon
原文定位：Ekirch found that references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th century;Ekirch attributes the initial shift to improvements in street and home lighting. As the night became a time for all kinds of activity, the length of time people could dedicate to rest dwindled;London didn't light its streets until 1684;Coffee houses emerged;Going out at night became commonplace;the Industrial Revolution intensified that attitude considerably;a medical journal from 1829 which urged parents to force their children out of the pattern of first and second sleep
答案：biological and environmental factors preventing people from falling asleep again
原文定位：Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body's natural preference for divided sleep, as well as in difficulties caused by extended exposure to artificial light in the modern world. This could be the cause of a condition called sleep maintenance insomnia, where people wake during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep
答案：potential health issues related to sleep
原文定位：Sleep psychologist, Gregg Jacobs, says that the idea that we must sleep for an extended period of time could be damaging if it makes people who wake up in the night anxious, as this anxiety can itself discourage sleep and is likely to affect waking life too;Russell Foster;says. 'Over 30% of the medical problems that doctors are faced with stem directly or indirectly from sleep. But sleep has been ignored in medical training, and there are very few centres where sleep is studied
答案：C Craig Koslofsky
原文定位：In certain historical periods, the threat of criminal danger led to segmented sleep
答案：E Russell Foster
原文定位：Physicians should learn more about treating people with sleeping difficulties
答案：B Roger Ekirch
原文定位：Historically, when people experienced interrupted sleep, they used the waking periods at night for different activities
答案：B Roger Ekirch
原文定位：Technological changes in Europe made people more likely to sleep through the night
答案：D Gregg Jacobs
原文定位：The belief that humans should have a long continuous sleep can be psychologically harmful
答案：sunset
原文定位：Much like Wehr's findings, these references describe a first sleep which began not long following sunset
答案：dreams
原文定位：In many historic accounts, Ekirch found that people used the time that they were awake between periods of sleep to think about and attempt to analyse their dreams
答案：thieves
原文定位：He goes on to explain that the streets of the cities and towns at night were often populated by thieves or worse. The streets at night consequently scared many people