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 in the weeks ahead，” scientists have found.

“We think that getting that first night's sleep starts the process of memory consolidation(加强)，” said Robert Stickgold, a sleep researcher at Harvard Medical 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 the direction of three diagonal bars (斜线) shown for a sixtieth of a second on a computer screen full of horizontal stripes(水平线)．

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

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

A further study by scientists at the Medical University at Lubeck in 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 periods 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 the first paragraph?

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 the fourth paragraph that________.

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

B. Professor Stickgold is doubtful about whether sleep can make memories worse

C. some memories normally influence the function of the brain

D. sleep may can improve 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. What was the study result of the scientists' at the Medical University at Lubeck?

A. REM sleep is not important at all for the consolidation for memory.

B. Intellectual performance mainly depends on the slow wave sleep period.

C. When people sleep poorly in the first half of the night, it is almost the same as having no sleep at all.

D. REM sleep is as important as slow wave sleep in terms of memory recall.

5. The BEST title of this passage is “________”．

A. Sleep 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

Young Jack moved to a new house. When entering his new bedroom, he saw that it was full of toys but it was tidy. That day he played all he liked, but went to bed without tidying up.

The next morning, when Jack got up, he found all the toys had been put back in their proper places. He was sure that no one had entered his bedroom, but the boy didn’t pay much attention to it. The exact same thing happened that day, and the next day. But on the fourth day when he went to get his favourite toy, the toy jumped out of his hands and said, “I don’t want to play with you!”

Jack felt surprised, but the same happened with every toy he touched. Finally, one toy said to him:

“We don’t want to play with you. You always leave us so far away from our proper places. You don’t know how arduous it is for us to climb back up onto the shelves, or jump into the box. We feel most uncomfortable and unhappy. You don’t know how uncomfortable and cold the floor is! We don’t play with you any more if you don’t promise to leave us in our proper places before you go to bed.”

Jack remembered how comfortable he felt in his bed and how bad he felt when he had once slept in a chair. He realized how badly he had treated his friends, the toys. He asked for their forgiveness(原谅)， and from that day on he always put his toys nicely in their proper places before he got into bed.

1.when Jack moved into his bedroom,           .

A．it needed to be cleaned                  B．he found lots of toys

C．he brought lots of toys                   D．he put away his toys

2.Why did all the toys refuse to play with Jack?

A．because he always broke them.

B．because he didn’t like them any more.

C．because he only played with his favourite one.

D．because he did’t put them in their proper places.

3.The underlined word “arduous” in Para.4 probably means         .

A．difficult           B．easy              C．regular           D．useful

4.The purpose of the text is to tell us that          .

A．we should have a good sleep

B．we should be fair to every friend

C．we should treat our friends well

D．we should always keep our rooms tidy

As you may expect, life in space is much different from life on earth. So of course people need some time to get used to it. How do they live, work and play up there?
Space food keeps getting more like the food we eat at home on the earth. In the past, astronauts could eat only freeze-dried food. But now the space station has water, microwave ovens and fridges. So astronauts can eat more usual kinds of food, like fruit, vegetables and ice cream!
All people in the ISS（国际空间站）have their own rooms. There’s no gravity, so they have to attach themselves to their beds, or they’ll float away! That may seem like a hard way to sleep, but astronauts say that sleeping in space is actually not too bad.
This is more important in space than on Earth. There’s not much gravity in space. Astronauts don’t stand up, sit down or walk in space, so their muscles don’t have to work much. They exercise on bikes and other machines for about two hours every day while they’re in space. In this way, they can still keep strong and healthy when they get back home.
Easy things like brushing your teeth can be hard in space with low gravity. Water doesn’t flow out of a tap, it floats in a bubble（水泡）! Astronauts used a special hose（软管）to take showers. And when they’re finished, they use a vacuum（真空的）hose to suck the dirty water off of their bodies. How do you go to the toilet in space? They use a special “air toilet”. It uses air, not water, to take everything away.
What do astronauts do when they aren’t working? They read books, play cards, listen to music or send e-mail to their friends and family. Sometimes they just sit and look out the window. Doesn’t sound like much fun? But what if you could see planet Earth out of your window, with a sunset or sunrise every 45 minutes?
1． Which of the following can be the title of this passage?
A. Life In Space.    B. Space Food.      C. Showers In Space.     D. A Visit To Space
2．From this passage we know that _______.
A. astronauts eat quite different food in space from what they eat on the earth
B. astronauts ate only fruit in space in the past
C. astronauts can only eat freeze-dried food now
D. astronauts can only eat fruit and vegetables now
3．Astronauts attach themselves to bed so as to ________.
A. keep themselves warm                                 B. prevent themselves from floating away
C. have a good sleep                                         D. feel better
4．Astronauts have to do exercise for two hours every day because ________.
A. they have nothing to do in space             B. they are told to do so
C. they do so to keep healthy                      D. they do so to prevent them from sleeping
5．From the last paragraph we can guess that ________.
A. the sun moves fast around the earth 
B. the earth circles round the sun very fast
C. the earth is very small
D. the spaceship circles round the earth once every 90 imnutes

Scientists say they now have proof to support the old-fashioned advice that it’s best to sleep on a problem．They say sleep strengthens the memory and helps the brain organize the masses of information we receive each day．

         The lead researcher Bob Stickgold at the Harvard Medical School said, “Sleep helps us draw rules from our experiences．It’s like knowing the difference between dogs and cats even if it’s hard to explain．”

         The US research team studied how well students remembered connections between words and symbols, reports New Scientist．They compared how the students performed if they had had a sleep between seeing the words and having the test, and if they had not slept．They found that people were better able to remember lists of related words after a night’s sleep than after the same time spent awake during the day．They also found it easier to remember themes that the words had in common．But they forgot around one in four more themes if they had been awake．

         Prof．John Groeger, of Survey University’s Sleep Research Centre, said, “People have been trying for years to find out what the purpose of sleep is, as we know that only certain parts of it have a restorative （促使康复的）value．”

         “We form and store huge numbers of experiences in the head every day, and sleep seems to be the way the brain deals with them all．”

1.The phrase “to sleep on a problem” in Paragraph 1 most likely means “________”．

    A．to pay full attention to a problem              

         B．to wait until the next day for a decision

    C．to sleep to forget a problem                  

         D．to have difficulty in sleeping

2.In the study by the US research team, students were asked to ________．

    A．put together words of similar meanings        

         B．remember words and their meanings

    C．show their knowledge of words                

         D．make up lists of related words

3.Which of the following may be easier to remember?

    A．Themes learned right before the test．        

         B．Rules from personal experiences．

    C．Words learned before a good sleep．  

         D．Ideas stored together in the brain．

4.What may be the importance of the research?

    A．It shows that sleep may help us manage information．

    B．It helps find out the common themes of words．

         C．It tells us that more sleep can improve health．

         D．It proves the value of old-fashioned advice．

He seems too tired today, and I wonder__________ he got a good sleep last night.

A．whenB．thatC．ifD．where