Text 3 Text 3 Before a big exam, a sound night’s sleep will do you better than poring over textbooks. That, at least, is the folk wisdom. And science, in the form of behavioral psychology, supports that wisdom.But such behavioral studies cannot distinguish between two competing theories of why sleep is good for the memory. One says that sleep is when permanent memories form. The other says that they are actually formed during the day, but then“edited”at night, to flush away what is superfluous. To tell the difference, it is necessary to look into the brain of a sleeping person, and that is hard. But after a decade of painstaking work, a team led by Pierre Maquet at Liege University in Belgium has managed to do it. The particular stage of sleep in which the Belgian group is interested is rapid eye movement(REM)sleep, when brain and body are active, heart rate and blood pressure increase, the eyes move back and forth behind the eyelids as if watching a movie, and brainwave traces resemble those of wakefulness. It is during this period of sleep that people are most likely to relive events of the previous day in dreams. Dr. Maquet used an electronic device called PET to study the brains of people as they practiced a task during the day, and as they slept during the following night. The task required them to press a button as fast as possible, in response to a light coming on in one of six positions. As they learnt how to do this, their response times got faster. What they did not know was that the appearance of the lights sometimes followed a pattern—what is referred to as “artificial grammar”. Yet the reductions in response time showed that they learnt faster when the pattern was present than when there was not. What is more, those with more to learn(i. e. the“grammar”, as well as the mechanical task of pushing the button)have more active brains. The“editing”theory would not predict that, since the number of irrelevant stimuli would be the same in each case. And to eliminate any doubts that the experimental subjects were learning as opposed to unlearning, their response times when they woke up were even quicker than when they went to sleep. The team, therefore, concluded that the nerve connections involved in memory are reinforced through reactivation during REM sleep, particularly if the brain detects an inherent structure in the material being learnt. So now, on the eve of that crucial test, maths students can sleep soundly in the knowledge that what they will remember the next day are the basic rules of algebra and not the incoherent talk from the radio next door. What advice might Maquet give to those who have a crucial test the next day
A. Memorizing grammar with great efforts.
B. Study textbooks with close attention.
C. Have their brain images recorded.
D. Enjoy their sleep at night soundly.
Text 2 Text 2 Defenders of special protective labor legislation for women often maintain that eliminating such laws would destroy the fruits of a century-long struggle for the protection of women workers. Even a brief examination of the historic practice of courts and employers would show that the fruit of such laws has been bitter; they are, in practice, more of a curse than a blessing. Sex-defined protective laws have often been based on stereotypical assumptions concerning women’s needs and abilities, and employers have frequently used them as legal excuses for discriminating against women. After the Second World War, for example, businesses and government sought to persuade women to vacate jobs in factories, thus making room in the labor force for returning veterans. The revival or passage of state laws limiting the daily or weekly work hours of women conveniently accomplished this. Employers had only to declare that overtime hours were a necessary condition of employment or promotion in their factory, and women could be quite legally fired, refused jobs, or kept at low wage levels, all in the name of“protecting”their health. By validating such laws when they are challenged by lawsuits, the courts have colluded over the years in establishing different, 1ess advantageous employment terms for women than for men, thus reducing women’s competitiveness on the job market. At the same time, even the most well-intentioned lawmakers, courts, and employers have often been blind to the real needs of women. The lawmakers and the courts continue to permit employers to offer employee health insurance plans that cover all known human medical disabilities except those relating to pregnancy and childbirth. Finally, labor laws protecting only special groups are often ineffective at protecting the workers who are actually in the workplace. Some chemicals, for example, pose reproductive risks for women of childbearing years;manufacturers using the chemicals comply with laws protecting women against these hazards by refusing to hire them. Thus the sex-defined legislation protects the hypothetical female worker, but has no effect whatever on the safety of any actual employee. The health risks to male employees in such industries cannot be negligible. since chemicals toxic enough to cause birth defects in fetuses or sterility in women are presumably harmful to the human metabolism. Protective laws aimed at changing production materials or techniques in order to reduce such hazards would benefit all employees without discriminating against any. In sum, protective labor laws for women are discriminatory and do not meet their intended purpose. Legislators should recognize that women are in the work force to stay, and that their needs—good health care. a decent wage,and a safe workplace—are the needs of all workers. Laws that ignore these facts violate women’s rights for equal protection in employment. According to the passage, special labor laws protecting women workers tend generally to have which of the following effects
A. They tend to modify the stereotypes employees often hold concerning women.
B. They increase the advantage to employers of hiring men instead of women, making it less likely that women will be hired.
C. They decrease the likelihood that employers will offer more protection to women workers than that which is absolutely required by law.
D. They increase the tendency of employers to deny health insurance and disability plans to women workers.
Part AYou will hear a conversation. As you listen, answer Questions 1 to 10 by circling A or B. You will hear the conversation ONLY ONCE. Paul could reach all the switches because they Were originally installed at the right height of him.
A. 对
B. 错
Part A Read the following texts and answer the questions which accompany them by choosing A, B, C or D. Text 1 Text1 Today TV audiences all over the world are accustomed to the sight of American astronauts in tip-top condition, with fair hair, crew-cuts, good teeth, an uncomplicated sense of humour and a severely limited non-technical vocabulary. What marks out an astronaut from his earthbound fellow human beings is something of a difficult problem. Should you wish to interview him, you must apply beforehand, and you must be prepared for a longish wait, even if your application meets with success. It is. in any case, out of the question to interview an astronaut about his family life or personal activities, because all the astronauts have contracts with an American magazine under conditions forbidding any unauthorized disclosures about their private lives. Certain obvious qualifies are needed. Anyone who would be a spaceman must be in perfect health, must have powers of concentration(since work inside a spacecraft is exceptionally demanding)and must have considerable courage. Again, space-work calls for dedication. Courage and dedication are particularly essential. In the well-known case of the Challenger seven crew members lost their lives in space because of the faulty equipment in the shuttle. Another must be outstanding scientific expertise. It goes without saying that they all have to have professional aeronautical qualifications and experience. A striking feature of the astronauts is their ages. For the younger man, in his twenties, say, space is out. Only one of the fifty men working for NASA in 1970 was under 30. The oldest astronaut to date is Alan Shepard, America’s first man in space, who, at nearly fifty, was also the man who captained Apollo 13. The average age is the late thirties. The crew members of Apollo 11 were all born well before the Second World War. In 1986 the Challenger astronauts had an average age of 39. The range was from 35 to 46. In a society where marital continuity is not always exhibited, the astronauts’record in this respect hits you in the eye. Of all the married men in NASA group, only two or three are divorced from their wives. Mind you. it is hard to tell whether something in the basic character of an astronaut encourages fidelity or whether the selection process demands that a candidate should be happily married. The NASA astronauts live in unattractive small communities dotted here and there around the base in Texas. You would expect them to find their friends from among their professional associates, but this is not the case. Rather, they prefer to make friends with the normal folk in their districts. Astronauts, like everybody else, must get fed up with talking shop all the time, and whereas they are indeed an elite, their daily life outside work should be as normal as possible, if only for the sake of their families. As for the astronauts’political leanings, they seem to be towards the right. This may be due to the fact that a large proportion of the astronauts have a military background. On the other hand, it could be just coincidence. Which of the statements is NOT true
Astronauts have a good job which demands high.
B. The divorce rate in NASA is very low.
C. The NASA astronauts mostly find friends from among their work.
D. There is no younger man in his twenties in the spaceship.