题目内容
The beginning of our sleep-deficit crisis can be traced to the invention of the light bulb a century ago. From diary entries and other personal accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, sleep scientists have reached the conclusion that the average person used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night. "The best sleep habits once were forced on us, when we had nothing to do in the evening down on the farm, and it was dark." By the 1950s and 1960s, that sleep schedule had been reduced dramatically, to between 7.5 and eight hours, and most people had to wake to an alarm clock. "People cheat on their sleep, and they don't even realize they're doing it." says Dr. David. "They think they are okay, because they can get by on 6.5 hours, when they really need 7.5, eight or even more to feel ideally vigorous."
Perhaps the most merciless robber of sleep, researchers say, is the complexity of the day. Whenever pressures from work, family, friends and community mount, many people consider sleep the least expensive item on his program. "In our society, you're considered dynamic if you say you only need 5.5 hours' sleep. If you've got to sleep 8.5 hours, people think you lack drive and ambition."
To determine the consequences of sleep deficit, researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests requiring them, for instance, to add columns of numbers or recall a passage read to them only minutes earlier. "We've found that if you're in sleep deficit, performance suffers," says Dr. David. "Short-term memory is weakened, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate."
People in the 18th and 19th centuries used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night because they had ______.
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While still in its early stages, welfare reform. has already been judged a great success in many states—at least in getting people off welfare. It's estimated that more than 2 million people have left the rolls since 1994.
In the past four years, welfare rolls in Athens County have been cut in half. But 70 per cent of the people who left in the past two years took jobs that paid less than ＄6 an hour. The result: the Athens County poverty rate still remains at mote than 30 percent-twice the national average.
For advocates for the poor, that's an indication of much more needs to be done.
"More people are getting jobs, but it's not making their lives any better," says Kathy Lairn, a policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
A center analysis of US Census data nationwide found that between 1995 and 1996, a greater percentage of single, female-headed household were earning money on-their own, but that average income for these households actually went down.
But for many, the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well without government aid as they did with it is in itself a huge victory.
"Welfare was a poison. It was a toxin that was poisoning the family," says Robert Rector, a welfare-reform. policy analyst. "The reform. is changing the moral climate in low-income communities. It's beginning to rebuild the work ethic, which is much more important."
Mr. Rector and others argued that once "the habit of dependency is cracked," then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards.
From the passage, it can be seen that the author ______.
Old Americans are extremely reluctant to buy on ______ and likely to save as much money as
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文：The following is part of an interview with Rod Paige, Secretary of Education of UNITED STATES.
STARNES: Well, Secretary, thank you very much for spending some time with us this afternoon.
SECRETARY: Oh, you're quite welcome. Thank you for all the interest.
STARNES: Well, Secretary, we'd like talk about the state of education in America. So I guess we-let's start off just by-just giving us your general impression of the state of education in America.
SECRETARY: I think our educational system is underperforming and leaving large numbers of children behind, especially minority children, inner-city children, and some rural children. Some of it tracks along the lines of our family structures, especially those families that have some vulnerabilities or weaknesses so that education for that child is, I think, concurrently weakened as well. And we need to find a way. And I think we have found a way to make sure that none of these children are left behind either. And the President's vision for that is called "No Child Left Behind." And that bill passed theCongress and was signed last year. We're one year into it now and I think that it is going to be a savior for a lot of kids who are otherwise left behind.
STARNES: Secretary, we've seen a number of parents pulling their children out of public schools and home-schooling them or sending them to private schools. Can you see any justification on why they're doing that？
SECRETARY: Absolutely. No child should be tied to a school that's failing them. It is one of the, I think, most grievous sins that we. have in the United States as far as school is concerned, that is insisting that a child attends a school that's failing them. A child should be free to-a parent should be free to select a school that best meets that child's needs, whether it's private or whether it's public or whether it's a cyher-school or whether it's home schooling or whatever. There will be a complex matrix of educational delivery systems, which includes all these different delivery systems. And private schools have a wonderful track record. There's a vast body of research from the University of Chicago and elsewhere that indicate that private schools offer a high-quality education to some low- income students in inner-city settings. So it's a wonderful part of our educational system.
STARNES: But why do you think adversaries of the Administration are against letting students go to these types of schools？
SECRETARY: Well, I think most people in this Administration would be absolutely for parents having wide options and choices to make decisions for their child's school site. The politics of it is what interferes with it. And we need the kind of political support in order to get that accomplished through the federal system that we operate in. I don't think it's that we don't want to have that. We do want to have it.
STARNES: How would you respond to the complaint the President was too religious？ And even the Democrats have said that he has too much religion or religiosity. What would you say to those critics？
SECRETARY: I would offer them my prayers.
STARNES: As the leader of the nation's education system, how do you maintain-how do you not let it all get to you？ It's a huge responsibility you have.
SECRETARY: Well, I think faith is a good response to that. But I don't think my job is to solve all education problems in the world. My job is to work towards the right solutions and make sure I conduct myself properly. It's kind of like the battle's never won, only fought well.
Scientists say it may be five or ten years ______ it is possible to test this medicine on
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