Sleep is very important. A person who does not sleep dies faster than a person who does not eat. We spend about a third(
)of our lives in sleep. That’s about 121 days a year!
How much sleep do we need? We are all different. A baby needs 16 hours of sleep every day. Children of 6 to 12 years of age need an average(平均)of 10 to 12 hours of sleep. Teenagers need 9 to 10 hours of sleep. An adult needs an average of 7 to 8 hours a day. There are some people who need only 3 hours of sleep; others need 10 hours of sleep. After the age of 50, the average sleep time goes down to 6.5 hours a day. We need less sleep as we get older.
About one in three Americans has a problem with sleep. Many of these people cannot fall asleep. The name for this problem is
insomnia. Some people say, “I didn’t sleep all night.” But that’s not really true. They may sleep lightly and wake up several times. In the morning, they only remember the time they were awake, so they think they were awake all night.
This is not a new problem. Many famous people in history had insomnia. Some of these people had special ideas to make themselves sleep. Benjamin Franklin had four beds. He moved from one to the other to fall asleep. Mark Twain had a different way. He lay on his side across the end of the bed!
小题1:How long do we spend in sleep a year?
| A．Less than three months. | B．More than five months. |
| C．About four months. | D．Less than 2000 hours. |
小题2:If you are thirteen years old, you need at least __________ hours of sleep.
小题3:What does the underlined word “insomnia” mean in this passage?
| A．No sleep. | B．Fast sleep. | C．Slow sleep. | D．Sleep with many dreams. |
小题4:Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．We will die soon if we don’t sleep well. |
| B．The older we get, the less sleep we need. |
| C．We can tell a person’s age from his sleep time. |
| D．Famous people move from one bed to the other to fall asleep. |
小题5:Which would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Sleep less | B．Go to sleep |
| C．Age and sleep time | D．Famous people and sleep |