根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Every animal sleeps, but the reason for
this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die
within a month.
One idea is that sleep helps us
strengthen new memories. We know that, while awake, fresh
memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but
the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.
Support is growing for a theory that
sleep evolved so that connections between neurons(神经元) in the brain can be weakened
overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day.
Now we have the most direct evidence
yet that he is right. The synapses in the mice taken at the
end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before
sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.
If Tononi's theory is right, it would
explain why, when we miss a night's, we find it harder the next day to
concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for
new experiences.
Their research also suggests how we may
build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The
team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same
size. "You keep what matters,"
Tononi says.
A. We should also
try to sleep well the night before.
B. It's as if the
brain is preserving its most important memories.
C. Similarly, when
people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.
D. The processes
take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.
E. That's why
students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.
F. "Sleep is
the price we pay for learning," says Giulio Tononi, who developed the
idea.
G. Tononi's team
measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.
答案:【1】C【2】E【3】F【4】G【5】B