It is commonly accepted in American society that too much sleep is()
A. unreasonable B. criminal C. harmful D. costly
A.
American society is not nap (午睡) friendly. In fact, says David Dinges, a sleep specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "There’s even a prohibition against admitting we need sleep". Nobody wants to be caught napping or found asleep at work. To quote a proverb: "Some sleep five hours, nature requires seven, laziness nine and wickedness eleven."
B.
Wrong. The way not to fall asleep at work is to take naps when you need them. "We have to totally change our attitude toward napping", says Dr. William Dement of Stanford University, the godfather of sleep research.
C.
Last year a national commission led by Dement identified an" American sleep debt "which one member said was important as the national debt. The commission was concerned about the ers of sleepness: people causing industrial accidents or falling asleep while driving. This may be why we have a new sleep policy in the White House. According to recent reports, president Clinton is trying to take a half-hour snooze (打瞌睡) every afternoon.
D.
About 60 percent of American s nap when given the opportunity. We seem to have "a midafternoon quiet phase" also called "a secondary sleep gate". Sleeping 15 minutes to two hours in the early afternoon can reduce stress and make us refreshed. Clearly, we were born to nap.
E.
We superstars of Snooze don’t nap to replace lost shut-eye or to prepare for a night shift. Rather,we "snack" on sleep, whenever, wherever and at whatever time we feel like it. I myself have napped in buses, cars, planes and on boats; on floors and beds; and in libraries, offices and museums.
You really have to get very old before you realize you’re old. I’m in my middle fifties and I don’t feel (21) yet. However, sometimes I look back at my childhood and (22) things to the way life is for (23) kids. Some things have certainly changed.
B.
One area of change is (24) . Some changes have been improvements. Some changes, on the other hand, have been (25) .
C.
When I started school, most people didn’t have a television; TV was just beginning to get (26) . My father decided to go all out and buy a 16 inch black and white Motorola (27) . I still re-member watching the Lone Ranger save people from the (28) guys on that awesome electronic ma- chine. That was exciting!
D.
Now, (29) have larger pictures in full color. The pictures are clearer and the sound is much more (30) . The new high definition sets are made to rival (31) screens.
E.
The variety and quantity of programming has (32) greatly. There are hundreds of channels and more shows than one person could ever watch. There are many fine entertainment and educational (33) . There’s also a lot of garbage, stuff that most (34) don’t want their kids exposed to. Overall, we have more choices, and that is good.
F.
I wonder what (35) will be like when today’s kids are my age.