16.Few of us make money by losing sleep.But three graduate students at Brown University in Providence built a company around sleep deprivation (睡眠不足).
Jason Donahue,Ben Rubin and Eric Shashoua were working late nights in Brown's business and engineering schools.They began thinking about ways to sleep better.They discovered they weren't alone in burning the midnight oil.Around 20% of Americans get less than six hours of rest a night.
The friends imagined a smart alarm clock that could track how much time people spend in the most restorative (有回復(fù)作用的) stages of the sleep cycle:REM (rapid eye movement) and deep sleep.What would it cost to design such a thing?Five years of research,20 employees,$14 million and a whole lot of doubting from investors and scientists.
Their company,Zeo,based in Newton,Mass,launched its product in June,2009.The Zeo device uses a headband with tiny sensors (傳感器) that scan your brain for signs of four sleep states-REM,light,deep and waking sleep.The smart alarm clock displays a graph of your sleep pattern and wakes you as you're not in REM sleep (which is when you're least groggy).In the morning you can upload the data to the company's Web site,and so track your sleep over time.Most of the feedback comes in the form of Zeo's ZQ score showing how well you've slept.
"Zeo allows people to unlock this black box of sleep,"says Dave Dickinson,a health-care CEO.
Whether any of this actually improves sleep is up to the consumer,who will also need to make lifestyle changes like cutting out alcohol before bedtime or caffeine after 3 pm.
For now the company is selling Zeo online only.Dickinson also plans to spread it to countries such as Australia,where sleep deprivation approaches US levels.
29.Who will support Zeo?B
A.People full of imagination.
B.People suffering sleeping problems.
C.People having access to the Internet.
D.People having bad lifestyles.
30.To design the Zeo device,the three graduate studentsA.
A.spent much time and money
B.were widely supported by scientists
C.worked by themselves all the time
D.a(chǎn)ttracted many investors
31.What can we know from the passage?B
A.Zeo has a direct effect on users'lifestyles.
B.It needs more personal efforts to make Zeo function better.
C.A large quantity of Zeo devices have been sold in Australia.
D.Consumers can go to the Zeo company to purchase Zeo in person.
分析 百分之六十的美國(guó)人睡眠時(shí)間少于6小時(shí),因此有人發(fā)明了Zeo這個(gè)睡眠監(jiān)測(cè)器,它可以分析人們的睡眠,提高睡眠質(zhì)量.
解答 29.B.理解推斷題.由倒數(shù)第二段Zeo allows people to unlock this black box of sleep可知,Zeo可以幫助人們探索睡眠的奧秘,因此適合有睡眠問題的人,故選B.
30.A.理解推斷題.由第三段Five years of research,20 employees,$14 million and a whole lot of doubting from investors and scientists.可知做這項(xiàng)工作花費(fèi)了大量人力物力財(cái)力,故選A
31.B.理解推斷題.由倒數(shù)第三段Whether any of this actually improves sleep is up to the consumer,who will also need to make lifestyle changes like cutting out alcohol before bedtime or caffeine after 3 pm,是否能提高睡眠質(zhì)量取決于消費(fèi)者,他們還需要改變生活方式,比如在睡前喝掉酒精,或者下午3點(diǎn)后喝咖啡.可知還需要個(gè)人的努力,故選B.
點(diǎn)評(píng) 推理判斷題要以表面文字為前提,以具體事實(shí)為依據(jù)進(jìn)行推理,做出判斷.這種推理方式比較直接,考生只要弄清事實(shí),即可結(jié)合上下文推斷出合理的結(jié)論.