We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people. In his book Counting Sheep, Paul Martin - a behavioural biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which does not give sleeping the importance it deserves. Modern society has invented reasons not to sleep. We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours. We spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work.
Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV and the Internet tempt us away from our beds. When we need more time for work or pleasure, the easy solution is to sleep less. The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half to feel at their best. Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they live in an almost permanent state of'sleep debt'.
Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend on the hours of daylight. People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall. But nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life) and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock. During the day caffeine, the world's most popular drug, helps to keep us awake. 75% of the world's population habitually consume caffeine, which up to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation.
What does a chronic lack of sleep do to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work. This has serious Implications for society in general. Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially when they are on'night call', and may got less than three hours'sleep. Lack of sleep can seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions. Tired engineers, in the early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophic results. On our roads and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year. Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn't As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible, Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight hours a night
Which of the following would the writer of the passage approve of?
Hãy suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiĐiều nào sau đây tác giả bài viết sẽ đồng tình
A. Cả lái xe uổng rượu say và người thiếu ngủ đều phải bị phê phán
B. Không có lí do gì để chỉ trích những người vô trách nhiệm trong cộng đồng của chúng ta.
C. Chúng ta vẫn có thể hoạt động tốt khi chúng ta thiếu ngủ
D. Thế giới sẽ là nơi an toàn hơn nếu không có những người nghiện rượu.
Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn't. As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible. (Những người lái xe mệt mỏi thì nguy hiểm như những người lái xe uống say. Tuy nhiên, lái xe khi uống rượu vi phạm pháp luật còn lái xe khi kiệt sức thì không. Theo Paul Martin, thật là nực cười khi chúng ra ngưỡng mộ những người làm tốt khi ít ngủ mà không phê phán họ vì thiếu trách nhiệm)
=> A (đối với tác giả, việc lái xe khi kiệt sức cũng đáng lên án như việc lái xe uống rượu say)