第四期 2006年12月真题 文章(4/6)

Passage One

Reducing the amount of sleep students get at night has a direct impact on their performance at school during the day.

According to classroom teachers,

elementary and middle school students who stay up late exhibit more learning and attention problems.

This has been shown by Brown Medical School and Bradley Hospital research.

In the study, teachers were not told the amount of sleep students received when completing weekly performance reports.

Yet they rated the students who had received eight hours or less as having the most trouble recalling old material,

learning new lessons, and completing high-quality work.

Teachers also reported that these students had more difficulty paying attention.

The experiment is the first to ask teachers to report on the effects of sleep deficiency in children.

"Just staying up late can cause increased academic difficulty and attention problems for otherwise healthy,

well-functioning kids,"said Garharn Forllone, the study's lead author,

"So the results provide professionals and parents with a clear message:

When a child is having learning and attention problems,the issue of sleep has to be taken into consideration."

"If we don't ask about sleep and try to improve sleep patterns in kids' struggling academically,

then we aren't doing our job," Forllone said."For parents," he said,

"the message is simple: Getting kids to bed on time is as important as getting them to school on time."

Passage Two

Patricia Pania never wanted to be a national public figure.

All she wanted to be was a mother and homemaker.

But her life was turned upside down when a motorist,distracted by his cell phone,

ran a stop sign and crashed into the side of her car.

The impact killed her two-year-old daughter.

Four months later,Pania reluctantly but courageously decided to try to educate the public

and to fight for laws to ban drivers from using cell phones while a car is moving.

She wanted to save other children from what happened to her daughter.

In her first speech, Pania got off to a shaky start.

She was visibly trembling and her voice was soft and uncertain.

But as she got into her speech, a dramatic transformation took place.

She stopped shaking and spoke with a strong voice.

For the rest of her talk, she was a forceful and compelling speaker.

She wanted everyone in the audience to know what she knew without having to learn it from a personal tragedy.

Many in the audience were moved to tears, and to action.

In subsequent presentations, Pania gained reputation as a highly effective speaker.

Her appearance on a talk show was broadcast three times,transmitting her message to over 14 million people.

Her campaign increased public awareness of the problem and prompted over 300 cities

and several states to consider restrictions on cell phone use.