2011春季口译听力上半场阅读第四篇为讲座，话题围绕睡眠问题展开，内容较为学术。主要提到了三种睡眠问题，分别是睡眠呼吸暂停sleep Apnea，嗜睡症narcolepsy 和失眠insomnia.又分别讲了每种问题的症状、危害以及治疗办法。睡眠问题是口译出现较多的话题之一。文章难度偏高。

So is everyone awake? I guess that’s a good question that starts an early morning lecture about sleep. Seriously how many of you feel you didn’t get enough sleep last night? Raise your hands. Hum, about a third of you. That’s interesting. Because that shows that you are not so different from the population in general, about 30% of the adults say they frequently don’t feel rested when they wake up in the morning. And why is that? Well in most cases is because they stay up too late parting or watching TV. But in a small percentage of cases, they could be suffering from a sleep disorder. A condition that interferes with a person’s ability to sleep normally. There are many different times of sleep disorders. But the three that I want to describe today are called sleep Apnea, narcolepsy and insomnia.
Ok, the first disorder I listed is Apnea, that’s a-p-m-e-a. People with sleep apnea stop breathing. Sometimes 10 seconds or longer, and not just once. It can happens several hundred times a night. Each time this happens, they wake up and go right back to sleep. So their sleep is constantly interrupted. But in the morning, they don’t remember waking up. They just feel tired and sleepy. Then how do you know if you have this problem? The usual symptoms are heavy breathing and snoring combining with feeling tired all the time. The cause of this problem is that air can’t go into and out of the nose or mouth usually because the throat is too relaxed. Consequently the treatment is very simple. The person wears a soft mask, attached to a machine that helps to regulate his or her breathing through out the night. In strange cases of apnea, surgery maybe necessary.
The Second sleep disorder that I want to describe today is called narcolepsy. That spelled n-a-r-c-o-l-e-p-s-y. Perhaps you’ve seen a movie in which people are sitting at a table eating and talking. And suddenly one person just falls over. Perhaps his face falls into his soup.
It’s funny in a movie, but in reality this could be a symptom of narcolepsy. Narcoleptic get a sudden attack of sleep in the middle of the day any time any place. They can’t control it. They simply fall asleep for brief periods of time. By the way this Disorder appears to be particularly frequent among students enrolled in at eight a.m. classes. But seriously, narcolepsy can’t be quiet scary. The cause is high levels of certain chemicals in the part of the brain that regulate sleep. Once narcolepsy is diagnosed, it’s usually treated successfully with medication. Sleep Apnea and narcolepsy are serious problems. But they are rare conditions.
In contrast, the third sleep disorder I want to discuss insomnia is quiet common. Insomnia means the difficulty either falling asleep or staying asleep. Almost everybody has insomnia once in a while. But I want to talk about chronic insomnia, which is when sleeping becomes difficult for weeks, months or years at a time. The Cause could be either psychotically or physical. Most often is psychological. That is it caused by stress. You know worrying about problems at work or at home and so on. Or the cause could be physical, such as too much caffeine or nicotine in the body. Both of these chemicals are stimulus that can keep you from sleeping. Stimulus are substances that make you feel awake and energetic. As I said Coffee and cigarettes are both stimulus. Now that brings us to treatment for insomnia. Obviously, if you have trouble sleeping, the first thing you should do is avoid Coffee, tea and cigarettes in the evening. You should also avoid alcohol. Many people say that a glass of beer or wine help them sleeping. And that maybe true once in a while. But drinking alcohol every night is dangerous. But after a while it starts working, as everyone knows alcohol is addicted. You should also avoid sleeping pills for the same reason because they are addicted. These are the things you shouldn’t do if you have insomnia. Now what should you do?

Question 16-20
16. According to the lecture, about what percentage adults say that they often don’t feel rested when they wake up in the morning?
17. The lecture discusses several types of sleep disorder, which of the following is not one of these disorders?
18. Which of the following is not a usual symptom for sleep insomnia?
19. Which of the following statements is true with people who suffer from narcolepsy?
20 What can we learn about chronic insomnia?