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Complete the text using the indefinite article ("a" or "an"), the definite article ("the") or no article ("-").

DO WE REALLY NEED TO SLEEP?

Sleep is __ powerful influence on all our lives, and __ 60-year-old person has spent almost

twenty years asleep. The traditional theory about sleep is that our brain needs to rest for

__ several hours to refresh itself and to 'file' in our memory everything that has happened to

us during the day. We can put off sleeping for __ limited period, for instance if we go to __ all-night party, but sooner or later we have to sleep. If we are not allowed to sleep, we suffer hallucinations , and eventually die.
However, Dr Ray Meddis has a fascinating new theory. He suggests that we don't really need to sleep at all. We sleep only because our brain is 'programmed' to make us do so. He believes that the sleep instinct originates from prehistoric times. Primitive man was 'programmed' to sleep to protect himself from the darkness with its many dangers. Animals seem to have been similarly programmed. __ number of hours they sleep does not depend on physical activity but on how much time they need to eat. Horses, cows and __ elephants, for example, which spend many hours eating, sleep only 2 or 3 hours. Cats, on __ other hand, who have __ lot of spare time, sleep for 14 hours __ day, more than half of their lives.
According to Dr Meddis, the 'tiredness' we feel at the end of the day is produced by __ chemical mechanism in the brain which makes us sleep. We are 'programmed' to feel 'tired' or 'sleepy' at __ midnight, even if we have spent the day relaxing on the beach or doing nothing. Dr Meddis believes that the unpleasant symptoms we suffer when we don't sleep enough are not because we have not rested but because we have disobeyed our brain's programming. __ longer we don't sleep, __ worse we feel. But Dr Meddis believes that if scientists could locate and 'turn off' the sleep mechanism in our brain that produces tiredness, we could live completely normal and healthy lives without sleeping.
So is sleeping __ waste of time? Well, even Dr Meddis does not deny the great psychological value of sleep, and he asks us, "if scientists invented __ pill which, if you took it, would keep you awake for ever, would you take it?" 4) answer this question in writing in your notebook

 


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1105


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