Question

It's every parent's worst nightmare. 1.. Now scientists say they have found a better way to wake up sleeping youngsters. Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of their mother's voice is about three times more likely to wake them than a traditional alarm. Moreover, they can escape more quickly.

Dr Gary Smith, a co－author of the research from the Nationwide Children's hospital in Ohio and his colleagues report how they compared the effects of four different smoke alarms on 176 children aged between 5 and 12 years old.2.. While one alarm featured a high－pitched beep, the other three featured the voice of the child's mother calling either the child's name, giving instructions such as: “Wake up! Leave the room！”， or both. Each child slept in a lab－based room that resembled a real bedroom, and was shown how to escape from the room before they went to bed. They each experienced all four alarms—the order of which was chosen randomly.

3.. About 90% of children woke for a vocal alarm compared with just over 53% for the traditional alarm. In addition, the children shook off their sleep faster, with a median(中位数) value of two seconds for the voice alarm compared with more than two and a half minutes for the traditional alarm.4.．

Prof Niamh Nic Daéid, director of the Leverhulme Research Centre at the University of Dundee, said the research supported by her team found a human voice combined with a low－frequency pulsing tone was far more effective in waking children than a traditional high－pitched alarm.5.， which might have made them more responsive to an alarm, while more work was needed to explore whether other familiar sounds, such as a dog barking, might also prove effective in waking up children.

A. But she noted that the latest study involved children sleeping in a location other than their own bedroom

B. But she said it was important to look at developing better alarms

C. None of them had hearing difficulties or were taking any medication that affected their sleep

D. The results show that voice alarms appear to be more effective than high－pitched beeps

E. What's more, it does so faster and is linked to a quicker escape

F. There's a fire in the house; the alarms are beeping, but the children are in deep sleep

G. Similarly, escape times were longer in the cases of the beeping alarms

Answer

1. F

2. C

3. D

4. G

5. A

【解析】

本文属于说明文范畴，在文中作者介绍了父母应该如何和处于青春叛逆期的孩子进行沟通交流。作者认为青春期的孩子独立意识增强，建议家长在和孩子谈话时不要过于直接，而且孩子在不愿意讲的时候，也不要一再地追问。总之在尊重孩子的基础上家长能够和青春期的孩子保持良好的关系。

1.上文提示“这是每个父母最糟糕的噩梦。”承接上文，F项There's a fire in the house; the alarms are beeping, but the children are in deep sleep（房子里着火了;警报响了，但孩子们仍在熟睡。）切题。故选F。

2.上文提示“Gary Smith博士和他的同事报告了他们是如何比较四种不同烟雾报警器对176名5到12岁儿童的影响的。”承接上文，C项None of them had hearing difficulties or were taking any medication that affected their sleep（他们都没有听力障碍，也没有服用任何影响睡眠的药物。）切题。该项中的them指代的是上文中的between 5 and 12 years old，故选C。

3.下文提示“大约90%的孩子醒来是为了发出声音警报，而传统的闹钟只有53%多一点。”承接下文，D项 The results show that voice alarms appear to be more effective than high－pitched beeps（结果表明,声音警报似乎比高音哔哔声更有效。）切题。故选D。

4.上文提示“此外，孩子们从睡眠中醒来的速度更快，语音闹钟的中值为2秒，而传统闹钟的中值超过了2.5分钟。”承接上文，G项Similarly, escape times were longer in the cases of the beeping alarms（类似地，在蜂鸣声警报的情况下，逃生时间更长。）切题。故选G。

5.根据后半句提示“这可能会使他们对警报反应更灵敏，同时还需要做更多的工作来探索其他熟悉的声音，比如狗叫声，是否也能有效地唤醒孩子们。”承接后半句，A项But she noted that the latest study involved children sleeping in a location other than their own bedroom（但她指出，最新的研究涉及到孩子们睡在自己卧室以外的地方。）切题。后半句中的which指的是该项内容，是非限制性定语从句，故答案为A。