It is National Sleep Awareness Week and reflecting on the importance of this basic act is timely. As a preventive cardiologist(心脏病专家), I work with patients who want to improve their health and lengthen their lives. Many of them have major risk factors for heart disease; others already have full－blown heart disease or have experienced a heart attack.
Traditionally, patients who want to improve their heart health have received four main suggestions from their doctors: Eat a healthy diet, get more exercise, quit smoking, and enjoy proper amounts of alcohol. Plenty of research backs up these four pieces of advice: Large studies have found that making improvements in these four areas lowers the chance of dying of heart disease by 67 percent.
But lately, researchers are starting to recognize that there should be five recommendations on that list, not just four. They’re discovering that getting enough sleep is a powerful health protector as well. When researchers include enough sleep in their studies as a fifth cardio－preventive behavior change, they find that it lowers the chance of dying of heart disease even more: Adding a good seven hours of sleep a night in addition to making positive changes in diet, exercise, smoking, and alcohol intake lowers the chance of dying of heart disease by 83 percent.
When that news started coming out, doctors began tagging(添加) sleep onto their list of recommended health behavior changes. But I don’t think sleep belongs at the bottom of the list. I think it should be at the top! I believe that getting enough sleep—at least seven to eight hours per night for most people—is the most important health behavior change you can make to improve the health of your heart and your overall health.
Sure, I’d prefer that everyone make all of the big five lifestyle changes, but if I could only choose one, I’d pick sleep because when you are well－rested, you have more power to make the right choices about what you eat and drink, and you have more energy to exercise and you have the resilience you need to kick bad habits such as smoking and overeating. But when you’re exhausted, everything in life is more difficult.
【解题导语】 本文是一篇说明文。作为一名心脏病学专家，作者认为充足的睡眠对我们的心脏健康最为重要。
1．What does plenty of research show about the 4 common suggestions?
A．They should be reconsidered.
B．They are the best ways found so far.
C．They are not as helpful as expected.
D．They help improve people’s health.
D 解析：细节理解题。由第二段中的Large studies have found that making improvements in these four areas lowers the chance of dying of heart disease by 67 percent.可知，大量研究表明，这四个建议对人们的健康有益。
2．What does the latest research show?
A．Various factors lead to good heart health.
B．Enough sleep contributes to good heart health.
C．Seven hours’ sleep is most important to the heart.
D．The chance of dying of heart disease has dropped.
B 解析：细节理解题。由第三段中的When researchers include enough sleep in their studies as a fifth cardio－preventive behavior change, they find that it lowers the chance of dying of heart disease even more可知，最新研究表明，充足的睡眠对心脏健康更重要。
3．What was the doctors’ reaction to the news on sleep?
A．They tried to ignore it.
B．They discussed it publicly.
C．They thought it made sense.
D．They totally changed their mind.
C 解析：推理判断题。由第四段中的When that news started coming out, doctors began tagging(添加) sleep onto their list of recommended health behavior changes.可知，医生们认可该消息。
4．What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?
A．What the importance of a healthy lifestyle is.
B．Why different factors need to work together.
C．What prevents people from living healthily.
D．Why the author makes sleep his No.1 suggestion.
D 解析：段落大意题。在最后一段，作者认为充足的睡眠是五个建议中最重要的，对此，他给出了自己的理由。
