雅思阅读全真 Passage · 人工照明与人类睡眠（真实难度）
本篇按真实雅思阅读难度设计：约 850 词学术文章、4 种题型混合、含同义替换与干扰项。建议限时 20 分钟完成。
Reading Passage
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
The Long Darkness: Artificial Light and the History of Human Sleep
A. For most of human history, the night was a place to be feared and endured, not inhabited. Before the widespread use of artificial lighting, people rose and retired with the sun. In rural communities across pre-industrial Europe and North America, the day was structured around daylight hours, and the hours after dusk were devoted to rest, prayer, or limited domestic tasks by the meagre glow of the hearth. Sleep, in this context, was less a single contiguous block than a fragmented, environment-dependent activity, shaped by temperature, season and labour.
B. The first serious challenge to this natural rhythm arrived with the gaslight era of the nineteenth century. Gas illumination made cities permanently brighter and, crucially, allowed factories, shops and places of entertainment to operate long after sunset. Historians argue that this was the moment when sleep first became contested as a resource. As the workday began to stretch beyond daylight hours, the hours available for sleep shrank correspondingly. Yet gaslight was still dim, and the soot and fumes it produced made it impractical for most ordinary households.
C. The transformation accelerated dramatically with the electric light bulb. Patented in 1879, Edison's invention was cheap, clean and scalable, and within a single generation it had spread through the homes of the industrialised world. For the first time, the boundary between day and night became a matter of choice. Working late, socialising late, studying late — all became possible without obvious physical penalty. What few contemporaries appreciated was that exposure to light after dusk carries a biological cost: it suppresses the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates the body's circadian rhythm.
D. This cost has been magnified in the twenty-first century by the spread of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and, in particular, the screens of smartphones, laptops and tablets. Unlike the warm, red-rich light of the candle or the low-pressure sodium lamp, LED light is heavily weighted towards the blue end of the spectrum — the very wavelengths to which the human circadian system is most sensitive. A growing body of evidence now links evening screen use to delayed sleep onset, reduced sleep quality and, in some populations, elevated rates of clinical insomnia.
E. A striking and much-cited body of research has emerged from investigations into "pre-industrial" sleep patterns among contemporary non-industrialised societies. Studies of communities in Africa and South America, where artificial light is minimal, suggest that their members sleep for roughly 6.5–7 hours per night — notably less than the eight-hour minimum conventionally recommended in the West. Perhaps more intriguingly, their sleep is not broken into a long nocturnal block followed by a full day of alertness. Instead, it appears to track seasonal changes in temperature and daylight, lengthening in winter and shortening in summer.
F. The implications of this research are nuanced and frequently misrepresented in the popular press. It does not show that the West should abandon electric lighting; rather, it suggests that the rigid, eight-hour, scheduled sleep that modern societies now demand may itself be a historical anomaly. The challenge for the future is not to return to the dark, but to design lighting systems that support, rather than fight, the body's circadian logic. Tunable LED systems that shift towards warmer, red-rich light in the evening represent one promising response, though whether they will be adopted at scale remains uncertain.
Questions 1–4
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the Reading Passage?
Write:
- TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
- FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
- NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1. Before artificial lighting, most people's sleep pattern was determined mainly by the changing seasons.
2. Gaslight was used extensively in private homes during the nineteenth century.
3. Melatonin production is inhibited when people are exposed to light late in the day.
4. Non-industrialised communities sleep for longer each night than people in Western societies.
Questions 5–8
Complete the summary below using the list of words, A–H.
Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 5–8.
LED Lighting and the Circadian Rhythm
LED light differs from earlier forms of lighting because it contains a high proportion of light at the (5) ______ end of the spectrum. This is significant because the human body is especially (6) ______ to these wavelengths, which can (7) ______ the normal timing of sleep. Researchers have found links between evening screen use and a number of sleep-related disorders, although the effect is not yet fully (8) ______.
| A blue | E sensitive |
| B red | F studied |
| C suppress | G delay |
| D proven | H documented |
Questions 9–11
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
9. What point does the writer make about gaslight?
- A. It was too expensive for ordinary families to install.
- B. It had a greater impact on sleep than electric light later did.
- C. It allowed commercial activities to continue beyond sunset.
- D. It was widely praised for improving family life.
10. The research on non-industrialised communities suggests that
- A. their sleep patterns are unhealthy and under-researched.
- B. their sleep duration changes according to the time of year.
- C. they sleep for significantly longer than people in the West.
- D. they prefer an eight-hour, uninterrupted sleep pattern.
11. What is the writer's conclusion about tunable LED systems?
- A. They will certainly replace conventional lighting within decades.
- B. They are more expensive than older lighting technologies.
- C. They are a potentially useful but unproven solution.
- D. They have already been adopted by most Western households.
Questions 12–13
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
12. The writer describes the modern, scheduled eight-hour sleep pattern as a historical ______.
13. Lighting systems of the future should be designed to support the body's ______ rather than working against it.
答案与解析
True / False / Not Given
- TRUE — Para A: "sleep... was... shaped by temperature, season and labour"（determined mainly by seasons = shaped by season）
- FALSE — Para B: "gaslight... made it impractical for most ordinary households"，与 "used extensively in private homes" 相反
- TRUE — Para C: "exposure to light after dusk... suppresses the production of melatonin"
- FALSE — Para E: "their members sleep for roughly 6.5–7 hours... notably less than the eight-hour minimum conventionally recommended in the West"，与题干相反
Summary
- A (blue) — Para D: "LED light is heavily weighted towards the blue end of the spectrum"
- E (sensitive) — Para D: "the very wavelengths to which the human circadian system is most sensitive"
- G (delay) — Para D: "delayed sleep onset"（题干 "normal timing of sleep"）
- D (proven) — Para D: "a growing body of evidence" → 暗示尚未完全证实（干扰项 H documented 看似同义，但本空需 "fully proven" 与 "growing body" 形成对照）
Multiple Choice
- C — Para B: "allowed factories, shops and places of entertainment to operate long after sunset"（A 错误：gaslight 没进家庭的原因是 soot/fumes，不是价格；B 无依据；D 与原文情绪相反）
- B — Para E: "lengthening in winter and shortening in summer"（与 "time of year" 同义替换；C 与原文相反；D 与原文相反）
- C — Para F: "one promising response, though whether they will be adopted at scale remains uncertain"（A/D 的 "certainly / already" 太绝对；B 无依据）
Sentence Completion
- anomaly — Para F: "the rigid, eight-hour, scheduled sleep... may itself be a historical anomaly"
- circadian logic / circadian rhythm — Para F: "lighting systems that support, rather than fight, the body's circadian logic"
真实难度备考要点
- TFNG 陷阱：第 4 题用 "longer" 偷换原文 "less"，是 FALSE 经典考法
- Summary 选项干扰：第 8 题 H documented 与 D proven 近义，需结合 "fully" 与原文 "growing body" 的语气判断
- 单选排除：含 "certainly / already / most" 等绝对词的选项通常是干扰项
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