Late-Night Drinking

      Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee¹ late in the day will play havoc with² your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.
　　Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again³. “It’s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake,” says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffcinated coffee halves the body’s levels of this sleep hormone.

Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decaf. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decaf. They also took half an hour to drop off⁴ - twice as long as usual - and jigged around⁵ in bed twice as much.
　　In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample, Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine, the researchers suggest⁶ that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.
　　Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.

词汇:

beware / bɪ"weə(r) /v.当心:小心     

enzyme / "enzaɪm /n.酶

caffeinated adj.含咖啡因的；加入咖啡因的    

caffeine / ˈkæfɪi:n/n.咖啡因

stimulant / ˈstɪmjʊlənt /n.兴奋剂    

melatonin / ˌmelə"təʊnɪn /n.退黑激素

halve / hɑ:v /v.二等分；减半    

hormone / "hɔ:məʊn /n.荷尔蒙，激素

decaf n.脱咖啡因咖啡   

neurohormone n. 神经激素

urine / ˈjʊrɪn /n.尿

注释:

1. have a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee:喝一杯快速提神的咖啡。pick-me-up意为“提神饮料”，这里用作定语。2. play havoc with:干扰；……造成严重破坏。例如: The noise of engines can play terrible havoc with a driver’snerves.发动机的嘈杂噪声能严重扰乱驾驶员的神经。

3. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again:褪黑激素的浓度在凌晨2点和4点之间达到最高值，然后再次下降。before在此处可以译为“然后”。

4. drop off:睡着。例如: He dropped off in the armchair.他在扶手椅上睡着了。

5. jig around:辗转反侧。jig意为“急动，蹦蹦跳跳”。例如: Stop jigging about, Billy, and just stand still for a moment.别到处乱蹦，比利，稳稳地站一会儿。

The author mentions “pick-me-up” to indicate that

A:melatonin levels need to be raised. B:neurohormone can wake us up. C:coffee is a stimulant. D:decaf is a caffeinated coffee. 

Late-night Drinking

    Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee¹ late in the day will play havoc with² your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.

    Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again.³"It"s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake，，，says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israelhave found that caffeinated coffee halves the body"s levels of this sleep hormone.

    Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decaf. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decaf. They also took half an hour to drop off⁴一 twice as long as usual 一 and jigged around⁵ in bed twice as much.

    In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample. Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine，the researchers suggest⁶ that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.

    Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body，Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.

词汇：

beware /bɪ"weə/ vi.当心；小心

stimulant/"stɪmjʊl(ə)nt/ n.兴奋剂

caffeine/"kæfiːn/ n.咖啡因

melatonin/,melə"təʊnɪn/ n.褪黑激素

hormone/"hɔːməʊn/ n.荷尔蒙,激素

neurohormone /,nʊro"hɔrmon; ,njʊro"hɔrmon/ n,神经激素

caffeinated /"kæfiəneitid/ adj.含咖啡因的;加入咖啡因的

halve /hɑːv/ vt. 二等分;减半

decaf/"diːkæf/ n.脱咖啡因咖啡

urine /"jʊərɪn; -raɪn/ n.尿

enzyme /"enzaɪm/ n. 酶

注释：

1. have a quick "pick-me-up" cup of coffee:喝一杯快速提神的咖啡。pick-me-up 意为“提神饮料”，这里用做定语。

2.  play havoc with:干扰；对        造成严重破坏。例如：The noise of engines can play terrible havoc with a driver"s nerves.发动机的嘈杂声能严重扰乱驾驶员的神经。

3. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again.褪黑激素的浓度在凌晨2 点和 4点之间达到最高值，然后再次下降。before在此处可以译为“然后”。

4.  drop off:睡着。例如:He dropped off in the armchair.他在扶手椅上睡着了。

5.  jig around:辗转反侧。jig:急动，蹦蹦跳跳。例如:Stop jigging about, Billy, and just stand still for a moment.别到处乱蹦，比利，稳稳地站一会儿。

6.  suggest:在这里不作“建议”解，它的意思是“间接地表明；暗示”。例如:I’m not suggesting that the accident was your fault.我并不是说那事故是你的错。

The author mentions "pick-me-up" to indicate that____

A:melatonin levels need to be raised B:neurohormone can wake us up C:coffee is a stimulant D:decaf is a caffeinated coffee

I will {{U}}take up{{/U}} teaching this September.

A:start B:get off C:capture D:pick up

I will take up teaching this September.

A:start B:get off C:capture D:pick up

Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me, "You should have goals like climbing the mountain. " Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed, we couldn’t have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience(耐力).
Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing, I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds’ singing, but as time passed, I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted to quit climbing. In fact, I hated it at that moment, but my father said to me, "You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can’t see it before you reach the top. Only there at the top, can you see all of the nice things, just like in life. "
At that time, I was too young to understand his words. But later after that, ! got new hope and confidence(信心). I found myself standing at the top of the sky, which was as clear as crystal (水晶).

A:carry on B:put off C:give up D:pick up

Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me, "You should have goals like climbing the mountain. " Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed, we couldn’t have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience(耐力).
Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing, I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds’ singing, but as time passed, I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted to quit climbing. In fact, I hated it at that moment, but my father said to me, "You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can’t see it before you reach the top. Only there at the top, can you see all of the nice things, just like in life. "
At that time, I was too young to understand his words. But later after that, ! got new hope and confidence(信心). I found myself standing at the top of the sky, which was as clear as crystal (水晶).

A:carry on B:put off C:give up D:pick up