Which of the following can be inferred from the text?
Sleep is not a passive state in which the brain simply rests. During deep sleep, patterns of activity that were recorded while we were awake are replayed in the hippocampus, a structure that holds new memories only for a short time. The replay is thought to help transfer information to the cortex, where it is stored for the long term. In one study, students who learned a list of word pairs and then slept remembered more pairs the next morning than students who stayed awake for the same period. The effect was largest for material that was linked by meaning. Yet the findings do not show that sleeping a long time guarantees a good memory. Sleep that is broken into short periods seems to weaken the effect, and some kinds of skill learning improve even after a nap of only a few minutes. Researchers still debate how much each stage of sleep contributes.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. Fragmented sleep may weaken the benefit of sleep for memory
- Step 1: The text says broken sleep seems to weaken the effect. Step 2. The option that says fragmented sleep may weaken the benefit of sleep for memory follows from that. Answer: fragmented sleep may weaken the benefit. Why not the others: the text says naps can help and the debate over stages is open.
Practise more Medical and Scientific Reading Passages.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed TMS (Test für Medizinische Studiengänge) practice mock tests.