It’s a question that keeps some scientists awake at night: do spiders sleep? Dr Daniela Roessler and her colleagues set up cameras to record baby jumping spiders at night to find out. The videos showed patterns that looked a lot like sleep cycles: the spiders’ legs twitched(抽搐) and parts of their eyes flickered(闪烁). The researchers described this pattern as a “REM sleep-like state”.

In humans, REM—or rapid eye movement—is an active phase of sleep when parts of the brain light up with activity. It is closely linked with dreaming. Some animals, including some birds and mammals, have also been shown to experience REM sleep. But Dr Roessler, said creatures like the jumping spider hadn’t received as much attention, so it wasn’t known if they got the same kind of sleep.

Dr Roessler and her team dug into the sleep question after she discovered the spiders hanging at night from threads of silk in their lab containers. She had recently caught some jumping spiders to study, a common species with a brown body and four pairs of big eyes.

They found the spiders’ overnight movements looked a lot like REM in other species—like dogs or cats twitching in their sleep. And they happened in regular cycles, similar to sleep patterns in humans. Study co-author Dr Paul Shamble, from Harvard University, said many species similar to spiders didn’t have movable eyes, which made it hard to compare their sleep cycles. But he said jumping spiders were predators(捕食性动物) that moved their retinas around while hunting.

Dr Roessler said the researchers still had to figure out if the spiders were technically sleeping while they were in these resting states. That included testing whether they responded more slowly —or not at all—to triggers(诱因) that would normally set them off.

本时文内容由奇速英语国际教育研究院原创编写，未经书面授权，禁止复制和任何商业用途，版权所有，侵权必究！（作者投稿及时文阅读定制请联系微信：18980471698） 

1.The study is mainly about _________.

A how spiders sleep

B whether spiders sleep

C species with movable eyes

D an active phase of sleep: REM

解析：选B。B细节理解题。根据第一段第一、二句可知，该研究主要是关于蜘蛛是否睡觉的。故选B。

2.What can we learn from paragraphs one and two?

A Monkeys don’t experience REM sleep.

B Spiders move their eyes while sleeping.

C Researchers compared many videos and photos.

D Few people cared about and researched spiders before.

解析：选D。D细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句“But Dr Roessler, said creatures like the jumping spider hadn’t received as much attention, so it wasn’t known if they got the same kind of sleep.”可知像蜘蛛这样的生物从未得到过很多的关注，因此人们不知道它们是否经历快速眼动睡眠，即在这之前，很少有人关注并研究蜘蛛。故选D。

3.Which of the following might be Dr Paul Shamble’s opinion?

A Dogs and cats have similar sleep patterns to humans.

B Moveable eyes are vital to compare sleeping cycles.

C Spiders were technically sleeping while they rest.

D Predators move their eyes while hunting.

解析：选B。B推理判断题。根据倒数第二段“Study co-author Dr Paul Shamble, from Harvard University, said many species similar to spiders didn’t have movable eyes, which made it hard to compare their sleep cycles.”可知Dr Paul Shamble认为很多类似于蜘蛛的生物没有可以动的眼睛，这使得人们很难对它们的睡眠周期进行比较。由此可知，Dr Paul Shamble认为，可以动的眼睛在比较睡眠周期上扮演了重要的角色。故选B。

4.What does the last paragraph talk about?

A A plan for future studies.

B A major limitation of the study.

C A possible reason for the findings.

D An explanation of the research method.

解析：选A。A段落大意题。根据第五段可知，研究人员仍需弄清：当蜘蛛处于上述休息状态时，它们是否真的在睡觉。这需要检测它们对一些刺激的反应是否变慢——或者根本不作反应。这是他们的下一步计划。故选A。