IELTS Listening Part 4: A Lecture on Sleep and Memory

Part Four. You will hear a lecture about sleep and memory.

第四部分。你将听到一场关于睡眠与记忆的讲座。

You have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty.

你有一些时间阅读第三十一至第四十题。

Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty.

现在请仔细听，并回答第三十一至第四十题。

Good morning. Today, I want to challenge a habit many of you share: the all-nighter.

早上好。今天我想挑战一个你们很多人都有的习惯：通宵学习。

Yes, I can see some guilty faces already!

是的，我已经看到几张心虚的脸了！

We tend to think of sleep as wasted time, a pause in our productivity.

我们往往把睡眠看作浪费时间，是效率的暂停。

In fact, it's one of the busiest periods for the brain.

事实上，这是大脑最忙碌的时段之一。

During deep sleep, a region called the hippocampus replays what we learned that day.

在深度睡眠中，一个叫海马体的区域会回放我们当天学到的东西。

Those memories are then gradually moved to the cortex for long-term storage.

这些记忆随后会逐渐转移到大脑皮层，进行长期储存。

Think of it as moving files from a cluttered desktop into a well-organised archive.

可以把它想象成把文件从杂乱的桌面移到井井有条的档案库。

The evidence is striking.

证据非常惊人。

In one study, students who missed a night's sleep were around forty percent worse at forming new memories!

一项研究发现，熬了一夜的学生形成新记忆的能力差了约百分之四十！

In other words, cramming all night can undermine the very learning you're trying to do.

换句话说，通宵死记硬背反而会破坏你努力想要的学习效果。

Later in the night, during dreaming or REM sleep, something rather different happens.

到了后半夜，在做梦的快速眼动睡眠阶段，会发生截然不同的事。

The brain links new information with old, which seems to boost creativity.

大脑会把新信息和旧信息联系起来，这似乎能激发创造力。

Legend has it that Mendeleev saw the periodic table in a dream, though historians are sceptical!

传说门捷列夫是在梦里看到元素周期表的，不过历史学家对此存疑！

So, what does this mean in practice?

那么，这在实践中意味着什么？

First, review difficult material shortly before you go to bed.

第一，在睡前不久复习难的内容。

Second, a short nap of around twenty minutes can sharpen your focus.

第二，二十分钟左右的小睡能让你更专注。

And above all, protect seven to nine hours a night, especially before exams.

最重要的是，保证每晚七到九小时的睡眠，尤其是考试前。

Next week, we'll look at what happens to memory as we get older.

下周，我们来看看随着年龄增长，记忆会发生什么变化。

Until then, get some sleep. Thank you!

在那之前，记得好好睡觉。谢谢大家！

That is the end of Part Four.

第四部分到此结束。