Questions 1-10 Complete the table below. Write one word and / or a number

8
……. ………………. 
- tied at either the
weather’s neck or their
9
………………. 
Mud containing 
12
………………. 
was used to 
make the cloaks 
look black 
good/bad 
points 
Flax cloaks offered no 
10
………………. during winter. 
13
………………. 
could not easily 
go through the 
cloaks tough 
fibres 
Exam
Practice
Test
2
8
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READING PASSAGE-2 
 
 
You should spend about 20 minutes on 
Questions 14-26,
 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. 
Sleep should be prescribed:
what those late nights out could be costing you 
Leading neuroscientist Matthew Walker on why sleep deprivation is increasing our risk of 
cancer, heart attack and Alzheimer’s – and what you can do about it 
A
Matthew Walker dreads the question ‘What do you do?’ On aeroplane it 
usually means that while everyone else watches movies, he will find himself 
giving a talk for the benefit of passengers and crew alike. To be specific, Walker 
is the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of 
California. No wonder people long for his advice. As the line between work and 
leisure grows more blurred, rare is the person who 
doesn’t 
worry about their 
sleep. Indeed, it’s Walker’s conviction that we are in the midst of a ‘catastrophic 
sleep-loss epidemic’. He has now written Why We Sleep, the idea being that once 
people know of the powerful links between sleep loss and poor health, they will 
try harder to get the recommended eight hours a night. Sleep deprivation 
constitutes anything less than seven. ‘No one is doing anything about it but 
things have to change. But when did you ever see a National Health Service 
poster urging sleep on people? When did a doctor prescribe, not sleeping pills, 
but sleep itself? It needs to be prioritized. 
B
Why are we so sleep-deprived in this century? In 1942, less than 8% of the 
population was trying to survive on six hours or less sleep a night; in 2017, 
almost one in two people is. Some reasons are obvious, but Walker believes, too, 
that in the developed world sleep is strongly associated with weakness. ‘We 
want to seem busy, and one way we express that is proclaiming how little sleep 
we’re getting. When I give lectures, people wait behind until there is no one 
around and then tell me quietly: “I seem to be one of those people who need 
eight or nine hours’ sleep,” It’s embarrassing to say it in public.’ 
C
Walker has found clear evidence that without sleep, there is lower energy 
and disease, and with sleep, there is vitality and health. More than 20 studies all 
report the same relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. For 
example, adults aged 45 years or older who sleep less than six hours a night are 
200% more like to have a heart attack, as compared with those sleeping seven 
or eight. This is because even one night of sleep reduction will affect a person’s 
heart and significantly increase their blood pressure as a result. Walker also 
points out that when your sleep becomes short, you are susceptible to weight 
gain. Among the reasons for this are the fact that inadequate sleep increases 
levels of the hunger-signalling hormone, ghrelin. ‘I’m not going to say that the 
obesity crisis is caused by the sleep-loss epidemic alone.’ Says Walker. 
‘However, processed food and sedentary lifestyles do not adequately explain its 
rise. It’s now clear that sleep is that third ingredient. 
D
Sleep also has a power effect on the immune system, which is why, when we 
have flu, our first instinct is to go to bed. If you are tired, you are more likely to 
get sick. The well-rested also respond better to the flu vaccine so this is 
something people should bear in mind before visiting their doctors. Walker’s 
book also includes a long section on dreams. Here he details the various ways in 
which deep sleep – the part when we begin to dream – to how important deep 
sleep is to young children. If they don’t get enough, managing aggressive 
behavior becomes harder and harder: Does Walker take his own advice when it 
comes to sleep? ‘Yes. I give myself a non-negotiable eight-hour sleep 
opportunity every night, and I keep very regular hours. I take my sleep 
incredibly seriously because I have seen the evidence.’ 
E
Sleep research shows that we sleep in 90-minute cycles, and it’s only towards 
the end of each that we go into deep sleep. Each cycle comprises of NREM sleep 
(non-rapid eye movement sleep), followed by REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. 
‘During NREM sleep … your body settles into this lovely low state of energy,’ 
Walker explains. ‘REM sleep, on the other hand is … an incredibly active brain 
state. Your heart and nervous system go through spurts of activity.’ Because we 
need four or five of these cycles to stay healthy, it’s important for people to 
break bad sleep habits. For example, they should not be regularly working late 
into the night as this affects cognitive functioning. Depending on sleep pills is 
also not a good idea, as it can have a damaging effect on memory. 
F
So what can individuals do to ensure they get the right amount of sleep? 
Firstly, we could think about getting ready for sleep in the same way prepare for 
the end of a workout – say, on a spin bike. ‘People use alarms to wake up,’ 
Walker says. ‘So why don’t we have a bedtime alarm to tell us we’ve got half an 
hour, that we should start cycling down?’ Companies should think about 
rewarding sleep. Productivity will rise and motivation will be improved. We can 
also systematically measure our sleep by using personal tracking devices, 
Walker says, and points out that some far-sighted companies in the US already 
give employees time off if they get enough it. While some researchers 
recommend banning digital devices from the bedroom because of their effect on 
the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, Walker believes that technology will 
eventually be an aid to sleep, as it helps us discover more about the way we 
function.