Text B. How siestas help memory

 

Exercise 4. What do you know about memory? Discuss the following questions:

1. What is memory consolidation?

2. What is the difference between episodic and procedural memory?

3. What is the role of hippocampus in memory formation? What other structures of brain are responsible for memory?

to accrue – нарастать, накапливаться to deteriorate – ухудшаться, портиться nap, snooze – непродолжительный дневной сон grogginess – нетвердость в ногах, неустойчивость

Exercise 5. Listen to the text (Script 16) which explores the effects of sleep on memory and check your answers in Exercise 1. Using information from the text explain how a midday nap can enhance learning.

 

Exercise 6. Listen to the text again and answer the questions:

1. What positive health effects of sleep are already known?

2. What experiment was conducted to reveal the effects of a nap on memory?

3. What processes occur in the brain during a nap?

4. What stages does a nap consist of? How long does each stage last?

5. What is sleep inertia? What other negative consequences of a nap are described?

 

Text C. Restless

Exercise 7. Listen to the text (Script 17) which describes some rare sleep disorders. How does investigation of severe sleep disorders contribute to our understanding of sleep?

to twitch – резко дергать to groan – стонать to flail – молотить, бить compelling – убедительный, веский alien abduction – похищение инопланетянами

Exercise 8. Listen to the text again. Who are the following scientists and what points of view do they present in the text:

- Roberto Vetrugno of the University of Bologna,

- Mark Mahowald of the University of Minnesota Medical School,

- Jerry Siegel of the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Exercise 9. Using information from the text prove that:

1. Permanent loss of sleep may accompany some severe neurodegenerative disorders.

2. The definition of sleep needs to be revised.

3. Several conditions including narcolepsy support the new interpretation of sleep.

4. Sleep is not necessary for memory consolidation.

Unit 8. Coffee

Lexics: Botany / Agricultural science / Molecular biology / Bioengineering Listening. 3 texts

 

Exercise 1. (Corresponds to exercise 6 in Book I). In the following text the lines are mixed up. Put them in the correct logical order. The first and the last lines are in their correct places.

Decaf Coffee Plants Developed

By Sarah Graham

a) For many coffee lovers, their precious beverage comes with an unwanted ingredient: caffeine. As a

b) Science and Technology in Japan led by Shinjiro Ogita engineered seedlings of Coffea canephora in

с) plants described here should yield coffee beans that are essentially normal apart from their low

d) decaffeinated coffee straight from the plant. Researchers report today in the journal Nature that their

e) Three enzymes are involved in making caffeine in coffee plants. Researchers at the Nara Institute of

f) technique to C. arabica plants, which produce the high-quality Arabica coffee that accounts for 70

g) expensive and sometimes compromise flavor. But scientists may have come up with a way to get

h) decaffeination, in which solvents flush caffeine from the beans. Their next step is to apply their

i) which expression of the gene controlling one of these enzymes--theobromine synthase, or

j) exhibited a 50 to 70 percent reduction in caffeine content. According to the report, "the transgenic

k) caffeine content at maturity."

l) genetically modified coffee plants have 70 percent less caffeine than regular plants do.

m) The scientists note that their technique could sidestep some of the problems of industrial

n) result, processes have been developed to remove the compound, although current methods are

o) CaMXMT1--was repressed. Compared with regular plants, leaves from one-year-old GM plants

p) percent of the world market. Of course, it remains to be seen if java lovers will embrace "GM joe." (From Scientific American, June 19, 2003)

 

Text A. Salt-tolerant rice

Exercise 2. What do you know about genetically modified organisms – plants and animals? Discuss the questions:

1. Why do people produce GM organisms?

2. What methods are currently employed to produce them?

flood – потоп, наводнение rice paddy – орошаемое рисовое поле to thrive – успешно произрастать, благоденствовать saline, briny – соляной, засоленный grain – зерно, крупинка, частица