Some Sleep Drugs Do More Than Make You Sleep
　　The United States Food and Drug Administration1 has ordered companies to place strong new warnings on thirteen drugs that treat sleep disorders. It also ordered the makers of the sleeping pills to provide information for patients explaining how to safely use the drugs.
　　Last Wednesday, the FDA announced that some of these drugs can have unexpected and dangerous effects. These include the risk of life-threatening allergic reactions. They also include rare incidents of strange behavior. These include people cooking food, eating and even driving while asleep. The patients later had no memory of doing these activities while asleep.
　　Last year, a member of the United States Congress2 said he had a sleep-driving incident. Patrick Kennedy, a representative from Rhode Island3，crashed his car into a security barrier near the building where lawmakers meet. The accident happened in the middle of the night and no one was hurt. Mr. Kennedy said he had earlier taken a sleep medicine. He said he was also being treated with a stomach sickness drug that could cause sleepiness.
　　The Food and Drug Administration did not say in its announcement how many cases of sleep-driving it had documented. However, the New York Times4 reported last year about people who said they had strange sleep events after taking the drug Ambien. Some reported sleep-driving and sleep-walking. Others said they found evidence after waking in the morning that they had cooked food or eaten in their sleep. But they had no memory of carrying out the activities.
　　A. Food and Drug Administration official says that these serious side effects of sleep disorder drugs appear to be rare. But, he also says there are probably more cases than are reported.5 He says the agency believes the risk of such behaviors could be reduced if people take the drugs as directed and do not drink alcohol while taking the drugs. The Food and Drug Administration has advised drug companies to carry out studies to investigate the problem.
　　词汇：
　　disorder /d?s'??d?/n. 障碍;紊乱;疾病
　　crash /kr??/ v.(使)碰撞
　　allergic /?'l??d??k/ adj. 变应性的,过敏性的
　　lawmaker /'l??me?k?/ n.立法者,立法机关的成员,议员
　　incident /'?ns?d(?)nt/n. 偶发事件,小事件
　　representative /repr?'zent?t?v/n. 代表
　　sickness /'s?kn?s/ n.疾病;恶心,呕吐
　　stomach /'st?m?k/ n.胃
　　document /'d?kj?m(?)nt/ vt.记载
　　sleepiness /'sli?p?n?s/ n.昏昏欲睡
　　注释：
　　1.United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA):美国食品及药品管理局
　　2.United States Congress:美国国会
　　3.Rhode Island:罗得岛(美国州名)
　　4.New York Times:《纽约时报》
　　5.But, he also said there are probably more cases than are reported.不过,他也说道,可能实际病例要比报道的多。请注意本句中than的用法。than后面连接了一个句子,可是却没有主语,学术界对此有两种说法:一种认为than是关系代词,它本身在从句中作一个句子成分;另一种则认为than仍为连接词,后面省略了句子的部分成分。请看类似的句子：You spent more money than was intended to be spent.你花去的钱比预计的多。(请比较：You spent the money that was intended.)As the child grows, the jawbones grow also; therefore, there is space for more teeth than are in the first set.随着孩子的长大,颌骨也随着长大,因此就有空间供比第一套还要多的牙齿占用。
　　练习：
　　1.There are altogether 13 drugs treating sleep disorders in the United States.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
　　2.FDA considers it the producers’ duty to warn the users of sleeping pills about the serious side effects and to tell them how to use safely.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
　　3.An allergic reaction to sleeping pills may sometimes cause a user to die.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
　　4.A stomach sickness drug alone caused Patrick Kennedy to crash his car into a security barrier.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
　　5.FDA based its order upon a wide investigation of sleep-driving.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
　　6.Sleep-walking is also one of the serious side effects induced by taking sleeping pills.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
　　7.The appearance of one or another side effect after taking some sleeping pill is unavoidable.
　　A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned






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