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 Island,3 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 can cause sleepiness.
The Food and Drug Administration did not say in its announcement how many cases of sleep-driving it has 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 said there are probably more cases than are reported.5 He said 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 n. 障碍;紊乱;疾病
allergic adj. 变应性的，过敏性的
incident n. 偶发事件，小事件
representative n. 代表
crash v. (使)碰撞
lawmaker n. 立法者，制定法律者(尤指立法委员或议员)
sickness n. 疾病;恶心，呕吐
stomach n. 胃
sleepiness n. 昏昏欲睡
document vt. 根据…事实材料制作
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导的多。 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，后面省略了句子的适当成分。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.)
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