Danielle Steel, the 71-year-old romance novelist is notoriously productive, having published 179 books at a rate of up to seven a year. But a passing reference in a recent profile by Glamour magazine to her 20-hour workdays prompted an outpouring of admiration.

    Steel has given that 20-hour figure when describing her “exhausting” process in the past: “I start the book and don’t leave my desk until the first draft is finished.” She goes from bed, to desk, to bath, to bed, avoiding all contact aside from phone calls with her nine children. “I don’t comb my hair for weeks,” she says. Meals are brought to her desk, where she types until her fingers swell and her nails bleed.

    The business news website Quartz held Steel up as an inspiration, writing that if only we all followed her “actually extremely liberating” example of industrious sleeplessness, we would be quick to see results.

    Well, indeed. With research results showing the cumulative effects of sleep loss and its impact on productivity, doubt has been voiced about the accuracy of Steel’s self-assessment. Her output may be undeniable, but sceptics have suggested that she is guilty of erasing the role of ghostwriters (代笔人) at worst, gross exaggeration at best.

    Steel says working 20 hours a day is “pretty brutal physically”. But is it even possible? “No, ” says Maryanne Taylor of the Sleep Works. While you could work that long, the impact on productivity would make it hardly worthwhile. If Steel was routinely sleeping for four hours a night, she would be drastically underestimating the negative impact, says Alison Gardiner, founder of the sleep improvement programme Sleepstation. “It’s akin to being drunk.”

    It’s possible that Steel is exaggerating the demands of her schedule. Self-imposed sleeplessness has “become a bit of a status symbol”, says Taylor, a misguided measure to prove how powerful and productive you are. Margaret Thatcher was also said to get by on four hours a night, while the 130-hour work weeks endured by tech heads has been held up as key to their success.

    That is starting to change with increased awareness of the importance of sleep for mental health. “People are starting to realise that sleep should not be something that you fit in between everything else,” says Taylor.

    But it is possible—if statistically extremely unlikely—that Steel could be a “short sleeper” with an unusual body clock, says sleep expert Dr. Sophie Bostock. “It’s probably present in fewer than 1% of the population.”

    Even if Steel does happen to be among that tiny minority, says Bostock, it’s “pretty irresponsible” to suggest that 20-hour days are simply a question of discipline for the rest of us.

解析：A。根据题干中的Quartz可以定位至第三段。本段主要说Quartz网站将丹妮尔作为一个鼓舞人心的例子，说如果我们都能效仿她的勤奋，很快就会看到成效。也就是说Quartz网站认为，丹妮尔可以作为我们勤奋的榜样，A项表述与此一致，因此选A。 

错项排除：第三段中说到丹妮尔的工作模式是一种事实上非常自由的例子（actually extremely liberating），即她睡眠时间极少，似乎摆脱了睡眠，但这只是她自己的情况，并不能证明我们都可以从睡眠中解放出来，故B项排除。C项利用文中出现的inspiration进行干扰，但文中说的是Quartz网站将丹妮尔几乎不睡觉的事迹作为一个鼓舞人心的例子，并没有说她可以激励全世界的小说家，故C项排除。D项利用work、without sleep进行细节拼凑，但文中说的是industrious sleeplessness，D项中的get all our work done和without sleep过于绝对，故排除。