单选题Directions:There are 2 passages in this section. Each
passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them
there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best
choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line
through the centre. Of all the components of a good
night's sleep, dreams seem to be least within our control. In dreams, a window
opens into a world where logic is suspended and dead people speak. A century
ago, Freud formulated his revolutionary theory that dreams were the disguised
shadows of our unconscious desires and rears, by the late 1970s. neurologists
had switched to thinking of them as just "mental noise" the random byproducts of
the neural-repair work that goes on during sleep. Now researchers suspect that
dreams are part of the mind's emotional thermostat, regulating moods while the
brain is "off-line" And one leading authority says that these intensely powerful
mental events can be not only harnessed but actually brought under conscious
control, to help us sleep and feel better, "It's your dream," says Rosalind
Cartwright, chair of psychology at Chicago's Medical Center. "If you don't like
it, change it. " Evidence from brain imaging supports this
view. The brain is as active during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep—when most
vivid dreams occur—as it is when fully awake, says Dr. Eric Nofzinger at the
University of Pittsburgh. But not all parts of the brain are equally involved,
the limbic system (the "emotional brain")is especially active, while the
prefrontal cortex (the center of intellect and reasoning) is relatively quiet.
"We wake up from dreams happy of depressed, and those feelings can stay with us
all day," says Stanford sleep researcher Dr. William Dement.
The link between dreams and emotions shows up among the patients in Cartwright's
clinic. Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night, progressing
toward happier ones before awakening, suggesting that they are working through
negative feelings generated during the day. Because our conscious mind is
occupied with daily life we don't always think about the emotional significance
of the day's events—until, it appears, we begin to dream. And
this process need not be left to the unconscious. Cartwright believes one can
exercise conscious control over recurring bad dreams As soon as you awaken,
identify what is upsetting about the dream. Visualize how you would like it to
end instead, the next time is occurs, try to wake up just enough to control its
course. With much practice people can learn to, literally, do it in their
sleep. At the end of the day, there's probably little reason to
pay attention to our dreams at all unless they keep us from sleeping of "we wake
you in a panic," Cartwright says. Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general
feelings of insecurity have increased people's anxiety. Those suffering from
persistent nightmares should seek help from a therapist. For the rest of us, the
brain has its ways of working through bad feelings. Sleep-or rather dream-on it
and you'll feel better in the morning.
单选题
Researchers have come to believe that dreams______.
A. can be modified in their courses
B. are susceptible to emotional changes
C. reflect our innermost desires and fears
D. are a random outcome of neural repairs
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】
单选题
By referring to the limbic system, the author intends to show______.
A. its function in our dreams
B. the mechanism of REM sleep
C. the relation of dreams to emotions
D. its difference from the prefrontal cortex
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】
单选题
The negative feelings generated during the day tend to______.
A. aggravate in our unconscious mind
B. develop into happy dreams
C. persist till the time we fall asleep
D. show up in dreams early at night
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】
单选题
Cartwright seems to suggest that______.
A. waking up in time is essential to the ridding of bad dreams
B. visualizing bad dreams helps bring them under con troll
C. dreams should be left to their natural progression
D. dreaming may not entirely belong to the unconscious
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】
单选题
What advice might Cartwright give to those who sometimes have had
dreams?