单选题 Our minds may wander during boring tasks because daydreaming is actually the brain"s normal state, rather than a pointless distraction, according to a new U. S. study.
The researchers, reporting their findings today in the U. S. journal, Science , found that daydreaming could be the result of the brain thinking over important—but not immediately relevant—issues when the external environment ceases to pose interesting and engaging problems.
"For the most part psychologists have sort of assumed that we spend most of our time engaged in goal-directed thought and that, every so often, we have blips (光点) of irrelevant thoughts that pop up on the radar," said Malia Mason of Harvard University. "However, it could very well be the case that most of the time we are engaged in less directed, unintended thought and that this state is routinely interrupted by periods of goal-directed thought."
Daydreaming or mind-wandering is more precisely defined as a state of mind where thoughts that are experienced by an individual are unrelated to what is going on in the environment around them, according to Mason. When wandering, the brain flits from one thought to the next, generating images, voices, thoughts and feelings.
When deciding how best to encourage daydreaming in order to study it, the researchers recognized that our minds often wander while we are engaged in familiar tasks, such as making a sandwich, because we don"t need to concentrate on it. They trained study subjects to become proficient on certain tasks so that their minds would be able to wander when they performed them, but would have to concentrate when given something new.

单选题 According to the new U.S. study mentioned in the passage, daydream happens when ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 根据第二段中“...daydreaming could be the result of the brain thinking over important—but not immediately relevant—issues when the external environment ceases to pose interesting and engaging problems. ”可知，白日梦可能是当外部环境没有对大脑提出有趣的和引人入胜的问题时，大脑对一些重要但不是直接相关问题的思考。故选D。

单选题 According to Mason, we spend most of our time engaged in ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 根据第三段最后一句“However, it could very well be the case that most of the time we are engaged in less directed, unintended thought and that this state is routinely interrupted by periods of goal-directed thought. ”可知，大部分时间我们的思绪是间接的、无计划的。故选B。

单选题 In order to study daydream, researchers ______.

单选题 Which of the following statements is TRUE according to this passage?

A、 Daydream is a meaningless distraction away from the brain"s normal state.
B、 Daydream researchers find that one cannot concentrate on familiar tasks.
C、 During daydreaming, thoughts flash through the brain one after another, producing images and voice and feelings.
D、 Mason shares the same opinion with most psychologists.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 根据第四段最后一句“When wandering, the brain flits from one thought to the next, generating images, voices, thoughts and feelings. ”可知，当心不在焉时，思绪会掠过一个个片段，产生图像、声音、思想和感情。此外，flit from与flash through同义。故选C。