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C.
No one know why we dream, but some dreams might be connected to the mental processes that help us learn. In a recent study, scientists found a connection between dreams and better memory in people learning a new skill.
So perhaps one way to learn something new is to practice, practice, practice--and then sleep on it.
"I was very surprised by this finding," said Robort Stickgold, a Harvard University scientist who led the study.
In the study, 100 college students each spent an hour on a computer, trying to get through a maze(迷宮) .The maze was difficult, and the study participants had to start from a different place each time they tried--making it even more difficult.
Then, for the first 90 minutes of a five-hour break, half of the participants were required to stay awake while half were asked to sleep. Participants who stayed awake were asked to describe their thoughts. Participants who slept were asked to describe any dream they had.
Stickgold and his colleagues wanted to know about NREM, or non-REM sleep, REM stands for "rapid eye movement," which is what happens during REM sleep. This period of sleep often brings strange dreams to a sleeper, although dreams can happen in both kinds of sleep. Stickgold brings strange dreams to a sleeper, although dreams can happen during REM sleep. This period of sleep often brings strange dreams to a sleeper, although dreams can happen in both kinds of sleep. Stickgold wanted to know what people were dreaming about when their eyes weren't moving, during NREM sleep. Other studies have found a connection between NREM brain activity and learning ability.
Four of the 50 people who slept said their dreams were about the maze. Later, when these four people tried the computer maze again, they were able to complete it faster.
Stickgold believes the dream itself doesn't help a person learn--it's the other way around.He suspects that such dreams are caused by the brain processes associated with learning.
All the maze-dreamers had done the task poorly the first time, which makes Stickgold wonder if the NREM dreams show up when a person finds a new task particularly difficult. People who had other dreams, or people who didn't sleep ,didn't show the same improvement.
36. In the first stage of the study, the participants were asked to ___________.
A.design a maze on computer B.find their way out of a maze
C.decide where to begin a maze D.remember a location in a maze.
37. What happened to the participants during the break?
A.Half of them were woken up when they started to dream
B.Half of them were asked to dream about the maze.
C.All of them were asked to describe their thoughts.
D.Half of them were asked to sleep for 90 minutes.
38. What can we learn from the passage?
A.Everyone will dream about a new skill after learning it.
B.Stickgold was the frist to study dreams and learning
C.During NREM sleep, people usually don't dream
D.Unusual dreams often occur during REM sleep.
39. According to the last paragraph, before sleeping the maze-dreamers________.
A.found it difficult to to the maze B.were greatly interested in the maze
C.were mostly slow and poor thinkers D..completed the maze faster than others
40. Which of the following statements best summarizes the study's conclusion?
A.Dreams have a role in learning B.Dreams have no basis in reality
C.Dreams are important for health D.Dreams are the best way to study
D.
The recent publication of autobiographies by two of Britain's greatest scientists, biologist Richard Dawkins and physicist Stephen Hawing, is a wonderful opportunity to compare and contrast these two remarkable men. Surprisingly, they have rather more in common than we think.
Most striking is the similarity in their backgrounds. They were born in the early 1940s to middle class families--not wealthy but comfortably off, with a strong commitment to academic excellence and public service.Both families were keen to send their boys to Oxford University--and both succeeded, Dawkins studying zoology and Hawking physics.
Neither man has a very positive view of his early university life. Hawking describes the attitude at Oxford in the 1950s and 1960s as very anti-work, " You were supposed to either be brilliant without effort or fail. Hard work as looked down upon by students and we all pretended that nothing was worth making an effort for." He estimates that he studied for no more than an hour a day as an undergraduate student(本科生) .
Undergraduate life was somewhat more rewarding for Dawkins. Like Hawking, he wasn't particularly hard-working and never attended his lectures. But he found Oxford's system of weekly essay-based lessons with an academic tutor useful, "It was really only tutorial stystem that educated me."
For both men, scientific life really got going as postgraduates after 1963. Dawkins, who remained at Oxford, describes brilliantly the academic competition among the postgraduate students, which he believed helped push him to develop the ideas that formed the basis of his most famous book, The Selfish Gene. This volume transformed scientific thinking about Darwinian evolution.
Hawking, on the other hand, moved to Cambridge University after graduation, where his research into the universe would eventually make him the most famous physicist since Albert Einstein . He writes movingly about the disease which progressively crippled his entire body, leaving him unable to move and only able to communicate using a computer controlled by his eyes. Although communication is slow-- he can write only 3 words a minutes using the machine--his illness has not affected his mind or his research on space-time and the origins of the universe.
Each book is recommended individually as a personal introduction to an important scientific thinker. Read together, they provide a superb background to the academic and social climate of postwar British research.
41.Which of the following describes a similarity in Hawking's and Dawkins' backgrounds?
A.They were both from wealthy families.
B.They studied the same subject in university.
C.They graduated from the same secondary school.
D.They both came from families that valued good education.
42. Why did Hawking study very little as an undergraduate student?
A.He preferred doing his own research and experiments.
B.Students considered it inappropriate to study too much.
C.The materials discussed in lectures were very easy for him.
D.He was more interested in making friends with his classmates.
43. According to Dawkins, what helped him develop his most important ideas?
A.His hard work as an undergraduate.
B.The support he received from his family
C.The excellent tutors at Oxford University
D.The competition from other postgraduate students.
44. What can we reasonably infer about the two scientists from the passage?
A.Dawkins worked much harder than Hawking as an undergraduate.
B.Hawking is more respected by the scientific community.
C.They knew each other during their studies at Oxford.
D.Hawking has experienced more physical difficulties.
45. What is the function of the last paragraph?
A.To state which book the writer prefers.
B.To recommend the reviewed books to readers.
C.To summarize the achievements of the two scientists.
D.To suggest the order in which the books should be read.
