Ⅰ.阅读理解
Researchers say a new study shows two-way communication is possible with people who are asleep and dreaming.
In separate experiments,scientists in the US,France,Germany and the Netherlands asked people simple questions while they slept.Sleepers would respond by moving their eyes or twitching (抽动) their feet in a certain way to indicate their answers.
“Since the 1980s,we’ve known that dreamers can communicate out of dreams by using these signals,” says Karen Konkoly,a PhD student at Northwestern University who is the first author on the study published in CurrentBiology.“But we were wondering,can we also communicate by asking people questions that they could actually hear in their dreams so that we could kind of have a more meaningful conversation?”
For example,a typical question would be to ask what is 8 minus 6.A 19-year-old American man was able to respond by moving his eyes left-right,left-right—twice—to signal “2”.Researchers asked the question again,and he moved his eyes the same way twice again.
Out of the 158 trials among 36 participants,about 18% of the time,they were able to give correct answers.In another 18%,it wasn’t clear whether participants were responding or not.They were wrong 3% of the time.Most often,61% of the participants didn’t respond at all.
The researchers write that their findings present new opportunities for gaining real-time information about dreaming.Konkoly says there’s the possibility of one day doing a sort of “dream therapy (疗法)” for talking down people experiencing nightmares.And if more reliable communication methods can be worked out,it could help people with creative activities and ideas.With the help of an awake person,Konkoly says it could be possible to combine those logical advantages of being awake with the creative advantages of dreams and maybe have some more applications.
1.How did the sleepers give answers in the study?
A.By making gestures.
B.By making eye movements.
C.By making faces.
D.By using sign languages.
2.What can we learn from the new study?
A.Dreamers showed good creative thinking.
B.Most sleepers could give correct answers.
C.It was the first study of its sort in the world.
D.Researchers got real-time information about dreaming.
3.What does the new study focus on?
A.Whether dreamers can communicate out of dreams.
B.What questions are suitable to be asked in the study.
C.How researchers can help people experiencing nightmares.
D.Whether two-way communication with dreamers is possible.
4.What is the author’s attitude to “a meaningful conversation” with dreamers?
A.Skeptical. B.Objective.
C.Doubtful. D.Critical.
