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 fears; by thelate 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 psychologyat Chicago's Medical Center, "if you don't like it, change it."
he 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. Visualizehow you would like it to end instead; the next time it 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 or "we wake up in 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.
练习题：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.By saying that “dreams are part of the mind's emotional thermostat," (Lines 4-5, Para. 1) the researchers mean that _______.
A.we can think logically in the dreams too
B.dreams can be brought under conscious control
C.dreams represent our unconscious desires and fears
D.dreams can help us keep our mood comparatively stable
2.What did Cartwright find in her clinic?
A.Most bad dreams were followed by happier ones.
B.Divorced couples usually have more bad dreams.
C.One’s dreaming process is related to his emotion.
D.People having negative feelings dream more often.
3.Cartwright believed with much practice，we can learn to _____.
A.control what dreams to dream
B.sleep well without any dreams
C.wake up in time to stop the bad dreams
D.identify what is upsetting about the dreams
4.The author points out that a person who has constant bad dreams should ______
A.learn to control his dreams
B.consult a doctor
C.sleep and dream on it
D.get rid of anxiety first
5.The author most probably thinks that controlling dreams is ______.
A.a good practice
B.a new discovery
C.helpful for everyone
D.not essential for everyone
参考答案及解析
1.[D] 词义理解题。在第1段第4句中，逗号后面的regulating moods是对emotional thermostat的功能进行解释说明，因此可以推断出选项D正确。
2.[C] 事实细节题。最具干扰的是选项A，因为其陈述与第2段第2句的陈述有点相似,但是，此长句说的是大多数人上半夜做噩梦，之后都会做好梦，而不是像选项A中所说大多数噩梦之后是好梦。而且，根据本段第1 句，很明显，选项C是这一句的近义替换。
3 [C] 推理判断题。本题考査对代词的理解。在第3段的最后一句中，代词it应指上文说到的控制噩梦，及时醒来等做法，因此只有选项C涉及了其中一个做法。选项A太泛了，选项B和D在文中并无提及。
4.[B] 事实细节题。本题考查根据构词法猜测词义的能力。解题关键是推断最后一段第3句中therapist的意义，在考纲词汇表中，therapy是“治疗”的意思，因此，therapist应该是专门负责某种治疗的医生，由此可见，选项B是对原文seek help from a therapist的近义替换。
5.[D] 观点态度题。根据最后一句可以推断作者认为如无必要，梦还是不要控制的好。做梦会让你早上感觉舒服一些，因此本题应选D。
The dancers stand motionless at their position and the room grows silent. But as the music starts, they began to move, bending, turning and waving their fans gracefully as they perform. a traditional Japanese dance. Yoshihiro Kuroki watches in silence, occasionally making notes. But as the dance ends, he beams with happiness. The performance has been flawless.
There have been many performances of traditional Japanese dances over the centuries, but this one is unique,because it is performed not by human dancers but by robots. And the performance takes place not in a dance studio but in a laboratory of Sony Corp.'s Entertainment Robot Co. in Shinagawa, Japan, where Kuroki isgeneral manager. He is the mastermind behind a series of even more capable humanoid entertainment robots,starting with the Sony Dream Robot, or SDR, in 1997, up to the current QRIO in 2003.
These delightful machines are only 58 cm tall, about the size of a newborn infant, weigh about 7 kg, and move with 38 degrees of freedom, each with its own servomotor(辅助马达).
QRIO's predecessor, the SDR4X, announced in 2002, can walk, dance, sing, speak, recognize faces, and understand continuous speech. Each robot has two charge-coupled-device cameras to detect color and position andcan locate a colored ball, move toward it, and kick it into a goal. It also has contact sensors in severaljoints to avoid pinching real human fingers. Seeing the robot perform, it is difficult to remember that there is no sentience(知觉)behind those glass eyes.
练习题：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.Which of the following is the most suitable title of this passage?
A.New Entertainment Robots Produced in Japan.
B.QRIO the Robot Dancers.
C.Robots Man's Best Friend.
D.An Extraordinary Performance in Sony's Lab.
2.Yoshihiro Kuroki ______.
A.is excited when the robots are performing a traditional Japanese dance
B.keeps silent because he is a little unsatisfied with the new product
C.witnesses the creation of a series of entertainment robots
D.is an executive manager of Sony Corp.
3.Which aspect of the robots is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A.The vividness of their motion.
B.Their pleasant appearance.
C.Their smart designing principles.
D.Their communicative ability.
4.The Sony Dream Robot was___
A.the first human-like entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp
B.as capable as the QRIO of speaking,dancing,singing and walking
C.largest among all the entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp
D.the first entertainment robot sold at the market by the Sony Corp
5.The robot can locate colored balls by mens of ____
A.a charge-coupled device
B.two cameras
C.two contacts sensors
D.a digital detector
参考答案及解析
1.[A] 主旨大意题。标题需要既全面又突出地概括文章的主题。本文先是描述“舞蹈演员”，然后揭晓这是些“机器人”(第2段第1句)，接着对Sony公司的一些机器人产品进行详细介绍。选项A比较全面地概括了文章内容。选项B、D只是涉及细节，不能全面地概括本文的内容。而C又过于笼统，不具有针对性。
2.[C] 事实细节题。选项C符合第2段最后一句“He is the mastermind behind a series of... robots...”。仔细阅读有关的细节信息会发现,第1段第3句可帮助否定选项A。第1段最后两句可帮助否定选项B。另外，根据第2段倒数第2句可否定选项D。
3.[D] 事实细节题。全文分四段，分别讨论机器人三方面的特点：第1段和第2段描述机器人舞蹈演员栩栩如生的表演，即选项A;第3段描写它们的外表，即选项B;第4段介绍它们巧妙的设计，即选项C;只有选项D是没有提到的，故为答案。
4.[A] 推理判断题。该句中的分词结构“starting with...”表明the Sony Dream Robot是第一个人形娱乐机器人，因此选项A正确。文章在最后一段的第1句提到两种能说话、跳舞的机器人，但没有提到SDR是否和它们一样，由此可否定选项B。在第3段讨论机器人大小的时候也没有提到SDR体型最大，因此选项C不正确。选项D在文中没有讨论到。
5.[B] 事实细节题。该句中“two…cameras to...”的结构表明这两个摄像头可以用于定位，所以选项B正确。选项A在该句中也有提到，但它只是摄像机的工作机制，而不是用于定位的装置。选项C在下一句提到，但与题干提到的定位功能无关。选项D在文中并未提及。
Henry III didn't know much about biology. He went through six wives back in the 1500s, looking for one whocould bear him a son. Scientists now know that it's the father's sperm, not the mother's egg, which determines whether a baby is a boy or a girl. And last week researchers at the Genetics and IVF Institute, a private fertility(生育能力)center in Virginia, announced a new technique that will allow parents to choose the sex of their baby-to-be, before it has even been conceived. The scientist used a tiny laser detector to measure the DNA in millions of sperm cells as they pass single file through a narrow tube, like cattle being herded through a corral(牲口栏). In a study published last week, "girl sperm," which has more DNA—the genetic material— in each cell, was collected, while "boy sperm" was discarded. And when purified girl sperm was used to impregnate(使受孕)a group of mothers, 15 of 17 resulting babies turned out to be girls.
The researchers say that "sex selection" can also double a mother's chance of having a son and can be usedto avoid genetic diseases that affect only one gender, such as hemophilia(血友病). But some experts, like New York University fertility specialist Dr. Jamie Grifo, worry that sex selection could lead to a kind ofin uteri(子宫)discrimination, especially in cultures where sons are considered superior to daughters. "It's valuing one gender' over another," Grifo says. "I don't think that's something we should be doing." So far, patients at the institute have been asking for both boys and girls, in order to "balance" their families. And some ethics experts say that's fine, as long as parents are just looking for a little gender variety. "If you have three boys, and you want a girl," says University of Texas reproductive-law professor John Robertson, "that's not gender bias at all."
练习题：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.The DNA in the sperm cells can be measured ______.
A.in the same way how the cattle are herded
B.when they pass through a tube one behind the other
C.after they pass through a laser tube
D.when they are scanned by a laser detector all at a time
2.The gender of the baby is decided by ______.
A.the father's DNA
B.the mother's DNA
C.the father's sperm
D.the mother's egg
3.According to this passage, the practice of "sex selection" ______.
A.can help to prevent all genetic problems
B.is totally unacceptable to ethics experts
C.was already realized five hundred years ago
D.will benefit families with certain inheritable diseases
4.Girl sperm was preferred to boy sperm in the research most probably because____
A.girl sperm contains more genetic material
B.more mother want to have girl babies
C.girl sperm is healthier and more active
D.girl sperm is more easily purified
5.It can be concluded from the passage that author’s toward”sex selection”is____
A.negative
B.positive
C.neutral
D.favorable
参考答案及解析
1.[B] 推理判断题。解答本题的关键在于推断single file的意思。该句把精子通过试管的情形与牛群被赶入牲口圈的情形作对比，结合single一词本身的意思，可以推断single file是“一个接一个”的意思，只有选项B能表达这个意思，由此也可否定选项D。选项A最具干扰性，原句是把精子通过试管的情形比作牛群被赶人牲口圈的情形，而选项A说的是测定精子内DNA的方法与放牧的方法相同，显然选项A只是引用了原文的某些词语，但表达的意思与原文却截然不同。
2.[C] 事实细节题。第1段第3句which引导的非限制性定语从句修饰的是the father's sperm，而不是插入语the mother’s egg,因此选项C正确。
3.[D] 推理判断题。第2段第1句中的genetic暗示有些疾病是遗传的，即如选项D所述。第2段第1句同时表明选项A的说法是不全面的。选项B与第2段最后两句正好相反。第1段前两句说明选项C是错误的。
4.[A] 事实细节题。第1段倒数第2句中的由which引导的定语从句表明选项A的叙述正确。
5.[C] 观点态度题。文章第2段中作者给出了一些反对者和赞成者的观点，但是没有加以评论，可以看出作者的态度是中立的，故选项C正确。