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1、 新概念英语第四册 : The stuff of dreams话说梦的本 First listen and then answer the following question.听录音，然后答复以下问题。 What is going on when a person experiences rapid eye-movements during sleep？It is fairly clear that sleeping period must have some function， and because there is so much of it the function would se
2、em to e important. Speculations about is nature have been going on for literally thousands of years， and one odd finding that makes the problem puzzling is that it looks very much as if sleeping is not simply a matter of giving the body a rest. ”Rest”， in terms of muscle relaxation and so on， can be
3、 achieved by a brief period lying， or even sitting down. The body”s tissues are self-repairing and self-restoring to a degree， and function best when more or less continuously active. In fact a basic amount of movement occurs during sleep which is specifically concerned with preventing muscle inacti
4、vity.If it is not a question of resting the body， then perhaps it is the brain that needs resting？ This might be a plausible hypothesis were it not for two factors. First the electroencephalograph （which is simply a device for recording the electrical activity of the brain by attaching electrodes to
5、 the scalp） shows that while there is a change in the pattern of activity during sleep， there is no evidence that the total amount of activity is any less. The second factor is more interesting and more fundamental. Some years ago an American psychiatrist named William Dement published experiments d
6、ealing with the recording of eye-movements during sleep. He showed that the average individual”s sleep cycle is punctuated with peculiar bursts of eye-movements， some drifting and slow， others jerky and rapid. People woken during these periods of eye-movements generally reported that they had been d
7、reaming. When woken at other times they reported no dreams. If one group of people were disturbed from their eye-movement sleep for several nights on end， and another group were disturbed for an equal period of time but when they were no exhibiting eye-movements， the first group began to show some p
8、ersonality disorders while the others seemed more or less unaffected. The implications of all this were that it was not the disturbance of sleep that mattered， but the disturbance of dreaming.CHRISHER EVANS The stuff of dreams from The ListenerNew words and expressions 生词和短语speculation n. 推想literall
9、y adv. 的确odd adj. 奇怪的tissue n. 组织plausible adj. 好像有理的hypothesis n. 假说electroencephalograph n. 脑电图仪electrode n. 电极scalp n. 头皮psychiatrist n. 精神病学家punctuate v. 不时介入jerky adj. 急动的disorder n. 失调implication n. 说明参考译文很清晰，睡眠必定具有某种作用。睡眠占去那么多时间，所以其作用好像还是很重要。人们对睡眠作用的种种猜想，的确有数千年之久。一项使人对这个问题感到困惑的惊奇的发觉是，睡眠在很大程度好
10、像并不仅仅是为了使身体得到休息。“休息”，从使肌肉得到放松等方面来看，只要略微躺一躺，甚至坐一坐就能到达。人体组织在肯定程度上有自我修补和自我恢复的力量，有张有弛地连续活动时，其功能。事实上，睡眠状态下仍有着根本的活动量，以防止肌肉活动停顿。假如睡眠的功能不是在于使身体得到休息，那么或许是让大脑得以休息？若不是下面两点，这种假使好像是有道理的。第一点，脑电图记录仪（不过是一种把电极接到头皮上记录脑电活动的仪器）显示，人在睡眠时大脑活动的方式有变化，但没有迹象说明，其活动总量有任何削减。其次点更有意思，也更重要。前些年，美国一位精神病学者发表了一篇报告，报告中记录了眼球在睡眠时的活动状况。他指出，寻常人的睡眠周期中不时伴有一阵阵惊奇的眼球队活动，这些活动有的飘忽而缓慢，有的急剧而快速。在眼球活动期间被叫醒的人都说自己在做梦；在其他期间叫醒他们，则说没有做梦。假如有两组人，一组人连续几夜在眼球队活动时被叫醒；另一组人也是连续几夜被叫醒，但是在眼球队没活动时被叫醒的。结果，第一组人开头消失性格失常，而其次组人好像没受什么影响。这一切示意我们：睡眠受到干忧没关系，而做梦受到干忧是有问题的。
