首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The bizarre antics of sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists, and fascinated writers for centuries. There is an
The bizarre antics of sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists, and fascinated writers for centuries. There is an
admin
2010-04-28
56
问题
The bizarre antics of sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists, and fascinated writers for centuries. There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers. Person have been said to climb on steep roofs, solve mathematical problems, compose music, walk though plate glass windows, and commit murder in their sleep.
How many of these stories have a basic in fact, and how many are pure fakery? No one knows, but if some of the most sensational stories should be taken with a barrel of salt, others are a matter of record.
In Revere, Massachusetts, a hundred policemen combed a waterfront neighborhood for a lost boy who left his home in his sleep and woke up five hours later on a strange sofa in a strange living room, with no idea how he had gone there.
There is an early medical record of a somnambulist who wrote a novel in his sleep. And the great French writer Voltaire knew a sleepwalker who once got our of bed, dressed himself, made a polite bow, danced a minute, and then undressed and went back to bed.
At the university of Iowa, a student was reported to have the habit of getting up in the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Iowa River. He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed.
The world’ s champion sleepwalker was supposed to have been an Indian, Pandit Ramrakha, who walked sixteen miles along a dangerous road without realizing that he had left his bed. Second in line for the title is probably either a Vienna housewife or a British farmer. The woman did all her shopping on busy streets in her sleep. The farmer, in his sleep, visited a veterinarian miles away.
The leading expert on sleep in American claims that he had never seen a sleepwalker. He is Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, a physiologist at the University of Chicago. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living man, and during the last thirty-five years had lost a lot of sleep watching people sleep. Says he, "Of course, I know that there are sleepwalkers because I have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepwalkers ever walked, and if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment, I doubt that I’ d get many takers."
Sleepwalking, nevertheless, is a scientific reality. Like hypnosis, it is one of those dramatic, eerie, awe -- inspiring phenomena that sometimes border on the fantastic. It lends itself to controversy and misconceptions. What is certain about sleepwalking is that it is a symptom of emotional disturbance, and that the only way to cure it is to remove the worries and anxieties that cause it. Doctors say that somnambulism is much more common than is generally supposed. Some have set estimated that there are four million somnambulists in the United States. Others set the figure even higher. Many sleepwalkers do not seek help and so are never put on record, which means that an accurate count can never be made.
The simplest explanation of sleepwalking is that it is the acting out of vivid dream. The dream usually comes from guilt, worry, nervousness, or some other emotional conflict. The classic sleepwalker is Shakespeare’ s Lady Mac Beth. Her nightly wanderings were caused by her guilty conscience at having committed murder. Shakespeare said of her, "The eyes are open but their sense is shut."
The age-old question is: Is the sleepwalker actually awake or asleep? Scientists have decided that he is about half-and-half. Like Lady Mac Beth, he had weighty problems on his mind. Dr. Zelda Teplitz, who made a ten-year study of the subject, say, "Some people stay awake all night worrying about their problems. The sleepwalker thrashes them out in his sleep. He is awake in the muscular area, partially asleep in the sensory area." In other words, a person can walk in his sleep, move around, and do other things, but he does not think about what he is doing.
There are many myths about sleepwalkers. One of the most common is the idea that it’ s dangerous or even fatal to waken a sleepwalker abruptly. Experts say that the shock suffered by a sleepwalker suddenly awakened is no greater than that suffered in waking up to the noise of an alarm clock. Another mistaken belief is that sleepwalkers are immune to injury. Actually most sleepwalkers trip over rugs or hump their heads on doors at some time or other.
What are the chances of a sleepwalker committing a murder or doing something else extraordinary in his sleep? Some cases of this have been reported, but they very rarely happen. Of course the few cases that are reported receive a great deal of publicity. Dr. Teplitz say, "Most people have such great inhibitions against murder or violence that they would awaken -- if someone didn’t waken them." In general, authorities on sleepwalking agree with her. They think that people will not do anything in their sleep that is against their own moral code. As for the publicized cases, Dr. Teplitz points out, "Sleepwalking itself is dramatic...sleepwalkers
can always find an audience. I think that some of their tall tales get exaggerated in the telling." In her own file of case histories, there is not one sleepwalker who ever got beyond his own front door.
Parent often explain their children’ s -- or their own -- nocturnal oddities as sleepwalking. Sleepwalking is used as an excuse for all kinds of irrational behavior. There is a ease on record of a woman who dreamed that her house was on fire and flung her baby out of the window. Dr. Teplitz believes that this instance of irrational behavior was not due to somnambulism. She believes the woman was seriously deranged or insane, not a sleepwalker.
For their own protection, chronic sleepwalkers have been known to tie themselves in bed, lock their doors, hide the keys, bolt the windows, and rip up all sorts of gadgets or wake themselves if they should get out of bed. Curiously enough, they have an uncanny way of avoiding their own traps when they sleepwalk, so none of their tricks seem to work very well. Some sleepwalkers talk in their sleep loudly enough to wake someone else in the family who can then shake them back to their senses.
Children who walk in their sleep usually outgrow the habit. In many adults, too, the condition is more or less temporary. If it happens often, however, the sleepwalker should seek help. Although sleepwalking itself is nothing to become alarmed about, the problems that cause the sleepwalking may be very serious.
Who was supposed to be the world’ s champion sleepwalker?
选项
A、The man walked sixteen miles along a dangerous road
B、The boy walked five hours in his sleep.
C、The student habitually walked to the Iowa River and swam in his sleep.
D、The man danced a minuet in his sleep.
答案
A
解析
第五段第一句话提供答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LkqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thefirstpermanentshelterswereprobablybuilttwentyorfortythousandyearsagobyfish-eatingpeoplewholivedintheplace
A、Workinginatravelagency.B、OrganizingaBBQparty.C、TeachingEnglishtoChinesestudents.D、LearningChinese.D
Americanstodayhavedifferenteatinghabitsthantheyhadinthepast.Thereisawide【C1】______offoodavailable.Theyhave
A、Tofindjobsforgraduatingstudents.B、Tohelpeducationmajorsprepareforfinalexams.C、Tooffertutorialstoelementarys
A、Toavoidmeetingsomeonehedidn’tliketosee.B、Tothinkquietlybyhimself.C、Toreadsomenewspapers.D、Toescapethecrow
Travelingthroughthecountryacoupleofweeksagoonbusiness,IwaslisteningtothetalkofthelateUKwriterDouglasAdams
Itisestimatedthatapproximately350,000managersareneededinChina.WithChina’sentryintoWTO,thedemandforMBAgraduat
Whatmakesanartistgreat?Brilliantcomposition,nodoubt.Superbdraughtsmanship,certainly.Originalityofsubjectorofcon
TotheoneBritishcoupleinseventhathasproblemsconceiving,twinssoundlikeadreamcometrue.Sowhenwould-beparentstu
ThewritersuggeststhatthereisnosenseinbuyingthelatestvolumeCrippenwasabsentfromtheDNB
随机试题
在提升大绳卡死在天车两滑轮之间时,把()用()牢固地卡在()上,然后进行处理。
若存储器存取数据时,第一步直接指向整个存储器中的某个区域;第二步在该区域内顺序检索或等待,直到找到目的地后再进行读写操作,则这种存储器称为______。
患者男性,胃手术后第2日,抽血查血清钾为2.9mmol/L。为该患者进行补钾治疗时严禁直接静脉推注,主要的原因是
咀嚼效能是指
某商店盘点库存一批过期罐头,经理指示,换上新标签继续出售,结果导致许多消费者上吐下泻,花费医药费甚巨,社会影响极为恶劣,对该行为可给予的处罚是:
【背景资料】某机电安装公司通过招标承担了某小区采暖锅炉及辅助设备安装工程,在进行分项工程质量验收时,有下列事件发生:事件一:锅炉本体已安装完毕,但钢骨架因施工过程中保护不够造成局部垂直度超差。事件二:与锅炉本体连接的主干管上,
某公司原有设备一套,购置成本为15万元,预计使用10年,已使用5年,原有设备技术已经落后,该公司用直线法提取折旧,预计残值只有原值的10%。为提高生产率,降低成本,现该公司拟购买一套新设备,新设备购置成本为20万元,使用年限为5年,同样用直线法提取折旧,预
直接减征的税款不属于准则规范的政府补助。()
刘律师在谈论企业破产程序中人民法院的权限时,认为人民法院对下列事项具有裁定权,其中正确的有()。
结肠癌经血行最常转移至
最新回复
(
0
)