阅读A：
　　Early one morning,more than a hundred years ago,an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep.He had been working all night on the design of a sewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem:It seemed impossible to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle.
　　Though he was tired,Howe slept badly.He turned and turned.Then he had a dream.He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to kill him and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine.When he tried to do so,Howe ran into the same problem as before.The thread kept getting caught around the needle.The king flew into the cage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe.They came up towards him with their spears raised.But suddenly the inventor noticed something.There was a hole in the tip of each spear.The inventor awoke from the dream,realizing that he had just found the answer to the problem.Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle,he should make it run through a small hole in the center of the needle.This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and build the first really practised sewing machine.
　　Elias Howe was not the only one in finding the answer to his problem in this way.
　　Thomas Edison,the inventor of the electric light,said his best ideas came into him in dreams.So did the great physicist Albert Einstein.Charlotte Bronte also drew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre.
　　To know the value of dreams,you have to understand what happens when you are asleep.Even then,a part of your mind is still working.This unconscious(无意识的),but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day.It stores all sorts of information that you may have forgotten or never have really noticed.It is only when you fall asleep that this part of the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake.However,the unconscious part acts in a special way.It uses strange images which the conscious part may not understand at first.This is why dreams are sometimes called“secret messages to ourselves”.
　　1、Dreams are sometimes called“secret messages to ourselves”because___.
　　A.strange images are used to communicate ideas
　　B.images which have no meaning are used
　　C.we can never understand the real meaning
　　D.only specially trained people can understand them
　　参考答案：A
　　2、According to the passage,Elias Howe was________.
　　A.the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep
　　B.much more hard-working than other inventors
　　C.the first person to design a sewing machine that really worked
　　D.the only person at the time who knew the value of dreams
　　参考答案：C
　　3、Thomas Edison is spoken of because________.
　　A.he also tried to invent a sewing machine
　　B.he got some of his ideas from dreams
　　C.he was one of Howe’s best friends
　　D.he also had difficulty in falling asleep
　　参考答案：B
　　4、The problem Howe was trying to solve was________.
　　A.what kind of thread to use
　　B.how to design a needle which would not break
　　C.where to put the needle
　　D.how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle
　　参考答案：D
　　参考译文：
　　一百多年前的一个清晨，一位名叫伊莱亚斯·豪的美国发明家终于睡着了。他整晚都在设计缝纫机，但他遇到了一个非常困难的问题：似乎要使线在针周围顺畅地运行是不可能的。
　　虽然他很累，但豪睡得不好。他转过身来。然后他做了一个梦。他梦见自己被可怕的野蛮人抓住了，他们的国王想要杀死他，吃掉他，除非他能制造出一台完美的缝纫机。当他试图这样做时，豪遇到了和以前一样的问题。线一直缠在针上。国王飞进笼子，命令他的士兵杀死豪。他们举起长矛朝他走来。但突然发明者发现了一些东西。每把矛的尖端都有一个洞。发明家从梦中醒来，意识到他刚刚找到了问题的答案。与其让线绕着针转，不如让线穿过针中心的一个小孔。这是一个简单的想法，最终使豪设计和建造了第一个真正的实践缝纫机。
　　埃利亚斯·豪并不是唯一一个以这种方式找到问题答案的人。
　　电灯的发明者托马斯·爱迪生说，他在梦中产生了最好的想法。伟大的物理学家爱因斯坦也是。夏洛特·勃朗特在写《简爱》时也画了她的梦。
　　要知道梦的价值，你必须了解当你睡着时会发生什么。即便如此，你的一部分思想仍然在工作。这个无意识的（无意识的），但仍然活跃的部分理解你的经验，并着手解决你白天遇到的问题。它存储了您可能忘记或从未真正注意到的各种信息。只有当你睡着的时候，大脑的这一部分才能向你清醒时所使用的部分发送信息。然而，无意识部分以一种特殊的方式行动。它使用有意识的部分一开始可能不理解的奇怪的图像。这就是为什么梦有时被称为“给我们自己的秘密信息”。