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  3. The bizarre antics of sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists

The bizarre antics of sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists

游客2023-12-05  19
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.
    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 out of bed, dressed himself, made a polite bow, danced a minuet, 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.
    The leading expert on sleep in American 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. 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.
    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, she had weighty problems on her 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 bump 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 case 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.
    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. [br] What does the phrase "taken with a barrel of salt" mean in the second paragraph?
选项 A、Rampant.
B、Conceivable.
C、Enormous.
D、Implausible.
答案 D
解析 语义题。短语所在的句子意思为：没人知道，但是如果一些最耸人听闻的故事是……其他的则是有据可考的事实。前后两个分句之间构成对比关系，可以与“有据可考(a matter of record)”形成对比的为[D]“难以置信的，不可能真实的”，故为答案。
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