《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词3500》Unit51:解梦

　　Unit 51
Understanding Dreams
We dream for four hours every night, but may just be able to remember one dream every few days. It is every person's secret life -- and one we typically want to know more about. We want to tap into those nighttime fantasies that have us flying, saving the world and dating movie stars. And we'd like to both learn from and escape our nightmare -- being chased by wild animals, falling off a cliff or sitting down to an exam we never studied for.
Dream researchers find that pain is rarely experienced in dreams. And we do dream in color. But because it's so hard to remember dreams most people forget that fact. 70 to 80 percent of a dream's content comes from the previous day, though the elderly often dream of events from their teens and twenties. Women dream of males and females, and their dreams are often focused on relationships. Men's dreams focus more on males, success and failure.
Today's dream experts agree with Sigmund Freud, who believed that dreams were the subconscious¹ way of communicating with us and that getting to know our dreams was a way to learn about ourselves. For instance, having nightmares means you are psychologically disturbed, suffering from stress, anxiety or depression. Nightmares can be stopped. One way to do this is by dealing² with the problem. Confronting a bully³ at word could stop the dreams of them breaking into your house.
Another way is to write dreams down, changing any detail that doesn't feel right. That could mean making the monster run away, or simply changing the color of the walls. Doing this helps get the fear out of nightmares, and they disappear.
While many dreams are dark, they do serve a purpose -- most importantly, perhaps, helping⁴ us to solve problems and develop insight. Jennifer, a 34-year-old journalist, did just that when she was considering going abroad to work. One night she dreamed she was a fashion reporter in New York, where she met supermodels and artists. The dreams made her feel more confident about taking risks. A few months later she quit her job and went to Cuba for three months to study Spanish.
Dreams can help us get used to new people in our lives -- mothers-to-be, for instance, dream about how their baby might look -- and get over those we have lost. For years after a friend died as a teen, Jane, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother dreamed of him. "I'd run into him and he'd tell me it was all a big mistake, that he wasn't really dead," she recalls. She'd wake up feeling depressed⁵. Such dreams may be part of the mourning process and help us get used to the idea that someone is gone.

1 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

2 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

3 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。