综合英语教程2课文文本-8

to Ourselves

Try to speak more

Conversation (A: Smith, a middle school teacher; B: Xiaogang, a middle school student)

Conversation

A Xiaogang, you said you like daydreaming. What dreams do you often have?

B Well, I have lots of them, like... flying to the moon, or becoming a pop star... almost everything.

A Then what were you dreaming about just now?

B Oh, to be honest, I was thinking about making great discoveries or inventions.

A Oh? ... What do you want to discover or invent?

B I want to find a substitute for petrol so that our cars don't produce so much pollution.

A Have you got any clues?

B Well, I hope to use water, or something as cheap and clean as that...

A Well, I think it's good you have such dreams. Perhaps one day, one of your dreams will come true.

B I hope so. But dreams are dreams. I admire those people who made great inventions or discoveries. They are real geniuses, aren't they?

A Well, some of them may be just ordinary people like you and me. But dreaming is a good beginning for great inventions or discoveries. In fact, some great discoveries which are made by ordinary people come quite accidentally from dreams.

B Really?

A Yes. Have you heard about the invention of the sewing machine?

B No. How was it invented?

A As a matter of fact, it was invented in a dream. Of course, this dream is of a different kind. But like everything else, if you work hard on a problem, you may come across your solution either in daydreams or night-dreams. If you are interested, you can read the stories in this book. ... You see, The Great Inventions in Dreams. ...

What are they for?

Actual Words Spoken

a I intend to go back to work in my own country after I finish my studies here.

b Next time I see John, I'm going to tell him exactly what I think of him.

c I'm planning to move to Beijing in a couple of months.

d I don't intend to stay in this job all my life.

e I have no intention of buying a flat in this part of town.

f I have no plans to change my job in the foreseeable future.

Text

Secret Messages to Ourselves

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.

Despite his exhaustion, Howe slept badly. He tossed and turned. Then he had a nightmare. He dreamt that he had been captured by a tribe of terrible savages whose king threatened to kill 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 a rage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They advanced towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the in

ventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the nightmare with a start, realising that he had just found the solution 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 centre of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally enabled Howe to design and build the first really practical sewing-machine.

Elias Howe was far from being unique in finding the answer to his problem in this way. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb, said that his best ideas came to him in dreams. So did the great physicist, Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew on her dreams in writing Jane Eyre. The composer, Igor Stravinsky, once said the only way he could solve his problems in musical composition was to "sleep on them".

To appreciate 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, but still active part digests your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information and details which 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 expresses itself through its own logic and its own language. It uses strange images which are sometimes called "secret messages to ourselves".