特殊实验室-A Unique Laboratory

2014-5-9 16:54:20 [英语四级作文]
A Unique Laboratory
    A unique laboratory at the University of Chicago is busy only at night. It is a dream laboratory where researchers are at work studying dreamers. Their findings have showed that everyone dreams from three to seven times at night although in ordinary life a person may remember none or only one of his dreams.
    While the subjects——usually students——sleep, special machines record their brain waves and eye movements as well as the body movements that signal the end of dream. Surprisingly, all subjects sleep soundly.
    Observers report that a person usually figets before a dream. Once the dream has started, his body relaxes and his eyes become more active, as if the curtain had gone up on a show. As soon as the machines show that the dream is over, a buzzer wakes the sleeper. He sits up, records his dream and goes back to sleep, perhaps o dream some more.
    Researchers have found that if the dreamer is wakened immediately after the dream, he can usually bring back to his mind the entire dream. If he is allowed to sleep even five more minutes, his memory of the dream will have gone.
[点评]
    语言浅显易懂,段落间非常连贯,从头到尾都在描述这间特殊实验室里所做的实验过程和实验结果。
[参考译文]
特殊实验室
    芝加哥大学的一间特殊实验室只在夜间忙碌。这是一间析梦实验室。研究人员在这里致力于对做梦人的研究。他们的研究结果表明每个人每晚做二到七次梦。不过在平常生活中,一个人也许连一个梦也记不住,或者只能记住一个梦。
    当受试者——一般是学生——睡着的时候,特殊机器就将记录下来他们的脑电波和眼睛运动以及标示他们梦已结束身体运动,令人惊奇的是,所有的受试者都睡得非常沉。
    观察者报告说,一个人在做梦之前常有不安表现。一旦开始做梦,他的身体便松弛下来,而眼睛运动则活跃起来,就像演出的大幕升起之后。一旦机器显示一个梦做完了,蜂鸣声就叫醒这位做梦人,他坐起身来,口述一下他的梦,又去睡觉,也许会做更多的梦。
    研究者们发现,一个人在刚做完一个梦时就被叫醒,通常他会记住梦的全部内容。如果再让他多睡五分钟,他对梦的记忆会完全消失。