HOW would you like to step into the world of other people’s dreams? That’s just what Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) does. His work is to steal secrets from people when they are asleep and dreaming. He has an even rarer ability: He can plant an idea in someone’s sleeping mind, and watch it grow and take root in reality. This ability is called inception.

The movie Inception (《盗梦空间》) was on show in Chinese cinemas not long ago. It is imaginative, of course. The movie leads one to wonder just how much we know about dreams. For years, scientists and researchers have been trying to solve sleep’s greatest mystery.

Is it possible to enter someone’s dreaming mind? In the movie, DiCaprio uses a drug and a dream machine to put a scenario (某一特定情节) into someone’s sleeping mind. He then goes to sleep himself, connected to the machine, and enters the other person’s dream.

In real life, there is a machine that can read someone’s mind. A brain scanner takes pictures of brain activity, and then the software recreates images of what the person was looking at.

Researchers say it may be possible one day to record someone’s dream – without the danger (or the fun) of actually sharing that dream.

What’s a dream, anyway? A dream is a group of images and sounds our brain creates when we’re sleeping. In the 1950s, researchers discovered a sleeping condition that happened around every 90 to 120 minutes during sleep: rapid eye movement, or REM. During this period you’re fast asleep, yet your eyes move around quickly under your eyelids (眼皮) and your brain is nearly as active as during the day. That’s when most dreams happen.

What do dreams mean? Dreams are not always filled with meaning. Sometimes dreams are just your mind playing with thoughts and images from your life, or things you may have read or seen on TV. But at other times, dreams show things that you want to achieve in real life, or things that cause you trouble or stress.

小题1:The movie Inception is mentioned at the beginning of the article to ______.

A．encourage readers to watch the movie

B．tell readers about people with special dreaming abilities

C．inform readers about the science of dreams

D．warn reader about the threat of dream stealers小题2:According to the article, how does a brain scanner work?

A．It records dreams.

B．It uses a special drug that causes no pain.

C．It finds out what dreams mean.

D．It takes pictures of brain activity and recreates images.小题3: According to the article, which of the following statements about REM sleep is TRUE?

A．Most dreams occur in REM sleep.

B．Over the last ten years scientists have solved the mystery of REM sleep.

C．People always remember what they have dreamed in a REM sleep.

D．People can have REM sleep all night.小题4: The article claims that ______.

A．dreams tell us a lot about a person’s character

B．dreams are connected to real life

C．dreams are useful and help keep our brains active

D．dreams are usually about meaningful things