Earlyone morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called EliasHowe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of asewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: It seemedimpossible to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle. Thoughhe was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream. Hedreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to killhim and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he triedto do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept gettingcaught around the needle. The king flew into thecage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came up towards him with theirspears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole inthe tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the dream, realizing that he hadjust found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread torun around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the centerof the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and buildthe first really practised sewing machine. EliasHowe was not the only one in finding the answer to his problem in this way. ThomasEdison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into himin dreams. So did the great physicist Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte alsodrew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre. To know the value ofdreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then, apart of your mind is still working. This unconscious( 无意识的 ), but still activepart understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have hadduring the day. It stores all sorts of information that you may have forgottenor never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part ofthe brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However,the unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images which theconscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimescalled “secret messages to ourselves”. 1.According to the passage, Elias Howe was________. 【 】 A. the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep B. much more hard-working than other inventors C. the first person to design a sewing machine that really worked 2.The problem Howe was trying to solve was________. 【 】 A. how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle B. how to design a needle which would not break C. where to put the needle 3.Thomas Edison is spoken of because________. 【 】 A. he also tried to invent a sewing machine B. he got some of his ideas from dreams C. he was one of Howe’s best friends 4.Dreams are sometimes called“secret messages to ourselves” because___. 【 】 A. strange images are used to communicate ideas B. images which have no meaning are used C. we can never understand the real meaning