Read the text below. For questions (6 – 10) choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D). Secret message to ourselves Late one night more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor ran into a problem that seemed impossible to solve. He was trying to design a sewing machine, but he couldn’t think of a way to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle. He was exhausted and finally went to bed. However he was so worried that he slept very badly. He had a nightmare in which he dreamt that he had been captured by a tribe of terrible savages. Their king threatened to kill and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, he ran into the same problem as before. The king was so angry that he ordered his soldiers to kill him immediately. Suddenly, the inventor noticed something. The soldiers were all carrying spears, and in the tip of each one of them, there was a hole that looked just like an eye. The inventor woke up and realized that he had just found the solution to the problem. Instead of trying to make the thread run around the needle, he should make it run through a small ‘eye’ or hole in the tip. The inventor’s name was Elias Howe, and this simple idea enabled him to design and build the first really successful sewing machine. He was not the only famous person to find solutions to difficult problems in this way. Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb, said that his best ideas came to him in his dreams. So did Albert Einstein, the great mathematician and physicist. The novelist Charlotte Bronte also got inspiration from her dreams when writing Jane Eyre. Igor Stravinsky, the great composer, said that he ‘slept’ on his problems, and when he woke up they were solved. Few people understand the meaning of dreams. In order to do so, you have to understand what happens when you sleep. When you are awake, you notice all sorts of things and get lots of ideas without realizing it. When you are asleep, the unconscious part of your brain is active and it begins to ‘digest’ this information mentally. Sometimes it is that part of the brain that notices something important that the conscious part of your brain didn’t. The unconscious part of your mind, however, has its own logic and language. This is why the strange images in our dreams are sometimes called ‘secret messages to ourselves’. 6. What was the inventor’s problem?______ A He was so tired he couldn’t think. B He wasn’t using the right kind of thread. C He hadn’t designed the needle correctly. D The needle was in the wrong place. 7. The idea for the solution came from something. ________ A the king said in the dream. B the inventor noticed about the soldiers’ weapons. C the inventor saw after he woke up. D he saw in the eyes of one of the soldiers. 8. Albert Einstein is mentioned because he. ______ A was a great physicist and mathematician. B got inspiration from Howe and Edison. C also had strange dreams. D got many good ideas from his dreams. 9. Dreams are sometimes called ‘secret messages to ourselves’ because. ______ A it is better if other people don’t understand them. B they often tell us important things through strange images. C we have them when we are asleep and never understand their real meaning. D our brains notice things other people don’t want us to notice. 10. What do you think is the general ‘message’ of the whole story?______ A Only inventors, artists and scientists can understand what their dreams are trying to say. B If you work too hard and too late, you may have terrible nightmares. C Elias Howe wasn’t the only person who solved problems when he was asleep. D Howe was the first person we know who solved a problem while he was asleep.

Відповідь:

6) C He hadn’t designed the needle correctly.

7) B the inventor noticed about the soldiers’ weapons.

8) D got many good ideas from his dreams.

9) B they often tell us important things through strange images.

10) C Elias Howe wasn’t the only person who solved problems when he was asleep.