Multiple choice

Directions: The passage given below is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Key in the number of the option you choose as your answer.

The indisputable analogy between dreams and insanity extending as it does down to their characteristic details, is one of the most powerful props of the medical theory of dream-life, which regards dreaming as a useless and disturbing process and as the expression of a reduced activity of the mind. Nevertheless, it is not to be expected that we shall find the ultimate explanation of dreams in the direction of mental disorders; for the unsatisfactory state of our knowledge of the origin of these latter conditions is generally recognised. It is quite likely on the contrary; that a modification of our attitude will at the same time affect our views upon the internal mechanism of mental disorders and that we shall be working towards an explanation of the psychoses while we are endeavouring to throw some light on the mystery of dreams.

  1. Our attitude towards dreams is in dire need of a shift from being recognised as something akin to insanity to being an independent subject of psychology.

  2. Dreams may best be regarded as mental disorders because medicine does recognise some level of knowledge, though unsatisfactory, in handling these.

  3. Medical theory would do well to avoid researching dreams as a subject of mental disorders.

  4. Research on dreams in the right direction would only help explain the yet unknowns behind mind’s morbid conditions.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation
  1. It is true that the attitude needs a shift, though not “dire”; also we cannot say that dreams should be treated as an independent subject in psychology.
    1. Not true. Dreams are not to be regarded as mental disorders.
    2. True, however, this is just restatement of a fact from the paragraph.
    3. True, here the “right” direction is the one not in the direction of mental disorders. This would help uncover causes of various conditions of a diseased mind. This option best captures the essence of the order.

Keep practicing — related questions