Question

【題目】WISH YOU WERE MORE CREATIVE?

I want to ask you a favor. I have a pair of pants. Tell me: How many different ways can I put a pair of pants to use? Now imagine you're an architect. Same question. Now imagine you're Bill Gates. A scuba diver. A medieval knight. You still have the pants. What alternative uses come to mind?

What you just practiced--the conscious act of "wearing" another self--is an exercise that, according to psychiatrist SriniPillay, MD, is essential to being creative.

One great irony (諷刺) about our collective addiction to creativity is that we tend to frame it in uncreative ways. That is to say, most of us marry creativity to our concept of self: Either we’re “creative” or we aren't, without much of a middle ground. "I'm just not a creative person!” a discouraged student might say in art class, while another might blame her talent at painting for her difficulties in math, making a comment "I'm very right-brained."

Dr.Pillay, an assistant professor at Harvard University, has spent years overturning these ideas. He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to challenge the stereotyped (陳詞濫調(diào)的) advice that urges you to “believe in yourself.” In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.

He points to a study showing the impact of stereotype on one's behavior. The authors, psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into two groups, instructing one group to think of themselves as "eccentric poets" and the other to imagine they were "rigid librarians". The researchers then presented them all with ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. The former group came up with the widest range of ideas, whereas the latter had the fewest.

These results suggest that creativity is not an individual characteristic but a “product of context and perspective”. Everyone can be creative, as long as he or she feels like a creative person.

Dr. Pillay's work takes this a step further: He argues that simply identifying yourself as creative is less powerful than taking the brave, creative step of imagining you are somebody else. This exercise, which he calls psychological Halloweenism, refers to the conscious action of “wearing” another self. An actor may employ this technique to get into character, but anyone can use it. According to Dr. Pillay, it works because it is an act of conscious unfocus, a collection of brain regions that spring into action when you're not focused on a specific task or thought. Most people spend nearly half of their days in a state of "unfocus." This doesn't make us lazy; it makes us human.

Imagining yourself in a new situation, or an entirely new identity, never felt so productive. You’re making yourself more creative, and you're giving yourself permission to do something you'd otherwise feel guilty about.

【1】What’s the function of the questions in paragraph 1?

A.To lead in the topic.B.To make a comparison.

C.To state an opinion.D.To ask a favor.

【2】The study led by Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar proves_____

A.creativity is an individual characteristic

B.librarians are more creative than poets

C.ordinary objects can improve creativity

D.your creativity is determined by yourself

【3】According to Dr. Pillay, Halloweenism works because ______.

A.it is an act of unconscious focus

B.certain brain areas begin to act together

C.people are in a state of laziness

D.all actors employ this technique

【4】If you want to be more creative, you are supposed to _______.

A.focus on a specific taskB.believe in your own talent

C.pretend to be someone elseD.turn to be right-brained

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】D

【3】B

【4】C

【解析】

本文為議論文。文章論述了如何讓自己更有創(chuàng)造力，給讀者展示了一種心理學(xué)理念——心理角色扮演：遇見更有創(chuàng)造力的自己。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第一段可知作者問讀者一條褲子可以有多少種不同的用法?并讓讀者假設(shè)自己是一名建筑師，比爾蓋茨，帶水肺的潛水員，一個(gè)中世紀(jì)的騎士等等思考同樣的問題。根據(jù)第二段What you just practiced--the conscious act of "wearing" another self--is an exercise that…is essential to being creative.可知作者接著說剛才你所練習(xí)的——有意識地“穿戴”另一個(gè)自我的行為——是一種對保持創(chuàng)造力至關(guān)重要的練習(xí)。這說明作者在第一段問這些問題就是為了引出下文中的“創(chuàng)造力”話題， 故選A項(xiàng)。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第六段These results suggest that creativity is not an individual characteristic but a “product of context and perspective”. Everyone can be creative, as long as he or she feels like a creative person.可知Denis Dumas 和Kevin Dunbar的研究結(jié)果表明創(chuàng)造力不是個(gè)體特征，而是“環(huán)境和視角的產(chǎn)物”。每個(gè)人都可以有創(chuàng)造力，只要他或她覺得自己是一個(gè)有創(chuàng)造力的人。也就是說一個(gè)人的創(chuàng)造力是取決于自己的。故選D項(xiàng)。

【3】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第七段中的According to Dr. Pillay, it works because it is an act of conscious unfocus, a collection of brain regions that spring into action when you're not focused on a specific task or thought.可知據(jù)皮萊博士說，心理萬圣節(jié)之所以有效，是因?yàn)樗�是一種有意識的分散注意力的行為，當(dāng)你不專注于某一特定任務(wù)或思想時(shí)，大腦中一系列區(qū)域就起作用。這說明心理萬圣節(jié)有效是因?yàn)榇竽X的某些區(qū)域大腦協(xié)同工作，故選B項(xiàng)。

【4】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第四段中的He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to challenge the stereotyped (陳詞濫調(diào)的) advice that urges you to “believe in yourself.” In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.可知想象自己處在一個(gè)新的環(huán)境中，或者是一個(gè)全新的身份，你會感到從未有過的高效，你讓自己更有創(chuàng)造力。由此推斷所以要變得有創(chuàng)造力的話，要想象自己有一個(gè)全新的身份，也就是把自己想象成另外一個(gè)人。故選C項(xiàng)。