At the present time, more and more people love travelling. It’s a very good ______ of getting to know new people and cultures and acquiring (获得) experiences. It helps travelers ______ a lot. Travel can make our minds become ______.

But travel does more than all that. It can also make us more creative. In recent years, some professors have been doing research on what many people have already learned from travel experiences. They believe that spending time abroad has the ______ to affect (影响) people’s mind. For example, they found that the students who lived abroad for a longer period were better at ______ problems creatively than those who did not. If you stay in the same place, you can’t experience new sights, new smells, new sounds and new cultures. All these can ______ your mind and make it more active.

_______, that doesn’t mean the more places you’ve been, the more creative you’ll become. Another group of professors have been doing ______ research. They found the people who often travelled from one place to another didn’t have enough ______ to immerse (使……沉浸) themselves in a new place and a new culture. They weren’t as creative as the people who spent the time ______ getting to know a place. You have to interact (相互影响) with the places you go to and then you can benefit (得益) from it.

If you go travelling, which do you prefer, staying in a place for a certain period or rushing all the way?

In Western society, especially in the English-speaking world, the chance for young people to see the other countries and experience life is considered important. Many young people, when they finish school at the age of 18, take a gap year before they go to university.

Parents often want their children to grow up a little and see what the real world is like when they finish school. Although they are worried about their safety, many think that the advantages of independence and experience are worth the worries. Children are encouraged to be brave, independent and to explore the world on their own or with friends.

Young people also want to experience freedom and see what life is like on the other side. This other side could be the other side of the world or just the other side of life. For example, if they have a rich life, they may want to see how people in poor areas live.

A gap year after school is also an important chance for young people to spend time thinking about what they want to do with their lives. A little bit of growing up and experience will help them make their important career decisions, especially when they are unsure about what they want to study.

Another reason for going straight after school is to get a break from studying before they start the next few years of university. So anywhere you travel in the world, you will meet young European people exploring the world.

So much of the world has been travelled and explored. The young people are now looking for more worthy experiences. Some of them work as volunteers to do something for the country they are visiting. Many gap year volunteers are now spending a few months teaching English in Thailand, helping feed giant pandas in China or building a well(井) in a village in Africa.

These young people’s wish to explore the world is an expression of the values of the societies that they are part of. Both discovering the world and making a positive difference in it are important parts of the Western mind.