3 . In a culture obsessed with measuring talent and ability, we often overlook the important role of inspiration because of its complicated nature. Its history of being treated as supernatural hasn’t helped the______. But as recent research shows, inspiration has a major effect on important______.

Inspiration is the springboard for creativity. Being in a state of inspiration ______the creativity of writing samples across scientific writing, poetry and fiction. Inspired writers are more ______and productive, and spend less time pausing and more time writing. The link between inspiration and creativity is in line with the surpassing aspect of inspiration, since creativity involves seeing possibility beyond existing restrictions.

Inspiration facilitates progress toward goals. In a recent study conducted by Marina Milyavskaya and her colleagues, college students were asked to report three goals they intended to_______ throughout the course of the semester. They then reported on their progress three times a month. Those who scored higher on the Inspiration Scale displayed increased goal progress, and their progress was a ______of setting more inspired goals. ______, people who were generally more inspired in their daily lives also tended to set inspired goals, which were then more likely to be successfully achieved. ______the relationship between inspiration and goal progress was mutual: goal progress also predicts future goal inspiration. Finally, inspired individuals reported experiencing more purpose in life and more gratitude.

Inspiration increases______. In another study, those who were exposed to Michael Jordan’s greatness experienced higher levels of Positive Affect, and this increase in Positive Affect was completely explained by their score on the Inspiration Scale. This inspiration was not______ though, foretelling positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) three months later!

Inspiration was more strongly______ future than to present satisfaction. The extent to which inspiration lasted was explained by self-reported levels of purpose and gratitude in life.

These findings show that inspiration______ a lot, which may put the burden on someone to become inspired and helpless to do so. The writer Elizabeth Gilbert rightly expresses this ______in her inspiring TED talk. I agree with Gilbert that one should not put______ on oneself to become inspired. These key scientific findings suggest that inspiration is not______— it happens. Knowing this should free you from the pressure to make inspiration happen.

4 . 5 Ways to Determine Website Reliability

For every trustworthy website, there is tons of information that’s inaccurate, unreliable or just crazy. For the inexperienced journalist or researcher, such sites can _________ a wide range of possible problems. With that in mind, here are five ways to tell if a website is _________.

The internet is full of websites that were _________ five minutes ago. What you want are sites associated with _________ institutions that have been around for a while and have a proven track record of reliability. Such sites may include those run by government agencies, nonprofit organization or universities.

You wouldn’t go to the hospital to have your car repaired. This is an obvious point: _________ websites that specialize in the kind of information you’re seeking. _________, if you’re writing a story on a flu outbreak, check out medical websites, such as The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sites run by companies and business—their websites usually end in. com—are often trying to sell you something. And if they’re trying to sell you something, chances are whatever information they’re presenting will be tilted (偏向) _________ their product. That’s not to say commercial sites should be _________ entirely. But be cautious.

As a reporter, you need the most up-to-date information available, so if a website seems old, it’s probably best to keep distance from it. One way to check: Look for a “last ____________” date on the page or site.

Respected ____________ often link to each other. You can find out which other websites link to the site you’re researching by conducting a link-specific Google search. Enter the following text into the Google search field, ____________ “[WEBSITE]” with the domain (域名) of the site you’re researching: link: http://www.[WEBSITE].com. For example, link: http://www.baidu.com.

The search ____________ will show you which websites link to the one you’re researching. If lots of sites are linking to your site, and those sites seem reliable, that’s a good ____________. Then it seems that you don’t need to worry about them too much

5 . Anyone who has ever witnessed the miracle in which infants progress from mewling to “Mama” to “Mine!” knows how critical it is for youngsters to hear normally before they speak their first words. _______, many children who don’t talk by age two turn out to be deaf. The sooner their disability is discovered and _______, the less likely they are to fall behind in the development of important language and social skills. That is why a growing number of hearing specialists (audiologists) and parents are campaigning for _______ screening of newborns for hearing loss.

Their _______ has registered in some powerful ears. To date, 22 states have passed legislation requiring at least partial screening programs. Part of the push stems from _______ in technology that, among other things, allow children as young as two months to be _______ hearing aids. But there are limits to the technology. One thing parents should realize before they start is that the screening tests are far from _______. A bad result doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem.

Audiologists estimate that 3 out of every 1,000 babies are born with some kind of hearing loss. Of those three infants, one is profoundly deaf. About half the time, doctors can identify a possible cause, such as a birth weight less than 5 pounds, or a family history of _______. The rest of the time there is simply no _______ as to why a newborn’s hearing may have been affected.

The screening tests work by introducing a sound into a baby’s ear and then measuring either the ________ of the ear’s internal mechanisms or the electrical activity of the auditory portion of the brain (the auditory brain-stem response test). Just because a baby fails either test, ________, does not mean that there is a hearing problem. A temporary buildup of fluid in the ear canal or excessive noise in the nursery can ________ the results. For this reason, experts say, hospitals should ________ the screening tests for any baby who doesn’t pass the first time before telling the parents to consult an audiologist for more thorough testing.

It is at this stage that things get a bit ________. Though 20 of every 1,000 babies fail the two-step screen, most prove on further examination to be just fine. Is it worth ________ 17 families of perfectly normal children - not to mention asking them to spend several hundred dollars on advanced tests — to identify three infants with hearing loss?

6 . Throughout history, humans have come up with ways to entertain themselves using objects such as cards, counters, and boards. Over thousands of years, these have evolved (进化) into the games we know today, from traditional sets with simple rules and basic pieces, all the way to modern electronic consoles (see the picture attached on the right-hand side) with advanced technology and lifelike interactive graphics (图形).

A．	B．
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7 . Universal Rhythm

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called music “the universal language of mankind.” Now researchers may know why.     1     And these characteristics tend to be those that gather people, the researchers said.

“Our findings help explain why humans make music,” study researcher Thomas Currie from the University of Exeter said in a statement. “The results show that the most common features seen in music around the world relate to things that allow people to coordinate (协调) their actions.     2    It can be a kind of social glue.”

Currie, along with Pat Savage, a doctoral student at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and their colleagues analyzed music from around the world, examining 304 recordings from the online Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. The music samples came from every inhabited continent, from both vocal and instrumental music.

    3    They systematically coded the features of each piece of music and employed a comparison system similar to those used by evolutionary biologists to classify and statistically analyze organisms. Although they found no features that were part of all the songs analyzed, the researchers did find dozens of characteristics that were present in a majority of songs across different world regions.

Some of these characteristics were not surprising, such as the music’s tendency to use separate pitches, and equally timed beats and short musical phrases.     4    “It fits that we have two legs, so the music is probably related to the natural rhythms of movement,” said Savage. “And also, two is simpler than three, so maybe it’s easier to process and coordinate.”

8 . Creativity is commonly thought of as a personality trait (特征) within the individual. Over the past several years, however, social psychologists have discovered that creativity is not only a characteristic of the individual, but may also change depending on the situation and context. The question, of course, is what those situations are: what makes us more creative at times and less creative at others?

In a recent paper, scientists have demonstrated that increasing psychological distance so that a problem feels farther away can actually increase creativity. Jia and colleagues at Indiana University at Bloomington examined the effect of spatial distance on creativity in this most recent set of studies. Participants in the first study performed a creative generation task, in which they were asked to list as many different modes of transportation as possible. The task was performed either by Indiana University students studying in Greece or by Indiana University students studying in Indiana. As predicted, students in the distant condition generated more numerous and original modes of transportation than those in the proximal condition. Similar results were obtained in a second study, in which performance on three insight problems was measured.

This pair of studies suggests that even minimal cues (提示) of psychological distance can make us more creative. Although the geographical origin of the various tasks was completely irrelevant — it shouldn’t have mattered where the questions came from simply telling subjects that they came from somewhere far away led to more creative thoughts.

The results build on previous studies which demonstrated that distancing in time — projecting an event into the remote future — and assuming an event to be less likely (that is, distancing on the probability dimension) can also enhance creativity.

This research has important practical implications. It suggests that there are several simple steps we can all take to increase creativity, such as traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places) and communicating with people who are dissimilar to us. So the next time you’re stuck on a problem that seems impossible, don’t give up. Instead, try to gain a little psychological distance, and pretend the problem came from somewhere very far away.