1 . Movies and TV shows see dolphins as helpful, playful creatures. “The world loves a good dolphin story,” Blake Morton, a scientist who studies animal behavior, told TIME. “And I think one reason for that is we see a lot of ourselves reflected in their behavior.”

Morton used scientific methods to test this. The result of this work is a new report showing that humans and dolphins share certain personality traits (个性特点).

The study included 134 bottlenose dolphins in eight countries. Each dolphin was observed and rated by several people, using a “dolphin personality questionnaire (调查表).” The questionnaire had more than 40 items. It included adjectives such as “playful” and “intelligent”. Scientists gave every dolphin a score from 1 to 5 for each item, based on how well it described the animal’s behavior.

From these ratings, Morton and his team were able to find personality traits that are common in dolphins. The results show that dolphins and humans have some similar personality traits. Most obviously, the two species (物种) share traits related to curiosity and sociability.

Morton’s dolphin study and others like it help us learn about other species. But they also help us learn about ourselves. “My kind of work comes from the spirit of trying to understand what made humans the way we are,” Morton says. “One way we can do that is to compare our behavior to other species.”

Scientists around the world are researching different animal species. Their research raises important questions that future scientists will work to answer. “It’s all a big puzzle (迷宫),” Morton says. “It takes thousands of careful papers being printed before you start to see the puzzle coming together.” He compares scientific research to pointillism. That’s a painting style in which an artist makes a picture using lots of tiny dots (点). “If you take a step back and look at all those little single points of work,” Morton says, “you’ll see a big picture come into view.”

6 . When you are concerned about your uninspiring exam grades or sporting performance, psychologist Adam Grant has some good news. “_________ is less a matter of natural talent, but more of nurturing (培养) hidden potential,” he says. Grant has experienced this__________.

As a(n) _________ in multiple fields now, it is hard to believe Grant has ever been anything less than highly________. As a child, his body wasn’t _________ to touch his toes as a teenage diver; he was told he _________ remedial (辅导的) classes for writing; he was too _________ to speak publicly. However, his father always cheered him up, “I believe you have hidden potential in all these areas.”

Despite these _________, his father’s firm belief in his potential and Grant’s determination _________his continuous pursuit s pursuit of excellence. _________, he made it to be on the US Junior Olympic diving team, write five best-selling books and speak to _________audiences. Overtime, he discovered that talent could be nurtured through _________. Grant’s transformation also serves as a _________ to the power of belief in one’s potential.

Much of our _________ to discover hidden potential lies in underestimation. When someone struggles with something, we _________ that’s not for me, and that I don’t have that talent, rather than trying to nurture something we’re yet to _________ in. Consequently, we _________ ourselves.

“I used to believe that you could _________ where you would land from where you start,” Grant says_________to that, Grant’s transformative journey demonstrates the profound ________ of being encouraged and hard work on one’s path to success.