1 . Imagine that on a Friday afternoon, before leaving work to start your weekend, you are asked to solve two problems that require creative thinking. Do you: 1). Spend the first half of your time attempting the first problem and the second half of your time attempting the second; 2). Alternate between the two problems at a regular, predetermined interval (e.g., switching every five minutes); 3). Switch between the problems at your own discretion (自行决定).
If you are like the hundreds of people to whom we posed this question, you would choose to switch between the two problems at your own discretion. After all, this approach offers maximum autonomy and flexibility, enabling you to change tracks from one problem to the other when you feel stuck.
But if coming up with creative answers is your goal, this approach may not be ideal. Instead, switching between the problems at a regular, predetermined interval will likely yield the best results, according to research we published in the March issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
In an experiment, we randomly assigned participants to one of the three approaches. Participants who were instructed to continually switch back and forth between two problems at a fixed interval were significantly more likely to find the correct answer to both problems than participants who switched at their own discretion or halfway through the allotted time. The issue with both other approaches seemed to be that people failed to recognize when rigid thinking crept in. Participants who didn’t step away from a task at regular intervals were more likely to write “new” ideas that were very similar to the last one they had written. While they might have felt that they were on a roll, the reality was that, without the breaks afforded by continual task switching, their actual progress was limited.
The findings suggest that the hustle and bustle of your daily work life may facilitate your creativity if it leads you to step away from a task and reset your thinking.
So when you’re working on tasks that would benefit from creative thinking, consciously insert breaks at regular intervals—use a timer if you have to. When it goes off, switch tasks: Organize your receipts, check your email, or clean your desk, and then return to the original task. If you’re hesitant to break away because you feel that you’re on a roll, be mindful that it might be a false impression. We tend to generate redundant ideas when we don’t take regular breaks; ask yourself whether your latest ideas are qualitatively different. Finally, don’t skip your lunch breaks, and don’t feel guilty about taking breaks, especially when you are feeling stuck. Doing so may actually be the best use of your time.
1. The third approach in Paragraph 1 is favored because people believe _______.A.it allows much freedom |
B.it improves concentration |
C.it facilitates autonomous learning |
D.it encourages independent thinking |
A.critical | B.innovative | C.inflexible | D.serious |
A.Doing daily chores is key to generating new ideas. |
B.Regularly scheduled breaks can refresh people’s thinking. |
C.People will automatically take breaks when they feel stuck. |
D.People will make great progress when they work continually. |
A.explain why people fail to produce creative ideas |
B.compare three methods of creative thinking |
C.introduce a new study on work efficiency |
D.present a way to boost creative thinking |
1. What is the weather like today?
A.Rainy. | B.Snowy. | C.Sunny. |
A.At 5:30. | B.At 6:00. | C.At 6:30. |
A.Whistles. | B.Maps. | C.Cameras. |
A.Go surfing. | B.Go hiking. | C.Go boating. |
1. What is the man?
A.A doctor. | B.A host. | C.A teacher. |
A.Cassie’s friend. |
B.Cassie’s mother. |
C.Cassie’s friend’s mother. |
A.One year. | B.Four years. | C.Five years. |
A.She gets bored with it. |
B.She enjoys it in general. |
C.She always works overtime. |
1. Why did the man go to the Philippines?
A.For a trip. | B.For further studies. | C.For volunteer work. |
A.The local students. |
B.The local government. |
C.The local businessmen. |
A.To explore an island. |
B.To help the poor students. |
C.To protect the environment. |
A.Worse than before. | B.Happier than before. | C.As good as before. |
It’s 5 p.m., and you’ve just realized that report you’ve been putting off is due tomorrow. It’s time to buckle down and open your computer. Actually, you should probably make dinner first. You usually like cooking, though it’s hard to enjoy with this work hanging over your head, and oh—it’s actually pretty late! Maybe you should just try again in the morning. This is the cycle of procrastination, and I promise you, we have all been there.
Procrastination is when we avoid a task we said we would do, for no good reason, despite expecting our behavior to bring negative consequences. Obviously, it’s irrational to do something you expect to harm you. But ironically, procrastination is the result of our bodies trying to protect us, specifically by avoiding a task we see as threatening.
We’re most likely to procrastinate tasks that evoke negative feelings, such as dread, incompetence, and insecurity. Because procrastination is motivated by our negative feelings, some individuals are more susceptible (易受影响的) to it than others. People who have difficulty regulating their emotions and those who struggle with low self-esteem are much more likely to procrastinate. However, it’s a common misconception that all procrastinators are lazy. When you’re feeling lazy, you’re more likely to sit around doing nothing than distract yourself with unimportant tasks. In fact, many people procrastinate because they care too much. Procrastinators often report a high fear of failure, putting things off because they’re afraid their work won’t live up to their high standards.
Whatever the reason for procrastination, the results are often the same. Procrastinators are likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, ongoing feelings of shame and physical ailments (轻病) associated with high stress.
So, how can we break the cycle of procrastination?
Traditionally, people thought procrastinators needed to cultivate discipline and practice strict time management. But today, many researchers feel the exact opposite. Being too hard on yourself can layer additional bad emotions onto a task. What we really need to do is to address and reduce these negative emotions.
1. What is procrastination?2. What kinds of people are more likely to procrastinate?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Ø Procrastinators are affected by negative emotions, are all lazy and are likely to suffer from physical ailments associated with high stress.
4. What strategies can you use to break the cycle of procrastination in your daily life? (In about 40 words)
7 . Art Builds Understanding
Despite the long history of scholarship on experiences of art, researchers have yet to capture and understand the most meaningful aspects of such experiences, including the thoughts and insights we gain when we visit a museum, the sense of encounter after seeing a meaningful work of art, or the changed thinking after experiences with art. These powerful encounters can be inspiring, uplifting, and contribute to well-being and flourishing.
According to the mirror model of art developed by Pablo P. L. Tinio, aesthetic reception corresponds to artistic creation in a mirror-reversed fashion. Artists aim to express ideas and messages about the human condition or the world at large.
In addition, art making and art viewing are connected by creative thinking. Research in a lab at Yale University shows that an educational program that uses art appreciation activities builds creative thinking skills. It showed that the more time visitors spent engaging with art and the more they reflected on it, the greater the correspondence with the artists’ intentions and ideas.
Correspondence in feeling and thinking suggests a transfer — between creator and viewer — of ideas, concepts, and emotions contained in the works of art. Art has the potential to communicate across space and time.
A.The viewers gain a new perspective on the story. |
B.The theory of aesthetic cognitivism describes the value of art. |
C.This helps to create connections and insights that otherwise would not happen. |
D.To do so, they explore key ideas and continually expand them as they develop their work. |
E.After spending more time with the work, the viewer begins to access the ideas of the artist. |
F.For example, in one activity, people are asked to view a work of art from different perspectives. |
G.Participants were more original in their thinking when compared to those who did not take part in the program. |
8 . Amid rolling farms and green pasture 150 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, two tropical forests bloom as one. The first consists of a single species, row after row of non-native eucalyptus (桉树), planted in perfect lines like carrots. The other is haphazard, an assortment of dozens of varieties of native saplings.
There’s no denying it: This forest looks ridiculous. The gangly (修长的) eucalyptuses shoot like witch fingers high above patches of stubby fig (矮壮的无花果树) and evergreen trees. Yet these jumbled 2.5-acre stands of native trees, ringed by fast-growing exotics, are among many promising efforts to resurrect the planet’s forests.
The eucalyptuses, says Pedro Brancalion, the University of Sao Paulo agronomist who designed this experiment, get big so quickly they can be cut after five years and sold to make paper or fence posts. That covers nearly half or more of the cost of planting the slow-growing native trees, which then naturally reseed ground that has been laid bare by the harvest. And this process doesn’t hamper natural regeneration.
You needn’t look far these days to find organizations trying to save the world by growing trees. Too often, tree-planting groups are so focused on getting credit for each seedling planted that they ignore what matters most: What kind of woodland is created? At what cost? And most importantly: How long will it last? Using the numbers of trees planted as a magic “proxy for everything,” Brancalion says, you “spend more money and get lower levels of benefits.” You can literally miss the forest for the trees.
Tree planting seems like a simple, natural way to counter the overwhelming crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Trees provide wildlife habitats and slurp carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. No wonder trees are hailed as the ideal weapon. Yet for every high-profile planting operation, devastating failures have occurred. In Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Mexico, mass plantings have resulted in millions of dead seedlings or have driven farmers to clear more intact forest elsewhere. Trees that have been planted in the wrong places have reduced water yields for farmers, destroyed highly diverse carbon-sucking grassland soils, and allowed for invasive vegetation to spread. Simply reforesting the planet isn’t going to do much if we don’t also start cutting down on our emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Tree planting also can’t replace old-growth forests. Saving them is even more important than growing new forests.
So, what should we do?
To Brancalion, the answer is obvious: Restore native forests, mostly in the tropics, where trees grow fast and land is cheap. While that may require planting, it may also call for the clearing out of invasive grasses, the rejuvenation (使有活力) of soils, and crop yield improvements so that farmers will need less land for agriculture and more can be allowed to revert back to forests.
The combining of eucalyptus harvests with native plantings is just one more reminder that successful restoration must provide value to local communities. In many cases, if we let nature do the heavy lifting, Brancalion says, “the forest can regrow quite effectively.”
1. What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?A.The non-native eucalyptuses bring profits that can pay for planting native saplings. |
B.The non-native eucalyptuses compete with native saplings for water, nutrients, and light. |
C.The variety of trees being planted determines whether or not the restoration will succeed. |
D.Planting fast-growing exotics together with local trees does harm to the natural environment. |
A.emphasize the significance of protecting existing forests |
B.explain why tree planting is regarded as the ideal solution |
C.illustrate the serious problems planting campaigns can cause |
D.indicate the most important point tree-planting groups ignore |
A.clear more forest to improve crop yields for farmers |
B.combine harvests of fast-growing exotics with native plantings |
C.restore native forests in the tropics and clear out invasive grasses |
D.take into consideration the benefits of reforestation to local communities |
A.Plant trees—and time will tell. | B.Plant trees—but don’t overdo it. |
C.Plant trees—and save the world. | D.Plant trees—but mind the variety. |
More than 5 million shared bikes on the Chinese mainland are using positioning and navigation services
10 . While I was in hospital for a heart surgery, something affected me and made me do something meaningful. Before my surgery, my doctor showed me a video, in which there were patients like me and they each had a heart pillow, so I decided I would get one.
Right after my
I did all my
A.operation | B.experiment | C.search | D.checkup |
A.examined | B.purchased | C.allowed | D.observed |
A.satisfied | B.upset | C.scared | D.grateful |
A.hoping | B.complaining | C.stating | D.promising |
A.secretly | B.suddenly | C.currently | D.totally |
A.washed | B.abandoned | C.repaired | D.packed |
A.essay | B.homework | C.practice | D.magic |
A.grab | B.trace | C.present | D.return |
A.depending on | B.carrying on | C.insisting on | D.working on |
A.happier | B.calmer | C.wiser | D.luckier |