10 . Next time you are struggling with the crossword, try putting the kettle on. Drinking a cup of tea can improve creativity, a study suggests.
Researchers gave participants either tea or water and then asked them to complete a word association game, which was used to measure a form of creativity known as convergent thinking (聚合思维).
In the game, the participants were given sets of words such as “same, tennis, head” and asked to find a meaningful link between them. After analyzing the results in a way that ruled out the potential effects of a person’s intelligence and language ability, the researchers found those who drank the tea performed significantly better in the word association game. The tea drinkers scored an average of 13.89 in the game compared with 12.94 for water drinkers.
The researchers said it was not clear why tea has this beneficial effect. Tea contains special components, which can improve attention, but the participants in the study drank only a small amount of tea — 90 ml, on average — and carried out the tests very soon after consuming it, meaning any effect would have been ignored. This result showed the tea drinking event itself — rather than the biological components of tea — played a positive role, the researchers said.
Previous research has found that people tend to associate tea drinking with a specific set of personality traits(特征), such as smart, creative, elegant, confident, and stable. It may be that when participants are stimulated (刺激) by tea, the mental representation of a tea drinker is also activated, and they unconsciously think that they should be smarter and more creative.
1. What did the participants have to do in the study?
| A．Pair the words with each other. |
| B．Guess the meaning of the words. |
| C．Find a connection between the words. |
| D．Tell the differences among the words. |
2. What helped a participant get a higher score by the researchers?
| A．The participant’s intelligence. |
| B．The action of drinking tea itself. |
| C．The participant’s language ability. |
| D．The biological components of tea. |
3. What can be inferred from the previous research?
| A．Drinking tea makes people more active. |
| B．Drinking tea is popular among the youth. |
| C．People tend to drink tea more than before. |
| D．People drinking tea are often thought smart. |
4. Which of the following can be the best title of the text?
| A．Drinking Tea Is Good for Health |
| B．Drinking Tea Is A Popular Trend |
| C．Drinking Tea Makes for Creativity |
| D．Drinking Tea Matters A Lot in Life |
