"malleable(可塑的) product of context and perspective." Everyone can be creative, as long as they feel like creative people.
Pillay's work takes this a step further: He argues that identifying yourself with creativity is less powerful than the creative act of imagining you're somebody else. This exercise, which he calls "psychological halloweenism", refers to the conscious action of inhabiting another persona—an inner costuming of the self. It works because it is an act of "conscious unfocus", a way of positively stimulating the default mode(默认模式) network, a collection of brain regions that spring into action when you're not focused on a specific task or thought.
Most of us spend too much time worrying about two things: How successful/unsuccessful we are, and how little we're focusing on the task at hand. The former feeds the latter—an unfocused person is an unsuccessful one, we believe. Thus, we force ourselves into quiet areas, buy noise canceling headphones, and hate ourselves for taking breaks.
What makes Pillay's argument stand out is its healthy, forgiving realism: According to him, most people spend nearly half of their days in a state of "unfocus". This doesn't make us lazy people—it makes us human. The idea behind psychological halloweenism is: What if we stopped judging ourselves for our mental down time, and instead started using it? Putting this new idea on daydreaming means addressing two problems at once: You're making yourself more creative, and you're giving yourself permission to do something you'd otherwise feel guilty about. Imagining yourself in a new situation, or an entirely new identity, never felt so productive.
Title: Pretending you're someone else can make you creative
creativity;individual/personal;positively;subscribes;realistic/practical;forgive
【解析】【分析】本文是一篇说明文,介绍了假装你是别人会让你更有创造力。
(1)考查信息归纳。根据第一段中的“One great irony(讽刺) about our collective fascination with creativity is that we tend to frame it in uncreative ways.”可知,我们大多数人对自己要么有创造力要么没有创造力的想法印象深刻:两者之间不存在中间地带。故答案为fascinated/impressed。
(2)考查信息归纳。根据第二段中的“Pillay believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to dismiss the conventional advice that urges you to ’believe in yourself‘. In fact, you should do the exact opposite: believe you are someone else.”可知,与普遍的看法相反,皮莱的建议是,你应该相信你是别人。故答案为Contrary。
(3)考查信息归纳。根据第三段中的“instructing the members of one group to think of themselves as ’eccentric(古怪的) poets‘ and the members of another to imagine they were ’rigid librarians‘(people in the third category, the control group, were left alone for this part).”可知,其中一组被要求认为自己是“古怪的诗人”,另一组是“刻板的图书管理员”,第三组作为对照组。故答案为worked/acted/served/functioned。
(4)考查句义理解。根据第三段中的“The researchers then presented participants with 10 ordinary objects,including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one.”可知,前两组被要求为每个给定对象想出尽可能多的不同用途。故答案为given。
(5)考查句义理解。根据第三段中的“Meanwhile, the researchers found only small differences in students' creativity levels across academic majors—in fact, the physics majors inhabiting(寄生) the personas(伪装的外表) of ’eccentric poets‘ came up with more ideas than the art majors did.”可知,学生的创造力水平并不总是与专业类型成正比。故答案为creativity。
(6)考查原词复现。根据第四段中的“These results, write Dumas and Dunbar, suggest that creativity is not an individual quality, but a ’malleable(可塑的) product of context and perspective.‘”可知,因此,创造力可能是环境和视角的产物,而不是个人的东西。故答案为individual/personal。
(7)考查信息归纳。根据第五段中的”This exercise, which he calls “psychological halloweenism", refers to the conscious action of inhabiting another persona—an inner costuming of the self. It works because it is an act of ’conscious unfocus‘, a way of positively stimulating the default mode(默认模式) network.“可知,"psychological halloweenism"的实施是指通过积极刺激默认模式网络,有意识地成为他人的行为。故答案为positively。
(8)考查句义理解。根据最后一段中的”Pillay's w ork takes this a step further: He argues that identifying yourself with creativity is less powerful than the creative act of imagining you're somebody else.“可知,Pillay坚决支持把你想象成别人的观点,并建议我们不要担心自己有