Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the morning. You jump out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with hardly a moment to think. A stressful journey to work gets your blood pressure climbing. Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disasters. In that sort of mood, who can get down to work, particularly some creative, original problem-solving work?
The way most of us spend our mornings is exactly opposite to the conditions that promote flexible, open-minded thinking. Imaginative ideas are most likely to e to us when we’re unfocused. If you are one of those energetic morning people, your most inventive time es in the early evening when you are relaxed. Sleepy people’s lack of focus leads to an increase in creative problem solving. By not giving yourself time to tune into your wandering mind, you’re missing out on the surprising solutions it may offer.
The trip you take to work doesn’t help, either. The stress slows down the speed with which signals travel between neurons (神经细胞), making inspirations less likely to occur. And while we all should read a lot about what’s going on in the world, it would not make you feel good for sure, so put that news website or newspaper aside until after the day’s work is done.
So what would our mornings look like if we wanted to start them with a full capacity for creative problem solving? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead. We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, stopping thinking about tasks in favor of a few more minutes of relaxation. We’d take some deep breaths on our way to work, instead of plaining about heavy traffic. And once in the office—after we get a cup of coffee—we’d click on links not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer.
【小题1】According to the author, we are more creative when we are .A．focused B．relaxedC．awake D．busy【小题2】What does the author imply about newspapers?A．They are solution providers.B．They are a source of inspiration.C．They are normally full of bad news.D．They are more educational than websites.【小题3】 By “tune into your wandering mind” (in Para. 2), the author means “ ”.A．wander into the wildB．listen to a beautiful tuneC．switch to the traffic channelD．stop concentrating on anything【小题4】The author writes the last paragraph in order to .A．offer practical suggestionsB．summarize past experiences C．advocate diverse ways of life D．establish a routine for the futureB
网友回答
(答案→)B
解析：本文是一篇科普说明文。研究表明，放松心情更有利于提高工作效率，更有利于解决创造性的解决问题；压力阻滞了神经细胞信号的传输，只会导致工作效率下降。
【小题1】细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据第二段第三句中“…your most inventive time es in the early evening when you are relaxed.”以及下文对压力阻滞了神经细胞信号的传输可知，放松使我们更具有创造性，故B项正确。
【小题2】细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据第一段倒数第二句中“…the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disaters.”，可知报纸上总是充满了负面新闻，故C项正确。
【小题3】词义猜测题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据语境可知，若一味集中注意力而无暇放松，将错失有创造性的解决问题的方法。D项意为“不将注意力故放在某事物上”，符合语境，故D项正确。
【小题4】主旨大意题。难度中等。
【解题思路】通读最后一段可知，该段主要讲述对如何放松心情提出一些建议，如提早起身、洗热水澡、做深呼吸等等，故A项正确。