发布时间：2017年05月22日

四级六级阅读练习（48）：创造力的根源：投掷灵感

小编寄语：熟悉四六级阅读理解题型的同学应该都了解，英语四六级考试阅读理解材料大多选自《时代》《卫报》《今日美国》等外刊。要想阅读理解这部分拿到高分，必须在平常多阅读，掌握新词汇，锻炼阅读速度。但对于很多同学来说，如何每日在浩瀚的互联网世界寻找合适的阅读材料进行分析解读是一项很耗时间的事情。为此，　英语每日精选《卫报》《时代》等外刊上的文章供大家进行阅读练习。

【今日阅读推荐】本篇阅读材料“创造力的来源：投掷灵感”选自《经济学人》（原文标题：The roots of creativity Throwing muses 2012.3.17）。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^

WHERE do good ideas come from? For centuries, all credit for these mysterious gifts went to faith, fortune and some fair muses. But to assume creativity is some lofty trait enjoyed by the few is both foolish and unproductive, argues Jonah Lehrer in “Imagine”, a smart new book about “how creativity works”. Drawing from a wide array of scientific and sociological research—and everything from the poetry of W.H. Auden to the films of Pixar—he makes a convincing case that innovation cannot only be studied and measured, but also nurtured and encouraged.

Just outside St Paul, Minnesota, sits the sprawling corporate headquarters of 3M. The company sells more than 55,000 products, from streetlights to computer touch-screens, and is ranked as the third-most innovative in the world. But when Mr Lehrer visits, he finds employees engaged in all sorts of frivolous activities, such as playing pinball and wandering about the campus. These workers are actually pushed to take regular breaks, as time away from a problem can help spark a moment of insight. This is because interrupting work with a relaxing activity lets the mind turn inward, where it can subconsciously puzzle over subtle meanings and connections (the brain is incredibly busy when daydreaming). “That’s why so many insights happen during warm showers,” says Joydeep Bhattacharya, a psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London.

But this is just one reason for 3M’s creative output (and 3M is just one example of many in this book). The company also encourages its employees to take risks, not only by spending masses on research (nearly 8% of gross revenue), but also by expecting workers to spend around 17% of their time pursuing speculative ideas. Most of these efforts will fail, but some, such as masking tape, an early 3M concept, will generate real profit for the company. The reason why this approach works—and why it has been imitated by other crafty companies such as Google—is because many breakthroughs come when people venture beyond their area of expertise. Often it takes an outsider to ask the kind of dumb questions that may yield an unconventional solution.

This is why young people tend to be the most innovative thinkers in nearly any field, from physics to music. The ignorance of youth “comes with creative advantages,” writes Mr Lehrer (who is disarmingly fresh-faced himself), as the young are less jaded by custom and experience. Still, he reassures readers that anyone can stay creative as long as he works “to maintain the perspective of the outsider”. This can be done by considering new problems at work (3M regularly rotates its engineers from division to division), travelling to new countries or simply spending more time staring “at things we don’t fully understand”. This is why cities are such potent sites of productivity, as they expose people to unexpected experiences and force the exchange of ideas.

This is an inspiring and engaging book that reveals creativity as less a sign of rare genius than a natural human potential. Mr Lehrer points to William Shakespeare, for example, as someone who was largely a man of his time; the culture of Elizabethan London nurtured quite a few poets—much like ancient Athens gave rise to a glut of thinkers and Renaissance Florence inspired many fine artists. Shakespeare knew his way with a pen, but he also lived in a culture that put a premium on ideas, spread education, introduced new patents for inventions and did not always rigorously enforce censorship laws.

Mr Lehrer concludes with a call for better policy to “increase our collective creativity”. He suggests allowing more immigration, inviting more risk and enabling more cultural borrowing and adaptation (by stemming the flood of vague patents and copyright claims). He also warns that the work demands a lot of time, sweat and grit. Or as Albert Einstein put it: “creativity is the residue of time wasted.”

【重点单词及短语】

sprawling adj. 不规则伸展的；蔓生的

frivolous adj. 无聊的；琐碎的

gross revenue 收入总额；营业总额

speculative adj. 思索性的

venture v. 冒险；投机

expertise n. 专门知识；专业技术

yield v. 生产；产出

jade v. 使疲倦

rotate v. 使轮流

potent adj. 有效的；强有力的

put a premium on 重视；奖励；鼓励