Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on au

Habits are a funny thing. We reach for themmindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconsciouscomfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflectingcreatures,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative meaning.

So it seems contradictory to talk abouthabits in the same context as innovation (创新). But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciouslydevelop new habits, we create parallel （平行的）paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trainsof thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves asunchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change byconsciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try, themore creative we become.

But don’t bother trying to kill off oldhabits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain, they’rethere to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately press into ourselvescreate parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.

“The first thing needed for innovation isattraction to wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of The Open Mind. “But we aretaught instead to ‘decide’, just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider’.”She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. Agood innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

“All of us work through problems in ways ofwhich we’re unaware,” she says. Researchers in the late 1960s discovered thathumans are born with the ability to approach challenges in four primary ways:analytically, procedurally（程序上的）, collaboratively (合作地) and innovatively. At the end of adolescence, however, the brainshuts down half of that ability, preserving only those ways of thought thathave seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.

The current emphasis on standardizedtesting highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us use ourinnovative and collaborative ways of thought. “This breaks the major rule inthe American belief system—that anyone can do anything,” explains M. J. Ryan,author of the 2006 book This Year I Will … and Ms. Markova’s business partner.“That’s a lie that we have preserved, and it fosters（培养）commonness. Knowing whatyou’re good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.” This is wheredeveloping new habits comes in.

1. Brain researchers have discovered that     .

2.The underlined word “ruts” inParagraph 4 is closest in meaning to      .

3.Which of the following statements mostprobably agrees with Dawna Markova’s view?

4.The purpose of the author writing thisarticle is to persuade us      .

试题答案

【答案】

1.A2.D3.B4.B

【解析】略