Most people believe they don't have much imagination.They are wrong.Everyone has imagination, but most of us, once we become adults, forget how to access it.Creativity isn't always connected with great works of art or ideas.People at work and in their free time routinely think of creative ways to solve problems.Maybe you have a goal to achieve, a tricky question to answer or you just want to expand your mind! Here are three techniques to help you.
This technique involves taking unrelated ideas and trying to find links between them.First, think about the problem you have to solve or the job you need to do.Then find an image, word, idea or object, for example, a candle.Write down all the ideas/words associated with candles:light, fire, matches, wax:night, silence, etc.Think of as many as you can.The next stage is to relate the ideas to the job you have to do.So imagine you want to buy a friend an original present; you could buy him tickets to a match or take him out for the night.
Imagine that normal limitations don't exist.You have as much time/space/money, etc.as you want.Think about your goal and the new possibilities.If, for example, your goal is to learn to ski, you can now practice skiing every day of your life(because you have the time and the money).Now adapt this to reality.Maybe you can practice skiing every day in December, or every Monday in January.
Look at the situation from a different point of view.Good negotiators(谈判者)use this technique in business, and so do writers.Fiction writers often imagine they are the characters in their books.They ask questions:what does this character want? Why can't she get it? What changes must she make to get what she wants? What does she dream about? If your goal involves other people,put yourself "in their shoes".The best fishermen think like fish!
(1)
According to the passage, when we become adults _________.
[ ]
A.
we can still learn to be more creative.
B.
most of us are no longer creative.
C.
we are not as imaginative as children.
D.
we are unwilling to be creative.
(2)
The second technique suggests that you just imagine _________.
[ ]
A.
setting a goal is as simple as skiing.
B.
you have every resource to achieve your goal.
C.
new possibilities will soon appear.
D.
December and January are the best months for skiing.
(3)
The phrase “put yourself in their shoes” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _________.
[ ]
A.
dress yourself like them.
B.
do as they ask you to.
C.
think as they would.
D.
put on their shoes,
(4)
We learn from the third technique that a good salesman should ask himself:
Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an expensive French restaurant in Denver.The ice cream he was serving fell onto the white dress of a rich and important woman.
Thirty years have passed, but Odland can't get the memory out of his mind, nor the woman's kind reaction.She was shocked, regained calmness and, in a kind voice, told the young Odland,“It's OK.It wasn't your fault.”When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson:You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.
Odland isn't the only CEO to have made this discovery.Rather, it seems to be one of those few laws of the land that every CEO learns on the way up.It's hard to get a dozen CEO's to agree about anything, but most agree with the Waiter Rule.They say how others treat the CEO says nothing.But how others treat the waiter is like a window into the soul.
Watch out for anyone who pulls out the power card to say something like,“I could but this place and fire you,”or“I know the owner and I could have you fired.”Those who say such things have shown more about their character than about their wealth and power.
The CEO who came up with it, or at least first wrote it down, is Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson.He wrote a best-selling book called Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management.
“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person,”Swanson says.“I will never offer a job to the person who is sweet to the boss but turns rude to someone cleaning the tables.”
(1)
What happened after Odland dropped the ice cream onto the woman's dress?
[ ]
A.
He was fired.
B.
He was blamed.
C.
The woman comforted him.
D.
The woman left the restaurant at once.
(2)
Odland learned one of his life lessons from ________.
[ ]
A.
his experience as a waiter
B.
the advice given by the CEOs
C.
an article in Fortune
D.
an interesting best-selling book
(3)
According to the text, most CEOs have the same opinion about ________.
Our boat floated on, between walls of forest too thick to allow us a view of the land we were passing through, though we knew from the map that our river must from time to time be passing through chains of hills which crossed the jungle plains.Nowhere did we find a place where we could have landed:where the jungle did not actually spread right down into the river, banks of soft mud prevented us going ashore.In any case, what would we have sailed by landing?The country was full of snakes and other dangerous creatures, and the jungle was so thick that one would be able to advance only slowly, cutting one’s way with knives the whole way.So we stayed in the boat, hoping we reached the sea, a friendly fisherman would pick us up and take us to civilization.
We lived on fish, caught with home-made net of string(we had no hooks), and fruits and nuts we could pick up out of the water.As we had no fire, we had to eat everything, including the fish, raw I had never tasted raw fish before, and I must say I did not much enjoy the experience; perhaps sea fish which do not live in the mud are less tasteless.After eating my raw fish, I lay back and dreamed of such things as fried chicken and rice, and ice-cream.In the never-ending damp heat of the jungle, ice-cream was a particularly frequent dream.
As for water, there was a choice:we could drink the muddy river water, or die of thirst.We drank the water.Men who had just escaped what had appeared to be certain death lose all worries about such small things as diseases caused by dirty water.In fact, none of us suffered from any illness as a result.
One day we passed another village, but fortunately nobody saw us.We did not wish to risk being taken prisoners a second time:we might not be so lucky to escape in a stolen boat again.
(1)
What they could see in the boat was only ________.
[ ]
A.
high wall
B.
villagers from time to time
C.
vast land
D.
heavy woods
(2)
They couldn’t land because ________.
[ ]
A.
the mud on the shore was too soft
B.
the forest was too thick to let them go through
C.
they could not find the mark on the map
D.
they could not find anyone to lead them out of the forest
(3)
The passage infers that the forest was ________.
[ ]
A.
rich of fruits and animals to be served as food
B.
not very thick as they could advance slowly by cutting the branches
C.
full of various dangerous beings
D.
full of ancient trees
(4)
The most proper title for this passage might be ________.
[ ]
A.
Escape
B.
Scenes of a River
C.
How to Survive on a boat
D.
A New Experience
阅读理解:
Our boat floated on, between walls of forest too thick to allow us a view of the land we were passing through, though we knew from the map that our river must from time to time be passing through chains of hills which crossed the jungle plains.Nowhere did we find a place where we could have landed:where the jungle did not actually spread right down into the river, banks of soft mud prevented us going ashore.In any case, what would we have sailed by landing?The country was full of snakes and other dangerous creatures, and the jungle was so thick that one would be able to advance only slowly, cutting one’s way with knives the whole way.So we stayed in the boat, hoping we reached the sea, a friendly fisherman would pick us up and take us to civilization.
We lived on fish, caught with home-made net of string(we had no hooks), and fruits and nuts we could pick up out of the water.As we had no fire, we had to eat everything, including the fish, raw I had never tasted raw fish before, and I must say I did not much enjoy the experience; perhaps sea fish which do not live in the mud are less tasteless.After eating my raw fish, I lay back and dreamed of such things as fried chicken and rice, and ice-cream.In the never-ending damp heat of the jungle, ice-cream was a particularly frequent dream.
As for water, there was a choice:we could drink the muddy river water, or die of thirst.We drank the water.Men who had just escaped what had appeared to be certain death lose all worries about such small things as diseases caused by dirty water.In fact, none of us suffered from any illness as a result.
One day we passed another village, but fortunately nobody saw us.We did not wish to risk being taken prisoners a second time:we might not be so lucky to escape in a stolen boat again.
(1)
What they could see in the boat was only ________.
[ ]
A.
high wall
B.
villagers from time to time
C.
vast land
D.
heavy woods
(2)
They couldn’t land because ________.
[ ]
A.
the mud on the shore was too soft
B.
the forest was too thick to let them go through
C.
they could not find the mark on the map
D.
they could not find anyone to lead them out of the forest.
(3)
The passage infers that the forest was ________.
[ ]
A.
rich of fruits and animals to be served as food
B.
not very thick as they could advance slowly by cutting the branches
C.
full of various dangerous beings
D.
full of ancient trees
(4)
The most proper title for this passage might be ________.