2014届高考英语二轮复习：阅读理解6.docVIP

2014届高考英语轮复习 Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly，setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting creatures，”William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century，even the word“habit”carries a negative meaning. So it seems contradictory to talk about habits in the same context as innovation(创新)．But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits ，we create parallel paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new，innovative tracks. Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact，the more new things we try, the more creative we become. But dont bother trying to kill off old habits；once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain，theyre there to stay. Instead，the new habits we deliberately press into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads. “The first thing needed for innovation is attraction to wonder，” says Dawna Markova, author of The Open Mind. “But we are taught 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. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.” “All of us work through problems in ways of which were unaware，” she says. Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the ability to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, collaboratively (合作地) and innovatively. At the end of adolescence，however, the brain shuts down half of that ability, preserving only those ways of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life. The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few