What inspires kids to be creative and pursue academic excellence? Some teachers use rewards in recognition of students’ effort or achievement, giving them prizes, medals, certificates, or money.
Psychologists take opposite views of how external rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and their consequences, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Cognitive researchers, who study various aspects of mental life, believe that rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others.
The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary(金钱的)  rewards  sparks  creativity in  primary  school  children, suggesting that  properly given
stimuli(刺激) indeed encourage creativity, according to a study in the June Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"If kids know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity," says Robert Eisenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. "But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much desire for rewards."
A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with students lacking in creativity and motivation, Eisenberger says. As an example of the latter point, he particularly mentions growing efforts to tighten grading standards and adopt failing grades at major universities.
In earlier grades, the use of rewarding system, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, Eisenberger claims.
27.Psychologists are divided in their attitudes toward    .
a)the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards
b)the amount of monetary rewards for students' creativity
c)the relationship between actions and their consequences
d)the effects of external rewards on students' performance
28.Which of the following does NOT belong to examples of “external rewards”?
a)Tom received a certificate for winning a speech competition.
b)Mary was praised by the teacher for making progress in English.
c)Jacky made great efforts to enter a major university.
d)John was offered a free summer camp due to his hard work.
29.Which of the following can best raise students' creativity according to Robert Eisenberger?
a)Assigning them tasks they have not dealt with before.
b)Assigning them tasks which require creativity.
c)Giving them rewards they really deserve.
d)Giving them rewards they hope for.
30.It can be inferred from the passage that major universities are trying to tighten their grading standards because they think    _.
a)rewarding poor performance may kill the creativity of students
b)punishing students is more effective than rewarding them
c)failing unmotivated students helps improve their academic standards
d)discouraging students’ expectation of easy rewards is important
27—30 DCCA