C
Maybe you’re depressed because you didn’t sleep well. Or you feel stuck when you read an email with some bad news that prevented your enthusiastic imagination. Whatever the case may be, you tell yourself working now is in vain, because you couldn’t possibly come up with anything inventive in this mood.
Several studies in psychology have shown that negative emotions narrow our vision and limit our thinking. However, positive emotions can improve creativity because they broaden our way of thinking by encouraging us to try new things or look at situations differently.
Creativity is the ability to produce and carry out both new and useful ideas. Creativity can result from a person’s own creative ideas and observations, or it can appear as a response to a direct assignment or problem as well.
Both positive and negative moods can lead to two different kinds of creativity that benefit different tasks. Research shows that the key factor influencing our creativity is not our mood itself, but the strength of our feelings and the motivation behind our work. For example, anger or anxiety can help us to focus our attention on producing effective results. Great excitement or joy, on the other hand, can encourage an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear all of a sudden. In fact, one study even finds that while we’re 20 percent more likely to have creative abilities to understand mixed situations when we’re feeling good, people in a negative mood perform better when the quality of solutions—not quantity—matters most.
But of course, we are rarely entirely happy or entirely sad. More often, we experience mixed emotions. In psychology, these strong emotions whether they are positive or negative, lead to greater creative actions.
It comes as no surprise then that highly creative people tend to be very familiar with their emotions. They report experiencing very strong emotions more frequently than less creative people and are more willing to experience those emotions.
28. What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?
A. To expect us to be creative.
B. To show the importance of creativity.
C. To clarify how moods influence your creativity.
D. To tell us negative emotions exist everywhere.
29. What is the attitude of the author towards negative emotions?
A. Supportive. B. Objective. C. Doubtful. D. Critical.
30. What can be learned in the passage?
A. Strong emotions play an important role in creativity.
B. People feel either very happy or very sad most of the time.
C. We should always try to keep ourselves in good mood.
D. Creativity only results from creative ideas and observations.
31. According to the passage, what should you do to get more creative?
A. Avoid negative moods totally.
B. Face up to your strong emotions.
C. Try out new things cautiously.
D. Understand mixed situations clearly.
CBAB
Maybe you’re depressed because you didn’t sleep well. Or you feel stuck when you read an email with some bad news that prevented your enthusiastic imagination. Whatever the case may be, you tell yourself working now is in vain, because you couldn’t possibly come up with anything inventive in this mood.
Several studies in psychology have shown that negative emotions narrow our vision and limit our thinking. However, positive emotions can improve creativity because they broaden our way of thinking by encouraging us to try new things or look at situations differently.
Creativity is the ability to produce and carry out both new and useful ideas. Creativity can result from a person’s own creative ideas and observations, or it can appear as a response to a direct assignment or problem as well.
Both positive and negative moods can lead to two different kinds of creativity that benefit different tasks. Research shows that the key factor influencing our creativity is not our mood itself, but the strength of our feelings and the motivation behind our work. For example, anger or anxiety can help us to focus our attention on producing effective results. Great excitement or joy, on the other hand, can encourage an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear all of a sudden. In fact, one study even finds that while we’re 20 percent more likely to have creative abilities to understand mixed situations when we’re feeling good, people in a negative mood perform better when the quality of solutions—not quantity—matters most.
But of course, we are rarely entirely happy or entirely sad. More often, we experience mixed emotions. In psychology, these strong emotions whether they are positive or negative, lead to greater creative actions.
It comes as no surprise then that highly creative people tend to be very familiar with their emotions. They report experiencing very strong emotions more frequently than less creative people and are more willing to experience those emotions.
28. What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?
A. To expect us to be creative.
B. To show the importance of creativity.
C. To clarify how moods influence your creativity.
D. To tell us negative emotions exist everywhere.
29. What is the attitude of the author towards negative emotions?
A. Supportive. B. Objective. C. Doubtful. D. Critical.
30. What can be learned in the passage?
A. Strong emotions play an important role in creativity.
B. People feel either very happy or very sad most of the time.
C. We should always try to keep ourselves in good mood.
D. Creativity only results from creative ideas and observations.
31. According to the passage, what should you do to get more creative?
A. Avoid negative moods totally.
B. Face up to your strong emotions.
C. Try out new things cautiously.
D. Understand mixed situations clearly.
CBAB
