If you’ve ever taken a class in drawing, painting or pottery and in spite of your best effort, couldn’t make the final result look anything like the model shown, you may have thought, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
According to some scientists, who for the past 20 years have put the elusive (难以解释的) subject of creativity through the rigors (严谨) of research, you are underestimating yourself. Da Vinci you may never be, but when it comes to creativity, we are all somewhat blessed (享有). It’s learning to encourage this unique tool of extraordinary productivity, and then applying it in everything you do, that counts to tell you from figures like Da Vinci.
“Even if we don’t have the good fortune to discover a new chemical element or write a great story, the love of the creative process for its own sake is available to all,” says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
Most people believe the area of creativity has been awarded to those thought to have special talent. We look upon these “creative geniuses,” as we often call them, with great respect and a bit of envy. Their abilities, most people believe, ore bestowed (给予) by good genes, or, as if in Greek mythology (神话), from some kind of divine (天赐的) inspiration.
There is no doubt that the world is never short of highly talented and creative people. They are masters of their trades and stand heads-and-shoulders above commoners, making new pathways for others to follow, and providing greater context and understanding of our world. It could be said that without creativity humanity would not evolve so rapidly.
But like a publicly recognized creative baseball player who improves his skill through years of continuous training, foregoing other pursuits for the only passion, people who show the slightest unwillingness for tough labor may finally find their boasted (自夸的) ability disappear.
After closely studying 91 creative and influential people, including novelists, playwrights, composers, musicians and scientists, Csikszentmihalyi concludes that no one would ignore the sweat they shed (流淌) and their almost crazy willingness to follow their creative efforts to the very end, wherever that may be. These are the very things we all can master, so long as we’d like to.
【小题1】It’s widely believed that creativity comes from ______.| A．good training people receive from artistic classes | B．the inborn genes or relevant gifts. |
| C．the tool we learn from masters like Da Vinci | D．certain Greek historical textbooks |
| A．Common people rather than creative ones lead in various professions. |
| B．People’s admiration of geniuses makes humanity develop quickly. |
| C．The field of baseball requires more gifts than hard work. |
| D．The building of creativity lies in devotion and effort. |
| A．giving up | B．counting on | C．referring to | D．turning to |
| A．How ordinary people and scientists view things differently. |
| B．The reasons for the development of various trades and humanity. |
| C．People’s misunderstanding of creativity and its true nature. |
| D．Ordinary people’s unwillingness to follow the examples of creative ones. |
