Reading award-winning literature may boost your ability to read other people, a new study suggests. Researchers at the New School for Social Research found that when they had volunteers read works of acclaimed (受到称赞的) “literary fiction”, it seemed to temporarily improve their ability to _________ other people’s emotions. The same was not _________ of nonfiction or “popular” fiction, the mystery, romance and science fiction books that often dominate bestseller lists.

Researchers _________ a series of five experiments which participants read either literary fiction, popular fiction, nonfiction or nothing at all before taking some standard tests. One of the tests is known as “Reading the Mind in the Eyes”. People have to look at photos of actors’ eyes, and then guess what emotion is being expressed in each. The test is considered a(n) _________ of empathy. Overall, study participants scored better after reading literary fiction, versus the other three _________.

It was a(n) _________ improvement, according to the principal researcher David Comer Kidd, “It’s not like taking people from a ‘C’ to an ‘A’ ,” he said. But, Kidd added, the effect was seen after only about 10 minutes’ reading, and it was a statistically strong finding, meaning it’s unlikely to have been due to _________.

What’s so _________ about literary fiction? It’s usually more focused on character than on plot. There is usually no single “dominant narrator” who takes readers through the story. It _________ that the readers should think about the characters and fill in the gaps. The author doesn’t tell you what to think. Readers have to make__________ about characters. And that’s often what people are doing in the real-life conversations.

“This is great study!” said Raymond Mar, an associate professor of psychology at York University, who was not involved in the new study. __________, he added that the overall research in this area is “still in its infancy” and one key question is whether literary fiction really __________ other types of fiction. So, it’s too early to tell people to __________ their romance novel for Nobel literature, at least if the goal is boosting empathy.

But it is __________ that the findings suggest literature is important beyond entertainment or improving vocabulary. “There’s a common belief that reading literature is frivolous (可笑的), or not practical,” Mar said. “But there’s a growing body of evidence that it’s important in __________ that we need in our lives.”

I would like to suggest that for sixty to ninety minutes each evening all smart phones in the family be put away.

Let us take a ______, reasonable look at what the results might be if such a(n) ______ were accepted: Families might use the time for a real family hour. Without the distraction of phones, they might ______ around together after dinner and actually talk to one another. In fact , it is well-known that many of our ______ in every aspect of our life, from the generation gap to the high divorce and ______ some forms of mental illness are caused at least ______ by failure to communicate. By using the quiet family hour to ______ our problems, we might get to know each other better, and to like each other better.

On evenings when such a talk is ______, families could discover other active pastimes (消遣). Freed from smart phones, forced to find their own ______, they might take a ride together to watch the sunset ______ they might take a walk together. With free time and no smart phones, children and adults might discover reading. They might find there is more ______ in a good book than in an electronic game. According to educators, the generation ______ with smart phones can hardly write an English sentence, ______ at the college level. Actually, ______ is often improved through adequate reading. So with more time on books, a more literate (有文化的) new generation could be a (n) ______ of the quiet hour.

A different ______ of reading might also be done as it was in the past: reading aloud. The quiet hour could become the story hour. When the quiet hour ______, we may find it hard to ______ from our newly-discovered activities and expect the next story time.

At first glance, this idea seems radical (极端的). How will we spend the time then? The fact is that it has been only ten years ______ smart phones came to control our time. Those of us twenty-five and older can remember childhood without smart phones. It wasn’t so ______ as we think.