Home
TEST 1 – READING PASSAGE 1:
information below? Write the appropriate letters (A-E) in Boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
1. The way parameters in the mind help people to be creative.
2. The need to learn rules in order to break them.
3. How habits restrict us and limit creativity.
4. How to train the mind to be creative.
5. How the mind is trapped by the desire for order.
THE CREATION MYTH
A. It is a myth that creative people are born with their talents: gifts from
God or nature. Creative genius is, in fact, latent within many of us,
without our realising. But how far do we need to travel to find the path
to creativity? For many people, long way. In our everyday lives, we
have to perform many acts out of habit to survive, like opening the
door, shaving, getting dressed, walking to work, and so on. If this were
not the case, we would, in all probability, become mentally unhinged.
So strongly ingrained are our habits, though this varies from person to
person, that, sometimes, when a conscious effort is made to be creative,
automatic response takes over. We may try, for example, to walk to work
following a different route, but end up on our usual path. By then it
is too late to go back and change our minds. Another day, perhaps. The
same applies to all other areas of our lives. When we are solving
problems, for example, we may seek different answers, but, often as not,
find ourselves walking along the same well-trodden paths.
B. So,for many people, their actions and behaviours are set in immovable
blocks, their minds clogged with the cholesterol of habitual actions,
preventing them from operating freely, and thereby stifling creation.
Unfortunately, mankind’s very struggle for survival has become a tyranny
– the obsessive desire to give order to the world is a case in point.
Witness people’s attitude to time, social customs and the panoply of
rules and regulations by which the human mind is now circumscribed.
C. The groundwork for keeping creative ability in check begins at school.
School, later university and then work teach us to regulate our lives,
imposing a continuous process of restriction, which is increasing
exponentially with the advancement of technology. Is it surprising then
that creative ability appears to be so rare? It is trapped in the prison
that we have erected. Yet, even here in this hostile environment, the
foundations for creativity are being laid; because setting off on the
creative path is also partly about using rules and regulations. Such
limitations are needed so that once they are learnt, they can be broken.
D. The truly creative mind is often seen as totally free and unfettered. But a
better image is of a mind, which can be free when it wants, and one
that recognises that rules and regulations are parameters, or barriers,
to be raised and dropped again at will. An example of how the human kind
can be trained to be creative might help here. People’s mind are just
like tense muscles, that need to be freed up and the potential unlocked.
One strategy is to erect artifitial barriers or hurdles in solving a
problem. In this way, they are obliged to explore unfamiliar territory,
which may led to some startling discoveries. Unfortunately, the
difficulty in this exercise, and with creation itself, is convincing
people that creation is possible, shrouded as it is so much myth and
legend. There is also an element of fear involved, however subliminal,
as deviating from the safety of one’s own thought patterns is very much
akin to madness. But, open Pandora’s box, and a whole new world unfolds
before your eyes.
E. Lifting barriers into place also plays a major part in helping the mind to
control ideas rather than letting them collide at random. Parameterrs
act as containers for ideas, and thus help the mind to fix on them. When
the mind is thinking laterally, and two ideas from different areas of
the brain come or are brought together, they form a new idea, just like
atoms floating around and then forming a molecule. Once the idea has
been formed, it needs to be contained or it will fly away, so fleeting
is its passage. The mind needs to hold it in place for a time so that it
can recognise it or call on it again. And then the parameters can act
as channels along which the ideas can flow, developing and expanding.
When the mind has brought the idea to fruition by thinking it through to
its final conclusion, the parameters can be brought down and the idea
allowed to float off and come in contact with other ideas.
6. According to the writer, creative people
A. are usually born with their talents
B. are born with their talents
C. are not born with their talents
D. are geniuses
7. According to the writer, creativity is
A. a gift from God or nature
B. an automatic response
C. difficult for many people to achieve
D. a well-trodden path
8. According to the writer :
A. the human race’s fight to live is becoming a tyranny
B. the human brain is blocked with cholesterol
C. the human race is now cicumbribed by talents
D. the human race’s fight to survive stifles creative ability
9. Advancing technology
A. holds creativity in check
B. improves creativity
C. enhances creativity
D. is a TYRANNY
10.According to the author, creativity…
A. is common
B. is increasingly common
C. is becoming rarer and rarer
D. is a rare commodity
Yes If the statement agrees with the information in the passage
No If the statement contradicts the information in the passage
Not given If there is no information about the statement in the passage
11.Rules and regulations are examples of parameters.
12.The truly creative mind is associated with the need for free speech and a totally free society.
13.One problem with creativity is that people think it is impossible.
14.The act of creation is linked to madness.
15.Parameters help the mind by holding the ideas and helping them to develop.
- Questions 1 - 5
information below? Write the appropriate letters (A-E) in Boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
1. The way parameters in the mind help people to be creative.
2. The need to learn rules in order to break them.
3. How habits restrict us and limit creativity.
4. How to train the mind to be creative.
5. How the mind is trapped by the desire for order.
THE CREATION MYTH
A. It is a myth that creative people are born with their talents: gifts from
God or nature. Creative genius is, in fact, latent within many of us,
without our realising. But how far do we need to travel to find the path
to creativity? For many people, long way. In our everyday lives, we
have to perform many acts out of habit to survive, like opening the
door, shaving, getting dressed, walking to work, and so on. If this were
not the case, we would, in all probability, become mentally unhinged.
So strongly ingrained are our habits, though this varies from person to
person, that, sometimes, when a conscious effort is made to be creative,
automatic response takes over. We may try, for example, to walk to work
following a different route, but end up on our usual path. By then it
is too late to go back and change our minds. Another day, perhaps. The
same applies to all other areas of our lives. When we are solving
problems, for example, we may seek different answers, but, often as not,
find ourselves walking along the same well-trodden paths.
B. So,for many people, their actions and behaviours are set in immovable
blocks, their minds clogged with the cholesterol of habitual actions,
preventing them from operating freely, and thereby stifling creation.
Unfortunately, mankind’s very struggle for survival has become a tyranny
– the obsessive desire to give order to the world is a case in point.
Witness people’s attitude to time, social customs and the panoply of
rules and regulations by which the human mind is now circumscribed.
C. The groundwork for keeping creative ability in check begins at school.
School, later university and then work teach us to regulate our lives,
imposing a continuous process of restriction, which is increasing
exponentially with the advancement of technology. Is it surprising then
that creative ability appears to be so rare? It is trapped in the prison
that we have erected. Yet, even here in this hostile environment, the
foundations for creativity are being laid; because setting off on the
creative path is also partly about using rules and regulations. Such
limitations are needed so that once they are learnt, they can be broken.
D. The truly creative mind is often seen as totally free and unfettered. But a
better image is of a mind, which can be free when it wants, and one
that recognises that rules and regulations are parameters, or barriers,
to be raised and dropped again at will. An example of how the human kind
can be trained to be creative might help here. People’s mind are just
like tense muscles, that need to be freed up and the potential unlocked.
One strategy is to erect artifitial barriers or hurdles in solving a
problem. In this way, they are obliged to explore unfamiliar territory,
which may led to some startling discoveries. Unfortunately, the
difficulty in this exercise, and with creation itself, is convincing
people that creation is possible, shrouded as it is so much myth and
legend. There is also an element of fear involved, however subliminal,
as deviating from the safety of one’s own thought patterns is very much
akin to madness. But, open Pandora’s box, and a whole new world unfolds
before your eyes.
E. Lifting barriers into place also plays a major part in helping the mind to
control ideas rather than letting them collide at random. Parameterrs
act as containers for ideas, and thus help the mind to fix on them. When
the mind is thinking laterally, and two ideas from different areas of
the brain come or are brought together, they form a new idea, just like
atoms floating around and then forming a molecule. Once the idea has
been formed, it needs to be contained or it will fly away, so fleeting
is its passage. The mind needs to hold it in place for a time so that it
can recognise it or call on it again. And then the parameters can act
as channels along which the ideas can flow, developing and expanding.
When the mind has brought the idea to fruition by thinking it through to
its final conclusion, the parameters can be brought down and the idea
allowed to float off and come in contact with other ideas.
- Questions 6 – 10
6. According to the writer, creative people
A. are usually born with their talents
B. are born with their talents
C. are not born with their talents
D. are geniuses
7. According to the writer, creativity is
A. a gift from God or nature
B. an automatic response
C. difficult for many people to achieve
D. a well-trodden path
8. According to the writer :
A. the human race’s fight to live is becoming a tyranny
B. the human brain is blocked with cholesterol
C. the human race is now cicumbribed by talents
D. the human race’s fight to survive stifles creative ability
9. Advancing technology
A. holds creativity in check
B. improves creativity
C. enhances creativity
D. is a TYRANNY
10.According to the author, creativity…
A. is common
B. is increasingly common
C. is becoming rarer and rarer
D. is a rare commodity
- Questions 11 – 15
Yes If the statement agrees with the information in the passage
No If the statement contradicts the information in the passage
Not given If there is no information about the statement in the passage
11.Rules and regulations are examples of parameters.
12.The truly creative mind is associated with the need for free speech and a totally free society.
13.One problem with creativity is that people think it is impossible.
14.The act of creation is linked to madness.
15.Parameters help the mind by holding the ideas and helping them to develop.
Thank you so much Yennhi!!! I like your idea. I will post my answers here. Hope that you can post the reading tasks often!! And I also adore the way the author wrote this, so nice!!! 
Dap an la gi vay yennhi?
