Most people believe they don't have imagination. They are wrong. Everyone has imagination, but most of us，once we became adults, forget how to access it. Creativity isn't always connected with great works of art or ideas. People at work and in their free time routinely think of creative ways to solve problems. Maybe you have a goal to achieve，a tricky question to answer or you just want to expand your mind! Here are three techniques to help you.
This technique involves taking unrelated ideas and trying to find links between them. First，think about the problem you have to solve or the job you need to do. Then find an image，word，idea or object，for example，a candle. Write down all the ideas/words associated with candles：light，fire，matches, wax，night，silence，etc. Think of as many as you can. The next stage is to relate the ideas to the job you have to do. So imagine you want to buy a friend an original present; you could buy him tickets to a match or take him out for the night.
　  Imagine that normal limitations don't exist. You have as much time/space/money，etc. as you want. Think about your goal and the new possibilities. If，for example，your goal is to learn to ski, you can now practice skiing every day of your life (because you have the time and the money). Now adapt this to reality. Maybe you can practice skiing every day in December，or every Monday in January.
Look at the situation from a different point of view. Good negotiators use this technique in business，and so do writers. Fiction writers often imagine they are the characters in their books. They ask questions: what does this character want? Why can't she get it? What changes must she make to get what she wants? What does she dream about? If your goal involves other people, put yourself “in their shoes”. The best fishermen think like fish!
【小题1】According to the passage, when we become adults, _________ .

A．most of us are no longer creative	B．we can still learn to be more creative
C．we are not as imaginative as children	D．we are unwilling to be creative

【小题2】The second technique suggests that you just imagine

A．setting a goal is as simple as skiing

B．new possibilities will soon appear

C．December and January are the best months for skiing.

D．you have every resource to achieve your goal

【小题3】The phrase “put yourself in their shoes” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______  .

A．dress yourself like them	B．think as they would
C．do as they ask you to	D．put on their shoes

【小题4】We learn from the third technique that a good salesman should ask himself “ _________ ?”.

A．what do I usually do	B．what did my boss tell me to do
C．what are my customers' needs	D．how should I sell my products

Most people believe they don't have imagination. They are wrong. Everyone has imagination, but most of us，once we became adults, forget how to access it. Creativity isn't always connected with great works of art or ideas. People at work and in their free time routinely think of creative ways to solve problems. Maybe you have a goal to achieve，a tricky question to answer or you just want to expand your mind! Here are three techniques to help you.

This technique involves taking unrelated ideas and trying to find links between them. First，think about the problem you have to solve or the job you need to do. Then find an image，word，idea or object，for example，a candle. Write down all the ideas/words associated with candles：light，fire，matches, wax，night，silence，etc. Think of as many as you can. The next stage is to relate the ideas to the job you have to do. So imagine you want to buy a friend an original present; you could buy him tickets to a match or take him out for the night.

　  Imagine that normal limitations don't exist. You have as much time/space/money，etc. as you want. Think about your goal and the new possibilities. If，for example，your goal is to learn to ski, you can now practice skiing every day of your life (because you have the time and the money). Now adapt this to reality. Maybe you can practice skiing every day in December，or every Monday in January.

Look at the situation from a different point of view. Good negotiators use this technique in business，and so do writers. Fiction writers often imagine they are the characters in their books. They ask questions: what does this character want? Why can't she get it? What changes must she make to get what she wants? What does she dream about? If your goal involves other people, put yourself “in their shoes”. The best fishermen think like fish!

1.According to the passage, when we become adults, _________ .

A．most of us are no longer creative	B．we can still learn to be more creative
C．we are not as imaginative as children	D．we are unwilling to be creative

2.The second technique suggests that you just imagine

A．setting a goal is as simple as skiing

B．new possibilities will soon appear

C．December and January are the best months for skiing.

D．you have every resource to achieve your goal

3.The phrase “put yourself in their shoes” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______  .

A．dress yourself like them	B．think as they would
C．do as they ask you to	D．put on their shoes

4.We learn from the third technique that a good salesman should ask himself “ _________ ?”.

A．what do I usually do	B．what did my boss tell me to do
C．what are my customers' needs	D．how should I sell my products

 

Here are five letters from readers listed in 1-5. All the greetings and signatures are left out. Suppose you are a secretary of the magazine CR (Crazy English Reader), for each one find a suitable reply from A-F. Mark the correct letter (A-F) on your answer sheet. There is one extra reply which you don’t need to use.

   1. I am a reader of CR. Recently I found students translate some articles of CR. I appreciate your offering an opportunity to us beginners to practise using English. So I want to ask how they can obtain these articles and translated them for you, and what qualities you require. Thank you.

   2. I love your Crazy English Reader magazine! It provides valuable data for work in our English teaching. My wife and I are teaching Conversational English so I’ve been giving you a bit of a plug at our middle school. I told the students to “get a copy!” It’s good stuff! Fantastic!

     3. I’m one of Yao’s fans from Guangzhou. I have read the Yao Ming articles in No.7 Crazy English Reader. I want to know his correspondence address and the official website. Could you please tell me? Thank you very much indeed.  

     4. First of all, I must say thank you very much to all the CE Reader editors who gave us a really good English magazine. Secondly, I want to give you a piece of advice. In each passage, you gave us some new words with their Chinese translation. However, as far as my knowledge, I think you should give us not only the Chinese meaning but also the English meaning so as to know the words more accurately. Thank you!

     5. I am an editor of the English Monthly of our school. I have a question that is how to say the position of the paper e.g., 总编 责任编辑 and so on. I hope you can help me to tell me the word in English. The more the better. Thank you so much! I love the book very much. Now, I do this work, I need study more information about this work, if you have time, please email me. Thank you.

Thank you for your suggestion. We may try that in some future issues of CR. I think the best way to improve your reading vocabulary is to be able to guess the meaning of the word from the other words around it. Also, if you have an English dictionary, it’s good to look up the words and then mark them down in a notebook and review them later on. Then if you really want to learn how to use the words, try using them in conversation or in writing. Hope this helps.

The best way for you to learn the different positions in a newspaper or magazine is to get a copy of an all-English magazine or newspaper and then copy down the different positions. There are also titles such as Managing Editor, reporter, Copy Editor, Photo Editor and Layout Editor. I hope this helps. If you have some more specific questions, you can send them to me and I’ll try to answer.

C．The best way to reach Yao directly is through his home team, the Shanghai Sharks. You can write him at 2570 Xietu Road, Shanghai. For more information on Yao, you can look at the sports section in sina. com. I hope this helps. Another idea is that you can try to write Yao while he’s living and playing in Houston. You can try to reach Yao in the US at:   Yao Ming   Compaq Centre 10  Houston, TX 77046

Thank you for being such a careful reader of CR. Yes, you’re right we made a mistake in the writing of that Chinese word. Each issue we try to read very carefully each article and its translation to make sure there are no mistakes, but unfortunately a few mistakes always get by. But you encourage us to keep improving, so thank you.

Yes, we do have several students who help us translate some of the articles in our magazine. We contact these translators directly after interviewing their translation work. Afterwards we assign the articles to them for translation. If you are interested in being one of our translators you can send us some information about yourself and a sample of your translation work.

Thank you for helping us to promote CR. We’re glad it’s helpful to your students. We always try to include articles that reflect real life. It’s our hope that CR will not only improve student’s English but also open up a different worldview.