新视野第一册读写教程课文第八单元中英文对照.doc

Unit 8 Section A Birth of Bright Ideas No satisfactory way exists to explain how to form a good idea. You think about a problem until youre tired, forget it, maybe sleep on it, and then flash! When you arent thinking about it, suddenly the answer arrives as a gift from the gods. Of course, all ideas dont occur like that but so many do, particularly the most important ones. They burst into the mind, glowing with the heat of creation. How they do it is a mystery but they must come from somewhere. Lets assume they come from the unconscious. This is reasonable, for psychologists use this term to describe mental processes which are unknown to the individual. Creative thought depends on what was unknown becoming known. All of us have experienced this sudden arrival of a new idea, but it is easiest to examine it in the great creative personalities, many of whom experienced it in an intensified form and have written it down in their life stories and letters. One can draw examples from genius in any field, from religion, philosophy, and literature to art and music, even in mathematics, science, and technical invention, although these are often thought to depend only on logic and experiment. All truly creative activities depend in some degree on these signals from the unconscious, and the more highly insightful the person, the sharper and more dramatic the signals become. Take the example of Richard Wagner composing the opening to ;Rhinegold. Wagner had been occupied with the idea of the Ring for several years, and for many months had been struggling to begin composing. On September 4, 1853, he reached Spezia sick, went to a hotel, could not sleep for noise without and fever within, took a long walk the next day, and in the afternoon flung himself on a couch intending to sleep. Then at last the miracle happened for which his unconscious mind had been seeking for so long. Falling into a sleeplike condition, he suddenly felt as though he were sinking in a