Five years ago,when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students.I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said:“Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today—and 45 minutes each day for the rest of the week”
五年前，当我在西雅图的一所学校教艺术时，我用Tinkertoys作为学期初的测试，以了解我的学生们。我在每个学生面前放了一套小Tinkertoys，并说：“用Tinkertoys制作一些东西。你今天有45分钟——这周剩下的每天也有45分钟。”

A few students hesitated to start ,They waited to see what the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginatings.
一些学生犹豫着开始，他们等待看其他同学会怎么做。还有一些人查看了说明书，并根据提供的模型计划制作了一些东西。另一组则根据自己的想象力建造了东西。

Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time.His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home.I was delighted at the presence of such a student.Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect（感染） other students.
有一次，我遇到了一个男孩，他在空闲时间里用Tinkertoys进行实验。他的构造作品填满了艺术教室的一个架子，以及他家里卧室的大部分空间。我对这个学生的出现感到非常高兴。这里有一个异常有创造力的头脑在工作。他的存在意味着我在课堂上有一个意想不到的教学助手，他的创造力会感染其他学生。

Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside, the ask of losing those students who had a different style of thinking.Without fail one would declare,’“But I’m just not creative.”
鼓励这种思维方式有一个缺点，那就是可能会失去那些思维方式不同的学生。总会有人宣称：“但我就是没有创造力。”

“Do you dream at night when you’re asleep？”
“你晚上睡觉时会做梦吗？”

“Oh,sure.”
“哦，当然。”

“So tell me one of your most interesting dreams.”The student would tell something wildly imagimative.Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads.“That’s pretty creative.Who does that for you？”
“那么告诉我你做过的一个最有趣的梦。”学生会讲述一些极其富有想象力的事情。在天空中飞翔，或者在时光机里，或者长出三个头。“那很有创造力。是谁为你做的？”

“Nobody.I do it.”
“没有人。是我自己。”

“Really—at night,when you’re asleep？”
“真的吗——在你晚上睡觉的时候？”

“Sure.”
“当然。”

“Try doing it in the daytime ,in class,okay？”
“试着在白天，在课堂上做，好吗？”

1. The teacher used Tinkertoys in class in order to .
   A. know more about the students
   B. make the lessons more exciting
   C. raise the students’ interest in art
   D. teach the students about toy design
   答案：A

2. What do we know about the boy mentioned in Paragraph3?
   A. He liked to help his teacher.
   B. He preferred to study alone.
   C. He was active in class.
   D.He was imaginative.
   答案：D

3. What does the underlined word”downside”in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
   A.Mistake. B. Drawback. C. Difficulty. D. Burdrn
   答案：A

4. Why did the teacher ask the students to talk about their dreams?
   A. To help them to see their creativity.
   B. To find out about their sleeping habits.
   C.To help them to improve their memory.
   D. To find outAbout their ways of thinking.
   答案：A