When you're sitting in class, have you ever drawn pictures in the margins of your notebooks? If so, your teacher might have told you {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(stop). Many people think of doodling(涂鸦) as a distraction(精神涣散) from more important things. But it might be just the opposite.

    One study shows that doodling may help you remember things you hear. In 2009 researchers asked two groups of people to listen to a phone message. One group {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (encourage) to doodle, but the other was not. Neither group knew that it would be asked to remember information from the message. But the group that doodled remembered 29 percent more.

    Other people {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (suggest)other uses for drawing. Jesse Prinz, a professor who studies doodling, says it can help you think creatively. Walking away from a problem to draw might actually help you solve it. When you come back, you {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (have)a fresh perspective and figure out an answer more quickly.

    Two years ago, an author named Sunni Brown {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (write)a book on doodling. She argues that doodling is a tool that can help people think. She admits that people see doodling as doing nothing, but she wants to change that. In fact, she runs a business that helps companies improve organization and planning through doodling. Brown {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (believe)doodling is helpful because it incorporates(整合)many ways of learning. You lean in four ways: seeing, hearing, reading or writing, and through movement. The more ways you use, the better you learn.

And when you doodle while you {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (listen)to a lecture, you use all four.

    You might think that being good at {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (draw)is important for doodling. But if the point of doodling is to help you think, then it doesn't matter what the picture looks like. Even if you're not an artist, doodling can help you. So next time you need help focusing, pick up a pen and doodle away!