Scientists found that sleeping considerably improves our creativity. After taking a nap people are able to think faster and put more imagination into their thinking. Besides, if we dream, the thinking abilities are improved even more.

    Researchers consider that sleeping on a problem in most cases leads to elucidation(解释). They say when a person enters a phase called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) during sleep, it increases the effect. Such phase takes place right before we awake and according to scientists it helps our brain make links between unrelated subjects.

    In the study, led by Professor Sara Mednick, scientists made a conclusion that the REM was "important for assimilating(消化) new information into past experience" in order to find solutions to creative problems.

    Prof. Mednick is a psychiatrist at the University of California. Her study involved the analysis of 77 adults. Each participant was given several word-associated creative tasks. All tasks were given in the morning, with participants being shown a number of groups of 3 words, for example: cookie, heart and sixteen. They were asked to come up with a word that would be associated with all three given terms—like sweet. Sometime later, after some participants were allowed to sleep, they were asked to perform the same tasks and some new ones. It is worth mentioning that while some people slept, researchers used brain scans to see the type of sleep each participant entered.

    When given the same tasks, participants, who took a nap, were able to give more varied solutions, some of which were much better than they gave earlier. But when given new tasks, researchers found that those who entered REM sleep had a 40 percent better result compared to the performance they showed in the morning.

    Not so long ago, a sailor sailing across the cold waters of the northern Pacific Ocean might have had every chance of being confronted by a sea cow. This cow would have measured 10 meters long, and weighed between five and ten tones. And it would spend most of its day cruising the seas, eating grass growing underwater. The cow in question was known as Steller's sea cow, which is now extinct.

    Today, many people are unaware that such an extraordinary creature once existed, or don't know its incredible story. But scientists have discovered many fundamental facts about this mystical animal.

    Surprisingly, the first recorded sighting of a Steller's sea cow didn't happen until 1741, when a sailing expedition was stuck on an uninhabited island, later named Bering Island. The sailor survived by hunting and eating the huge sea cow. Like its modern relatives, the sea cow lived in herds. That and its slow-moving behaviour made it easy to be caught.

    Those sailors that escaped Bering Island spread word of the bounty(大量) of meat to be found off its shores. As a result, more and more expeditions came to hunt the animals. One report stated that one sea cow could feed 33 men for a month.

    Incredibly, just 27 years after the island and species had been discovered by modern man, the last sea cow was reported killed. That makes the Steller's sea cow one of the few truly large mammals known to have been driven extinct in the modern age.

    Outside, it's a cold winter's day. Inside a large shopping center, people are hanging around. But then, without warning, a pop song starts to play loudly. A teenager boy walks lazily to the center of the open space, and dances crazily to the music. He's joined by two of his friends, then some of the old people. Within the space of a few seconds, more than sixty people are dancing to the music - all in time and all in step. At first, onlookers are baffled, then they start smiling and clapping. They now know what they're seeing: a flash mob （快闪）.

    According to Wikipedia, the term "flash mob" was created by Bill Wasik, an editor at Harper's Magazine, in 2003. Within a year, the phrase had entered the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Since then, hundreds - possibly thousands - of flash mobs have been carried out around the world, in almost every kind of public space imaginable!

    Each flash mob has its own style, but most flash mobs follow a similar formula （方案）. Often, the organizers search for willing participants using social media. Instructions and dance moves are given through email or video download. There are usually several rehearsals （排练） before the big day.

    While it's happening, a few lucky passers-by watch it live. Most people who watch it, however, will see it later online. Some of the most popular flash mobs on YouTube have been watched more than 10million times. A famous example is MP3Experiment Eight, a flash mob that took place in New York City in July 2011 with over 3,500 participants. This event differed from normal flash mobs in that much of it was completely silent - and there were no rehearsals.

    Flash mobs provide the participants, onlookers and online viewers with a lot of enjoyment and pleasure. For this reason alone, they're a modern, popular art form that should be celebrated.

    There are many programs for high school students today that help isolated teenagers cope with loneliness. However, loneliness is not only an issue for teens but also an important and rarely acknowledged one in the elderly.

    In Britain, Tracey Crouch was appointed to be the first Minister of Loneliness in order to address the issues caused by loneliness. This is the first time such a position has been created.

    In Britain, there are around 9 million people who say they are lonely frequently. In Germany, a study conducted by Ruhr University Bochum found that 20 percent of people over the age of 85 felt lonely, and 14 percent of those between age 45 and 65 felt socially isolated. In the United States, more than 25 percent of the population lives alone, more than 50 percent are unmarried.

    Isolation is generally associated with cardiovascular disease, depression, obesity, and anxiety. Additionally, the stress from loneliness can cause your cells to change on a molecular(分子)level that reduces its abilities to defend your body against diseases. In fact, doctors believe having feelings of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day in regard to its impact on health!

    In Britain, the new Minister of Loneliness will help establish government policies on the issue and fund charities to devote their efforts towards aiding loneliness. There are charities that link lonely seniors to high school students in order to give them a line of communication whenever they feel lonely!

    The possibilities for the new Minister of Loneliness are endless. For example, she can provide education services to household businesses so that they can identify lonely customers if they see one. Loneliness fits into the category of being a social issue that must be monitored by the entire community in order to help those in need. Hence, government involvement in medical services and care for seniors and others is essential for happy seniors.

    Many people are aiming and praying to be happy. What they do not know is that happiness is a journey and not a destination. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are some of the how­to's.

    Be true to yourself. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You can withdraw with a person that cannot satisfy you. You can change a job. You can choose friends. If you think people, things and events in your life don't give you happiness, let them go and think of better ways.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Think of good things and not the opposite. When you think you have less money in your pocket, don't say "I don't want to be poor". Say I want to be rich or I have more than enough money for everything. You'll notice you'll attract a lot of good things, gifts and good people in your life that could improve your financial aspect.

    Start your day with hopes. By the time you wake up, stretch your muscles with hopes and thoughts of abundance in your brain. You'll get more energy than waking up with bad mood. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Always smile. Nobody wants to be depressed people. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You cannot sell your products if you are not marketable enough. Smile makes some people's day. Smile and the world smiles with you.

    Happiness depends on yourself. If you want happiness in your life, you have to prove it in your actions. To receive, feel and be happy is to do happy things to others.

A. Always think positive.

B. Be thankful for the journey you are taking.

C. It is so uncomfortable to be with people who love frowning.

D. Don't pretend if you do not like a situation.

E. Accept people for who they are and don't compare them with other better people.

F. Every good thing in the world is already here and it's up to us to work for happiness.

G. If you start your day with good mood, you'll end it with good mood.

    Although books are still popular with teenagers, most of them spend more of their leisure time staring at their phone than reading a paperbook. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Instead of publishing whole book at once, they produce very short chapters, which they send once a week to their readers by text message.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Many are written by high school or university students who are very familiar with the topics that teenagers are interested in. Common themes are love, tragedy and betrayal, and the stories often deal with difficult or controversial issues.

    Twenty-one-year-old Rin wrote her novel over a six-month period in spare moments, often while commuting on the train. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Her book sold 40000 copies and was number five in the Japanese bestseller list. Rin said that her mother had had no idea that she had been writing a novel and was therefore very surprised when she saw a book with her daughter's name on it

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Chapters have no more than 200 words, and often just 50-100 words. Sentences are short and there are no descriptions of anything or anybody because there isn't space. The text mostly consists of dialogue and the language is direct, conveying a lot in a few words.

    In 2009, a young Japanese writer called Takatsu, who lives in Canada, began writing the first English language cell phone novel, Secondhand Memories. Takatsu had read an English translation of Rin's story and had been impressed by its simple and emotional language. It was a feature he deliberately copied when he started writing Secondhand Memories. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}He now believes that, in English, cell phone novels have a powerful and poetic identity of their own. Cell phone novels encourage young people to engage in fiction, even those who would not normally pick up a book. They could be described as ten novels for the 21st century.

A. Books are sometimes regarded as old-fashioned and difficult to read.

B. In response 10 this trend, some smart young authors have changed the way they write.

C. However, as the story progressed, the style gradually evolved into something different.

D. She typed out chapters on her phone and uploaded them onto a popular website for cell phone authors.

E. No money is made from cell phone novels unless they are published as books.

F. The style of cell phone novels has evolved to suit the medium.

G. Although the idea originated in Japan, cell phone novels have also appeared in the rest of world.