PART I: WRITTEN RECEPTION (70 points)

(ACCESS TO INFORMATION FROM WRITTEN TEXTS)

Read the article below and then answer questions 1-9.
A glossary of the <u>underlined</u> words (numbers 1–5) is provided on page 5.

IMPROVING CREATIVE ABILITIES

I Suppose you want to invent a recipe for dinner or <u>decorate</u>¹ your room. These things require
you to use your creative abilities. People might also need to be creative at their workplace – for
example, if the company they work for asks them to improve a certain product. But it is not always
easy to think of creative ideas, either at home or at work. The good news is that studies have
5 shown there are ways to increase <u>creativity</u>².
II To study the subject, researchers need a reliable way to measure a person's creative abilities.
The most widely used method is the Alternative Uses Test (AUT): Participants in the experiments
are given three minutes to write down new ways of using a common object such as a <u>brick</u>³. They
get extra points for their more original ideas, and their final score shows how creative they are.
10 III Using the AUT, psychologists have recently found that taking a <u>break</u>⁴ during work
increases creativity. "Your break can be for something as simple as having a cup of coffee," says
psychologist Stella Doran. "But the <u>timing</u>⁵ makes a difference – the break only has an effect if you
take it while you're working on the problem. We don't understand why. It’s definitely something
I'd like future brain research to find out."
15 IV Researchers have also tried to see what else can improve creativity. They have found that
increasing brain activity – for example, by solving puzzles – seems to help. It is also known that
brain activity increases when we multitask – that is, do several things at the same time. This led
Shimul Melwani, a professor of psychology, to wonder if multitasking could make us more
creative. She decided to test that idea.
20 V In one experiment, Prof. Melwani and her team gave the AUT to 105 waiters on several
nights, after they had finished work. On evenings when the restaurant was full, the waiters were
multitasking all the time; on quiet evenings, they didn't need to. The study found that on busy
nights, their AUT scores were the highest. "These findings are very exciting and mean we might
have to think differently about multitasking," says Doran. "Most studies show the disadvantages of
25 multitasking. However, according to Melwani's study, when we need to be creative it is beneficial."

GLOSSARY

<small>בטופס המקורי המילון מופיע גם בספרדית, ברוסית, בצרפתית, באמהרית ובערבית.</small>

<u>QUESTIONS</u> (70 points)
Answer questions 1–9 in English according to the article. In questions 1, 5, 7 and 8, circle the number of the correct answer. In the other questions, follow the instructions.