Question

Sometimes ideas do not appear when you are concentrating your attention and mysteriously appear when you are not. Modern science recognizes this as a result of incubating(酝酿) the problem in your subconscious(潜意识), yet can’t account for why it occurs.

When you quit thinking about a subject and decide to forget it, your subconscious mind doesn’t quit working. Your thoughts keep making associations(联想,联系). This is why you’ve experienced suddenly remembering names, getting solutions to problems you’ve forgotten about, and ideas out of the blue when you are relaxing and not thinking about any particular thing.

You may try solving a problem with your subconscious mind by writing a letter to it. Now let go of the problem. Don’t work on it. Forget it. Do something else. This is the incubation stage when much of what goes on occurs outside your focused awareness, in your unconsciousness. Open the letter in two days. The answer might magically pop into your mind.

An advertising agency was under pressure to come up with a marketing campaign. Bert, the creative director, wrote the following letter which he addressed to his subconscious mind.

Secret Expert,

I need to come up with a new marketing program to introduce a new season of television shows. I’m interested in some kind of campaign that will capture the audience’s attention more than one time. Is there something people need that we can advertise on? What kind of products, foods and services should we investigate? I need your idea about a fresh approach to advertising.

Thanks, Bert

Bert mailed the letter to himself and when he read what he had written, he got his brainstorm, which was to advertise on “eggs”. Somehow an association between “foods”, “need” and “fresh approach” inspired the thought of using “fresh eggs to advertise.” He arranged to put the ad for the television shows on eggs — some thirty million.

The consumers look at a single egg at least a few times, when they buy the eggs at the store, when they transfer(转移,传递,转送) them to the refrigerator, and when they crack them open. It’s unlike any other ad medium in the world, because you’re looking at it while you are using it.

1.You remember names though you are not thinking about them because your subconscious mind ________.

A. stops workingB. is still working

C. is full of namesD. improves your memory

2.During the incubation stage, your focused awareness ________.

A. doesn’t work

B. controls your thoughts

C. waits for an answer

D. leads to you being unconscious

3.Which of the following was included in Bert’s letter to his subconscious mind?

A. What he wanted it to do.

B. When he would need its help.

C. What product could be advertised.

D. How the solution could be found.

4.In what way did the ad put on eggs help?

A. It greatly increased the sales of eggs.

B. It helped Bert to get a brainstorm.

C. It made sure that consumers could get fresh eggs.

D. It made the TV shows known to people repeatedly.

Answer 1