2015考研英语阅读集中练Make time for awe_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读集中练Make time for awe

　　It can be hard to generalize what people consider jaw-dropping, but Vohs says research demonstrates what consistently creates an awesome experience. Travel ranks high. So does gazing at the cosmos on a clear night or watching a sensational film, as well as anytime we encounter massive quantities: colorful tulips in bloom, a bustling market in India, or a stunning school of fish.

　　Novelty and perceptual vastness forces us into the present moment. The study underscores the importance of cultivating small doses of awe in the everyday to boost life satisfaction.

　　Awe is quite threatening in certain ways, and something that is challenging and unwelcome can border on fear, says Vohs, recalling an astonishingly big fish he saw while swimming in the ocean. It was giantno big teeth, and it seemed like a gentle soul just floating in the waterbut still!

　　The study describes awe as an experience of such perceptual expansion that you need new mental maps to deal with the incomprehensibility of it all.

　　People mostly walk around with a sense of knowing what is going on in the world. They have hypotheses about the way people behave and what might happen; those are pretty air-tight. It is hard to get people to shake from those because thats just how the brain works. We are always walking around trying to confirm the things we already think. When you are in a state of awe, it puts you off -balance and as a consequence, we think people might be ready to learn new things and have some of their assumptions questioned. Rudd, of Stanford, is currently working on a follow-up study to understand just how awe-inspired moments might open a person up to learning new information.