MBA英语：【外刊】​Is there any benefit to daydreaming?

Is there any benefit to daydreaming?

1

You have won £4m on the lottery – how will you spend it? Before you know it, that’s 10 minutes gone on daydreaming. Since an estimated 30%-50% of our waking time is spent daydreaming, isn’t this worrying? What if your dentist is having that lottery daydream while drilling your teeth?

drill  [drɪl]

n. 训练；钻孔机；vt. 钻孔；训练；

译： 你中了400英镑的彩票—你会怎么花呢?在你知道之前，你已经做了10分钟的白日梦了。我们醒着的时候估计有30% - 50%是在做白日梦，这难道不令人担忧吗?如果你的牙医在你打孔的时候梦到了那个中彩票白日梦怎么办?

2 The solution

Some studies suggest daydreaming makes us unhappy because we are not focusing on what is around us, but are instead thinking about the past or future. A paper in Science concluded that the “wandering mind is an unhappy mind” because you find happiness by living in the moment. But a study this month in the journal Neuropsychologica finds that people whose minds wander the most may score higher on tests that measure intellectual and creative ability.

intellectual [,ɪntə'lektʃʊəl ]

adj. 智力的；聪明的；理智的；n. 知识分子；

译： 解决方案

一些研究表明，白日做梦使我们不快乐，因为我们不关注我们周围的事物，而是思考过去或未来。《科学》上的一篇论文总结道，“漫游的头脑是一种不快乐的思想”，因为你通过活在当下来找到幸福。但本月在《神经心理学》杂志上发表的一项研究发现，那些大脑漫游最多的人在测试智力和创造力的测试中得分最高。

3

The researchers measured the brain patterns of more than 100 people while they lay in an MRI scanner, focusing on a dull, stationarypoint for five minutes. Those who said their minds wandered the most scored higher on intellectual and creative ability tests and had more efficient brain systems measured in the MRI machine.

stationary ['steɪʃ(ə)n(ə)rɪ]

adj. 固定的；静止的；n. 不动的人；驻军

wander['wɒndə]

vi. 徘徊；漫步；离题；vt. 游荡，漫游

译： 研究人员测量了100多人的大脑模式，让他们躺在核磁共振扫描仪上，专注于一个枯燥、静止的地方5分钟。那些说自己的大脑漫游最多的人在智力和创造力测试上得分更高，核磁共振成像机显示，他们的大脑系统也更加高效。

4

An example of being efficient at mind-wandering is if you can zone in and out of conversations or tasks and then naturally tune back in without missing important points or steps. There is a distinction between mind-wandering, where you think of things other than the task you are doing, and daydreaming when, for example, you are on a train doing nothing and detach yourself from the world around you.

detach [dɪ'tætʃ]

vt. 分离；派遣；使超然

distinction  [dɪ'stɪŋ(k)ʃ(ə)n]

n. 区别；差别；特性；荣誉

译： 如果你能在谈话或任务中随意撤出，然后又能自然地调整回来，而不遗漏任何关键要点或步骤，那么说明你在走神时大脑效率很高。在走神的过程中，你会想到其他事情，而不是你正在做的事情。例如，你在火车上无所事事，把自己从周围的世界中分离出来去做白日梦。

5

Christine Godwin, the lead author of the latest study from the School of Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology, says that if you are focusing on difficult tasks, your performance will drop if your mind wanders. “But when tasks are easy and you are doing something that’s not demanding, people who have high cognitive ability can let their minds wander because it does not affect their performance.

demanding [dɪ'mɑːndɪŋ]

adj. 苛求的；要求高的；吃力的

performance  [pə'fɔːm(ə)ns]

n. 性能；表演；执行；表现

译： 乔治亚理工学院(Georgia Institute of Technology)心理学学院(School of Psychology)最新研究的主要作者克里斯汀·戈德温(Christine Godwin)说，如果你把注意力集中在困难的任务上，如果你的思维涣散，你的表现将会下降。“但是当任务很简单，你做的事情并不苛求的时候，那些具有高认知能力的人可以让大脑走神一会，因为这并不会影响他们的变现。

6

You may be thinking about upcoming goals or problem-solving and come up with a solution. These are some of the positive attributes with mind-wandering.” What mind-wandering seems to be best at is coming up with new solutions to old problems. So, it’s not a waste of time at all.

attribute [ə'trɪbjuːt]

n. 属性；特质

vt. 归属；把…归于

译： 你可能正在考虑着即将到来的目标、思考着如何去解决问题。这些都是大脑走神带来的一些好处。“走神”似乎是解决老问题的新方法。所以，这根本不是浪费时间。