Encouraging children to use gestures as they think can help them come up with more creative ideas, according to new research.
“Our findings show that children naturally gesture when they think of unusual ways to use everyday items，” says psychological scientist Elizabeth Kirk. “When we then asked children to move their hands, they were able to come up with even more creative ideas. ”
“Gesturing may allow us to explore the properties(特性)of the items—for example, how the item could be held, its size, its shape, etc.—and doing so can help us come up with ideas for creative uses，” Kirk explains.
In their first study, the researchers compared the creativity of children who spontaneously (自发地) gestured with those who either did not or could not gesture.
A total of 78 children, aged 9－11, saw a series of images of ordinary items, such as a newspaper, a tin can, and a kettle. The researchers asked the children to look at each image and list as many uses as they could think of. A group of participants completed the task twice—on one version of the task, they wore mittens(连指手套)that limited their ability to gesture.
Restricting children's ability to gesture did not affect their ability to come up with creative uses for the objects; Children who were free to gesture produced about the same number of ideas as those who wore the mittens and could not gesture.
In a second experiment, 54 children completed the same alternative－uses task. In some cases, children gestured normally; in other cases, the researchers encouraged the children to “use your hands to show me how you could use the object in different ways.”
The encouragement worked: Children who were specifically encouraged to gesture produced a greater number of creative uses for the objects than did the children who were not given any special instruction.
“Our findings add to the growing body of evidence showing the significant role of gesture in thinking and have applications to the classroom，” Kirk concluded in their paper.
( )1.What did the researchers intend to find out in the first experiment?
A．The number of creative ideas the children could think of.
B．How the children would explore the properties of the items.
C．Whether encouraging gesture would help to produce more new ideas.
D．The difference between thinking with gestures and without gestures.
( )2.Why were mittens used in the experiment?
A．To restrict gestures.
B．To limit creative thinking.
C．To test the ability to gesture.
D．To increase creative ideas.
( )3.When did the children think of the most new ideas?
A．When wearing mittens.
B．When encouraged to gesture.
C．When naturally gesturing.
D．When not using their hands.
( )4.What would be the best title for the text?
A．Communicate with Gestures
B．Think with Your Hands
C．Use Everyday Items Creatively
D．Make Gestures When Necessary
【语篇解读】这是一篇说明文。文章主要讲了一项最新研究表明，鼓励孩子们按照自己认为的方式使用手势，可以帮助他们想出更具创意的点子。
1．D 细节理解题。根据第四段“In their first study, the researchers compared the creativity of children who spontaneously gestured with those who either did not or could not gesture.”可知，研究人员打算在第一个实验中发现用手势思考和不用手势思考的区别，故选D。
2．A 细节理解题。根据第五段“A group of participants completed the task twice — on one version of the task, they wore mittens(连指手套)that limited their ability to gesture.”可知，实验中使用连指手套是为了限制手势，故选A。
3．B 细节理解题。根据倒数第二段“The encouragement worked: Children who were specifically encouraged to gesture produced a greater number of creative uses for the objects than did the children who were not given any special instruction(这种鼓励起了作用：与没有接受任何特殊指导的孩子相比，特别鼓励做手势的孩子对这些物品产生了更多的创造性用途)．”可知，当孩子们被鼓励做手势的时候想出的新点子最多，故选B。
4．B 主旨大意题。第一段中的“Encouraging children to use gestures as they think can help them come up with more creative ideas, according to new research.”是全文的主题句，结合全文内容可知，这篇文章主要讲了一项最新研究表明，鼓励孩子们按照自己认为的方式使用手势，可以帮助他们想出更具创意的点子。这篇文章最好的题目是用手思考，故选B。
