Exercise 1:

Living in a Dream World

Daydreaming can help solve problems, trigger creativity, and inspire great works of art and
science. By Josie Glazier.
Most people spend between 30 and 47 per cent of their waking hours spacing out, drifting off,
lost in thought, wool-gathering or building castles in the air. Yale University emeritus
psychology professor Jerome L. Singer defines daydreaming as shifting attention “away from
some primary physical or mental task toward an unfolding sequence of private responses” or,
more simply, “watching your own mental videos.” He also divides daydreaming styles into two
main categories: “positive-constructive,” which includes upbeat and imaginative thoughts, and
“dysphoric,” which encompasses visions of failure or punishment. 

119.

Such humdrum concerns figured prominently in one study that rigorously measured how much
time we spend mind wandering in daily life. In a 2009 study, Kane and his colleague Jennifer
McVay asked 72 students to carry Palm Pilots that beeped at random intervals eight times a day
for a week. The subjects then recorded their thoughts at that moment on a questionnaire. The
study found that about 30 per cent of the beeps coincided with thoughts unrelated to the task at
hand and that mind-wandering increased with stress, boredom or sleepiness or in chaotic
environments and decreased with enjoyable tasks. That may be because enjoyable activities tend
to grab our attention.

120.

We may not even be aware that we are daydreaming. We have all had the experience of
“reading” a book yet absorbing nothing—moving our eyes over the words on a page as our
attention wanders and the text turns into gibberish. “When this happens, people lack what I call
‘meta-awareness,’ consciousness of what is currently going on in their mind,” he says. But
aimless rambling can be productive as they can allow us to stumble on ideas and associations
that we may never find if we intentionally seek them.

121.

So, why should daydreaming aid creativity? It may be in part because when the brain is floating
in unfocused mental space it serves a specific purpose. It allows us to engage in one task and at
the same time trigger reminders of other, concurrent goals so that we do not lose sight of them.
There is also the belief that we can boost the creative process by increasing the amount of
daydreaming we do or replaying variants of the millions of events we store in our brains.

122.

The mind's freedom to wander during a deliberate tuning out could also explain the flash of
insight that may coincide with taking a break from an unsolved problem. A study conducted at
the University of Lancaster in England into this possibility found that if we allow our minds to
ramble during a moderately challenging task, we can access ideas that are not easily available to
our conscious minds. Our ability to do so is now known to depend on the normal functioning of a
dedicated daydreaming network deep in our brain.

123.

It was not until 2007, however, that cognitive psychologist Malia Fox Mason, discovered that the
default network — which lights up when people switch from an attention-demanding activity to
drifting reveries with no specific goals, becomes more active when mind wandering is more
likely. She also discovered that people who daydream more in everyday life show greater
activity in the default network while performing monotonous tasks.

124.

The conclusion reached in this ground-breaking study was that the more complex the mind
wandering episode is, the more of the mind it is going to consume. This inevitably leads to the
problem of determining the point at which creative daydreaming crosses the boundary into the
realms of compulsive fantasising. Although there is often a fine dividing line between the two,
one question that can help resolve the dilemma relates to whether the benefits gained from
daydreaming outweigh the cost to the daydreamer’s reputation and performance.

125.

On the other hand, there are psychologists who feel that the boundary is not so easily defined.
They argue that mind wandering is not inherently good or bad as it depends to a great extent on
context. When, for example, daydreaming occurs during an activity that requires little
concentration, it is unlikely to be costly. If, however, it causes someone to suffer severe injury or
worse by say, walking into traffic, then the line has been crossed.
A Although these two findings were significant, mind wandering itself was not measured during
the scans. As a result, it could not be determined exactly when the participants in her study were
“on task” and when they were daydreaming. In 2009 Smallwood, Schooler and Kalina Christoff
of the University of British Columbia published the first study to directly link mind wandering
with increased activity in the default network. Scans on the participants in their study revealed
activity in the default network was strongest when subjects were unaware they had lost focus.
B However, intense focus on our problems may not always lead to immediate solutions. Instead
allowing the mind to float freely can enable us to access unconscious ideas hovering underneath
the surface — a process that can lead to creative insight, according to psychologist Jonathan W.
Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara
C Yet to enhance creativity, it is important to pay attention to daydreams. Schooler calls this
“tuning out” or deliberate “off-task thinking.”, terms that refer to the ability of an individual to
have more than just the mind-wandering process. Those who are most creative also need to have
meta-awareness to realise when a creative idea has popped into their mind.
D On the other hand, those who ruminate obsessively—rehashing past events, repetitively
analyzing their causes and consequences, or worrying about all the ways things could go wrong
in the future - are well aware that their thoughts are their own, but they have intense difficulty
turning them off. The late Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema does not believe that
rumination is a form of daydreaming, but she has found that in obsessive ruminators, the same
default network as the one that is activated during daydreaming switches on.
E Other scientists distinguish between mundane musings and extravagant fantasies. Michael
Kane, a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, considers
“mind wandering” to be “any thoughts that are unrelated to one's task at hand.” In his view, mind
wandering is a broad category that may include everything from pondering ingredients for a
dinner recipe to saving the planet from alien invasion. Most of the time when people fall into
mind-wandering, they are thinking about everyday concerns, such as recent encounters and items
on their to-do list. 
F According to Schooler, there are two steps you need to take to make the distinction. First,
notice whether you are deriving any useful insights from your fantasies. Second, it is important
to take stock of the content of your daydreams. To distinguish between beneficial and
pathological imaginings, he adds, “Ask yourself if this is something useful, helpful, valuable,
pleasant, or am I just rehashing the same old perseverative thoughts over and over again?” And if
daydreaming feels out of control, then even if it is pleasant it is probably not useful or valuable.
G Artists and scientists are well acquainted with such playful fantasizing. Filmmaker Tim
Burton daydreamed his way to Hollywood success, spending his childhood holed up in his
bedroom, creating posters for an imaginary horror film series. Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist
who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, imagined “another world,” to which he retreated
as a child, Albert Einstein pictured himself running along a light wave—a reverie that led to his
theory of special relativity.
H Like Facebook for the brain, the default network is a bustling web of memories and streaming
movies, starring ourselves. “When we daydream, we're at the center of the universe,” says
neurologist Marcus Raichle of Washington University in St. Louis, who first described the
network in 2001. It consists of three main regions that help us imagine ourselves and the
thoughts and feelings of others, draw personal memories from the brain and access episodic
memories.

Your answers
119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125.
Exercise 2

HELP GUIDE US THROUGH THE UNIVERSE

Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, launches this year's Young Science Writer competition

If you ask scientists what they're doing, the answer won't be 'Finding the origin of the universe',
'Seeking the cure for cancer' or suchlike. It will involve something very specialised, a small piece
of the jigsaw that builds up the big picture.

119.

So, unless they are cranks or geniuses, scientists don't shoot directly for a grand goal - they focus
on bite-sized problems that seem timely and tractable. But this strategy (though prudent) carries
an occupational risk: they may forget they're wearing blinkers and fail to see their own work in
its proper perspective.

120.

I would personally derive far less satisfaction from my research if it interested only a few other
academics. But presenting one's work to non-specialists isn't easy. We scientists often do it
badly, although the experience helps us to see our work in a broader context. Journalists can do it
better, and their efforts can put a key discovery in perspective, converting an arcane paper
published in an obscure journal into a tale that can inspire others.

121.

On such occasions, people often raise general concerns about the way science is going and the
impact it may have; they wonder whether taxpayers get value for money from the research they
support. More intellectual audiences wonder about the basic nature of science: how objective can
we be? And how creative? Is science genuinely a progressive enterprise? What are its limits and
are we anywhere near them? It is hard to explain, in simple language, even a scientific concept
that you understand well. My own (not always effective) attempts have deepened my respect for
science reporters, who have to assimilate quickly, with a looming deadline, a topic they may be
quite unfamiliar with.
 122.

It's unusual for science to earn newspaper headlines. Coverage that has to be restricted to crisp
newsworthy breakthroughs in any case distorts the way science develops. Scientific advances are
usually gradual and cumulative, and better suited to feature articles, or documentaries - or even
books, • for which the latent demand is surprisingly strong. For example, millions bought A
Brief History of Time, which caught the public imagination.

123.

Nevertheless, serious hooks do find a ready market. That's the good news for anyone who wants
to enter this competition. But books on pyramidology, visitations by aliens, and suchlike do even
better: a symptom of a fascination with the paranormal and 'New Age' concepts. It is depressing
that these are often featured uncritically in the media, distracting attention from more genuine
advances.

124.

Most scientists are quite ordinary, and their lives unremarkable. But occasionally they exemplify
the link between genius and madness; these 'eccentrics' are more enticing biographees.

125.

There seems, gratifyingly, to be no single 'formula' for science writing - many themes are still
under-exploited. Turning out even 700 words seems a daunting task if you're faced with a clean
sheet of paper or a blank screen, but less so if you have done enough reading and interviewing on
a subject to become inspired. For research students who enter the competition, science (and how
you do it) is probably more interesting than personal autobiography. But if, in later life, you
become both brilliant and crazy, you can hope that someone else writes a best-seller about you.

A. However, over-sensational claims are a hazard for them. Some researchers themselves 'hype
up' new discoveries to attract press interest. Maybe it matters little what people believe about
Darwinism or cosmology. But we should be more concerned that misleading or over-confident
claims on any topic of practical import don't gain wide currency. Hopes of miracle cures can be
raised; risks can be either exaggerated, or else glossed over for commercial pressures. Science
popularisers perhaps even those who enter this competition - have to be as skeptical of some
scientific claims as journalists routinely are of politicians.

B. Despite this there's a tendency in recent science waiting to be chatty, laced with gossip and
biographical detail. But are scientists as interesting as their science? The lives of Albert Einstein
and Richard Feyman are of interest, but is that true of the routine practitioner?

C. Two mathematicians have been treated as such in recent books: Paul Erdos, the obsessive
itinerant Hungarian (who described himself as 'a machine for turning coffee into theorems') and
John Nash, a pioneer of game theory, who resurfaced in his sixties, after 30 years of insanity, to
receive a Nobel prize.

D. For example, the American physicist Robert Wilson spent months carrying out meticulous
measurements with a microwave antenna which eventually revealed the 'afterglow of creation' -
the 'echo' of the Big Bang with which our universe began. Wilson was one of the rare scientists
with the luck and talent to make a really great discovery, but afterwards he acknowledged that its
importance didn't sink in until he read a 'popular' description of it in the New York Times.

E. More surprising was the commercial success of Sir Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New
Mind. This is a fascinating romp through Penrose's eclectic enthusiasms - enjoyable and
enlightening. But it was a surprising best seller, as much of it is heavy going. The sates pitch
'great scientist says mind is more than a mere machine' was plainly alluring. Many who bought it
must have got a nasty surprise when they opened it.

F. But if they have judged right, it won't be a trivial problem - indeed it will be the most difficult
that they are likely to make progress on. The great zoologist Sir Peter Medawar famously
described scientific work as 'the art of the soluble'. 'Scientists,' he wrote, 'get no credit for failing
to solve a problem beyond their capacities. They earn at best the kindly contempt reserved for
utopian politicians.'

G. This may be because, for non-specialists, it is tricky to demarcate well-based ideas from
flaky speculation. But its crucially important not to blur this distinction when writing articles for
a general readership. Otherwise credulous readers may take too much on trust, whereas hard-
nosed skeptics may reject all scientific claims, without appreciating that some have firm
empirical support.

H. Such a possibility is one reason why this competition to encourage young people to take up
science writing is so important and why I am helping to launch it today. Another is that popular
science writing can address wider issues. When I give talks about astronomy and cosmology, the
questions that interest people most are the truly `fundamental' ones that I can't answer: 'Is there
life in space?', Is the universe infinite?' or 'Why didn't the Big Bang happen sooner?'
Exercise 3

WELCOME TO ECO-CITY
The world has quietly undergone a major shift in balance. According to UN estimates, 2008
marked the first year in history when more than half of the world's population lived in cities.
There are now around 3.4bn human beings stuffed into every available corner of urban space,
and more are set to follow. At a time when humanity has woken up to its responsibility to the
environment, the continuing urban swell presents an immense challenge. In response, cities all
over the world are setting themselves high targets to reduce carbon emissions and produce clean
energy. But if they don't succeed, there is another option: building new eco-cities entirely from
scratch.

119.

`Rather than just design a city in the same way we'd done it before, we can focus on how to
minimise the use of resources to show that there is a different way of doing it', says Roger Wood,
associate director at Arup. Wood is one of hundreds of people at Arup, the engineering and
architecture giant, hired by Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation to set out a master plan
for the Dongtan eco-city.

120.

When the first demonstrator phase is complete, Dongtan will be a modest community of 5000.
By 2020, that will balloon to 80,000 and in 2050, the 30km2 site will be home to 500,000. Arup
says that every one of those people will be no more than seven minutes' walk from public
transport. Only electric vehicles will be allowed in the city and residents will be discouraged
from using even those because each village is planned so that the need for motorised transport is
minimal.

121.

That's a big cornerstone of Arup's design for Dongtan. The aim is that the city will require 66
percent less energy than a conventional development, with wind turbines and solar panels
complementing some 40 percent that comes from biological sources. These include human
sewage and municipal waste, both of which will be controlled for energy recovery and
composting. Meanwhile, a combined heat and power plant will burn waste rice husks.

122.

Work on Dongtan had been scheduled to begin in late 2008 with the first demonstration phase
completed by 2010. Unfortunately, problems resulting from the complicated planning procedures
in China have led to setbacks. Dongtan's rival project in Abu Dhabi has suffered no such hold-
ups. Engineers broke ground on the Masdar eco-city in March 2008. Although it will take a
different approach in terms of design, like Dongtan, the city is planned to be a zero-carbon, uber-
efficient showcase for sustainable living.

123.

In the blistering desert of the Gulf state, where it's almost too hot to venture outdoors for three or
four months of the year, the big question for Masdar is how to keep cool without turning on the
air-conditioning. In this equation, insulation and ventilation suddenly become more important
than the performance of solar panels. To maximise shade, I the city's streets are packed closely
together, with limits of four or five storeys set on the height of most buildings.

124.

The other major design feature for Masdar is that the whole city is raised on a deck. The
pedestrian level will be free of vehicles and much of the noisy maintenance that you see in
modern cities. Cars are banned from Masdar entirely, while an underground network of `podcars'
ferries people around the city.

125.

Given that this concern is legitimate, developers of both cities would do well to incorporate both
a range of housing and jobs to make them inclusive to everyone. This will be difficult, obviously,
but then just about everything is difficult when you're completely reinventing the way we build
and live in a metropolis. And supposing these sustainable and super-efficient cities are
successful, could they even usher in a new world order?
A. The city will be built on a corner of Chongming Island in the mouth of the Yangtze River. It
will be made up of three interlinked, mixed-use villages, built one after the other. Each will
combine homes, businesses and recreation, and a bridge and tunnel link will connect the
population with Shanghai on the mainland.

B. The skin of each building will be crucial. Thick concrete would only soak up heat and release
it slowly, so instead engineers will use thin walls that react quickly to the sun. A thin metal layer
on the outside will help to reflect heat and stop it from penetrating the building. Density is also
critical for Masdar. The city is arranged in a definite square with a walled border. Beyond this
perimeter, fields of solar panels, a wind farm and a desalination plant will provide clean energy
and water, and act as a barrier to prevent further sprawl.

C. 'If you plan your development so people can live, work and shop very locally, you can quite
significantly reduce the amount of energy that's being used', Wood says. `Then, not only have
you made the situation easier because you've reduced the energy demand, but it also means that
producing it from renewable sources becomes easier because you don't have to produce quite as
much'.

D. Arup's integrated, holistic approach to city planning goes further still. Leftover heat from the
power plant will be channelled to homes and businesses. Buildings can be made of thinner
materials because the electric cars on the road will be quiet, so there's less noise to drown out.
Dongtan will initially see an 83 per cent reduction in waste sent to landfill compared to other
cities, with the aim to reduce that to nothing over time. And more than 60 per cent of the whole
site will be parks and farmland, where food is grown to feed the population.

E. Developers at Masdar and Dongtan are adamant that each city will be somewhere that people
want to live. Critics do not question this but they do, nevertheless, wonder if these cities will be
realistic places for people on a low income. They say that it would be easy for places like these
to become a St Tropez or a Hamptons, where only rich people live.

F. Funded by a 12bn (euro) investment from the government in Abu Dhabi, it has not passed the
attention of many observers that Masdar is being built by one of the world's largest and most
profitable producers of oil. Even so, under the guidance of architects as Foster and Partners, the
city is just as ambitious as its Chinese counterpart and also hinges on being able to run on low
power.

G. Since cars and other petrol-based vehicles are banned from the city, occupants will share a
network of ‘podcars' to get around. The 'personal rapid transit system' will comprise 2500
driverless, electric vehicles that make 150,000 trips a day by following sensors along a track
beneath the pedestrian deck. Up to six passengers will ride in each pod: they just hop in at one of
83 stations around the city and tap in their destination.
H. Incredibly, this is already happening. Two rival developments, one in China and one in the
United Arab Emirates, are progressing in tandem. Work on Masdar, 17km from Abu Dhabi,
began in 2008, while Dongtan, near Shanghai, will eventually be home to half a million people.
The aim for both is to build sustainable, zero-carbon communities that showcase green
technology and demonstrate what smart urban planning can achieve in the 21st century.

Your answers
119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125.