Text 1
①Habits are a funny thing.②We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. ③“Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,”William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. ④In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word“habit”carries a negative implication.
①So it seems paradoxical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. ②But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.
①Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits.②In fact, the more new things we try—the more we step outside our comfort zone—the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.
①But don't bother trying to kill off old habits；once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain, they're there to stay. ②Instead, the new habits we deliberately press into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.
①“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,”says Dawna Markova, author of The Open Mind. ②“But we are taught instead to‘decide', just as our president calls himself‘the Decider.'”③She adds, however, that“to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. ④A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”
①All of us work through problems in ways of which we're unaware, she says.②Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively.③At the end of adolescence, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.
①The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meanin
g that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. ②“This breaks the major rule in the American belief system—that anyone can do anything,”explains M.J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book This Year and Ms. Markova's business partner. ③“That's a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters commonness. ④Knowing what you're good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.”⑤This is where developing new habits comes in.

21.In Wordsworth's view,“habits”is characterized by being__________.
[A] casual
[B] familiar
[C] mechanical
[D] changeable
22.Brain researchers have discovered that the formation of new habits can be__________.
[A] predicted
[B] regulated
[C] traced
[D] guided
23.The word“ruts”(Para. 4) is closest in meaning to__________.
[A] tracks
[B] series
[C] characteristics
[D] connections
24.Dawna Markova would most probably agree that__________.
[A] ideas are born of a relaxing mind
[B] innovativeness could be taught
[C] decisiveness derives from fantastic ideas
[D] curiosity activates creative minds
25.Ryan's comments suggest that the practice of standardized testing__________.
[A] prevents new habits form being formed
[B] no longer emphasizes commonness
[C] maintains the inherent American thinking mode
[D] complies with the American belief system

Text 2
①It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fathe
rly) wisdom—or at least confirm that he's the kid's dad. ②All he needs to do is shell out $30 for a paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore—and another $120 to get the results.swabbing
①More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first became available without prescriptions last year, according to Doug Fogg, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over-the-counter kits. ②More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests directly to the public, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2,500.
①Among the most popular: paternity and kinship testing, which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and families can use to track down kids put up for adoption. ②DNA testing is also the latest rage among passionate genealogists—and supports businesses that offer to search for a family's geographic roots.
①Most tests require collecting cells by swabbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing. ②All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA.
①But some observers are skeptical. ②“There's a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing,”says Troy Duster, a New York University sociologist. ③He notes that each individual has many ancestors—numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries back. ④Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome inherited through men in a father's line or mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down only from mothers. ⑤This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for example, just three generations back people also have six other great-grandparents or, four generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents.

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