Sometimes ideas do not appear when you are concentrating your attention and mysteriously appear when you are not. Modern science recognizes this as a result of incubating (酝酿) the problem in your subconscious (潜意识) yet can't account for why it occurs.
When you quit thinking about a subject and decide to forget it, your subconscious mind doesn't quit working. Your thoughts keep making associations. This is why you're experienced suddenly remembering names, getting solutions to problems you've forgotten about, and ideas out of the blue when you're relaxing and not thinking about any particular thing.
You may try solving a problem with your subconscious mind by writing a letter to it. The letter should read just like a letter you would send to a real person. Seal the letter and put it away.
Let go of the problem. Don't work on it. Forget it. Do something else. This is the incubation stage when much of what goes on occurs outside your focused awareness, in your unconscious. Open the letter in two days. The answer might magically pop into your mind.
An advertising agency was under pressure to come up with a marketing campaign to introduce new television shows. Bob, the creative director, wrote the following letter which he addressed to his subconscious mind. He called his subconscious mind "Secret Expert".
Secret Expert,
I need to come up with a new marketing program to introduce a new season of TV shows. I'm interested in coming up with some kind of campaign that will capture the audience's attention more than one time. Is there something people need that we can advertise on? What kind of products, foods and services should we investigate? I need a fresh approach to advertising. Your mission is to give me a new idea on how to advertise TV shows.
Thanks, Bob
Bob mailed the letter to himself and when he read what he had written, he got his brainstorm, which was to advertise on "eggs". Somehow an association between "foods", "need", and "fresh" approach" inspired the thought of using "fresh eggs to advertise". He arranged to place laser imprints of the slogans for the TV shows on eggs —some thirty million.
The consumers look at a single egg at least a few times, when they buy the eggs at the store, when they transfer them to the refrigerator, and when they crack them open. It's unlike any other ad medium in the world, because you're looking at it while you're using it.
小题1:You remember names when you're not thinking about them because your subconscious mind ____.
| A．is still working | B．is full of names |
| C．stops working | D．improves your memory |
小题2:Which of the following was included in Bob's letter to his subconscious mind?
| A．How the solution could be found. |
| B．When he would need its help. |
| C．What product could be advertised |
| D．What he wanted it to do |
小题3:During the incubation stage, your focused awareness _____.
| A．waits for an answer | B．controls your thoughts |
| C．doesn't work | D．helps your unconscious |
小题4: In what way did the ad on eggs help?
| A．It helped Bob to get a brainstorm |
| B．It made the TV shows known to people repeatedly. |
| C．It greatly increased the sales of eggs. |
| D．It made sure consumers could get fresh eggs. |
小题5:Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Difference between Subconscious and Awareness |
| B．A fresh Approach to Advertising |
| C．Communicating with Your Subconscious Mind |
| D．Solving problems with your Subconscious Mind |