19. Reading Skills Comprehension: Imagination

IMAGINATION

Read the following passage carefully:

If you think that image has nothing to do with reality, you are wrong. The Wright brothers wanted to fly, and people considered them lunatics. Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison and Bill Gates were considered as daydreamers when actually, they were visualising and imagining their vision.

Whatever they were imagining years ago is now a solid reality. Imagination has much to do with reality. It shapes the way we see our reality, and therefore, affects our expectations and hopes, our actions and behaviour. Imagination is like a software that programs our behaviour, expectations and actions. This means that we have to be very careful with what we imagine since what we see in our mind’s eye can become our reality,

If we imagine bad things, we program our mind accordingly, and sooner or later see, act and behave accordingly, and create what we imagined. This also works the other way. Imagine good things, and this will affect your actions and behaviour, which consequently would create in your life what you imagined in your mind. Your reality mirrors what goes on in your mind.

If you imagine yourself weak and poor, you will enact this part in your life, but if you imagine yourself powerful and rich, you will eventually become so. Everything starts in the mind. A business starts as a thought and a mental image. You first imagine yourself possessing a certain kind of car, and then you do something to get it.

If you wish to lose weight, you start by imagining yourself slim and well-shaped. If this thought is clear and focused, and you allow no doubt, you will sooner or later find the ideas, the information, and the energy to do something about it. If you imagine yourself as an athlete, a teacher or an actor, and repeat this thought in your mind, day after day, this thought will drive you into action, and eventually would turn into reality. This is exactly how successful people become prosperous.

Four reasons, why your imagination is creating the events in your life

When you imagine a certain thing, day after day, gradually, you start thinking about it most of the time. This will drive you instinctively to search for information about it,

Using your imagination to build a mental picture of what you want tells your subconscious mind that you really want it. Consequently, the subconscious mind will supply you the energy to do something about it.

Your thoughts create a mental image of the object, situation or people you are thinking about, and in subtle ways, affect you and your environment.

You, through your imagination, are shaping your life’s events. If you tend to worry, think negatively and expect failure, you are using your imagination in a negative manner. And vice versa. If you imagine and envision progress, promotion and successful results, you will attract opportunities and take action.

Remez Sasson is the author of Strengthen Your Willpower and Self Discipline

Read the given questions and write the answer in about 30-40 words.

(a) How are imagination and reality connected?

(b) How has the writer compared imagination with?

(d) According to the writer, how does the process of losing weight start?

2. Choose the word which is closest in meaning to the words given below.

(a) vision

(i) what one sees (ii) the sense of sight

(iii) dreams (iv) blinding

(b) instinctively

(i) naturally (ii) secondly

(iii) firstly (iv) suddenly

(c) subtle

(i) cunning (ii) fine and delicate in meaning

(iii) harsh (iv) noisy

(d) tend

(i) result in (ii) serve

(iii) nurture (iv) have a tendency to

ANSWERS:

1. (a) Whatever we imagine can turn into reality if we visualise it in our mind’s eye and constantly live with it.

(b)The writer has compared imagination with software that programs our behaviour, expectations and actions. We have to be very careful therefore with what we imagine.

(c)Negative things happen when we imagine bad things. We program our mind accordingly and sooner or later things start happening that way.

(d) It begins with one has to imagine that one is thin. Once one is clear about this, then we will start thinking about the ways and means to find information, finally start working on the thought and sure enough will lose weight.

2. (a) (iii) (b) (i) (c) (ii) (d) (iv)

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