周艷霞

A new discovery?of silence

一項新的研究表明，安靜的狀態(tài)能帶給我們意料之外的好處。那么，這種好處究竟是什么呢？

Finland is known as a rather quiet country. Since 2008， the Country Brand Delegation （國家品牌代表團） has been looking for a national brand that would make some noises to market the country as a world?famous tourist destination. As the delegation explained， modern society often seems intolerably loud and busy. “Silence is a resource，” it stressed.

Silence first appeared in scientific research as a control or a baseline， to which scientists compare the effects of noise or music. Researchers have mainly studied it by accident， as physician Luciano Bernardi did in his study of the physiological （生理的） effects of music. “We didnt think about the effect of silence，” he said. Bernardi observed two dozen test subjects while they listened to six musical tracks. He found that the impacts of music could be read directly in the bloodstream， via changes in blood pressure， carbon dioxide， and circulation in the brain. “During almost all sorts of music， there was a physiological change with a condition of arousal （興奮），” he explained.

Bernardi and his colleagues discovered that randomly added stretches of silence also had a great effect， but in the opposite direction. In fact， two?minute silent pauses proved far more relaxing than either “relaxing” music or a longer silence played before the experiment started. The blank pauses that Bernardi had considered irrelevant， in other words， became the most interesting object of study. Silence seemed to be heightened by contrasts， maybe because it gave test subjects a release from careful attention.

This finding is reinforced by neurological （神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的） research. Relevant research shows that when our brains rest quietly， they integrate external and internal information into “a conscious （意識的） workspace”. Freedom from noise and goal?directed tasks， as it appears， unites the quiet without and within， allowing our conscious workspace to do its thing to discover where we fit in.

Noora Vikman， a consultant on silence for Finlands marketers， knows silence well. Living in a remote and quiet place in Finland， she discovers thoughts and feelings that arent detectable in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself， you have to be with yourself， and discuss with yourself， and be able to talk with yourself，” she added.

1. Why does the author mention the Country Brand Delegation in paragraph 1？

A. To present how Finland viewed silence.

B. To highlight the need of noise in Finland.

C. To explain why Finland issued the brands.

D. To indicate the authority of the delegation.

2. What can be inferred from Luciano Bernardis discovery？

A. It challenged the calming effect of music.

B. It emphasized the role of silence between sounds.

C. It illustrated the loss of attentiveness after silence.

D. It stated brains information processing in the quiet.

3. What is the authors attitude towards Noora Vikmans opinion about silence？

A. Doubtful.

B. Supportive.

C. Disapproving.

D. Unconcerned.

4. What can best summarize the main idea of the text？

A. Silence： a limited resource.

B. Silence： a misunderstood tool.

C. Silence： the unexpected power.

D. Silence： the value by contrast.

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Freedom from noise and goal?directed tasks， as it appears， unites the quiet without and within， allowing our conscious workspace to do its thing to discover where we fit in. 正如看起來那樣，從噪聲和目標導向的任務中解脫出來，（我們的大腦）會把內(nèi)部和外部的安靜結(jié)合在一起，讓我們的意識工作區(qū)執(zhí)行它的工作，從而發(fā)現(xiàn)適合我們的地方。

【點石成金】本句中，as引導的是一個狀語從句；allowing...in為現(xiàn)在分詞短語作結(jié)果狀語；where引導的從句作動詞discover的賓語。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

be known as 作為……而出名

make some noises 發(fā)出噪聲

by accident 偶然地

in the opposite direction 向著相反的方向

in fact 實際上

in other words 換言之