A
Hospitals employ many therapeutic (治疗的) methods, such as medication (药物治疗), massage (按摩) therapy and music therapy. And music therapy is growing in popularity.
Sandra Siedliecki is a Senior Scientist at the Nursing Institute of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She says music is a low-cost treatment. And she says scientists have done a lot of research on music’s effect on pain. Dr. Marian Good did a lot of studies looking at surgery (外科) patients and the use of music. In her studies, patients just listened to relaxing music. Dr. Good found that her surgery patients took fewer painkillers after they listened to music. Music had a good effect on short-term pain. However, chronic pain, the kind that recurs (复发) continually, changed a little under the effect of music.
Dr. Linda Chlan was studying something different. She was not interested in patients’ pain, but instead, their anxiety. She spent a lot of time with people who were in the hospital because their anxiety was so great that they couldn’t breathe. People with this condition often have to use breathing machines. Dr. Chlan said that the machines sometimes did little to improve their condition. Sometimes they even made things worse. The patients would become more anxious. Dr. Chlan let nurses tell patients that music was a good choice to make them feel better. They also placed signs near the patients’ beds — Listen to your music at least twice a day. The people who listened to music had a reduction (减少) in the amount of medication they received. In addition, their anxiety reduced by about 36 percent.
Both doctors had similar explanations for why music was so helpful. Music can be a very powerful distracter (干扰) in the brain when we’re listening to music that is pleasing and then it interrupts stressful thoughts.
【语篇概述】音乐疗法在许多医院越来越流行。研究表明, 令人感到轻松愉快的音乐可以干扰人的大脑, 由此减少痛感、减轻压力。
1. Dr. Marian Good’s studies show that music therapy ________.
A. can help patients recover fast
B. cannot take the place of medication
C. doesn’t work well on all patients
D. is cheaper than massage therapy and medication
【解析】选C。细节理解题。根据文章第二段的内容可知, 音乐疗法对于短期疼痛疗效显著, 但是对于慢性疼痛则收效甚微, 即音乐疗法并不适用于所有的病人。
2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Dr. Good and Dr. Chlan didn’t agree with each other on music’s effect.
B. Patients will forget their illnesses completely while listening to music.
C. Patients with great anxiety would not recover after taking medicine.
D. Listening to enjoyable music is a good way to relieve anxiety.
【解析】选D。推理判断题。根据文章倒数第二段中所讲的Dr. Linda Chlan的研究结果以及最后一段中的“Music can be. . . stressful thoughts. ”可知, 愉快的音乐可以分散大脑的注意力, 从而缓解人们的紧张情绪。
3. What does the underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refer to?
A. The brain. B. Music.
C. Stress. D. Medicine.
【解析】选B。词意猜测题。画线词it所在的句子的意思是“音乐是一种强有力的可以分散大脑注意力的东西, 愉快的音乐可以缓解人们的紧张情绪”。由此可知it指代音乐。
4. What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
A. To show that music therapy is useful.
B. To encourage all patients to listen to music.
C. To tell how to reduce pain and anxiety.
D. To explain how music reduces pain and anxiety.
【解析】选A。写作意图题。作者通过介绍两位医生的调查研究, 告诉我们音乐可以减轻病人的疼痛以及缓解人们的压力。音乐疗法十分有效。
