中國(guó)網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 English playwright William Shakespeare and English poet William Wordsworth. |
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The works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are “rocket-boosters” to the brain and better therapy than self-help books, researchers will say this week. Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the Bard and other classical writers has a beneficial effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and triggers moments of self-reflection. Using scanners, they monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S Eliot and others. They then “translated” the texts into more “straightforward”, modern language and again monitored the readers’ brains as they read the words. Scans showed that the more “challenging” prose and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the more pedestrian versions. Scientists were able to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and record how it “l(fā)it up” as the readers encountered unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentence structure. This “l(fā)ighting up” of the mind lasts longer than the initial electrical spark, shifting the brain to a higher gear, encouraging further reading. The research also found that reading poetry, in particular, increases activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, an area concerned with “autobiographical memory”, helping the reader to reflect on and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they have read. The academics said this meant the classics were more useful than self-help books. Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study with the university’s magnetic resonance centre, will tell a conference this week: “Serious literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain. "The research shows the power of literature to shift mental pathways, to create new thoughts, shapes and connections in the young and thestaid alike.” (Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
本周將發(fā)布的一項(xiàng)研究揭示，閱讀莎士比亞與華茲華斯的作品好比大腦的“火箭助推器”，比讀一些自助書(shū)籍還要管用。 來(lái)自利物浦大學(xué)的科學(xué)家、心理學(xué)家和英文教授發(fā)現(xiàn)，閱讀莎士比亞及其他古典作家的作品對(duì)心智發(fā)展大有裨益，這些作品能夠抓住讀者的注意力，引發(fā)讀者的自我反思。 通過(guò)使用掃描儀，他們監(jiān)測(cè)到接受實(shí)驗(yàn)的志愿者在閱讀威廉?莎士比亞、威廉?華茲華斯、T?S?艾略特和其他作家的作品時(shí)的大腦活動(dòng)。 他們隨后將這些文本“翻譯”為更為“通俗易懂”的現(xiàn)代語(yǔ)言，然后又對(duì)讀者在閱讀這些文字時(shí)的大腦活動(dòng)進(jìn)行了監(jiān)測(cè)。 經(jīng)掃描發(fā)現(xiàn)，散文和詩(shī)歌越“具挑戰(zhàn)性”，大腦中的電流活動(dòng)就愈加頻繁，而那些通俗化的版本則達(dá)不到這種效果。 科學(xué)家們能夠研究大腦對(duì)每一個(gè)詞語(yǔ)做出反應(yīng)時(shí)的活動(dòng)，并記錄下讀者在遇到生僻詞語(yǔ)、新奇短語(yǔ)或復(fù)雜的句子結(jié)構(gòu)時(shí)大腦如何“被激活”。 大腦的這一“激活”狀態(tài)比最初的電火花持續(xù)時(shí)間更長(zhǎng)，讓大腦的轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)更高速，鼓勵(lì)讀者繼續(xù)往下閱讀。 研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，閱讀書(shū)籍，尤其是詩(shī)歌，可以增加與“自傳體記憶”有關(guān)的大腦右半球的活動(dòng)頻率，有助于讀者根據(jù)閱讀內(nèi)容對(duì)個(gè)人經(jīng)歷進(jìn)行反思和重新評(píng)價(jià)。學(xué)者們表示，這意味著閱讀古典作品比閱讀自助類書(shū)籍更有幫助。 和利物浦大學(xué)的磁共振中心一同致力于此項(xiàng)研究的英文教授菲利普?戴維斯本周將在一次會(huì)議上宣稱：“嚴(yán)肅文學(xué)的作用相當(dāng)于大腦的火箭助推器。 “研究顯示，文學(xué)作品對(duì)年輕人和中老年人都能產(chǎn)生強(qiáng)大的力量，它可以轉(zhuǎn)變思維方式，開(kāi)拓新思路，引發(fā)新聯(lián)想?！?/p> 相關(guān)閱讀 英大學(xué)評(píng)出父母心中孩子必讀十大好書(shū) 父母認(rèn)為傳統(tǒng)童話故事“太嚇人” 少兒不宜 （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮） |
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Vocabulary: the Bard: [the b-或the B-]民族詩(shī)人；英國(guó)詩(shī)人莎士比亞 pedestrian: 通俗的 in light of: 根據(jù)；鑒于 staid: 古板的，保守的 |
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