安静的环境能够促进我们的身心健康，帮助我们和他人建立联系。研究发现，安静的环境能够通过 “重置” 我们的大脑来降低压力水平，甚至促进脑细胞的生长。通过在与他人的对话中保持安静、认真倾听，我们也能够更好地发展与他人的关系。本文浅谈安静的环境和在交谈中保持安静等带来的益处。

词汇：silence 安静

1  Take a second now, and listen to what you can hear around you. Your breathing? Traffic? Silence? If it's the last of those, then good news because silence offers significant benefits for our minds and bodies.

2  In our noise-filled world, silence can make us feel calmer mentally. The absence of noise gives the brain more time to process information and therefore provides much-needed mental clarity. Your focus can improve, and you could feel a deeper connection to emotions and thoughts when there is reduced background noise, according to Pysch Central article 'The hidden benefits of silence'. There have been a variety of studies proving that silence can reduce stress levels. Silence achieves this by lowering cortisol and adrenaline, which encourages mindfulness, promotes self-awareness, and allows the brain to 'reset' and gives a peaceful break from busy lives.

3  There are physical benefits too. A 2013 study called 'Is silence golden?' found that silence can increase the number of cells in the hippocampus of the brain. Researchers studied mice and found that just two hours of silence a day led to cell development. A study into the effects of music and silence was conducted by The National Institutes of Health. Researchers interspersed different musical styles with a period of two-minute silence and discovered that when this silence was introduced, the participants' 'respiratory frequency, heart rate, and blood pressure all decreased to below baseline levels'.

4  While silence has proven mental and physical benefits, did you know it can also help you in conversation? On the BBC podcast 'The glories of being quiet', the presenters discussed how silence in conversation means you're able to listen more and give others the chance to share what they need to. This will naturally make you a better conversational partner and can help nurture relationships. Plus, it helps you to listen and respond in a calm and confident way.

5  So, turn down the noise and relax into some silent peace.  

测验与练习

一、根据文章内容选择符合描述的段落。

1. Which paragraph contains the mental benefits of silence?

二、根据文章内容选出正确的选项。

1. Silence can make you focus better because it can give mental clarity.
a. True
b. False
c. Not given

2. What does 'this' refer to in the following sentence? Silence does this as it can lower cortisol and adrenaline.
a. encourage mindfulness
b. allow the brain to reset
c. reduce stress levels

3. A study on mice and silence found that silence can…
a. reduce heart rate.
b. increase self-awareness.
c. increase the number of brain cells.

4. How can being quiet help in communication?
a. It can encourage the other person to share more.
b. It can lead to deeper conversations.
c. It can create more fairness in turn taking.

5. What does 'it' refer to in the following sentence? Plus, it helps you to listen and respond in a calm and confident way.
a. conversation
b. silence
c. sharing

三、用下列单词完成对本文的总结。

Silence, or the 1)_______ of noise, can encourage 2)_______ and make us think more clearly, giving us a deeper connection to our emotions. Physically, one study has shown that silence can increase the cells in the 3)_______ of the brain. While another study found the silence between different 4)_______ can reduce blood pressure and respiratory frequency. When chatting, being quiet means you can listen to others more, making you a better 5)_______ partner.

baseline
hippocampus
mindfulness
absence
conversational
musical styles
reset

词汇表

noise-filled 充斥着噪音的
absence 不存在
mental clarity 头脑清晰
deeper connection 更深层次的联系
background noise 背景噪音
self-awareness 自我意识
reset 重置，恢复到初始状态
peaceful 平静的，平和的
hippocampus 海马体
intersperse 散布，穿插
baseline 基准线
glory 荣耀
naturally 自然而然地
conversational partner 交谈伙伴
nurture 培养
turn down 调低（音量，强度等）

答案

一、根据文章内容选择符合描述的段落。

Paragraph 2. In our noise-filledworld, silence can make us feel calmer mentally.

二 、根据文章内容选出正确的选项。

1. a. True. The absence of noise gives the brain more time to process information and therefore provides much-needed mental clarity.

2. b. The pronoun 'this' refers back to the sentence 'There have been a variety of studies proving that silence can reduce stress levels.' Silence does this as it can lower cortisol and adrenaline.

3. c. A 2013 study called 'Is silence golden?' found that silence can increase the amount of cells in the hippocampus of the brain.

4. a. On BBC podcast 'The glories of being quiet', the presenters discussed how silence in conversation means you're able to listen more and give others the chance to share what they need to.

5. b. The pronoun 'it' refers back to the sentence 'the presenters discussed how silence in conversation means you're able to listen more and give others the chance to share what they need to.'

三、用下列单词完成对本文的总结。

Silence, or the absence of noise, can encourage mindfulness and make us think more clearly, giving us a deeper connection to our emotions. Physically, one study has shown that silence can increase the cells in the hippocampus of the brain. While another study found the silence between different musical styles can reduce blood pressure and respiratory frequency. When chatting, being quiet means you can listen to others more, making you a better conversational partner.