Blue space: The secret of happiness

難詞探意

1. intuitively /?n'tju??t?vli/ adv. 直覺地

2. therapeutic /,θer?'pju?t?k/ adj. 治療的；有助于放松精神的

3. restorative /r?'st??r?t?v/ adj. 有恢復健康作用的

4. cognitive /'k?ɡn?t?v/ adj. 認知的

After her mother's sudden death, Catherine Kelly felt the call of the sea. She was in her 20s and had been working as a geographer in London away from her native Ireland. She spent a year in Dublin with her family, then accepted an academic position on the west coast, near Westport in County Mayo. “I thought that I need to go and get my head cleared in this place by the wind and nature.” Kelly bought a little house in a remote area. She surfed, swam and walked a three-mile-long beach twice a day.

“I guess the five or six years that I spent there on the wild Atlantic coast just healed me,really.” She didn't understand why that might be until some years later, when she started to see scientific literature that proved what she had long feltintuitivelyto be true: that she felt much better by the sea. For the past eight years,Kelly has been based in Brighton, researching“outdoor wellbeing” and thetherapeuticeffects of nature—particularly of water.

In recent years, stressed-out urbanites have been seeking refuge in green spaces for the proven positive impacts on physical and mental health.The benefits of “blue space”（not only the sea and coastline, but also rivers, lakes,canals, waterfalls, even fountains） are less well publicised, yet the science has been consistent for at least a decade: Being by water is good for body and mind. “Many of the processes are exactly the same as with green space—with some added benefits,” says Dr Mathew White, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter.

White says there are three established pathways by which the presence of water is positively related to health and happiness. First,there are the beneficial environmental factors,such as less polluted air and more sunlight.Second, people who live by water tend to be more physically active. Third—and this is where blue space seems to have an edge over other natural environments—water has a psychologicallyrestorativeeffect. “When you are sailing, surfing or swimming,” says White, “you're really in tune with natural forces there.” By being forced to concentrate on the qualities of the environment,we access acognitivestate honed over millennia.

Reading

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1. Why did Kelly buy a little house near the sea?

A. To surf and swim more often.

B. To have a good rest after a long day's work.

C. To make herself feel better after her mother's death.

D. To prove that water benefits people's wellbeing.

2. Mathew White's attitude to water's effects on health is .

A. unclear

B. positive

C. ambiguous

D. neutral

3. What's the last paragraph mainly about?

A. Fresh air by water.

B. Comfortable sunlight by water.

C. Relationship between water and health.

D. Three reasons for water's positive presence.

Language

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Sentence for writing

In recent years, stressed-out urbanites have been seeking refuge in green spaces for the proven positive impacts on physical and mental health. 近年來，壓力過大的都市人一直在綠色空間尋求庇護，因為綠色空間對身心健康可以產生積極的影響，這一點已經得到證實。

【信息提取】seek refuge in...意為“在……尋求庇護”。

【句式仿寫】那時他們到山村里尋求庇護。