A latest study suggest that expressing emotions about a traumatic experience in a coherent way may be important to not just ment

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问题     A latest study suggest that expressing emotions about a traumatic experience in a coherent way may be important to not just mental but physical health as well. It showed that the calming effect of writing can cut physical wound healing time nearly in half.
    Researchers led by Elizabeth Broadbent, a senior lecturer in health psychology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, studied 49 healthy senior citizens, aged 64 to 97. For three days, half were assigned to write for 20 minutes a day about the most traumatic event they had experienced, and were encouraged to be as open and candid as they could. The other participants wrote for the same duration about their plans for the next day, avoiding mentioning their feelings, opinions or beliefs. Two weeks after the first day of writing, researchers took small skin biopsies, under local anesthesia, that left a wound on the arms of all participants. The skin tissue was used for another study. A week later, Broadbent and her colleagues started photographing the wounds every three to five days until they were completely healed. Eleven days after the biopsy, 76% of the group that had written about trauma had fully healed while only 42% of the other group had.
    However, it’s not the first, to reveal the intriguing connection between state-of-mind and physical health. In previous studies, this type of emotionally expressive writing, as opposed to writing on neutral topics, reduced viral load in HIV-positive patients and increased their levels of virus-fighting immune cells. The practice also increased the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination by increasing antibody levels generated by the vaccine and speeding wound healing in young men.
    But in terms of psychological health, the results are more conflicting. A recent study found that writing about disturbing combat experiences may improve marital satisfaction among soldiers returning home from war zones while another paper in which patients with post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD)wrote about their difficult experiences did not find that the practice reduced symptoms. Putting emotions down in words did, however, improve mood and reduce levels of stress hormone in these patients.
    One way that writing about distressing events could give the body a boost is by promoting sleep. "Many people who have written about their negative experiences report that it allowed them to gain greater insight into what happened and to put the event into perspective," says Koschwanez, "This might reduce the extent to which the event troubles them and possibly improve their sleep. "
    The writing may also help the body by reducing stress; less anxiety means fewer stress hormones, which can interfere with chemicals needed for wound healing. While Broadbent’s study did not find such a link, it’s possible the researchers were not evaluating the right anxiety measures. "It might be that our perceived stress questionnaire was not assessing the right type or duration of stress," says Koschwanez, a study co-author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Auckland.
    It’s also possible that emotional writing is not helpful for everyone. In one study published last month, when people who typically are stoic wrote about their worst trauma, their anxiety actually increased. That suggests that pushing people to express feelings when they are not inclined to do so can actually increase risk for PTSD.
The underlined word "stoic" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to______.

选项 A、stereotyped
B、enthusiastic
C、impassive
D、dull

答案C

解析 本题考查考生对最后一段内容的理解。最后一段的第一句指出情绪性的写作并不是对任何人都有帮助,接着就阐释了对哪一种人没有帮助。“stoic”是作者用来形容这类型人的一个词语,意思是“坚忍克己的,坦然面对困难的”,在不知道该词意思的情况下,也可以通过作者在最后一段的描述猜出这个词的意思。作者指出这种人如果违背本人意愿,对情感创伤进行描述的话,反而增加焦虑和创伤后应激障碍的风险。可见,这种人是不愿意对情感创伤进行写作,平时是感情不外露的人。[C]“impassive”意为“喜怒不形于色的;不露感情的”,是正确答案。[A]比较有诱惑力,但是“类型化,模式化的”并不意味着感情不外露,不喜欢表达,有可能刚好相反;[B]的意思刚好是“stoic”一词的反面,有兴趣的人恰恰会喜欢表达;[D]也是迷惑选项,但是不够准确,呆板不等于不喜欢用写作的方式进行表达,因此均不正确。
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