پادکست BBC شماره 281 -The soothing power of books
پادکست BBC شماره 281
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در این قسمت درباره اینکه چگونه کتابها می توانند به ما در آرامش و احساس زنده ماندن در زمانهای دشوار کمک کنند؟ آیا خواندن یکی از بهترین راهها برای رهایی از فشارهای زندگی مدرن است؟ نیل و جورجینا در مورد “کتاب شناسی” صحبت می کنند و واژگان مرتبط را در طول راه به شما آموزش می دهند.
در زیر کلمات کلیدی که باید با آن‌ها آشنا شوید برایتان توضیح داده شده‌اند:
scanning : reading rapidly in order to find specific facts
scanning : اسکن کردن
literature : written works including novels, poetry and plays which are considered to have artistic value
literature : ادبیات
hemisphere : half of a sphere, usually the earth or the brain
hemisphere : نیمکره
coming to life : starting to be activated after a quiet period
coming to life : بعد از یک دوره آرام شروع به فعالیت کردن
scalp : skin under the hair on your head
scalp : پوست سر
stimulus : something that encourages activity in people or things
stimulus : انگیزه
Transcript of the podcast
پادکست BBC 6 minute English –The soothing power of books
Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
Georgina
And I’m Georgina.
Neil
What type of books do you like to read, Georgina?
Georgina
I love reading crime fiction – you know detective stories by authors like Ruth Rendell or Agatha Christie.
Neil
Really? Do you find them relaxing?
Georgina
I wouldn’t say relaxing exactly, but I get really involved in the story – trying to work out who the murderer is… then finding out on the last page.
Neil
That’s interesting because today we’ll be looking at how books can help us relax and feel more alive during troubled times. We’ll be finding out how reading is one of the best ways to find relief from the pressures of modern life.
Georgina
Neil, are you talking about ‘Bibliotherapy’?
Neil
Amazing detective skills, Georgina! Exactly. ‘Bibliotherapy’ is the prescription of books as a remedy to sickness. It has been around since 2013, when the UK charity ‘Reading Agency’ published a list of books that doctors could offer to patients, tackling topics from depression to dementia to chronic pain.
Georgina
Since then, 1.2 million readers have borrowed the scheme’s books from libraries. It’s so successful that it’s about to be extended to children as well.
Neil
I wonder which books have been most popular over that time? In fact that’s my quiz question for today. What is the best-selling book of all time? Is it:
a) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling
b) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, or
c) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Georgina
I’ll say a) Harry Potter.
Neil
OK. Well, we’ll find out later if you’re right. In ‘Bibliotherapy’, people meet up to read together. Professor Philip Davis, who runs these reading groups, believes they help the participants ‘come more alive’. Here he is speaking to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours about what he’s discovered.
Philip Davis
Above all, that it’s not to do with scanning, with quick reading, when they’re reading literature. If they’re just scanning, if you’re just looking for information, you go fast, it’s very easy, it’s automatic but when literature begins to do something more complicated than that in an area that emotionally you care about. The brain begins to work from different parts, from a different hemisphere and it gets excited, it gets pre-emotional – you can see the brain coming to life and it’s that life that is important in terms of these reading groups.
Georgina
One type of reading is scanning – reading quickly in order to find specific information or skimming the page to get a general understanding.
Neil
But the real therapy happens when a group reads literature – written works such as novels, poems or plays which are thought to have artistic merit. When group members read literature their brains get excited and start working from a different hemisphere – a word meaning ‘half a sphere’ – usually half the Earth or in this case, the human brain.
Georgina
Reading literature in this this way makes both the left and right hemisphere of the brain come to life – start to be activated again after a quiet period.
Neil
And it’s this ‘coming to life‘ that proves the therapeutic effects of ‘Bibliotherapy’. Here’s Professor Davis again explaining how the benefits of group reading are observed.
Philip Davis
There are two methods really – you can have ECG where you put electrodes on the scalp and it measures electricity so that you can have a print-off of a graph of the sudden leaps than can happen at particular moments in reading a poem or short story or you can go into the scanner, the FMRI, and there, the blood flow, the oxygen indicates again changes in the configuration of the brain as it takes in this new stimulus.
Neil
The benefits of reading literature with others can be felt by group members as they begin to feel more alive and able to cope with life’s ups and downs. But they can also be measured scientifically by recording brain wave activity.
Georgina
This can be done by carefully attaching metal wires called electrodes to the reader’s scalp – the skin under the hair on the head.
Neil
Brain activity is then measured by giving the reader a stimulus – something that encourages activity in people. In this case, it could be a poem or novel to read.
Georgina
Or something really stimulating – like a detective story!
Neil
Or a work of literature – which reminds me of today’s quiz question. I asked you to name the most popular book of all time, and you said…
Georgina
a) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone…
Neil
…which is definitely the most popular book in the 21st Century. But number one of all time, selling over 500 million copies is c) Cervantes’ Don Quixote. And there’s even a detective in it!
Georgina
Today, we’ve been discussing the therapeutic effects of meeting up with others in a reading group to read literature – writing of artistic value, such as stories and poetry.
Neil
In contrast to scanning – reading quickly to find facts – reading groups use literature as a stimulus – something that encourages activity in people.
Georgina
Reading stimulates both the left and right hemispheres – the two halves of the brain, and increases emotional activity which can be measured on the scalp – the skin under the hair on a reader’s head.
Neil
All of which helps people dealing with trauma to come to life – feel active and more alive after a quiet period.
Georgina
Right, that’s it – I’m off to the library!
Neil
If only you could… Thanks for listening and remember you can find many more stimulating topics and vocabulary here at 6 Minute English on BBC Learning English. Bye for now.
Georgina
Bye!
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