新东方四级课程点击报名

　　A Grassroots Remedy

　　A) Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. To this end, we walk the dog, play golf, go fishing, sit in the garden, drink outside rather than inside the pub, have a picnic, live in the suburbs, go to the seaside, buy a weekend place in the country. The most popular leisure activity in Britain is going for a walk. And when joggers (慢跑者) jog, they don't run the streets. Every one of the minstinctively heads to the park or the river. It is my profound belief that not only do we all need nature, but we all seek nature, whether we know we are doing so or not.

　　B) But despite this, our children are growing up nature-deprived ( 丧失) , I spent my boyhood climbing trees on Stratham Common, south London. These days, children are robbed of these an cientfreedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and odd new perceptions about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.

　　C) The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the U.S. families had moved to better housing and　the children were assessed for ADHD -- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( 多动症) .Those　whose accommodation had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the　same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.

　　D) A study in Sweden indicated that kindergarten children who could play in a natural environment had　less illness and greater physical ability than children used only to a normal playground. A U.S. study　suggested that when a school gave children access to a natural environment, academic levels were　raised across the entire school.

　　E) Another study found that children play differently in a natural environment. In playgrounds, children create a hierarchy (等级) based on physical abilities, with the tough ones taking the lead. But when a grassy area was planted with bushes, the children got much more into fantasy play, and the social hierarchy was now based on imagination and creativity.

　　F) Most bullying (持枪凌弱) is found in schools where there is a tarmac (柏油碎石) play ground; the least bullying is in a natural area that the children are encouraged to explore. This reminds mean pleasantly of Sunny hill School in Stratham, with its harsh tarmac, where I used to hang about incomers fantasizing about wildlife. The children are frequently discouraged from involvement with natural spaces, for health and safety reasons, for fear that they might get dirty or that they might cause damage. So, instead, the damage is done to the children themselves: not to their bodies but to their souls.

　　G) One of the great problems of modem childhood is ADHD, now increasingly and expensively treated with drugs. Yet one study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.

　　H) The life of old people is measurably better when they have access to nature. The increasing emphasis for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality.

　　I) In wider and more difficult areas of life, there is evidence to indicate that natural surroundingsim prove all kinds of things. Even problems with crime and aggressive behavior are reduced when there is contact with the natural world. Dr. William Bird, researcher from the Royal Society for the Protection of birds, states in his study, "A natural environment can reduce violent behavior because its restorative process helps reduce anger and impulsive behavior." Wild places need encouraging for this reason, no matter how small their contribution.

　　J) We tend to look on nature conservation as some kind of favor that human beings are granting to the natural world. The error here is far too deep: not only do humans need nature for themselves, but the very idea that humanity and the natural world are separable things is profoundly damaging. Human beings are a species of mammals (哺乳动物) . For seven million years they lived on the planet as part of nature. Our ancestral selves miss the natural world and long for contact with nonhuman life. Anyone who has patted a dog, stoked a cat, sat under a tree with a pint of beer, given or received a bunch of flowers or chosen to walk through the park on a nice day, understands that. We need the wild world. It is essential to our well-being, our health, our happiness. Without the wild world we are not more but less civilized. Without other living things around us we are less than human.