Green Plants Can Help Us Reduce Stress綠植能夠幫助我們減壓

陳傳光

坐在書桌前的你，是不是偶爾也會感到疲憊？不妨在你的書桌上放幾盆綠植，這樣既可以凈化空氣，又可以緩解學習帶來的疲憊感。綠意盎然的植物在幫助你舒緩心情的同時，還能幫你振奮精神、提高學習效率。

It is not a surprise that people in the modern times are havingmuch more stress than before. Luckily， a new study has found aneasy way to deal with the problem. Researchers have found thatgreen plants on the desk can go a long way towards reducingpeople’s stress.

More than 60 people from different jobs took part in the study.Half of them were asked to work as usual without any plants on thedesk while the other half were given a plant to put on their desks.Researchers then used a 1）standard test to 2）measure their stresslevels. More than 90 percent of the office workers showed lowerstress levels after taking a three-minute rest to look at their plants.

The study has found that it does not matter whether peoplewere directly looking at their plants or only having the plants neartheir computers. As long as people had a green plant in sight， theirstress levels changed. Moreover， this finding worked on everyone，no matter how old they were and what their jobs were.

“People used to go outdoors into nature to relax themselves，but now they have less time to do so，” one of the researchers said.“Luckily， our study has proved that a small green plant can helppeople reduce stress.”

1） standard adj. 標準的

2） measure v. 測量

現代人的壓力比以前大得多，這不足為奇。幸運的是，一項新的研究發現了一種解決這個問題的簡單方法。研究人員發現，桌上的綠色植物可以減輕人們的壓力。

來自不同工作崗位的60 多人參加了這項研究。其中一半人被要求在桌上沒有任何植物的情況下照常工作，而另一半人則被要求在桌上放一盆植物。研究人員隨后使用標準測試來測量他們的壓力水平。超過90% 的上班族在休息3 分鐘并看植物后，壓力水平會降低。

這項研究發現，無論人們是直接看植物，還是只讓植物靠近電腦，都無關緊要。只要人們看到綠色植物，他們的壓力水平就會發生變化。此外，這一發現對每個人都有效，無論他們多大年紀，從事什么工作。

一位研究人員說：“人們過去常到戶外去放松自己，但現在他們這樣做的時間更少了。幸運的是，我們的研究證明，一盆小小的綠色植物就可以幫助人們減輕壓力。”