【英语语言学习】音乐疗法

 SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Health care providers are thinking a lot more about the end of life and trying to emphasize the quality of that life. Lahey Hospital outside of Boston is taking a musical approach to make their patients a little more comfortable. Paige Pfleger reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PAIGE PFLEGER, BYLINE¹: Right now you're hearing two things. The first is the sound of a harp². It's being played by Jennifer Hollis. The second is the sound of an oxygen tank humming in the corner. Susan Steinbauer is laying in her hospital bed with her eyes closed, her hands folded over a blue crocheted³ blanket. She's 64 and has terminal cancer. When the music stops, Steinbauer opens her eyes.

SUSAN STEINBAUER: It actually brought me back to a certain place in my childhood that, you know, when you're little, you weren't so free. And that's what it was. It was like the freedom feeling.

PFLEGER: Jennifer Hollis is more than just a harpist. She's what's called a music thanatologist. She plays the harp and sings for dying patients. So if life was a movie, Hollis plays the music during the closing credits. Her profession is really rare. There are fewer than 100 music thanatologists worldwide. The defining⁴ characteristic of music thanatology is what Hollis calls the prescriptive process. She uses the raw elements of music, like melody⁵, harmony, rhythm, tonality, to respond to each individual patient.

JENNIFER HOLLIS: So if a patient has restlessness, agitation⁶, I would start thinking prescriptively about what are the qualities of music that might be able to address that in some way.

PFLEGER: For the last 10 years, Hollis has been going to Lahey Hospital to play for dying patients. Sometimes the patient response is physical. They might breathe more deeply or their facial expression might relax. Other times, she'll play a room full of people straight to sleep, but she's not insulted by that.

HOLLIS: It's such a compliment⁷ 'cause it means that people are - they're relaxed, that they feel safe, and they feel comfortable.

PFLEGER: The response to the music can also be really emotional and not just for the patient. Hollis says that families might use the time that she's in the room to tell stories about their loved one, to pray or to say goodbye.

HOLLIS: The interesting thing about music thanatology, I think, is that in some ways it's medicine that you can give both to the patient and to their family.

PFLEGER: There's not a whole lot of research backing up the benefits of music thanatology. Beth Collins is the medical director of Lahey Hospital's palliative care program. At first, she was worried that her unit would be seen as soft or touchy-feely by other doctors. But once she saw Hollis with patients, she didn't really care about the science.

BETH COLLINS: I don't think things have to be proven. I think they just have to work. And to me, this is a heck of a lot better than giving somebody some medication that's going to change things going on in their body.

PFLEGER: Collins says that there's only been one complaint about Hollis' service.

COLLINS: Sometimes some patients' families have said, oh, my God, no, if my father ever opened his eyes and saw somebody with a harp near his bed, he would think he had already died.

PFLEGER: But the harp reminding people of those pearly gates isn't always a bad thing, Hollis says.

HOLLIS: They love the idea that their loved one, especially if they're not conscious and speaking anymore, might hear the music and feel like they were in heaven.

PFLEGER: If not a bridge to the afterlife, Hollis' harp can at least provide an escape from the hum of a hospital room. For NPR News, I'm Paige Pfleger.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

3 crocheted   

v.用钩针编织( crochet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Mom and I crocheted new quilts. 我和妈妈钩织了新床罩。 来自辞典例句
• Aunt Paula crocheted a beautiful blanket for the baby. 宝拉婶婶为婴孩编织了一条美丽的毯子。 来自互联网

4 defining   

规定( define的现在分词 )； 使明确； 精确地解释； 画出…的线条

参考例句：

• You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。
• This point can be put another way in defining poverty. 这一点还能从另一方面来加以说明以佐证贫困的涵义。 来自英汉非文学 - 新闻报道

5 melody   

n.旋律，曲调，悦耳的音乐

参考例句：

• She struck up a folk melody on the piano.她开始用钢琴演奏那首民歌。
• After she wrote the melody,she asked us for criticisms.她做好曲之后，请我们提意见。

6 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

7 compliment   

n.[pl.]问候，致意；n./v. 称赞，恭维

参考例句：

• The manager paid her a compliment on her work.经理赞扬了她的工作。
• Your presence is a great compliment.承蒙光临，不胜荣幸。