Relaxation therapy ( = treatment). If you read the sentence out loud, your
blood pressure will go up. If you talk to another person, it will go still
higher. If the talk is with your boss, your pressure will go even higher. If you
speak to someone of the opposite sex, your pressure may show less change if you
’ re married than if you ’ re single. Dozens of times each day, your blood
pressure changes with what you ’ re feeling and doing. These “ ups and downs”
take place in everyone, but they are more severe in people with high blood
pressure. That discovery is the basis for the newest therapy: controlling blood
pressure by learning skills to control everyday stress. Many patients control
their blood pressure with the relaxation response. This takes four simple
things: a quiet environment, a comfortable position (sitting or lying down), the
repeating of a word, prayer or phrase each time you breathe and having none of
other thoughts. Something remarkable happens when you do this, according to
research in Boston. Relaxation of the mind and body has the effect that some
blood-p ressure pills would have. What ’ s more, the blood pressure stays lower,
just as it would with a pill, after you have stopped the relaxation and have
returned to the stress of daily life.
31. The first paragraph tells us the
reason why your blood pressure goes up is that__________.
A. you read aloud a
sentence
B. the man you talk to is your boss
C. you ’ re not married
D. you ’ re
nervous
32. Which of the following statements is not true?
A. One ’ s blood
pressure changes many times every day.
B. Your blood pressure changes with your
feelings.
C. When you ’ re doing different things, your blood pressure, perhaps,
is different.
D. The changes of blood pressure only happen to people with high
blood pressure.
33. The last paragraph tells us relaxation therapy__________.
A.
needs a new kind of medicine
B. has the same effect as blood-pressure pills
C.
is more than blood-pressure pills
D. is working and can be improved
