阅读理解
Coloring is an activity that children worldwide have long enjoyed. With a picture already made for them, kids simply chose a crayon, pencil or marker of their favorite color and fill it in. Today, it also becomes more and more popular among teenagers and even adults, who are enjoying relaxing hours of coloring. In December, five of the top ten best-selling books in the United States were coloring books.
They are fun, but are coloring books good for you?
The good feedback(反馈)from customers is encouraging. Trina Lucida, a popular artist creating coloring books, says that many of her customers are buying the coloring books for others who are sick or going through a hard time. She adds that the "big idea" behind her latest book is to encourage people to do something creative.
Lucida is right, according to Allan Rohan, a psychology(心理学)professor. "Many customers think of coloring books as a new creative stage," he said in an interview, "but what's more important is that people spend time coloring in order to reduce stress after a long day." Research shows that coloring can reduce stress by guiding people to focus on(专注)one simple task. When a person is filling in a flower with a light purple color, he focuses on the flower and forgets about all his troubles in life.
Experts add that coloring may relieve a certain kind of pain. Doing the coloring helps people relax their mind and calm down. Also, coloring helps people's brain in a healthy way. The shape of the drawing makes one side of the brain active, while the color of the drawing improves the other. Coloring can bring out your imagination and take you back to your childhood. Interesting, isn't it?
"It's very relaxing," said Susan Jackson, a big fan of Lucida's coloring books. "Coloring frees my mind. And it's not just to try to fill blank(空白的)pages. The pictures make me happy and there is just something about them. So I'm saving the pictures I like best to the very end."
